1965 Virginia 500

1965 Virginia 500
Race details
Race 12 of 55 in the 1965 NASCAR Grand National Series season

A map showing the layout of Martinsville Speedway
Date April 25, 1965
Location Martinsville Speedway (Martinsville, Virginia)
Course Permanent racing facility
0.525 mi (0.844 km)
Distance 500 laps, 262.5 mi (442.4 km)
WeatherTemperatures reaching a maximum of 57 °F (14 °C); wind speeds up to 8.9 miles per hour (14.3 km/h)[1]
Average speed 66.735 miles per hour (107.400 km/h)
Pole position
Driver Junior Johnson Junior Johnson & Associates
Most laps led
Driver Fred Lorenzen Holman-Moody
Laps 338
Winner
No. 28
 Fred Lorenzen
 Holman-Moody
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1965 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 that took place on April 25, 1965, at Martinsville Speedway in the American community of Martinsville, Virginia.[2][3]

Fred Lorenzen, the winning driver of this racing event, would become the only driver to successfully complete four Martinsville events in the row with a first-place finish.

Summary

The racing event (in what is now known as the Sprint Cup Series) took approximately three hours and forty-four minues to completely finish.[2][3] Five cautions were handed out by NASCAR officials for forty-nine laps.[2][3] Fred Lorenzen would beat Marvin Panch by two car lengths in front of ten thousand people.[2][3] Curtis Crider would retire from NASCAR after competing in this race. Most of the contenders in the race were driving Ford vehicles with the model years ranging from 1963 through 1965.[2][3] Terry Murchinson would have a clutch problem with his unsponsored 1964 Ford Galaxie after only two laps of racing; becoming the last-place finisher of the day.[2][3]

Total winnings of the race were $20,725 ($155,098.28 when adjusted for inflation). Each driver took home winnings between $4,350 ($32,553.8 when adjusted for inflation) and $250 ($1,870.91 when adjusted for inflation) on an individual basis.[4]

Ford ended up dominating NASCAR in 1965. This came about because Dodge discouraged their vehicles from participating in the league due to the Hemi engine being banned from competition. Petty Enterprises ended up going into drag racing until Dodge solved its issues with the people who ran NASCAR at that time.[5] All but one of the top ten finishers drive a Ford vehicle; the sixth-place finish drove a Dodge (which no longer races in the NASCAR Cup Series as of 2013).[6]

Finishing order

  1. Fred Lorenzen
  2. Marvin Panch
  3. Dick Hutcherson†
  4. Tiny Lund†
  5. Buddy Arrington
  6. Elmo Langley†
  7. Paul Lewis
  8. Doug Cooper*
  9. Buren Skeen†
  10. Ned Jarrett
  11. Bob Derrington
  12. G.C. Spencer*†
  13. Henley Gray
  14. Clyde Lynn†
  15. Darel Dieringer*†
  16. Wendell Scott†
  17. Curtis Crider*
  18. Cale Yarborough
  19. Roy Tyner*†
  20. Larry Frank*†
  21. Donald Tucker
  22. Junior Johnson*
  23. Tom Pistone*
  24. Bud Harless*†
  25. Sonny Hutchins*†
  26. Bobby Johns*
  27. Gene Hobby*
  28. Buck Baker*†
  29. Larry Manning*
  30. Neil Castles*
  31. Junior Spencer*
  32. G.T. Nolan*
  33. Bill Morton*
  34. E.J. Trivette*
  35. Buddy Baker*
  36. Terry Murchison*

† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased
* denotes that the driver did not finish the race

References

  1. ↑ "1965 Virginia 500 weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "1965 Virginia 500 information". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2010-10-01.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 "1965 Virginia 500 information (reference #3)". Ultimate Racing History. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
  4. ↑ "1965 Virginia 500 prize winnings information". Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. Retrieved 2012-12-02.
  5. ↑ "Enduring Performance: 1965 Virginia 500". NASCAR.com. Retrieved 2012-12-02.
  6. ↑ "Ford Dominance at the 1965 Virginia 500". Driver Averages. Retrieved 2012-12-02.
Preceded by
1965 Gwyn Staley 400		 NASCAR Grand National Series season
1965 		Succeeded by
1965 Columbia 200