Official name Atlanta 500 | ||
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Date April 11, 1965 (1965-April-11) Course Permanent racing facility1.500 mi (2.400 km) Distance 334 laps, 501.0 mi (804 km) Weather Warm with temperatures up to 80.1 °F (26.7 °C); wind speeds up to 13 miles per hour (21 km/h) | ||
The 1965 Atlanta 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) event that was held on April 11, 1965, at Atlanta International Raceway in Hampton, Georgia.
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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.
Background
Atlanta International Raceway (now Atlanta Motor Speedway) is one of ten current intermediate track to hold NASCAR races; the others are Charlotte Motor Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Homestead Miami Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway. However, at the time, only Charlotte and Darlington were built.
The layout at Atlanta International Speedway at the time was a four-turn traditional oval track that is 1.54 miles (2.48 km) long. The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, and the back stretch are banked at five.
Summary
There were 44 American-born male drivers on the grid - without any foreigners or minorities trying to compete in the event. This race was the sixth Atlanta 500 to ever take place in the NASCAR Cup Series. However, the racing series would ultimately come to an end in 2011 to make room for a race at Kentucky Speedway. While the previous year's race was televised on CBS, this race was completely unbroadcasted on television.
Jim Conway would be the race's last-place finisher due to a clutch issue on lap 1 out of the regulation period of 334 laps. Marvin Panch managed to defeat Bobby Johns by two seconds in front of a screaming crowd of 50,700 people in his 1965 Ford Galaxie vehicle. There were eight lead changes in addition to five caution flags waved for 26 laps; making this race last almost four hours in length. The average speed of the race was 129.410 miles per hour (208.265 km/h) while Panch earned the pole position with a qualifying speed of 145.581 miles per hour (234.290 km/h). Other drivers in the top ten were: Ned Jarrett, Dick Hutcherson, Buddy Baker, Tiny Lund, Bobby Allison, Larry Hess, Paul Lewis, and Bub Strickler.
Vehicles manufactured by the Ford Motor Company practically had the monopoly on this racing event. Jim Conway would make his introduction into the NASCAR Cup Series in this race while Danny Byrd would leave the series after this race.