1977 Music City USA 420

1977 Music City USA 420
Race details
Race 11 of 30 in the 1977 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Date May 7, 1977
Location Nashville Speedway (Nashville, Tennessee)
Course Permanent racing facility
0.596 mi (0.959 km)
Distance 420 laps, 250.3 mi (402.8 km)
WeatherTemperatures reaching up to 86 °F (30 °C); wind speeds up to 15 miles per hour (24 km/h)[1]
Average speed 87.490 miles per hour (140.802 km/h)
Pole position
Driver Darrell Waltrip DiGard Motorsports
Most laps led
Driver Cale Yarborough Junior Johnson & Associates
Laps 398
Winner
No. 72
 Benny Parsons
 DeWitt Racing
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1977 Music City USA 420 was a 420-lap race that took place on May 7, 1977, at Fairgrounds Speedway in the American community of Nashville, Tennessee.[2]

Summary

The race itself took two hours, fifty-one minutes, and forty seconds from the first green flag to the checkered flag.[2] Benny Parsons was the race winner with an average speed of 87.49 miles per hour (140.80 km/h) while the pole position winner Darrell Waltrip had a speed of 103.643 miles per hour (166.797 km/h) and finished the race in 3rd place.[2] Cale Yarborough led the race with most number of laps (275) and was the points leader after the race for the NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship.[2] However, Benny Parsons would defeat him by one second.[2]

Twenty thousand people attended this race that had a total prize purse of $56,350 ($219,303.93 in current US dollars).[2] The winner would leave the event earning an incredible $9,565 ($37,225.24 in current US dollars) while the last-place finisher would walk away with a meager $255 in cash earnings ($992.41 in current US dollars).[3]

Other notable names include Ricky Rudd, Coo Coo Marlin, Richard Petty, Elmo Langley, and Richard Childress (now the owner of Richard Childress Racing and Childress Vineyards).[2] Paul Dean Holt would retire from NASCAR after this race while Ralph Jones would make his introduction into NASCAR racing during this race.[4]

Finishing order

  1. Benny Parsons
  2. Cale Yarborough
  3. Darrell Waltrip
  4. Dave Marcis
  5. Richard Petty
  6. Buddy Baker
  7. Bobby Allison
  8. Coo Coo Marlin
  9. Jimmy Means
  10. Ricky Rudd
  11. James Hylton
  12. Gary Myers
  13. Cecil Gordon
  14. D.K. Ulrich
  15. Buddy Arrington
  16. Rick Newsom
  17. Earl Brooks
  18. Ralph Jones
  19. David Sisco
  20. Ferrell Harris
  21. Skip Manning*
  22. Dick Brooks*
  23. Elmo Langley*
  24. J.D. McDuffie*
  25. Henley Gray*
  26. Richard Childress*
  27. Terry Ryan*
  28. Paul Dean Holt*
  29. Frank Warren*
  30. Dean Dalton*

* Driver failed to finish race

Standings after the race

Pos Driver Points[2]
1 Cale Yarborough 1905
2 Richard Petty 1713
3 Benny Parsons 1677
4 Darrell Waltrip 1672
5 Dave Marcis 1460
Preceded by
1977 Winston 500		 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season
1977 		Succeeded by
1977 Mason-Dixon 500
Preceded by
1976		 Music City USA races
1977 		Succeeded by
1978

References

  1. ↑ "1977 Music City USA 420 weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 "1977 Music City USA 420 racing results (second reference)". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2011-01-28.
  3. ↑ "1977 Music City USA 420 racing results". Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. Retrieved 2012-09-18.
  4. ↑ "Additional information about the 1977 Music City USA 420". Race Database. Retrieved 2012-03-11.