1977 Old Dominion 500
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 25 of 30 in the 1977 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season | |||
A map showing the layout of Martinsville Speedway
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| Date | September 25, 1977 | ||
| Official name | Old Dominion 500 | ||
| Location | Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Virginia | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 0.525 mi (0.844 km) |
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| Distance | 500 laps, 262.5 mi (442.4 km) | ||
| Weather | Average temperature of 76.2 °F (24.6 °C); wind speeds of 9.9 miles per hour (15.9 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 73.440 miles per hour (118.190 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 33,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Jim Stacy Racing | ||
| Time | 87.637 seconds | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Cale Yarborough | Junior Johnson & Associates | |
| Laps | 352 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 11 | Cale Yarborough | Junior Johnson & Associates | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | untelevised | ||
| Announcers | none | ||
The 1977 Old Dominion 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) racing event that took place on September 25, 1977, at the historic Martinsville Speedway; a race track that has enjoyed the presence of NASCAR since its first sanctioned race on July 4, 1948.
Cup Series races are still held on the track today in addition to the Xfinity Series (started in 1982) and Camping World Truck Series (started in 1995). Since the track was repaved back in 1976, the one-year-old concrete surface allowed cars to travel at relatively fast speeds for a short track during the 1970s. All of the race car drivers on the 30-car grid were American-born males; no women or foreigners actually qualified for the race.
Martinsville Speedway is one of five short tracks to hold NASCAR races. The standard track at Martinsville Speedway is a four-turn short track oval that is 0.526 miles (0.847 km) long. The track's turns are banked at eleven degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at zero degrees. The back stretch also has a zero degree banking.
It took three hours and thirty-four minutes for the race to completely progress from the first green flag to the checkered flag. Had the race been held on this day in the year 2010, temperatures would have reached 93.0 °F (33.9 °C) - an increase of 16.8 degrees Fahrenheit from the temperatures of 1977. Five hundred laps on a paved oval track spanning 0.252 miles (0.406 km) per lap was the official distance of the race dictated by NASCAR. A grand total of 262.5 miles (422.5 km) was calculated from all the laps of the race. Thirteen lead changes were made as a part of the racing action.
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