1977 Music City USA 420

Last updated
1977 Music City USA 420
Race details [1] [2]
Race 11 of 30 in the 1977 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
NashvilleSpeedwayMap.svg
Date May 7, 1977 (1977-May-07)
Official name Music City USA 420
Location Nashville Speedway, Nashville, Tennessee
Course Permanent racing facility
0.596 mi (0.959 km)
Distance 420 laps, 250.3 mi (402.8 km)
Weather Hot with temperatures of 86 °F (30 °C); wind speeds of 15 miles per hour (24 km/h)
Average speed 87.490 miles per hour (140.802 km/h)
Pole position
Driver
 DiGard Motorsports
Most laps led
Driver Cale Yarborough Junior Johnson & Associates
Laps 398
Winner
No. 72 Benny Parsons DeWitt Racing
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1977 Music City USA 420 was a 420-lap race that took place on May 7, 1977, at Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tennessee.

Contents

Background

Nashville Speedway was converted to a half-mile paved oval in 1957, when it began to be a NASCAR series track. The speedway was lengthened between the 1969 and 1970 seasons. The corners were cut down from 35 degrees to their present 18 degrees in 1972.[ citation needed ]

Race report

The race itself took two hours, fifty-one minutes, and forty seconds from the first green flag to the checkered flag. [2] Benny Parsons was the race winner with an average speed of 87.49 miles per hour (140.80 km/h) while the pole position winner Darrell Waltrip had a speed of 103.643 miles per hour (166.797 km/h) and finished the race in 3rd place. [2] Cale Yarborough led the race with most number of laps (275) and was the points leader after the race for the NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship. [2] However, Benny Parsons would defeat him by one second. [2]

Ricky Rudd made his fourth 4th career top-10 finish at this race. [3]

Twenty thousand people attended this race that had a total prize purse of $56,350 ($240,655.66 in current US dollars). [2] The winner would leave the event earning an incredible $9,565 ($40,849.54 in current US dollars) while the last-place finisher would walk away with a meager $255 in cash earnings ($1,089.04 in current US dollars). [4]

Other notable names among the drivers included Ricky Rudd, Coo Coo Marlin, Richard Petty, Elmo Langley, and Richard Childress. [2] Notable crew chiefs included Buddy Parrott, Jake Elder, Joey Arrington, Kirk Shelmerdine, and Dale Inman. [5]

Paul Dean Holt would retire from NASCAR after this race after competing in 85 races while Ralph Jones would make his introduction into NASCAR racing during this race. [6]

Qualifying

Grid [2] No.DriverManufacturer
188Darrell Waltrip Chevrolet
272Benny Parsons Chevrolet
311Cale Yarborough Chevrolet
443Richard Petty Dodge
512Bobby Allison AMC Matador
62Dave Marcis Chevrolet
715Buddy Baker Ford
852Jimmy Means Chevrolet
992Skip Manning Chevrolet
103Richard Childress Chevrolet
1170J.D. McDuffie Chevrolet
1222Ricky Rudd Chevrolet
1381Terry Ryan Chevrolet
1467Buddy Arrington Dodge
1514Coo Coo Marlin Chevrolet

Finishing order

Section reference: [2]

  1. Benny Parsons (No. 72)
  2. Cale Yarborough (No. 11)
  3. Darrell Waltrip (No. 88)
  4. Dave Marcis (No. 2)
  5. Richard Petty (No. 43)
  6. Buddy Baker (No. 15)
  7. Bobby Allison (No. 12)
  8. Coo Coo Marlin (No. 14)
  9. Jimmy Means (No. 52)
  10. Ricky Rudd (No. 22)
  11. James Hylton (No. 48)
  12. Gary Myers (No. 4)
  13. Cecil Gordon (No. 24)
  14. D.K. Ulrich (No. 40)
  15. Buddy Arrington (No. 67)
  16. Rick Newsom (No. 20)
  17. Earl Brooks (No. 33)
  18. Ralph Jones (No. 98)
  19. David Sisco (No. 16)
  20. Ferrell Harris (No. 25)
  21. Skip Manning* (No. 96)
  22. Dick Brooks* (No. 64)
  23. Elmo Langley* (No. 45)
  24. J.D. McDuffie* (No. 70)
  25. Henley Gray* (No. 19)
  26. Richard Childress* (No. 3)
  27. Terry Ryan* (No. 81)
  28. Paul Dean Holt* (No. 39)
  29. Frank Warren* (No. 79)
  30. Dean Dalton* (No. 7)

* Driver failed to finish race

Timeline

Section reference: [2]

Standings after the race

PosDriverPoints [2] Differential
1 1rightarrow.png Cale Yarborough 19050
2 1rightarrow.png Richard Petty 1713-192
3 Increase2.svg Benny Parsons 1677-228
4 Decrease2.svg Darrell Waltrip 1672-223
5 Increase2.svg Dave Marcis 1460-445
6 Decrease2.svg Buddy Baker 1452-453
7 Increase2.svg Cecil Gordon 1341-564
8 Decrease2.svg Richard Childress 1321-584
9 Increase2.svg James Hylton 1286-619
10 Decrease2.svg Dick Brooks 1284-621

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References

  1. ↑ "1977 Music City USA 420 weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "1977 Music City USA 420 racing results (second reference)". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2011-01-28.
  3. ↑ "Driver Ricky Rudd Career Statistics". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  4. ↑ "1977 Music City USA 420 racing results". Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. Retrieved 2012-09-18.
  5. ↑ "1977 Music City USA 420 crew chiefs". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
  6. ↑ "Additional information about the 1977 Music City USA 420". Race Database. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
Preceded by NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season
1977		Succeeded by
Preceded by Music City USA races
1977		Succeeded by
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