Official name Atlanta 500 | ||
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Date April 2, 1967 (1967-April-02) Course Permanent racing facility1.500 mi (2.400 km) Distance 334 laps, 501.0 mi (804 km) Weather Warm with temperatures approaching 80.1 °F (26.7 °C); wind speeds up to 8 miles per hour (13 km/h) | ||
The 1967 Atlanta 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) event that was held on April 2, 1967, at Atlanta Motor Speedway 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 drivers on the grid; Cale Yarborough managed to defeat Dick Hutcherson by just more than one lap in front of 70000 live audience members. The race lasted nearly four hours with the average speed being 131.288 miles per hour (211.288 km/h). Yarborough's qualifying speed was 148.996 miles per hour (239.786 km/h); bringing his speed close to the 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) threshold. Veteran NASCAR owner Nord Krauskopf would employ drivers Charlie Glotzbach and Bobby Isaac during the race. Blackie Watt would finish in last-place on lap 2 due to a difficulty in the engine department. Meanwhile, windshield problems would knock Don White out of the race at lap 193 of 334. Six cautions were handed out by NASCAR officials for a distance of 39 laps.
Fred Lorenzen would race for the final time in his legendary #28 white and blue 1967 Ford Fairlane machine that would make him popular in NASCAR. Curtis Turner, who was driving a Chevrolet owned by Smokey Yunick, would escape being injured in a practice session that managed to become a wild crash session.
The entire racing purse for this racing event was $64,995 ($466,835.34 when adjusted for inflation); the winner's share of this amount was $21,035 ($151,086.72 when adjusted for inflation) while the last-place winner received a meager $540 ($3,878.62 when adjusted for inflation).