Official name World 600 | ||
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Date May 29, 1977 (1977-May-29) Course Permanent racing facility1.500 mi (2.414 km) Distance 400 laps, 600 mi (965 km) Weather Temperatures reaching up to 84.9 °F (29.4 °C); wind speeds up to 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h) | ||
The 1977 World 600, the 18th running of the event, was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on May 29, 1977, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.
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Jim Stacy would become the owner of Krauskopf's old NASCAR team after this event; with the famed red #71 Dodge getting repainted into the white #5. Neil Bonnett, however, would stay on the team as a driver. By 1980, NASCAR had completely stopped tracking the year model of all the vehicles and most teams did not take stock cars to the track under their own power anymore.
Summary
Forty drivers competed here including Benny Parsons, Lennie Pond, Buddy Baker, Darrell Waltrip, and Neil Bonnett. After four hours and twenty-one minutes of racing action, Richard Petty defeated polesitter David Pearson by 30.8 seconds in front of an audience of 115000 people. There were 25 lead changes done in this race in addition to six cautions for 31 laps. While the qualifying top speed was 161.435 miles per hour (259.804 km/h), the average speed of the race was actually 136.676 miles per hour (219.959 km/h). Last-place finisher Ramo Stott would acquire engine trouble on lap 3 of the 400-lap race. The duration of the race was from 12:30 P.M. to 4:41 P.M.; allowing fans to drive to nearby restaurants for supper.
Drivers who failed to qualify for this race were Rick Newsom and Bruce Jacobi.
Ricky Rudd would lead the first laps of his NASCAR Cup Series career during this race. Nord Krauskopf would retire as a NASCAR owner after this race; he would sell his team to Jim Stacy and focus running on his insurance business (K&K Insurance) with his wife Theodora.
Pearson's next pole position start would be at the 1977 running of the National 500 (now Bank of America 500); which took place that October.