Official name LeHi 300 | ||
Date October 9, 1955 (1955-October-09) Location Memphis-Arkansas Speedway (LeHi, Arkansas) Course Permanent racing facility
1.500 mi (3.000 km) Distance 200 laps, 300.1 mi (452.8 km) Weather Mild with temperatures reaching up to 77 °F (25 °C); wind speeds up to 10.1 miles per hour (16.3 km/h) | ||
The 1955 LeHi 300 (known officially in NASCAR as 1955-40) was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) event that was held on October 9, 1955, 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 any more.
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
The 200-lap race took three hours and thirty-four minutes to complete in front of 8500 live spectators. Speedy Thompson defeated Marvin Panch by ¾ of a single lap. Ford would win their first race as a manufacturer since 1950. Fonty Flock earned the pole position with a speed of 100.390 miles per hour (161.562 km/h) while the winner of the race achieved a speed of 83.948 miles per hour (135.101 km/h). Jim Reed was disqualified from the race due to a flagrant violation of the rules and was given the last-place finish on lap 8. All of the 41 drivers on the racing grid were Caucasian American-born males. This was the 40th racing event out of the 45 done in the 1955 NASCAR Grand National Series season. The total amount of prize winnings that could have been earned from this racing event was $9,120 ($81,536.20 when adjusted for inflation).
Tiny Lund would make his career start during this event and would make $60 for his troubles ($536.42 when adjusted for inflation). Other drivers making their NASCAR Cup Series debut in this race included Johnny Allen, Bill Morton, Jim Murray, Norm Nelson, and Chuck Stevenson. A lot of drivers would make their grand exits from NASCAR after this race: this relatively long list included Floyd Curtis, Hooker Hood, Roscoe Rann and Leland Sewell. One-time race car drivers Bob Coleman, Al Hager, and Gene Rose would make their only NASCAR appearances during this race.
Even during the 1950s, it was unusual to see four cars fail to finish the race due to problems with the vapor lock. It occurs when the liquid fuel changes state from liquid to gas while still in the fuel delivery system. This disrupts the operation of the fuel pump, causing loss of feed pressure to the carburetor, resulting in transient loss of power or complete stalling. Restarting the engine from this state may be difficult. The fuel can vaporize due to being heated by the engine, by the local climate or due to a lower boiling point at high altitude.