1954 Southern 500
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 31 of 37 in the 1954 NASCAR Grand National Series season | |||
Layout of Darlington Raceway
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| Date | September 6, 1954 | ||
| Official name | Southern 500 | ||
| Location | Darlington Raceway, Darlington, South Carolina | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 1.375 mi (2.221 km) |
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| Distance | 400 laps, 500 mi (800 km) | ||
| Weather | Hot with temperatures reaching up to 100 °F (38 °C); wind speeds up to 10.1 miles per hour (16.3 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 95.206 miles per hour (153.219 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Bob Griffin | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Curtis Turner | Elmer Brooks | |
| Laps | 266 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 92 | Herb Thomas | Herb Thomas | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | WJMX (local AM radio) | ||
| Announcers | Local radio announcers | ||
The 1954 Southern 500, the fifth running of the event, was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on September 6, 1954, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.
The race car drivers still had to commute to the races using the same stock cars that competed in a typical weekend's race through a policy of homologation (and under their own power). This policy was in effect until roughly 1975. By 1980, NASCAR had completely stopped tracking the year model of all the vehicles and most teams did not take stock cars to the track under their own power anymore.
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.
There were 364 laps done on a paved oval track that spanned 1.375 miles (2.213 km). Van Van Wey would make his NASCAR debut in this race; starting in 43rd place and ending in 20th place due to a crash on the 260th lap of the race.
Otis Martin, Buck Mason, and Frank Stutts would retire from professional stock car racing while Walt Harvey and Joe Sheppard would make their only NASCAR Cup Series appearance in this event. Drivers who failed to qualify for the race were: Bill Blair (#2), Parks Surratt (#00), Bill Morgan (#77), Jim Graham (#72), Fred Dove (#71), Ken Taylor (#62), Gober Sosebee (#51), Hank Carruthers (#50), Clyde Minter (#19), Donald Thomas (#9), Dick Rathman (#3) and Ross Morrison (#05).
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