1965 Virginia 500
Race details[1][2][3]
Race 12 of 55 in the 1965 NASCAR Grand National Series season
A map showing the layout of Martinsville Speedway
A map showing the layout of Martinsville Speedway
Date April 25, 1965 (1965-April-25)
Official name Virginia 500
Location Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Virginia
Course Permanent racing facility
0.525 mi (0.844 km)
Distance 500 laps, 262.5 mi (442.4 km)
Weather Cold with temperatures of 57 °F (14 °C); wind speeds of 8.9 miles per hour (14.3 km/h)
Average speed 66.735 mph (107.400 km/h)
Attendance 10,000
Pole position
Driver
Junior Johnson & Associates
Time 24.160 seconds[4]
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 event that was held on April 25, 1965, at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia.

Fred Lorenzen, the winning driver of this race, would become the only driver to win four consecutive Martinsville races.

Background

Martinsville Speedway is one of five short tracks to hold NASCAR races.[5] The standard track at Martinsville Speedway is a four-turn short track oval that is 0.526 miles (0.847 km) long.[6] The track's turns are banked at eleven degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at zero degrees. The back stretch also has a zero degree banking.[6]

The track was also one of the first paved oval tracks in NASCAR, being built in 1947 by partners H. Clay Earles, Henry Lawrence and Sam Rice per Virginia House Joint Resolution No. 76 on the death of H. Clay Earles. (Whereas Clay Earles and his partners, Sam Rice and Henry Lawrence, opened the Martinsville Speedway in 1947 on a 30-acre site, one of the first of its kind in the nation ...) It is also the only race track that has been on the NASCAR circuit from its beginning in 1948. Along with this, Martinsville is the only NASCAR oval track on the entire NASCAR track circuit to have asphalt surfaces on the straightaways, then concrete to cover the turns.

Race report

The racing event (in what is now known as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) took approximately three hours and forty-four minutes to completely finish.[2][3] Five cautions were handed out by NASCAR officials for forty-nine laps.[2][3] Fred Lorenzen beat Marvin Panch by two car lengths in front of ten thousand people.[2][3] Curtis Crider retired 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 had a clutch problem with his unsponsored 1964 Ford Galaxie after only two laps of racing and became the last-place finisher of the day. Jabe Thomas initially qualified in 11th position, withdrew from the event due to engine problem.[2][3]

Total winnings of the race were $20,725 ($192,456 when adjusted for inflation). Each driver took home winnings between $4,350 ($40,395 when adjusted for inflation) and $250 ($2,322 when adjusted for inflation) on an individual basis.[7] The transition to purpose-built racecars began in the early 1960s and occurred gradually over that decade. Changes made to the sport by the late 1960s brought an end to the "strictly stock" vehicles of the 1950s.

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.[8] All but one of the top ten finishers drove a Ford vehicle; the sixth-place finisher drove a Dodge (which no longer races in the NASCAR Cup Series as of 2013).[9]

Notable crew chiefs for this race include Don Snyder, Lanty McClung, Herb Nab, and John Ervin.[10]

Qualifying

Grid No. Driver Manufacturer Qualifying time[4] Speed[4]
1 26 Junior Johnson '65 Ford 24.160 74.503
2 28 Fred Lorenzen '65 Ford 24.220 74.318
3 21 Marvin Panch '65 Ford 24.220 74.318
4 7 Bobby Johns '65 Ford 24.320 73.952
5 29 Dick Hutcherson '65 Ford 24.520 73.409
6 11 Ned Jarrett '65 Ford 24.720 72.756
7 49 G.C. Spencer '64 Ford 24.830 72.492
8 59 Tom Pistone '64 Ford 24.900 72.289
9 76 Larry Frank '64 Ford 24.940 72.173
10 90 Sonny Hutchins '64 Ford 25.160 71.542
11 17 Jabe Thomas '64 Ford 25.200 71.428
12 67 Junior Spencer '64 Dodge 25.310 71.118
13 64 Buddy Arrington '64 Ford 25.400 70.810
14 34 Elmo Langley '63 Ford 25.570 70.394
15 53 Wendell Scott '64 Ford 25.580 70.367

Finishing order

Section reference: [2]

  1. Fred Lorenzen (No. 28)
  2. Marvin Panch (No. 21)
  3. Dick Hutcherson† (No. 29)
  4. Tiny Lund† (No. 10)
  5. Buddy Arrington (No. 67)
  6. Elmo Langley† (No. 64)
  7. Paul Lewis (No. 27)
  8. Doug Cooper* (No. 60)
  9. Buren Skeen† (No. 23)
  10. Ned Jarrett (No. 11)
  11. Bob Derrington (No. 68)
  12. G.C. Spencer*† (No. 49)
  13. Henley Gray (No. 97)
  14. Clyde Lynn† (No. 20)
  15. Darel Dieringer*† (No. 37)
  16. Wendell Scott† (No. 34)
  17. Curtis Crider* (No. 53)
  18. Cale Yarborough (No. 31)
  19. Roy Tyner*† (No. 9)
  20. Larry Frank*† (No. 76)
  21. Donald Tucker (No. 74)
  22. Junior Johnson* (No. 26)
  23. Tom Pistone* (No. 59)
  24. Bud Harless*† (No. 40)
  25. Sonny Hutchins*† (No. 90)
  26. Bobby Johns* (No. 7)
  27. Gene Hobby* (No. 99)
  28. Buck Baker*† (No. 87)
  29. Larry Manning* (No. 8)
  30. Neil Castles* (No. 86)
  31. Junior Spencer* (No. 17)
  32. G.T. Nolen* (No. 80)
  33. Bill Morton* (No. 56)
  34. E.J. Trivette* (No. 52)
  35. Buddy Baker*† (No. 88)
  36. Terry Murchison* (No. 0)

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

Timeline

Section reference: [2]

References

  1. ^ "1965 Virginia 500 weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "1965 Virginia 500 information". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2010-10-01.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "1965 Virginia 500 information (reference #3)". Ultimate Racing History. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
  4. ^ a b c "1965 Virginia 500 qualifying information". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
  5. ^ "NASCAR Race Tracks". NASCAR. Archived from the original on June 3, 2011. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
  6. ^ a b "NASCAR Tracks—The Martinsville Speedway". Martinsville Speedway. Archived from the original on October 7, 2010. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
  7. ^ "1965 Virginia 500 prize winnings information". Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. Retrieved 2012-12-02.
  8. ^ "Enduring Performance: 1965 Virginia 500". NASCAR.com. Retrieved 2012-12-02.
  9. ^ "Ford Dominance at the 1965 Virginia 500". Driver Averages. Archived from the original on 2014-01-23. Retrieved 2012-12-02.
  10. ^ "1965 Virginia 500 crew chief information". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
Preceded by1965 Gwyn Staley 400 NASCAR Grand National Series season 1965 Succeeded by1965 Columbia 200
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