1955 Southern 500: Difference between revisions

The 1955 Southern 500 was a 500-mile (804.67 kilometre) NASCAR Grand National race that took place on September 5, 1955 at the Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. Confederate flags were still legal to utilize in all parts of the state back then and were shown with pride alongside the Stars and Stripes.

Television coverage of the 1955 Southern 500 was impossible due to the then-niche demographics of the burgeoning motorsport. However, local radio made it possible for housebound fans (i.e., young boys and housewives) to hear their favorite drivers from the first green flag to the checkered flag. The race was conducted in the daytime and finished sometime before dusk because lighting was not available at Darlington Raceway at that time. School children who lived in the area could either watch the race live or listen on the local radio because the race took place on Labor Day where there was no school that day. Being the thirty-fifth race of the 1955 season, there would be only ten races after the conclusion of the 1955 Southern 500 in the entire season. This race was the major race of any NASCAR season that came before the very first Daytona 500. Once the Daytona 500 was established, the Southern 500 quickly became another NASCAR event.

Smoking was unrestricted during this race as spectators, crew chiefs, and even drivers were often smoking cigarettes when they were not expected to perform a duty on the track. It would not be until decades later when they linked to idea of smoking with bad health. This mentality would also extend to the flammability of the leaded gasoline that all the stock cars had to use from the original 1949 season to the end of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season. By the end of the 20th century, it became against the rules of NASCAR to smoke cigarettes near the gas pump because ashes from the cigarette could cause the gasoline to turn to fire.

Before the race, each part is individually inspected to make sure that every part is stock (i.e., can be bought at regular automobile shops as opposed to sneaking in "police parts" or parts intended entirely for racing). Sometimes, entire vehicles had to be dismantled in order to find parts that look dissimilar to everyday passenger vehicles. Only roll bars were added for extra safety during the 500 miles of racing. Every car that passed the inspection and was "certified stock" was given a certification ticket on the dash. Having a certification permitted the driver to participate in the event with the full blessing of NASCAR.

On the night preceeding the race, a beauty pageant was conducted with Fonty Flock as one of the judges; this tradition would be repeated at the 1956 Southern 500 and at all subsequent Southern 500 races. Out of the numerous contestants that signed up from the Darlington area, Miss Martha Williams (from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina) won the honors of becoming Miss Southern 500 and accepted the ceremonious position that held during the race. A marching band was also used as a part of the pre-race festivities. It was unknown whether NASCAR had a pre-race invocation service or not during the 1950s as the highlight film never showed a detailed coverage of the pre-race ceremonies like today's live coverage on television. Even back in those days, it was customary to hear "Gentlemen start your engines" to fire up the racers into a rolling start. Qualifying would take up the whole month just like it does at today's Indianapolis 500 races; regulations in the Winston Cup era (1971-2003) would make it so that qualifying would eventually be contracted to one day.

Fireball Roberts earned the pole position but Herb Thomas won the race after 5 hours and 25 minutes of racing. Fifty thousand people attended the live event to see 69 cars race (less than half of them survived the entire 366 lap race). Regulations made decades after this race would finally standardize the field to 43 racing vehicles; a far cry from the fairly unregulated days that the 1955 Southern 500 took place in. The average speed of the race was 92.281 miles (148.512 km) and the pole speed was 110.682 miles (178.125 km). Out of the 336 laps, there was 8 yellow flag periods consisting of 51 laps. The winner received $7,480 in American dollars ($85,076.87 in today's money) while the total winnings for the race was considered to be $28,270 ($321,540.52 in today's money).

Vehicles ranged in production year from 1953 models driven by the less affluent teams to the 1955 models driven by wealthy teams like Petty Enterprises. All drivers were expected to race in the vehicles that they personally drove to the racetrack in by virtue of NASCAR's then-strict homologation rules against producing vehicles specifically for racing. Other notable NASCAR Grand National drivers that participated are Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett, and Lee Petty. All of the drivers competing at this race were Caucasian American males; foreigners and minorities did not attempt to qualify for this race. By comparison, at least one or two foreigners compete in today's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races (usually Juan Pablo Montoya and/or Marcos Ambrose). The winner drove a 1955 Chevrolet after the five long hours of racing during a time where NASCAR was used to test the endurance of the newest passenger automobiles. Even though Herb Thomas won the race, the eventual championship winner would be Tim Flock with 18 season wins.

Vehicle manufacturers involved in the race were Studebaker (defunct), Plymouth (defunct), Chevrolet (active), Buick (active), Dodge (active), Ford (active), Hudson (defunct), Cadillac (active), Pontiac (defunct), and Nash Motors (defunct). More than half of the vehicles used were manufactured by Chevrolet while Nash Motors only had one vehicle in the running along with Studebaker. Sponsors for the drivers in the race included Mercury Outboards, Paper Hangers, and Fish Carburetor.

1. Herb Thomas†
2. Jim Reed
3. Tim Flock†
4. Gwyn Staley
5. Larry Flynn
6. Buck Baker†
7. Lou Spears
8. Cotton Owens
9. Bill Widenhouse*
10. Jimmy Massey*
11. Banks Simpson
12. Joe Eubanks
13. Marvin Panch
14. Nace Mattingly
15. Jimmie Lewallen†
16. Ralph Ligouri
17. Banjo Matthews†
18. Dave Terrell
19. Russ Graham
20. Bill Champion
21. Lee Petty†
22. Johnny Patterson
23. Billy Myers
24. Lloyd Moore†
25. Ray Platte
26. Bill Blair†
27. Bobby Waddell
28. Blackie Pitt
29. Jimmy Thompson
30. Bob Welborn†
31. Curley Hatfield
32. Roy Bentley
33. Joe Weatherly†* (led 140 laps)
34. Jim Paschal†
35. Bill Bowman
36. Junior Johnson
37. Ned Jarrett
38. Ed Bergin
39. Billy Carden
40. Tojo Stephens
41. Possum Jones
42. Eddie Skinner
43. Harold Kite
44. Van Van Wey*
45. Speedy Thompson*
46. Fred Johnson*
47. Doug Cox*
48. Gene Comstock
49. Clarence DeZalia*
50. Dick Allwine*
51. Fonty Flock†*
52. Gene Simpson*
53. Dick Beaty*
54. Jim Thompson*
55. Don Duckworth
56. Arden Mounts
57. Jimmy Roland
58. Curtis Turner†
59. Elmo Langley†*
60. Donald Thomas*
61. Slick Smith*
62. Dick Rathmann†*
63. Bud Rackley*
64. Tommy Thompson*
65. Gordon Smith*
66. Fireball Roberts†*
67. Pop McGinnis*
68. Ed Cole*
69. George Parrish*

Note: ^† denotes that the driver is known to be deceased and ^* denotes that the driver failed to finish the race.

• Racing Reference - 1955 Southern 500 (Archived 2009-07-21)
• Stat Sheet - 1955 Southern 500
• September 1955 Calendar Information (Archived 2009-07-23)

• 1955 Ford NASCAR Stock Car

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