Official name World 600 | ||
 | ||
Date June 19, 1960 (1960-June-19) Location Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord, North Carolina Course Permanent racing facility
1.500 mi (2.414 km) Distance 400 laps, 600 mi (965 km) Weather Hot with temperatures approaching 89.1 °F (31.7 °C); wind speeds up to 13.8 miles per hour (22.2 km/h) | ||
The 1960 World 600 was the inaugural running of the World 600, a NASCAR Grand National Series event. It was run on June 19, 1960 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. It was NASCAR's first 600-mile race and it was the longest NASCAR race distance in terms of miles. Joe Lee Johnson was the winner of the inaugural race.
Contents
Background
Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located in Concord, North Carolina, thirteen miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The track is a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) asphalt quad-oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the World 600 and the National 400. The speedway broke ground in 1958 with Bruton Smith and Curtis Turner as the architects. Charlotte Motor Speedway is now operated by Speedway Motorsports.
Summary
The race was postponed for three weeks because of construction delays. During the race, Don O'Dell's Pontiac smashed the driver's door of Lenny Page's Chevy. Lenny Page, who was lucky to even survive the crash due to the safety systems at that time, was near death afterwards, but reporter Chris Economaki rushed to the scene and aided Page with CPR until safety crews arrived. He was later credited with saving Lenny's life.
The transition to purposely-built racers 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.
Ed Markstellar and George Tet would make their professional stock car debuts in this race while Jim Austin, Arnold Gardner and Gene Marmor would make their grand finale.
Johnny Wolford would do his only NASCAR Cup Series race here.
Rex White would take away the championship lead from Richard Petty with his sixth-place finish as opposed to Petty finishing in 55th place due to a disqualification.