The 1972 Carolina 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 ...

Winston Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. ...

race that took place on March 12, 1972, at North Carolina Motor Speedway in

Rockingham, North Carolina Rockingham is a city in Richmond County, North Carolina, United States, named after the Marquess of Rockingham. The population was 9,558 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Richmond County. The city is the home of Rockingham Speedway, fo ...

. ABC tape-delayed coverage of this race until March 18, 1972, when it was shown as ''ABC Championship Auto Racing'' and abbreviated to 90 minutes including commercials.

Race report

The race took place on a paved track spanning , it took four hours and twenty-three minutes to complete all 492 laps of the race.

Bobby Isaac Robert Vance Isaac (August 1, 1932 – August 14, 1977) was an American stock car racing driver. Isaac made his first NASCAR appearance in 1961, and quickly forged a reputation of one of the toughest competitors of the 1960s and 1970s. He was most ...

defeated

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 ...

by at one lap in front of 42500 people; marking his final career win. Isaac would earn the

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

with a qualifying speed of . Meanwhile, the average race speed was . Eight cautions slowed the race for 57 laps. Jimmy Vandiver finished in 3rd place with a ragtag crew of repairmen who had never worked a NASCAR race before and were assembled just hours before the race began; he improved on his qualifying position of 16th place even though he was unable to lead any laps. Baker only added this race at the last minute because there were so few other big teams. Baker broke a valve Spring in his 426 wedge and fell out early. Allison dominated the first half of the race and then blew up. Petty had several cut tires and finally broke a rear spring. That left Issac who was running a highly restricted 426 Hemi a clear path to the win.

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

-born competitor

Jackie Oliver Keith Jack "Jackie" Oliver (born 14 August 1942 in Chadwell Heath, Essex) is a British former Formula One driver and team-owner from England. He became known as the founder of the Arrows team as well as a racing driver, although during his dr ...

finished in last place due to an

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

issue on the first lap while

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

-born Les Covey would fail to finish due to a

clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). ...

problem on lap 127. The rest of the 40-car grid was American-born drivers. NASCAR noticed that Allison's car had right side tires on the left side and vice versa after qualifying and told Junior to switch them, he wouldn't because NASCAR didn't even look at any other team, so they put the car in the back to start. Neil Castles would record his final top ten in his NASCAR Cup Series career. Notable crew chiefs at this race; included

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,

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 Lee Gordon.

Qualifying

Finishing order

Section reference: # Bobby Isaac (No. 71) # Richard Petty (No. 43) #

Jim Vandiver Jim Vandiver (December 13, 1939June 18, 2015) was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver who raced from 1968 to 1983. As an independent driver, he had limited financial resources but enjoyed a level of success that relatively few independent drivers ...

(No. 31) #

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 account ...

(No. 45) #

Dave Marcis David Alan Marcis (born March 1, 1941) is an American former professional stock car racing driver on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit whose career spanned five decades. Marcis won five times over this tenure, twice at Richmond, including his final ...

(No. 2) #

James Hylton James Harvey Hylton (August 26, 1934 – April 28, 2018) was an American stock car racing driver. He was a two-time winner in NASCAR Winston Cup Series competition and was a long-time competitor in the ARCA Racing Series. Hylton finished second i ...

(No. 48) #

Benny Parsons Benjamin Stewart Parsons (July 12, 1941 – January 16, 2007) was an American NASCAR driver, and later an announcer/analyst/pit reporter on SETN, TBS, ABC, ESPN, NBC, and TNT. He became famous as the 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion, and ...

(No. 72) #

Buddy Arrington Buddy Rogers Arrington (July 26, 1938 – August 2, 2022) was an American NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver and owner. Racing career Arrington has the second-most starts without a win, and finished in the top 10 of NASCAR points twice; in 1 ...

(No. 67) #

Elmo Langley Elmo Harold Langley (August 21, 1928 – November 21, 1996) was a NASCAR driver and owner. Langley primarily used the number 64 on his race cars during his NASCAR career. Racing career Langley began his racing career racing modified cars in Vir ...

(No. 64) #

Neil Castles Henry Neil Castles (October 1, 1934 – August 4, 2022) was an American NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series driver. He raced from 1957 to 1976, and won the NASCAR Grand National East Series in 1972. Early life Castles was born in Ma ...

(No. 06) # Larry Smith (No. 92) #

Joe Frasson Joseph "Joe" Frasson (September 3, 1935November 21, 2016) was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver.' ...

(No. 18) #

Jabe Thomas Cerry Ezra "Jabe" Thomas (May 12, 1930 – June 4, 2015) was a NASCAR Grand National/Winston Cup Series driver who competed from the mid-1960s through the late 1970s. His son Ronnie was also a NASCAR Cup Series driver; competing from 1977 to 1989 ...

(No. 25) #

Ed Negre Ed Negre (July 16, 1927June 4, 2014) was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver who raced from 1955 to 1979.'' ...

(No. 8) # Ben Arnold (No. 76) # John Sears (No. 4) #

David Ray Boggs David Ray Boggs (born September 8, 1943) is an American stock car racing driver. Now retired, he is a former competitor in the NASCAR Grand American Series, the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, and the ARCA Racing Series. NASCAR career Boggs made ...

(No. 57) # Dean Dalton (No. 7) # Frank Warren (No. 79) #

Henley Gray Clarence Henley Gray Jr. (born January 12, 1933) is a retired NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver whose career spanned from 1964 to 1977. Career Out of the 76045 laps committed in his career, Gray only led two of them. Gray's total career earnings ...

(No. 19) # H.B. Bailey (No. 53) # George Altheide (No. 0) # Richard D. Brown (No. 91) #

Charlie Roberts Charles Roberts (6 April 1883 – 7 August 1939) was an English professional footballer who played as a centre-half in the Football League for Grimsby Town, Manchester United and Oldham Athletic. He spent nine years at United, where he was c ...

(No. 77) #

Ron Keselowski Ronald William Keselowski (born September 12, 1946) is a former NASCAR Winston Cup driver who raced from 1970 to 1974. He is the uncle of current and retired NASCAR Cup Series drivers Brad and Brian Keselowski along with being the brother of retir ...

(No. 88) # Cecil Gordon* (No. 24) #

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 ...

* (No. 12) # Johnny Halford* (No. 32) # Bill Champion* (No. 10) #

G.C. Spencer Grover Clifton "G. C." Spencer (July 9, 1925GC Spencer obituaryhttp://www.heartfeltconnections.net/memberEulogy.cfm?memberid=14734&sqry_rownum=1&CFTOKEN=39227896 . – September 20, 2007) was a NASCAR driver who competed in 415 Grand National/ ...

* (No. 49) #

Bill Shirey Bill Shirey (born February 28, 1932) is a retired NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver. Career Shirey accomplished three finishes in the "top ten" ( 1970 Richmond 500, 1971 Asheville 300, and 1971 Kingsport 300) and has driven for 9588 laps - the eq ...

* (No. 74) #

Walter Ballard Walter Harvey Ballard Sr. (born January 12, 1933) is a former NASCAR driver from Houston, Texas. In 1971, he won the Rookie of the Year Award in the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National Series (known as the NASCAR Cup Series as of 2021), in its f ...

* (No. 65) # Les Covey* (No. 89) #

Buddy Baker Elzie Wylie "Buddy" Baker Jr. (January 25, 1941 – August 10, 2015) was an American professional stock car racing driver and commentator. Over the course of his 33-year racing career, he won 19 races in the NASCAR Cup Series, including the 198 ...

* (No. 11) #

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 ...

* (No. 47) #

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 ...

* (No. 93) # Richard Childress* (No. 96) # Dub Simpson* (No. 51) #

Bobby Mausgrover Bobby or Bobbie may refer to: People * Bobby (given name), a list of names * Bobby (actress), from Bangladesh * Bobby (rapper) (born 1995), from South Korea * Bobby (screenwriter) (born 1983), Indian screenwriter * Bobby, old slang for a consta ...

* (No. 00) # Jackie Oliver* (No. 90) ''* Driver failed to finish race''

Timeline

Section reference: * Start of race: Bobby Isaac had the pole position to begin the first official lap. * Lap 10: Bobby Mausgrover could not get his ignition working in a safe and proper manner. * Lap 11: Dub Simpson became the first driver in the event to blow his engine. * Lap 14: Richard Petty took over the lead from Bobby Isaac. * Lap 23: Bobby Isaac took over the lead from Richard Petty. * Lap 56: Richard Childress blew his engine while driving at high speeds. * Lap 59: Buck Baker managed to blow his engine while racing at high speeds. * Lap 68: Bobby Allison took over the lead from Bobby Isaac. * Lap 69: Buddy Baker took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 79: Bobby Allison took over the lead from Buddy Baker. * Lap 85: Water pump issues would unfortunately force Raymond Williams out of the event in poor form. * Lap 90: Buddy Baker managed to blow up his engine while driving at high speeds. * Lap 127: Clutch issues would force Canadian Les Covey out of the race. * Lap 129: Bobby Isaac took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 130: Bobby Allison took over the lead from Bobby Isaac. * Lap 167: Walter Ballard would lose the rear end of his vehicle, forcing his exit for safety reasons. * Lap 177: Bill Shirey's vehicle had a terminal clutch problem. * Lap 179: Bobby Isaac took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 186: Bobby Allison took over the lead from Bobby Isaac. * Lap 259: Engine problems would grind G.C. Spencer's day to a halt. * Lap 307: Bill Champion had a terminal crash, forcing him to retire from the event prematurely. * Lap 345: Engine troubles would prevent Bobby Allison from a respectable finish at the event. * Lap 346: Bobby Isaac took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 379: Richard Petty took over the lead from Bobby Isaac. * Lap 382: Bobby Isaac took over the lead from Richard Petty. * Lap 409: Cecil Gordon's vehicle suffered from terminal engine problems. * Finish: Bobby Isaac was officially declared the winner of the event.

References

{{authority control Carolina 500 Carolina 500 NASCAR races at Rockingham Speedway