1950 Southern 500

1950 Southern Five-Hundred
Race details^[1]
Race 13 of 19 in the 1950 NASCAR Grand National Series season
Program promoting the 1950 Southern 500.
Date	September 4, 1950 (1950-September-04)
Official name	Southern Five-Hundred
Location	Darlington Raceway, Darlington, South Carolina
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.25 mi (2.012 km)
Distance	400 laps, 500 mi (800 km)
Weather	Very hot with temperatures of 90 °F (32 °C); wind speeds of 8.9 miles per hour (14.3 km/h)
Average speed	82.766 mph (133.199 km/h)
Attendance	25,000
Pole position
Driver	Curtis Turner	John Eanes
Time	43.884 seconds^[2]
Most laps led
Driver	Johnny Mantz	Hubert Westmoreland
Laps	351
Winner
No. 98	Johnny Mantz	Hubert Westmoreland

The inaugural Southern Five-Hundred (Southern 500 since 1951) was an automobile race held at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina on September 4, 1950, as part of the 1950 NASCAR Grand National. While the 1950 race was co-sanctioned by NASCAR and its rival Central States Racing Association, all subsequent Southern 500 races were hosted exclusively by NASCAR. ^[3]

It is NASCAR's first 500-mile race, and still holds status as one of NASCAR's premier events. Since there had never been a 500-mile stock car race and Darlington was NASCAR's first superspeedway, drivers and teams came to the event with unique strategies. Darlington set the precedent for race strategies to come at tracks like the Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

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Background

The track at the time was a four-turn 1.25-mile (2.01 km) oval.^[4] The track's first two turns are banked at twenty-five degrees, while the final two are banked two degrees lower at twenty-three degrees.^[4] The front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the backstretch is banked at six degrees.^[4]

Harold Brasington was a retired racer in 1948, who had gotten to know Bill France, Sr. while competing against France at the Daytona Beach Road Course and other dirt tracks in the Southeast and Midwestern United States.^[5] He began planning a new speedway after he noticed the huge crowds while attending the 1948 Indianapolis 500^[5] and thought, "If Tony Hulman can do it here, I can do it back home."^[5] Brasington bought 70 acres from farmer Sherman Ramsey and started making a race track from a cotton and peanut field.^[5] However, he was forced to create an egg-shaped oval with one corner tighter, narrower, and more steeply banked because he promised Ramsey that the new track would not disturb Ramsey's minnow pond at the west side of the property.^[5] Brasington was able to make the other turn at the east side of the property wide, sweeping, and flat as he wanted.^[5] It took almost a year to build the track.^[5]

Race report

Historical information

The Interstate Highway System would not begin construction until later in the decade; its heyday and prominence as an "American superhighway" for leisure and business travel did not kick in until the late 1960s when NASCAR first felt the need to expand outside its regional "shell" and into the national stage.^[6]

Qualifying

More than 80 entrants showed up for the race.^[5] Brasington used a two-week qualifying scheme and arranged the 75 cars in three rows of 25, similar to the Indianapolis 500.^[7] During those two weeks of qualifications, locals could take their cars and try to qualify, unlike today where independent contract drivers used to run the races.

Drivers who failed to qualify for the race were Dorothy Shull, Bill Bennett, Lewis Hawkins, Pap White, Louise Smith, and Pat Sutton. The fastest qualifying speed was 82.034 miles per hour or 132.021 kilometres per hour by Wally Campbell, while the slowest was 74.637 miles per hour or 120.117 kilometres per hour by Bill Widenhouse.^[2] Herb Thomas did qualify for the race beforehand; the car was on the grid until just before the race when it was repossessed, counting as an automatic withdrawal for Thomas.^[2]

Pee Wee Martin and Bob Smith retired from professional stock car racing after this event. Byron Beatty, Walt Crawford, P.E. Godfrey, Bill Henson, Pete Keller, Jerry Kempf, Lee Morgan, Dick Soper, and Jack Yardley made their only NASCAR start in this event. Weldon Adams, Roy Bentley, Jack Carr, Gene Comstock, Gene Darragh, John DuBoise, Carson Dyer, Joe Eubanks, Johnny Grubb, J.E. Hardie, Tex Keene, Bub King, Virgil Livengood, Hub McBride, Hershel McGriff, Bill Osborne, Barney Smith, Rollin Smith, Jesse James Taylor, Charles Tidwell, Murrace Walker, Bill Widenhouse and Shorty York began their NASCAR career at this race and established the first generation of stock car drivers.^[8]

Analysis

U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond was the official marshal for the 1950 Southern 500.^[9]^[10]

The top prize for the race was $10,510 ($127,835 when adjusted for inflation) while the lowest prize was $100 ($1,216 when adjusted for inflation) for 72nd-75th place. Seventy-five cars competed in this era of relatively unregulated racing for a total of $25,325 in winnings ($308,033 when adjusted for inflation).^[11] It is pretty incredible, especially for this era to see more than 50 cars out of the 75 starters were still running on lap 300 of 400.^[11]

Gober Sosebee led the first four laps. Curtis Turner, the polesitter, then led until lap 22 before being wrecked out of the race on lap 275 with a significant amount of roof damage. After Turner lost the lead, Cotton Owens lead for 23 laps. After that, Mantz led to the finish. Mantz had taken advantage of an offer from Firestone to test a tire designed for asphalt stock car racing. While some cars used over 60 tires to go the remainder of the race, Mantz kept increasing his lead and won by over nine laps. The total time of the race was 6 hours, 38 minutes, and 40 seconds. The average speed was 75.250 miles per hour (121.103 km/h) while the pole position speed was 82.034 miles per hour (132.021 km/h). Two cautions lasted thirteen laps. Four hundred laps were done spanning 1.250 miles (2.012 km). Most of the known DNFs in the race were caused by crashes, the worst of which involved drivers Tex Keene, Curtis Turner, and Jack Smith all rolling their cars over the course of the race.^[11]

For the average car in the race, the tire load unleashed on the tires on the new, paved circuit was too much on the tires, whether it was a Firestone or a random dirt tire. A legend spread around that teams were so desperate to get new tires that they would steal the tires from parking lots and the infield from the spectators. The race is considered to be the first "tire disaster" in NASCAR history, with the next major tire disaster being the 1969 Talladega 500.^[12]

Results

Finishing order

Section reference:^[11]

POS	ST	#	DRIVER	SPONSOR / OWNER	CAR	LAPS	MONEY	STATUS	LED
1	43	98	Johnny Mantz	Hubert Westmoreland	'50 Plymouth	400	10510	running	351
2	67	82	Fireball Roberts	Sam Rice	'50 Oldsmobile	391	3500	running	0
3	7	22	Red Byron	Parks Novelty (Raymond Parks)	'50 Cadillac	390	2000	running	0
4	23	59	Bill Rexford	Julian Buesink	'50 Oldsmobile	385	1500	running	0
5	15	77	Chuck Mahoney	Brooks Motors	'50 Mercury	381	1000	running	0
6	35	42	Lee Petty	Petty Special (Petty Enterprises)	'49 Plymouth	380	800	running	0
7	38	71	Cotton Owens	F.J. Bland	'50 Plymouth	380	930	running	23
8	64	2	Bill Blair	Sam Rice	'49 Cadillac	375	600	running	0
9	44	52	Hershel McGriff	City of Roses (Hershel McGriff)	'50 Oldsmobile	374	500	running	0
10	26	61	George Hartley	Julian Buesink	'50 Oldsmobile	371	450	running	0
11	16	9	Tim Flock	Buddy Elliott	'50 Oldsmobile	370	400	running	0
12	57	44	Johnny Grubb	Johnny Grubb	'50 Plymouth	368	350	running	0
13	62	26	Dick Linder	Don Rogala	'50 Oldsmobile	367	300	running	0
14	68	89	John DuBoise	John DuBoise	'50 Ford	367	250	running	0
15	72	72	Weldon Adams	Harold Mays	'49 Plymouth	367	225	running	0
16	32	99	Barney Smith	Barney Smith	'50 Oldsmobile	366	275	running	0
17	3	51	Gober Sosebee	Cherokee Garage (Gober Sosebee)	'50 Oldsmobile	364	290	running	4
18	52	39	Elmer Wilson	Elmer Wilson	'49 Plymouth	360	100	running	0
19	21	4	Joe Eubanks	Joe Eubanks	'50 Mercury	359		running	0
20	19	43	Shorty York	B.S. Beeson	'50 Buick	358		running	0
21	51	64	Walt Crawford	South's Garden Spot / Carolina Motors (Walt Crawford)	'50 Buick	358		running	0
22	33		Murrace Walker	Murrace Walker	'50 Oldsmobile	358		running	0
23	48		Gene Comstock	Gene Comstock	'50 Oldsmobile	355			0
24	27	17	Jack White	Dailey Moyer	'50 Ford	354			0
25	71	65	Byron Beatty	Byron Beatty	'50 Ford	351			0
26	53		Bill Widenhouse	Bill Widenhouse	'49 Plymouth	350			0
27	4	7	Bob Flock	Bob Flock Garage (Frank Christian)	'50 Oldsmobile	348		running	0
28	10	47	Fonty Flock	Frank Christian	'50 Oldsmobile	346			0
29	13	19	Jack Smith	R & W Auto Service	'50 Oldsmobile	345		crash	0
30	30	34	Pee Wee Martin	Eanes Motor Co. / Firestone Tires (John Eanes)	'50 Oldsmobile	344	100	overheating	0
31	5	5	Lee Morgan	Lee Morgan	'49 Oldsmobile	342		running	0
32	8		Hub McBride	Hub McBride	'50 Mercury	341			0
33	11		Slick Smith		'50 Oldsmobile	340			0
34	12	45	Ted Chamberlain	Ted Chamberlain	'50 Plymouth	338		running	0
35	6	66	Virgil Livengood	Virgil Livengood	'50 Oldsmobile	338		running	0
36	9		Billy Carden		'50 Ford	338		running	0
37	14	37	Bill Snowden	Nash Motor Co. (Nash Motor Co.)	'50 Nash	338		running	0
38	22	21	Harold Kite	Edmunds Motors (Harold Kite)	'49 Lincoln	334			0
39	25	49	Glenn Dunaway	Glenn Dunaway	'50 Lincoln	333			0
40	2	25	Jimmy Thompson	Leland Colvin	'50 Lincoln	332	125	engine	0
41	65	27	Jimmy Florian	Euclid Motor Co. (Jimmy Florian)	'50 Ford	331		spindle	0
42	20	35	Bob Smith	Central Chevrolet Corp.	'50 Oldsmobile	331		running	0
43	24	0	Jimmie Lewallen	Sam Rice	'50 Oldsmobile	330			0
44	75		Jesse James Taylor	Jesse James Taylor	'50 Mercury	329			0
45	29		Bub King	T.L. King	'50 Mercury	329			0
46	36	24	Gene Darragh		'50 Hudson	323			0
47	39		Roy Bentley	Roy Bentley	'50 Studebaker	319			0
48	42		J.E. Hardie		'50 Studebaker	317			0
49	34		Jerry Kempf		'50 Lincoln	315			0
50	46	36	Bill Osborne		'50 Mercury	311	100		0
51	37		Carson Dyer	Carson Dyer	'50 Lincoln	310			0
52	60	33	Wally Campbell	Wally Marks	'50 Oldsmobile	309	100		0
53	40	79	Jim Paschal	Julian Buesink	'50 Ford	307			0
54	45	18	Charles Tidwell		'49 Oldsmobile	300	100		0
55	41		Ruel Smith		'50 Pontiac	289			0
56	47		Al Keller	W.O. Taylor	'50 Oldsmobile	284			0
57	50		Dick Soper		'50 Kaiser	282			0
58	54		Pete Keller		'50 Studebaker	281			0
59	56		P.E. Godfrey		'49 Lincoln	278			0
60	1	41	Curtis Turner	Eanes Motor Co. (John Eanes)	'50 Oldsmobile	275	320	crash	22
61	49		Bob Apperson	Bob Apperson	'49 Oldsmobile	249			0
62	55		Tommy Thompson	Tommy Thompson	'50 Hudson	238			0
63	61	6	Marshall Teague	Paul Cox	'50 Lincoln	230			0
64	70	14	Tex Keene	Tex Keene	'50 Plymouth	229		crash	0
65	31	38	Clyde Minter	Clyde Minter	'50 Lincoln	219	100		0
66	74		Rollin Smith		'50 Hudson	208			0
67	17	86	Bill Henson		'49 Oldsmobile	200	100		0
68	50	48	Gayle Warren	Earl Blevins	'49 Oldsmobile	188	100		0
69	28	87	Buck Baker	Griffin Motors / Darlington Intl. Raceway (Bob Griffin)	'49 Oldsmobile	176		crash	0
70	58	46	Kenneth Wagner	Moyer Co. (Dailey Moyer)	'49 Lincoln	155	100		0
71	18	62	Lloyd Moore	Julian Buesink	'50 Lincoln	112	100		0
72	73	48	Alton Haddock	Alton Haddock	'50 Ford	98	100		0
73	69	54	Jack Yardley	Saverance Motors	'50 Ford	89			0
74	66		Jack Carr		'50 Mercury	52		engine	0
75	63		Roscoe Thompson	Charles Venable	'49 Oldsmobile	24		overheating	0
Failed to qualify, withdrew, or driver change
POS	NAME	NBR	SPONSOR	OWNER	CAR
	Bill Bennett			Bill Bennett	Kaiser
	Lewis Hawkins				Plymouth
	Dorothy Shull				Oldsmobile
	Pap White				Mercury
	Pat Sutton	54	Saverance Motors		Ford
	Louise Smith	94	Leslie Motor Co.	Louise Smith	Nash
WD	Herb Thomas	92		Herb Thomas	Plymouth

Timeline