1968 American 500

1968 American 500

Race details[1]
Race 48 of 49 in the 1968 NASCAR Grand National Series season
Layout of Rockingham Speedway
Date	October 27, 1968 (1968-October-27)
Official name	American 500
Location	North Carolina Motor Speedway (Rockingham, North Carolina, USA)
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.017 mi (1.636 km)
Distance	492 laps, 500 mi (804 km)
Weather	Chilly with temperatures approaching 67.3 °F (19.6 °C); wind speeds up to 9.9 miles per hour (15.9 km/h)
Average speed	105.06 miles per hour (169.08 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Cale Yarborough	Wood Brothers Racing
Most laps led
Driver	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises
Laps	216
Winner
No. 43	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises
Television in the United States
Network	untelevised
Announcers	none

The 1968 American 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Sprint Cup Series) event that was held on October 27, 1968 at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, North Carolina.

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 any more.

Summary

There were 44 drivers who managed to qualify for this event. Only one foreigner was present - Australian-born driver Frank Gardner - would become the last-place driver due to an incident requiring a black flag on the first lap. He would become the "prototype" for current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Marcos Ambrose even though Garnder would never run another NASCAR Cup Series race after this one. Gardner's last-place finish within the confines of the American stock car world was eventually overshadowed by his championship victory at the 1968 British Saloon Car Championship while driving a European version of the Ford Escort Twin Cam.^[2]

American-born driver Dexter Gainey would be black-flagged exactly forty laps later and would be disqualified as well. Wendell Scott would become the lowest-finishing driver to complete the event; albeit 191 laps behind the lead lap drivers.^[3] Five hundred laps was raced at this event for a duration for four hours and forty-five minutes. Speeds on the track would reach around 105.06 miles per hour or 169.08 kilometres per hour for the entire course of this race. Thirty-two thousand spectators would see another spectator Richard Petty victory with him out-racing David Pearson by a time of fifteen seconds. LeeRoy Yarbrough would finish in third place; and two laps behind the top two finishers.^[3]

Cale Yarborough's solo qualifying performance of 118.677 miles per hour (190.992 km/h) would help him clinch the pole position for the event. While Yarborough and Bobby Isaac would dominate the opening laps of this event, the event ended up being a "Petty and Pearson" show for the final 100 laps.^[3] Individual race winnings for the drivers ranged from the winner's share of $17,075 ($116,191.7 when adjusted for inflation) to the last-place finisher's share of $515 ($3,504.46 when adjusted for inflation). The entire prize purse that was handed out to all the qualifying participants was $69,800 ($474,973.97 when adjusted for inflation).^[4]

Top twenty finishers

References