1950 Southern 500
The inaugural Southern Five-Hundred (shortened in 1951 to "Southern 500") was part of the 1950 "NASCAR Grand National" series that took place September 4, 1950, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. It was responsible for turning the Southern 500 into the biggest racing event prior to the 1959 Daytona 500. While this edition of the Southern 500 was hosted in association with the Central States Racing Association, all of the other Southern 500 races would be hosted exclusively by NASCAR. Drivers came into this race with several different and weird strategies since no one had  ever run a 500-mile stock car race before. Some drivers even put black paint under their eyes like American football players before the green flag dropped. Background. Darlington Raceway, nicknamed by many NASCAR fans and drivers as "The Lady in Black" or "The Track Too Tough to Tame" and advertised as a "NASCAR Tradition", is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends being of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track  to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that will be effective at both ends. The track, at the time, was a four-turn oval. The track's first two turns are banked at twenty-five degrees, while the final two turns are banked two degrees lower at twenty-three degrees. The front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the backstretch is banked at six degrees. 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. He quit racing in the late 1940s to concentrate on farming and his construction business. He began planning a new speedway after he noticed the huge crowds while attending the 1948 Indianapolis 500 and thought, "If Tony Hulman can do it here, I can do it back home." Brasington bought 70 acres from farmer Sherman Ramsey, and started making a race track from a cotton and peanut field. 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 wouldn't disturb Ramsey's minnow pond at the west side of the property. Brasington was able to make the other turn at the east side of the property wide, sweeping, and flat as he wanted. It took almost a year to build the track. Race report. Historical information. This race helped modernize stock car racing from its roots as a recreational pastime for moonshiners to an organized sport done on asphalt race tracks superior to the American highway system. The  same gasoline that was sold in American service stations were used in NASCAR during this era. A few of the race cars were driven directly to the track as opposed to being towed from more than away. While hotels and modern infrastructure were scarce in the Southern United States during the 1950s, people who attended this early NASCAR event started to create makeshift camping areas around the race track. 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 didn't kick in until  the late 1960s when NASCAR first felt the need to expand outside its regional "shell" and into the national stage. Until hotel accommodations reached the same level of accessibility in the Southern United States as it was in the more economically developed northeastern part of the country. It was the first 500-mile race in the history of NASCAR. Being the first superspeedway in NASCAR, Darlington would be the precedent for race tracks like the Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. The winning vehicle was Johnny Mantz's 1950 Plymouth (owned by Hubert Westmoreland). Harold Brasington, a local businessman, was  motivated to open Darlington Speedway for the introductory race after being impressed by the 1933 Indianapolis 500. He was hopeful for a crowd of 10,000. Qualifying. More than 80 entrants showed up for the race. Brasington used a 2-week qualifying scheme similar to the one used at the Indianapolis 500. Brasington was also inspired by Indianapolis when he had the 75 car field aligned in 25 rows of three cars. During those two weeks of qualifying, locals could take their cars and try to qualify, unlike today where independent contract drivers used to run the races. These practices have  been curtailed over the years as NASCAR adopted a more uniform set of guidelines with regard to the number of cars which could qualify for a race. Driver Jerry Kempf overturned during qualifying, becoming the first NASCAR driver to flip on Darlington's surface. Prior to the accident, however, he posted a time that placed him 34th on the grid. 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 by Wally Campbell while the slowest speed was by Bill Widenhouse. Herb Thomas  did qualify for the race beforehand. Apparently, the car was on the grid until just before the race when it was repossessed, counting as an automatic withdrawal for Thomas. Pee Wee Martin and Bob Smith would retire 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 would begin their NASCAR career at this race; sparking the first generation of stock car drivers. Analysis. U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond was the official marshal for the 1950 Southern 500. while 25,000 spectators packed every available spot of the grandstands. The top prize for the race was $10,510 ($ when adjusted for inflation) while the lowest prize was $100 ($ when adjusted for inflation) for 72nd-75th place. Seventy-five cars competed in this era of relatively unregulated racing  for a total of $25,325 in winnings ($ when adjusted for inflation). 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. Other entries for manufacturers included Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Mercury, Ford, Buick, Pontiac, Nash, Lincoln, Studebaker, and Kaiser. There was no entry for Chevrolet vehicles during that race, probably because Chevrolet wasn't considered a fast car until the 1955 V8 models. The other top ten finishers included: Fireball Roberts, Red Byron, Bill Rexford, Chuck Mahoney, Lee Petty, Cotton Owens, Bill Blair , Hershel McGriff, and George Hartley. Hershel McGriff might have been the last living driver from this event; having attained the advanced age of 88 years old as of August 11, 2016. 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, winning by over nine laps. The total time of the race was six hours, thirty-eight minutes, and forty seconds. The average speed was while the pole position speed was . Two cautions lasted thirteen laps. Four hundred laps were done spanning . Most of the known DNFs in the race were caused by crashes, the worst of which saw drivers Tex Keene, Curtis Turner, and Jack Smith all rolling their cars over the course of the race. Notable crew chiefs were  Bud Moore, Buddy Elliott, Julian Buesink and Rod McLean. Their drivers were Joe Eubanks, Tim Flock, Bill Rexford, George Hartley, Jim Paschal and Buck Baker. 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; at least enough to get a good run on them. 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. Results. Finishing order. "* Driver is known to have failed to finish the race ^ Indicates the driver definitely finished the race The presence of neither * nor ^ indicates that the driver's finishing status is not known."