The 1970 National 500 was a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

Grand National Series The name NASCAR Grand National Series refers to former names of the following NASCAR series: *National-level stock car series: **NASCAR Cup Series (known as NASCAR Grand National Series between 1950 to 1970, then the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand Nation ...

stock car race that was held on October 11, 1970, at

Charlotte Motor Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway (previously known as Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009) is a motorsport complex located in Concord, North Carolina, outside Charlotte. The complex features a quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including th ...

Concord, North Carolina Concord is the county seat and largest city in Cabarrus County, in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 105,186, with an estimated population in 2021 of 107,697. In terms of population, the cit ...

. There were 14 winged cars involved in the race; including Lorenzen, Baker, Vandiver, Richard Petty, and Glotzbach.

Race report

Out of the 62 cars that were reported as having been entered on October 9, 1970, only 43 of them were properly recorded by NASCAR officials. Former NASCAR star

Curtis Turner Curtis Morton Turner (April 12, 1924 – October 4, 1970) was an American stock car racer. Throughout his life, he developed a reputation for drinking and partying. In 1999, he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. History He was ...

had formed an agreement with track president Richard Howard to run the race in a one-off, but he was killed in a plane crash days before the event. Only 40 of 43 officially registered drivers qualified for the starting grid. George Eaton and Buck Baker were recorded as sharing the No. 58 vehicle.''1970 National 500''
racing information at Racing-Reference Drivers that did not qualify were

Buck Baker Elzie Wylie Baker Sr. (March 4, 1919 – April 14, 2002), better known as Buck Baker, was an American stock car racer. Born in Richburg, South Carolina, Baker began his NASCAR career in 1949 and won his first race three years later at Columbia ...

George Eaton George Ross Eaton (born 12 November 1945) is a Canadian former racing driver who is a member of the prominent Eaton family. Life and career Eaton was born in Toronto, he is the youngest son of John and Signy Eaton. He gained attention as a Can ...

Raymond Williams Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contribu ...

and Dick Polling.

Cale Yarborough William Caleb "Cale" Yarborough (born March 27, 1939) is an American former NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver and owner, businessman, and farmer. He is one of only two drivers in NASCAR history to win three consecutive championships, winning in 1 ...

was credited with the last-place finish on lap 10 due to a crash with the wall. Fifty thousand racing fans would see 23 different lead changes and eight cautions for a period of 63 laps. An unusually lengthy race for the early 1970s, the 1970 National 500 lasted a grueling four hours and three minutes. This race marked Kmart's debut as a NASCAR sponsor as they backed Fred Lorenzen's white #3 Dodge Daytona. The winged Charger would fly high today as Fast Freddie brought it home with a podium finish and led a few laps en route. The race was held on a dry circuit; with no precipitation recorded around the speedway.

LeeRoy Yarbrough Lonnie "LeeRoy" Yarbrough (September 17, 1938 – December 7, 1984) was an American stock car racer. His best season was 1969 when he won seven races, tallied 21 finishes in the top-ten and earned $193,211 ($ when inflation is taken into accoun ...

would defeat

Bobby Allison Robert Arthur Allison (born December 3, 1937) is a former American professional stock car racing driver and owner. Allison was the founder of the Alabama Gang, a group of drivers based in Hueytown, Alabama, where there were abundant short track ...

under the yellow flag. This would become Yarbrough's final win in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Charlie Glotzbach Charles Lee Glotzbach (June 19, 1938 – April 23, 2021) was an Auto Racing Club of America, ARCA and NASCAR Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Winston Cup Series driver. He holds one of the oldest race records in NASCAR. He has the record for fas ...

would qualify for the pole position in this race by driving speeds up to during the solo sessions. Other notable drivers at this race were David Pearson,

Coo Coo Marlin Clifton Burton "Coo Coo" Marlin (January 3, 1932 – August 14, 2005) was a NASCAR Winston Cup driver who spent 14 years in the series. Local track history Marlin earned a name for himself at the short tracks in Tennessee and Alabama, running ag ...

, Frank Warren,

Richard Petty Richard Lee Petty (born July 2, 1937), nicknamed "The King", is an American former stock car racing driver who raced from 1958 to 1992 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notabl ...

and

J.D. McDuffie John Delphus McDuffie Jr. (December 5, 1938 – August 11, 1991) was an American racing driver. He competed in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series from 1963 to 1991, collecting 106 top-10 finishes during his career, despite never finishing on the lead ...

. A lot of the drivers did not finish the race because of crashes on the track. Eleven notable crew chiefs participated in the race; including

Herb Nab In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

Junie Donlavey Wesley Christian "Junie" Donlavey Jr. (April 8, 1924June 9, 2014), a native of Richmond, Virginia, was the owner of Donlavey Racing; he began fielding the team in 1950. He drove for his team at first, but soon gave way to other drivers. Donlavey e ...

Harry Hyde Harry Hyde (January 17, 1925 – May 13, 1996) was a leading crew chief in NASCAR stock car racing in the 1960s through the 1980s, winning 56 races and 88 pole positions. He was the 1970 championship crew chief for Bobby Isaac. He inspired t ...

Dale Inman Dale Inman (born August 19, 1936) is a retired NASCAR Grand National/Winston Cup Series crew chief from Level Cross, Randolph County, North Carolina. He is best known for being the crew chief of Richard Petty at Petty Enterprises during three de ...

Tom Vandiver Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

and

Banjo Matthews Edwin Keith "Banjo" Matthews (February 14, 1932 – October 2, 1996) was an American NASCAR driver, car owner, and builder. As a driver, he had 13 top ten finishes in 51 starts. He was the car builder for the 1976 to 1978 NASCAR Cup Series ch ...

.Crew chief information for the ''1970 National 500''
at Racing Reference The race car drivers still had to commute to the races using the same stock cars that competed in a typical weekend's race through a policy of

homologation Homologation (Greek ''homologeo'', ὁμολογέω, "to agree") is the granting of approval by an official authority. This may be a court of law, a government department, or an academic or professional body, any of which would normally work fr ...

(and under their own power). This policy was in effect until roughly 1975. 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.

Qualifying

Top 10 finishers

References

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National 500 The Bank of America Roval 400 is a NASCAR Cup Series race that is held annually at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, United States, with the other one being the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend, the race. As of the 201 ...

NASCAR races at Charlotte Motor Speedway