1954 Southern 500

Last updated
1954 Southern 500
Race details [1]
Race 31 of 37 in the 1954 NASCAR Grand National Series season
1954 Southern 500 program cover and logo.jpg
1954 Southern 500 program cover
Date September 6, 1954 (1954-September-06)
Official name Southern 500
Location Darlington Raceway, Darlington, South Carolina
Course Permanent racing facility
1.375 mi (2.221 km)
Distance 400 laps, 500 mi (800 km)
Weather Extremely hot with temperatures of 100 °F (38 °C); wind speeds of 10.1 miles per hour (16.3 km/h)
Average speed 95.206 miles per hour (153.219 km/h)
Pole position
Driver
 Bob Griffin
Time 18.289 seconds
Most laps led
Driver Curtis Turner Elmer Brooks
Laps 266
Winner
No. 92 Herb Thomas Herb Thomas
Television in the United States
Network WJMX (local AM radio)
Announcers Local radio announcers

The 1954 Southern 500, the fifth running of the event, was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on September 6, 1954, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.

Contents

The race car drivers still had to commute to the races using the same stock cars that competed in a typical weekend's race through a policy of homologation (and under their own power). This policy was in effect until roughly 1975. By 1980, NASCAR had completely stopped tracking the year model of all the vehicles and most teams did not take stock cars to the track under their own power anymore.

Background

Darlington Raceway, nicknamed by many NASCAR fans and drivers as "The Lady in Black" or "The Track Too Tough to Tame" and advertised as a "NASCAR Tradition", is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that will be effective at both ends.

The track is a four-turn 1.366 miles (2.198 km) oval. [2] The track's first two turns are banked at twenty-five degrees, while the final two turns are banked two degrees lower at twenty-three degrees. [2] The front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch is banked at six degrees. [2] Darlington Raceway can seat up to 60,000 people. [2]

Darlington has something of a legendary quality among drivers and older fans; this is probably due to its long track length relative to other NASCAR speedways of its era and hence the first venue where many of them became cognizant of the truly high speeds that stock cars could achieve on a long track. The track allegedly earned the moniker The Lady in Black because the night before the race the track maintenance crew would cover the entire track with fresh asphalt sealant, in the early years of the speedway, thus making the racing surface dark black. Darlington is also known as "The Track Too Tough to Tame" because drivers can run lap after lap without a problem and then bounce off of the wall the following lap. Racers will frequently explain that they have to race the racetrack, not their competition. Drivers hitting the wall are considered to have received their "Darlington Stripe" thanks to the missing paint on the right side of the car.

Race report

There were 364 laps done on a paved oval track that spanned 1.375 miles (2.213 km). Van Van Wey would make his NASCAR debut in this race; starting in 43rd place and ending in 20th place due to a crash on the 260th lap of the race. Buck Baker ran into trouble early in the race. Baker later drove relief for Laird Bruner and finished in 23rd position. Lee Petty experienced fuel pump trouble and later drove relief for Marvin Panch and crossed the finish line in third-place position. [3]

Otis Martin, Buck Mason, and Frank Stutts would retire from professional stock car racing while Walt Harvey and Joe Sheppard would make their only NASCAR Cup Series appearance in this event. [4] Drivers who failed to qualify for the race were: Bill Blair (#2), Parks Surratt (#00), Bill Morgan (#77), Jim Graham (#72), Fred Dove (#71), Ken Taylor (#62), Gober Sosebee (#51), Hank Carruthers (#50), Clyde Minter (#19), Donald Thomas (#9), Dick Rathmann (#3) and Ross Morrison (#05). [5]

Overall, the race took five hours, sixteen minutes, and one second from the first green flag to the checkered flag. The average speed was 95.026 miles per hour (152.930 km/h) and the pole speed was 108.261 miles per hour (174.229 km/h). There were two cautions for four laps and the margin of victory was twenty-six seconds. Attendance of the race was confirmed at 28,000 people during the start of the race. Notable racers that appeared in the race and didn't finish in the "top ten" included Lee Petty (whose streak of 36 top-ten finishes ended at this race), Cotton Owens, Jimmie Lewallen, Ralph Liguori, Arden Mounts, Elmo Langley, and Buck Baker (pole winner). [3] There was a 1949 year model car in this race. [3] Apparently, there wasn't anything in the NASCAR Cup Series regulations at that time against racing with an obsolete vehicle but it wasn't really competitive against the newer models. Hassell Reid would end up with a 49th place finish while driving the 1949 Plymouth vehicle. [3]

Elmo Langley makes his NASCAR debut. He'd score two victories in a career spanning 536 races from 1954 to 1981. [6]

This would be the first Southern 500 where the leader wasn't a lap or more ahead. [3] There were two #20 cars in the race which would be illegal under current NASCAR Cup Series rules and regulations. [3]

The total winnings of the race was $27,405 ($264,100 when adjusted for inflation) with the winner taking home $6,830 in winnings ($65,820 when adjusted for inflation). [7] Manufacturers involved in the race included Hudson (defunct), Oldsmobile (defunct), Dodge (active), Mercury (active but not racing), Cadillac (active but not racing), Buick (active but not racing), Nash (defunct), Plymouth (active but not racing), Studebaker (defunct), Chrysler (active but not racing), Ford (active), but no entry by any Chevrolet (active) vehicles. [3]

Robert Foster and Lee Petty were two of the notable crew chiefs that were in attendance for the race. Not only Lee Petty was the crew chief, but he was also driving the #42 Chrysler vehicle in the race. [8]

Qualifying

GridNo.DriverManufacturerSpeed [5] Qualifying time [5] Owner
187 Buck Baker '54 Oldsmobile 108.26118.289 Bob Griffin
225 Fireball Roberts '53 Oldsmobile 105.54918.757 Leland Colvin
314 Hershel McGriff '54 Oldsmobile 105.37518.790 Frank Christian
428 Eddie Skinner '53 Oldsmobile 95.00920.840 Frank Dodge
526 Dave Terrell '54 Dodge 87.01322.275 Dave Terrell
697 Bill Amick '54 Oldsmobile 105.61118.748Frank Christian
740 John Soares '54 Dodge 96.27020.567 Charles Vance
84 Ken Fisher '54 Hudson 96.24720.572 Ken Fisher
98 Gene Comstock '52 Hudson 93.16321.253 Gene Comstock
1093 Ted Chamberlain '53 Chrysler 87.70922.574 Ted Chamberlain

Finishing order

Section reference: [3]

  1. Herb Thomas
  2. Curtis Turner
  3. Marvin Panch
  4. Johnny Patterson
  5. Jim Paschal
  6. John Soares
  7. Fireball Roberts
  8. Gwyn Staley
  9. Joel Million
  10. Speedy Thompson
  11. Arden Mounts
  12. Elmo Langley
  13. Gene Comstock
  14. Eddie Skinner
  15. Joe Eubanks
  16. Elton Hildreth
  17. Bill Widenhouse
  18. Harvey Eakin
  19. Bill Amick
  20. Charlie Cregar
  21. Art Watts
  22. George Parrish
  23. Laird Bruner
  24. Jims Gillette
  25. Otis Martin
  26. Walt Harvey
  27. Buck Mason
  28. Charles Brinkley
  29. Van Van Wey
  30. Ralph Liguori
  31. Ted Chamberlain
  32. Frank Stutts
  33. Dave Terrell
  34. Cotton Owens
  35. Pop McGinnis
  36. Dean Pelton
  37. Joe Sheppard
  38. Lee Petty
  39. Erick Erickson
  40. Ken Fisher
  41. Jimmie Lewallen
  42. Dink Widenhouse
  43. Blackie Pitt
  44. Buck Baker
  45. Hershel McGriff
  46. John McGinley
  47. Danny Letner
  48. Bob Welborn
  49. Hassell Reid
  50. Jimmy Thompson

Timeline

Section reference: [3]

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References

  1. ↑ Weather information for the 1954 Southern 500 at The Old Farmers' Almanac
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Darlington Raceway". CBS Sports. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1954 Southern 500 racing information at Racing Reference
  4. ↑ Additional driver information at Race Database
  5. 1 2 3 Qualifying information for the 1954 Southern 500 at Racing Reference
  6. ↑ Driver Elmo Langley Career Statistics at Racing Reference
  7. ↑ Winnings information for the 1954 Southern 500 at Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet
  8. ↑ 1954 Southern 500 crew chiefs information at Racing Reference
Preceded by Southern 500 races
1954		Succeeded by
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