1951 Southern 500

1951 Southern 500

Race details
Race 24 of 41 in the 1951 NASCAR Grand National Series season
Layout of Darlington Raceway
Date	September 3, 1951 (1951-09-03)
Location	Darlington Raceway (Darlington, South Carolina)
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.25 mi (2.01 km)
Distance	400 laps, 500 mi (800 km)
Weather	Temperatures reaching up to 91.9 °F (33.3 °C); wind speeds up to 8.9 miles per hour (14.3 km/h)[1]
Average speed	76.906 miles per hour (123.768 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Frank Mundy	Perry Smith
Most laps led
Driver	Herb Thomas	Herb Thomas
Laps	311
Winner
No. 92	Herb Thomas	Herb Thomas

The 1951 Southern 500 was a NASCAR Grand National (now Sprint Cup Series, also formerly known as the Winston Cup Series and the Winston Cup Grand National Series) race that took place on September 3, 1951, at Darlington Raceway in the American community of Darlington, South Carolina.^[2]

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

Four hundred laps were done on a paved oval track spanning 1.250 miles (2.012 km) for a grand total of 500.0 miles (804.7 km).^[2] Notable speeds for the race were: 76.906 miles per hour (123.768 km/h) and 84.173 miles per hour (135.463 km/h) for the pole position speed.^[2] Four cautions were handed out by NASCAR official for a duration of twenty-six laps.^[2] Herb Thomas defeated Jesse James Taylor by more than one lap in front of forty thousand people.^[2]

This race would be Red Byron's final race in NASCAR. The race lasted for six hours and thirty minutes;^[2] outside the time allotments for modern-day television programming. Eighty-two cars would race in this virtually unregulated "free-for-all."^[2] Frank Mundy would become the worst driver in NASCAR Cup Series history by finishing eighty-two spots worse than he started.^[2] This would be an impossibility in today's 43-car field. Lee Connell would also set a career record for having the worst career average finish in his 1951 Pontiac vehicle. However, this accomplishment would be impossible today due to the modern rules giving all races a 43-car maximum grid.

Total winnings for this race were $23,740 ($215,699.21 when adjusted for inflation). As it was with all races during this era, the 1951 Southern 500 was completely untelevised. The only way that a person could follow the action was to drive to the speedway (to watch it live) or catch it on local radio (if they were lucky to be in the Darlington area at the time).

Top forty drivers

References