1963 Old Dominion 500

The 1963 Old Dominion 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Sprint Cup Series) event that was held on September 22, 1963 at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia.

Summary

Possum Jones and Bobby Keck were the two drivers not to qualify for this event. The race was scheduled for 500 laps; taking three hours and forty-two minutes to complete. Fred Lorenzen defeated Marvin Panch by a single lap and two seconds. Twenty thousand people came to witness three lead changes and five cautions for eighteen laps. Junior Johnson won the pole position for this race; driving speeds up to 73.379 miles per hour (118.092 km/h) in qualifying. Speeds during the actual race managed to reach up to 67.486 miles per hour (108.608 km/h). Jimmy Massey became the last-place finisher after having to drop out prior to the race due to a terminal crash with Jimmy Pardue. Most of the car owners that were involved in the race were independents and had no affiliation with a multi-car team.

1956 Old Dominion 400

The 1956 Old Dominion 400 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Sprint Cup Series) event that was held on October 28, 1956 at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia. As a NASCAR-sanctioned "Sweepstakes" race, sedan vehicles from the Grand National Series and stock convertibles from the NASCAR Convertible division raced side-by-side with other for the same amount of money and championship points.

By the 1990s, NASCAR's top-level series became a media circus that only races at facilities that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Summary

Four hundred laps were done on a paved oval track spanning 0.500 miles (0.805 km) for a grand total of 200.0 miles (321.9 km). The race took three hours, sixteen minutes, and seventeen seconds to complete thanks to four caution flags. During the late 1950s, the admirable traits concerning NASCAR stock car drivers who were successful included broadly-defined shoulders and arms that were relatively large. These drivers generally were tougher competitors in 1956 than they are today due to the lack of technology that was inside the vehicles. Forty vehicles would qualify to start this race; an incredible amount for the NASCAR Cup Series in its formative years.

1974 Old Dominion 500

The 1974 Old Dominion 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race that took place on September 29, 1974, at Martinsville Speedway (Martinsville, Virginia, USA).

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.

Summary

Today, the race is a part of the TUMS Fast Relief 500 annual series of Martinsville races that occur in the autumn for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The race lasted three hours, fifty-eight minutes, and three seconds. Ten cautions were enacted by NASCAR for seventy-nine laps. The event had an attendance of 33,000 people.Canadian Earl Ross (driving for Junior Johnson) defeated his American opponent Buddy Baker by more than one lap. Pole speed was 84.119 miles (135.376 km) per hour while the average speed was 66.232 miles (106.590 km) per hour. Notable drivers at this race included Richard Petty, Elmo Langley, Cale Yarborough, Benny Parsons, Coo Coo Marlin (father of Sterling Marlin), and Richard Childress (future owner of Richard Childress Racing). There was a thirty driver grid (twenty-nine Americans and one Canadian) compared to the forty-three driver grid of today. The winner received $14,550 ($69,814.47 when considering inflation) while starting in eleventh place.