1966 Nashville 400
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 36 of 49 in the 1966 NASCAR Grand National Series season | |||
| Date | July 30, 1966 | ||
| Official name | Nashville 400 | ||
| Location | Fairgrounds Speedway, Nashville, Tennessee | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 0.500 mi (0.804 km) |
||
| Distance | 400 laps, 200.0 mi (321.8 km) | ||
| Weather | Warm with temperatures approaching 87.1 °F (30.6 °C); wind speeds up to 14 miles per hour (23 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 71.770 miles per hour (115.503 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 15,161 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Petty Enterprises | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Richard Petty | Petty Enterprises | |
| Laps | 400 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 43 | Richard Petty | Petty Enterprises | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | untelevised | ||
| Announcers | none | ||
The 1966 Nashville 400 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) event that was held on July 30, 1966, at Nashville Speedway in Nashville, Tennessee.
Out of Henley Gray's five career finishes in the top five and 60 finishes in the top ten, two of them came at Nashville Speedway.
Nashville Speedway was converted to a half-mile paved oval in 1957, when it began to be a NASCAR series track.
It took two hours and forty-seven minutes to complete 400 laps on a paved track spanning 0.500 miles (0.805 km).Richard Petty would defeat Buck Baker by five laps while leading all 400 laps. 15,161 spectators watched this race with four cautions being handed out by NASCAR for 41 laps. Petty qualified for the pole position at a speed of 82.493 miles per hour (132.760 km/h) and also averaged 71.770 miles per hour (115.503 km/h) during the actual race.
The racing grid was made up of 27 Americans and one Canadian (Don Biederman who finished the race in 19th place).Darel Dieringer received the last place finish for crashing his car at the beginning of the race.Coo Coo Marlin was considered to be popular with the local racing supporters on the weekends when the NASCAR toured Nashville. He was considered the odds-on favorite to win the race even when he drove a one-year-old vehicle to the track. Unfortunately, he was only the 27th best driver to compete at Nashville Fairgrounds; with an average start of 11th place and an average finish of 13th place.
Marty Robbins participated in this race and was announced as "Columbia Records' recording star". He finished 25th due to an oil leak problem on lap 48. This race was the Robbins' NASCAR Cup Series debut. The transition to purpose-built racecars began in the early 1960s and occurred gradually over that decade. Changes made to the sport by the late 1960s brought an end to the "strictly stock" vehicles of the 1950s; most of the cars were trailered to events or hauled in by trucks.
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