1957 Virginia 500

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1957 Virginia 500
Race details
Race 17 of 53 in the 1957 NASCAR Grand National Series season

Map of the track
Date May 19, 1957 (1957-May-19)
Location Martinsville Speedway (Martinsville, Virginia)
Course Permanent racing facility
0.525 mi (0.844 km)
Distance 441 laps, 231 mi (372 km)
Scheduled Distance500 laps, 262.5 mi (442.4 km)
WeatherTemperatures reaching up to 81 °F (27 °C); wind speeds up to 11.1 miles per hour (17.9 km/h)[1]
Average speed 57.318 miles per hour (92.244 km/h)
Pole position
Driver Paul Goldsmith Smokey Yunick Racing
Most laps led
Driver Billy Myers Bill Strope
Laps 201
Winner
No. 87
 Buck Baker
 Hugh Babb
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1957 Virginia 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series racing event held on May 19, 1957 at Martinsville Speedway in the American community of Martinsville, Virginia.

Barney Oldfield made his only NASCAR Cup Series appearance at this event.[2] Months after this fateful race, the Automobile Manufacturers Association decided to legally separate themselves from all forms of automobile racing the United States; donating millions of dollars in machinery directly to the drivers.[3]

Summary

It took nearly four hours to race 441 laps worth of stock car automobile racing. While originally scheduled for 500 laps, it was stopped prematurely due to a flagrantly bad in-race crash. Tom Pistone and Billy Myers would involved in the fateful collision on lap 441; making Buck Baker the automatic winner. The 24-driver starting lineup was made up of drivers who were all born in the United States of America. T.A. Toomes would take up the dreaded last-place position due to problems with his gasket on lap 121.[4]

Paul Goldsmith, Tiny Lund and Buck Baker would dominate the laps prior to the unprecedented accident. While the accident spoiled the racing fun for the sixteen thousand arden NASCAR followers, the victory of Buck Baker over second-place finisher Curtis Turner would demonstrate the power of the 1957 Chevrolet.[4] Although its real-life counterpart had fuel injection, the NASCAR version had to use a carburetor. Fuel injection did not become legal in what is now known as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series until the 2012 season.

Individual race earnings for this event ranged from the winner's share of $3,170 ($26,347.81 in today's money) to the last-place finisher's share of $125 ($1,038.95 in today's money). A grand total of $12,240 was handed out by NASCAR officials for the explicit purpose of paying off the qualifying drivers ($101,734.12 in today's money).[5]

Race results

  1. Buck Baker†
  2. Curtis Turner†
  3. Tom Pistone*
  4. Billy Myers*
  5. Lee Petty†
  6. Jack Smith†
  7. Paul Goldsmith
  8. Marvin Panch
  9. Fireball Roberts†
  10. Jim Paschal†
  11. Speedy Thompson†
  12. Brownie King
  13. Ralph Earnhardt†
  14. L.D. Austin
  15. George Green
  16. Johnny Allen*
  17. Bill Bowman
  18. Barney Oldfield
  19. Clarence DeZalia
  20. Tiny Lund*†
  21. Russ Hepler*
  22. Cotton Owens*†
  23. Eddie Skinner*
  24. T.A. Toomes*

† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased
* Driver failed to finish race

References

  1. ↑ Weather information for the 1957 Virginia 500 at The Old Farmers' Almanac
  2. ↑ Barney Oldfield's only NASCAR Cup Series race at Race Database
  3. ↑ 1957 NASCAR Grand National Recap at How Stuff Works
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 1957 Virginia 500 racing information at Racing Reference
  5. ↑ Winnings information for the 1957 Virginia 500 at Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet
Preceded by
1956		 Virginia 500 races
1957 		Succeeded by
1958
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