Official name Capital City 500 | Course 0.542 mi (0.872 km) | |
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Date September 9, 1973 (1973-09-09) Location Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway, Richmond, Virginia Distance 500 laps, 271 mi (436 km) Weather Temperatures reaching up to 82 °F (28 °C); wind speeds up to 7 miles per hour (11 km/h) | ||
The 1973 Capital City 500 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing event that took place on September 9, 1973, at Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway (now Richmond International Raceway) in Richmond, Virginia. Richard Petty won the race by two laps after leading 429 of 500 laps.
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Summary
Richard Petty defeated Cale Yarborough by at least two laps in front of 18000 spectators. It took four hours and thirteen minutes to finish the 500-lap race with the track spanning exactly 0.542 miles (0.872 km). Petty had won six other races at this track before extending his lucky streak to 7 at the end of this event.
Bobby Allison acquired the pole position with a qualifying speed of 90.245 miles per hour (145.235 km/h). The average race speed was 63.215 miles per hour (101.735 km/h). Five cautions were given out for 123 laps. Baxter Price finished in last-place due to a crash that also took out nine other guys at the start of lap 4. Out of the 34 races on the grid, 33 were born in the United States while Vic Parsons was born in Canada. J.D. McDuffie, Richard Childress and Darrell Waltrip also participated in this race.
There were threatening skies from the green flag; causing most of the race to be done under the yellow flag. No attempt was made to postpone the race or to call it "official." A record amount of 86 laps were done under caution until the skies became blue again. Besides the weather, a red flag also held up the race for 70 minutes as Price and Bill Champion had to go to the hospital for their respective injuries.