1970 National 500

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1970 National 500
Race details[1]
Race 44 of 48 in the 1970 NASCAR Grand National Series season
Layout of Charlotte Motor Speedway
Layout of Charlotte Motor Speedway
Date October 11, 1970 (1970-October-11)
Official name National 500
Location Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord, North Carolina
Course Permanent racing facility
1.500 mi (2.414 km)
Distance 334 laps, 500 mi (804 km)
Weather Warm with temperatures of 82.9 °F (28.3 °C); wind speeds of 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h)
Average speed 123.246 mph (198.345 km/h)
Attendance 50,000[2]
Pole position
Driver Nichels Engineering
Time 34.335 seconds
Most laps led
Driver LeeRoy Yarbrough Junior Johnson & Associates
Laps 112
Winner
No. 12 LeeRoy Yarbrough Junior Johnson & Associates
Television in the United States
Network ABC
Announcers Jim McKay
Chris Economaki

The 1970 National 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series stock car race that was held on October 11, 1970, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.

There were 14 winged cars involved in the race; including Lorenzen, Baker, Vandiver, Richard Petty, and Glotzbach.

Race report[]

Out of the 62 cars that were reported as having been entered on October 9, 1970, only 43 of them were properly recorded by NASCAR officials.[2] Former NASCAR star Curtis Turner had formed an agreement with track president Richard Howard to run the race in a one-off, but he was killed in a plane crash days before the event.[3]

Only 40 of 43 officially registered drivers qualified for the starting grid. George Eaton and Buck Baker were recorded as sharing the No. 58 vehicle.[2] Drivers that did not qualify were Buck Baker, George Eaton, and .[2] Cale Yarborough was credited with the last-place finish on lap 10 due to a crash with the wall.[2] Fifty thousand racing fans would see 23 different lead changes and eight cautions for a period of 63 laps.[2] An unusually lengthy race for the early 1970s, the 1970 National 500 lasted a grueling four hours and three minutes.[2]

This race marked Kmart's debut as a NASCAR sponsor as they backed Fred Lorenzen's white #3 Dodge Daytona.[2] The winged Charger would fly high today as Fast Freddie brought it home with a podium finish and led a few laps en route.[2]

The race was held on a dry circuit; with no precipitation recorded around the speedway.[4]

LeeRoy Yarbrough would defeat Bobby Allison under the yellow flag.[2] This would become Yarbrough's final win in the NASCAR Cup Series.[5] Charlie Glotzbach would qualify for the pole position in this race by driving speeds up to 157.273 miles per hour (253.106 km/h) during the solo sessions.[2] Other notable drivers at this race were David Pearson, Coo Coo Marlin, Frank Warren, Richard Petty and J.D. McDuffie.[2]

A lot of the drivers did not finish the race because of crashes on the track.[2] Eleven notable crew chiefs participated in the race; including , Junie Donlavey, Harry Hyde, Dale Inman, and Banjo Matthews.[6] 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.

Qualifying[]

Grid No. Driver Manufacturer Speed[7] Qualifying time[7] Owner
1 99 Charlie Glotzbach '69 Dodge 157.273 34.335 Ray Nichels
2 43 Richard Petty '70 Plymouth 156.521 34.500 Petty Enterprises
3 6 Buddy Baker '69 Dodge 156.499 34.505 Cotton Owens
4 3 Fred Lorenzen '69 Dodge 154.883 34.865 Ray Fox
5 98 LeeRoy Yarbrough '69 Mercury 154.789 34.886 Junior Johnson
6 40 Pete Hamilton '70 Plymouth 154.714 34.903 Petty Enterprises
7 17 David Pearson '69 Ford 154.523 34.944 Holman-Moody
8 21 Cale Yarborough '69 Mercury 153.876 35.093 Wood Brothers
9 71 Bobby Isaac '69 Dodge 152.797 35.341 Nord Krauskopf
10 22 Bobby Allison '69 Dodge 152.771 35.347

Top 10 finishers[]

Pos[2] Grid No. Driver Manufacturer Laps Winnings Laps led Time/Status
1 5 98 LeeRoy Yarbrough Mercury 334 $23,700 112 4:03:28
2 10 22 Bobby Allison Dodge 334 $10,950 22 Lead lap under caution
3 4 3 Fred Lorenzen Dodge 333 $6,400 3 +4 laps
4 15 72 Benny Parsons Ford 329 $3,955 0 +8 laps
5 9 71 Bobby Isaac Dodge 323 $3,330 2 Engine failure
6 18 64 Elmo Langley Mercury 321 $2,265 0 +16 laps
7 19 10 Bill Champion Ford 320 $2,065 0 +17 laps
8 20 5 Buddy Arrington Dodge 319 $1,965 0 +19 laps
9 36 46 Roy Mayne Chevrolet 317 $1,955 0 +21 laps
10 22 39 Friday Hassler Chevrolet 315 $1,765 0 Engine failure

References[]

  1. ^ Weather information for the 1970 National 500 at The Old Farmer's Almanac
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 1970 National 500 racing information at Racing-Reference
  3. ^ "Flamboyant Curtis Turner Was A Track Showman". Asheville Citizen. AP. October 6, 1970. Retrieved January 17, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Charlotte NASCAR Climatology" (PDF). SERCC. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-09-08. Retrieved 2018-09-12.
  5. ^ 1970 National 500 racing information at Race-Database
  6. ^ Crew chief information for the 1970 National 500 at Racing Reference
  7. ^ a b Qualifying information for the 1970 National 500 at Racing Reference
Preceded by
NASCAR Grand National Series season
1969
Succeeded by
Preceded by National 500 races
1970
Succeeded by
Retrieved from ""