1952 Southern 500
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 25 of 34 in the 1952 NASCAR Grand National Series season | |||
Fonty Flock makes his way into "Winner's Circle" with the help of crew chief Red Vogt.
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| Date | September 1, 1952 | ||
| Official name | Southern 500 | ||
| Location | Darlington Raceway, Darlington, South Carolina | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 1.250 mi (2.011 km) |
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| Distance | 500 laps, 500.0 mi (804.6 km) | ||
| Weather | Hot with temperatures reaching up to 91 °F (33 °C); wind speeds up to 11.1 miles per hour (17.9 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 74.512 miles per hour (119.915 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 32,400 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Frank Christian | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Fonty Flock | Frank Christian | |
| Laps | 341 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 14 | Fonty Flock | Frank Christian | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | untelevised | ||
| Announcers | none | ||
The 1952 Southern 500, the third running of the event, was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on September 1, 1952, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.
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 of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends 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 is a four-turn 1.366 miles (2.198 km) 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 back stretch is banked at six degrees. Darlington Raceway can seat up to 60,000 people.
Seven cautions were waved for forty laps in front of 32,400 audience members. The notable speeds were: 74.512 miles per hour (119.915 km/h) as the average speed and 88.550 miles per hour (142.507 km/h) as the pole position speed. This race was constantly threatened to be postponed because of rain and was red flagged once because of actual rainfall. It took six hours, forty-two minutes, and thirty-seven seconds for the race to reach its conclusion, making it the slowest Southern 500 ever; Fonty Flock was the winner. He would stop on the front straight, climb up on his hood and lead the entire crowd in singing his own version of the classic Southern American song Dixie. Flock's uniform would consist of Bermuda shorts and socks in addition to a pencil-thin moustache reminiscent of Clark Gable.
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