Official name Textile 250 | ||
Date November 10, 1963; 53 years ago (1963-11-10) Course Permanent racing facility0.500 mi (0.805 km) Distance 250 laps, 125.0 mi (201.1 km) Weather Temperatures reaching up to 72 °F (22 °C); wind speeds up to 7 miles per hour (11 km/h) | ||
The 1964 Textile 250 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) event that was held on November 10, 1963, at Concord Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.
Contents
250 laps were done on a dirt track spanning 125 miles (201 km) in total distance. Despite being held during the 1963 calendar year, this race was considered to be the first race in the 1964 Grand National season. The silly season between the 1963 and 1964 seasons was only seven days unlike the twelve weeks that the drivers enjoy today.
Summary
After 2 hours, 11 minutes, and 49 seconds of intense racing action, a winner was decided. Ned Jarrett (Dale Jarrett's father) defeated his opponent Joe Weatherly in twelve seconds. Speeds were relatively slow by today's standards; the average speed was 56.897 miles (91.567 km) per hour while the pole position speed was 69.257 miles (111.458 km) per hour. A balanced combination of corporate multi-car teams and individual owners were recorded on the race log for this event.
The typical American passenger vehicle of the 21st century can legally drive up to 90 miles (140 km) on some rural roads. This would make today's passenger vehicles faster than the stock cars of this era (which were supposed to represent advancements in automobile technology). However, many safety features adopted in these early stock cars would be used in passenger vehicles that were made years and even decades later. 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.
While the race was underway, the track came apart and certain parts of the track were covered with dust. Notable racers that didn't finish in the top ten included: Buck Baker, Bill Widenhouse, Roy Tyner, Wendell Scott, Junior Johnson, Neil Castles and Jimmy Massey (who would retire from the NASCAR Cup Series after this race). Toy Bolton would make his NASCAR Cup Series debut in this race. While this would be his only race of the 1964 season, he would return for the 1966 season. Three thousand people attended this live racing event as of the start of the race. Due to the low-level interest of the sport outside the North Carolina region during this era, the event was completely untelevised. The fastest finishing positions for each manufacturer were: Ford (1st), Pontiac (2nd), Plymouth (3rd), Dodge (4th), Chevrolet (8th), Mercury (9th), and Chrysler (24th). Scoring was done for the 1964 NASCAR Grand National Series using a "base" number, that is the 25th position was the base since anyone finishing lower than 25th received the same number of points as 25th poisition. By the conclusion of the 1964 NASCAR Grand National Series season, a total of 16 different points schemes were used.
Ned Jarrett walked away from the event with the winner's purse of $1,350 ($10,424.84 when adjusted for inflation). John Ervin was the winning crew chief for this racing event; he would go on to win 28 races during the 1964 and 1965 NASCAR Cup Series seasons. The last finisher to get a monetary award was Darel Dieringer who received $50 ($386.11 when adjusted for inflation) for finishing in 22nd place (out of twenty-six competitors). After combining all the prize winnings for the drivers, the total winnings purse for this race was $6,010 ($46,409.84 when adjusted for inflation).
Timeline
Finishing order
* Driver failed to finish race