Official name Wilkes County 160 | ||
Date October 10, 1954 (1954-October-10) Location Memphis-Arkansas Speedway (LeHi, Arkansas) Course Permanent racing facility
1.500 mi (2.414 km) Distance 167 laps, 250.5 mi (403.1 km) Weather Hot with temperatures approaching 88 °F (31 °C); wind speeds up to 15.9 miles per hour (25.6 km/h) | ||
The 1954 Mid-South 250 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) event that was held on October 10, 1954, at Memphis-Arkansas Speedway in LeHi, Arkansas.
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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.
Background
The Memphis-Arkansas Speedway was a dirt oval track located just west of West Memphis, Arkansas, United States, in the community of LeHi.
This speedway had a total distance spanning 1.500 miles (2.414 km). Its elevation is 200 feet above sea level and all races used the Central Time Zone. While the track opened on October 7, 1954, it soon ran out of money. Paving the track cost $100,000 ($852,725.12 when adjusted for inflation) and the dirt surface was unmanageable after a certain number of years. As a result, the track was closed permanently in 1957 when it was sold to a local farmer named Clayton Eubanks Sr., who used the abandoned race track for catfish, rice, and soybeans for a number of years. The proposed Interstate highway that was being built near the abandoned rack track was not finished in time to save it.
Summary
One hundred and sixty seven laps were raced on a dirt track spanning 1.500 miles (2.414 km). Twelve thousand people would attend this live untelevised race where Buck Baker would win in his 1954 Oldsmobile vehicle. Other notable competitors included Lee Petty (who led 150 laps which was considered to be the most laps), Marvin Panch, Jimmie Lewallen, Arden Mounts, and Junior Johnson. The average speed of the race was 89.013 miles per hour (143.253 km/h) and the race took two hours, forty-eight minutes, and fifty-one seconds to complete. There was no record of the pole speed, the number of cautions, or even the margin of victory that Buck Baker had over Dick Rathmann. This event was the 35th race out of 37 in the 1954 Grand National season. Even though it was advertised as a 250-mile race, the actual distance of the race was 250.5 miles (403.1 km).
One of the major sponsors of the race was for the gasoline brand Pure; which is now a defunct oil company that services ten Southern states as a cooperative. Vapor lock from the fuels being used in the NASCAR Cup Series back then led to the elimination of three drivers from the race (John Erickson, Bud Harless, and Charles Brinkley). Ever since NASCAR has made the use of fuel injection mandatory in all of their Cup Series vehicles, the vapor lock problem has been solved permanently.
Richard Jones achieved the race's last place finish due to a crash on the first lap of the race. Lloyd Chick, Bo Fields, Hooker Hood, Jim McLain, Dutch Munsinger, Roscoe Rann, Leland Sewell and Robert Slensby would make their NASCAR Grand National Series debut at this event. Charles Brinkley, Laird Bruner, Herschel Buchanan and Frank Smith would depart from professional stock car racing after this event. Bud Chaddock, John Erickson, Charles Hardiman, Richard Jones, Harold Lutz, Charles Merrill and Lucky Walters would make their NASCAR appearance at this race.