Official name Wilkes 200 | ||
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Date October 1, 1961 (1961-October-01) Course Permanent racing facility0.625 mi (1.005 km) Distance 320 laps, 200 mi (250 km) Weather Mild with temperatures reaching up to 77 °F (25 °C); winds speeds approaching 13 miles per hour (21 km/h) | ||
The 1961 Wilkes 200 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) event that was held on October 1, 1961, at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.
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Summary
The race took two hours and twenty-two minutes in order to resolve 320 laps in front of 9000 live audience members; with a track spanning 0.625 miles (1.006 km) for 200 miles (320 km) of racing action. Four cautions were given out for 24 laps. The average speed of the race was 84.675 miles per hour (136.271 km/h) while the pole position speed was established by Junior Johnson who qualified with a speed of 94.540 miles per hour (152.147 km/h). Rex White managed to defeat Fireball Roberts by at least one lap. Joe Jones was the last-place finisher of the race. The other finishers in the top ten were: Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett, Emanuel Zervakis, Jimmy Pardue, Joe Weatherly, Bill Morton, and Doug Yates.
Most of the drivers on this 30-car grid were driving cars belonging to the Chevrolet (13) and Pontiac (7) manufacturers (with Ford (4), Dodge and Plymouth (2 each) and Mercury (1) making up the rest of the field ). All the drivers who qualified for the race were American-born males; there were no foreigners or women in this racing event. Banjo Matthews would never race at Wilkes Motor Speedway again after this race.
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.