1953 Southern 500
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 30 of 37 in the 1953 NASCAR Grand National Series season | |||
Layout of Darlington Raceway
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| Date | September 7, 1953 | ||
| 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 | 364 laps, 500.0 mi (804.6 km) | ||
| Weather | Warm with temperatures reaching up to 82.9 °F (28.3 °C); wind speeds up to 8.9 miles per hour (14.3 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 92.881 miles per hour (149.477 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 37,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Frank Christian | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Buck Baker | Bob Griffin | |
| Laps | 151 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 87 | Buck Baker | Bob Griffin | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | untelevised | ||
| Announcers | none | ||
The 1953 Southern 500, the fourth running of the event, was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on September 7, 1953, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.
Junior Johnson would make his NASCAR Cup Series debut as a driver in this event; amongst a laundry list of other rookie drivers. Bob Weatherly, Lonnie Bragg, and Elmer Cooper would race their only NASCAR event here along with several other "one-race wonders." Just months prior to the 1953 running of the Southern 500, the shape of the track forced vehicles to drive slowly at all time and passing opportunities were very few. A reconstruction effect helped to mold the racetrack into a fast venue for stock car racing prior to the completion of Daytona International Speedway.
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.
A grand total of 59 American born drivers competed in this 364-lap racing event. More than 30 lead changes would occur in this event; an unprecedented activity in the formative years of NASCAR when the stock car were still relatively slow and drivers were not as aggressive as they would become in the 1970s and the 1980s. Instead of being measured by the apron, the races started to be measured by the banking. The races started to become longer following this event and would ultimately attract more people into becoming NASCAR followers.
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