1957 Virginia 500

1957 Virginia 500

Race details
Race 17 of 53 in the 1957 NASCAR Grand National Series season
A map showing the layout of Martinsville Speedway
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 Distance	500 laps, 262.5 mi (442.4 km)
Weather	Temperatures 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 (now Sprint Cup Series, also formerly known as the Winston Cup Series and the Winston Cup 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 that was being held in 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 end up getting 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 ($26,618.23 when adjusted for inflation) to the last-place finisher's share of $125 ($1,049.61 when adjusted for inflation). A grand total of $12,240 was handed out by NASCAR officials for the explicit purpose of paying off the qualifying drivers ($102,778.29 when adjusted for inflation).^[5]

Timeline

• Start of race: Paul Goldsmith started the race with the pole position
• Lap 55: Tiny Lund takes over the lead from Paul Goldsmith
• Lap 128: Buck Baker takes over the lead from Tiny Lund
• Lap 145: Billy Myers takes over the lead from Buck Baker
• Lap 146: The rear end of Eddie Skinner's vehicle became problematic; forcing him to quit the race
• Lap 211: Cotton Owens had a terminal crash; causing him to withdraw from the event
• Lap 233: Buck Baker takes over the lead from Billy Myers
• Lap 281: Tiny Lund's engine developed problems; forcing him to make an early exit from the race
• Lap 329: Billy Myers takes over the lead from Buck Baker
• Lap 441: Tom Pistone and Billy Myers crashed into each other; jointly ending their chances of winning the race
• End of race: Buck Baker wins the race after starting in a meager 14th place

Finishing order

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

References