1973 Gwyn Staley 400
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 7 of 28 in the 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup Series | |||
North Wilkesboro Speedway
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| Date | April 8, 1973 | ||
| Official name | Gwyn Staley 400 | ||
| Location | North Wilkesboro Speedway, North Wilkesboro, North Carolina | ||
| Course | 0.625 mi (1.005 km) | ||
| Distance | 400 laps, 250 mi (402 km) | ||
| Weather | Cold with temperatures approaching 59 °F (15 °C); wind speeds up to 14 miles per hour (23 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 97.224 miles per hour (156.467 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 16,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Bobby Allison Motorsports | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Richard Petty | Petty Enterprises | |
| Laps | 387 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 43 | Richard Petty | Petty Enterprises | |
The 1973 Gwyn Staley 400 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing event that took place at North Wilkesboro Speedway on April 8, 1973, in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.
Sixteen thousand people watched Richard Petty defeat Benny Parsons by at least four laps; resulting in his 151st NASCAR Winston Cup Series win. Due to haphazard adjustments to the vehicles' setup prior to qualifying, Junior Johnson failed to qualify at his home track and Cale Yarborough struggled the whole distance of the race; finishing in an unusually low sixth place.
A little known fact about this race was that Benny Parsons was the president of a Parent-Teacher Association (based out of an Ellerbe, North Carolina, elementary school) and a NASCAR champion at the same time. Out of the drivers in the 30-car grid, 28 of them were American-born while two were Canadian (Vic Parsons and Yvon Duhamel - a French Canadian from Quebec).Rick Newsom would end up being the last-place finisher with an engine problem on lap 2.
* Driver failed to finish race
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