The 1972 Texas 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. ...

racing event that took place on November 12, 1972, at Texas World Speedway in

College Station, Texas College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, situated in East-Central Texas in the heart of the Brazos Valley, towards the eastern edge of the region known as the Texas Triangle. It is northwest of Houston and east-northeast of Austin. ...

Race report

The race was 250 laps on a paved track spanning in front of 33,000 live spectators. It took exactly 3 hours and 24 seconds for

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 ...

to defeat A. J. Foyt by ½ of a car length. Baker's victory played a role in making 1972 the first NASCAR Cup Series season without any first-time Cup series winners. Foyt had earned the pole position with a speed of during the qualifying runs even though the actual race speeds approached . Five cautions slowed the race for 29 laps. All the 44 drivers on the racing grid were American-born males. Bill Seifert of the famous Giachetti Brothers (headed by

Richard Giachetti Richard Giachetti is a former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Winston Cup Series race car owner and one half of the ''Giachetti Brothers''. He is from Detroit, Michigan. Career With a career spanning from 1968 to 1972, Giachetti has employed some of the ...

) finished the race in the last-place position 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 in the first lap of the race. Bill Champion had engine issues on lap 16 while Earle Canavan had windshield issues on lap 30. Ron Keselowski would ruin his vehicle's engine on lap 38 while Bill Hollar did the same thing on lap 68. Frank Warren would ruin his vehicle's engine on lap 92. Jabe Thomas noticed that his vehicle's suspension acted strangely on lap 93. H.B. Bailey would lose the rear end of his vehicle on lap 106. Gordon Johncock's engine expired on lap 182. Once Buddy Arrington dropped out with engine failure after completing 184 laps, Petty had locked up a 33rd-place finish. Petty only needed to complete 190 laps to clinch the championship; becoming the champion on lap 191. Clarence Lovell's engine stopped working on lap 196 while Paul Feldner's engine stopped working on lap 198. Larry Smith had identical problems to Lovell and Feldner on lap 199. Johnny Rutherford had to stop racing due to a problematic engine on lap 224. Seven notable crew chiefs were recorded as participating in the event; including

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 ...

and Harry Hyde. Paul Feldner and Bill Shirey would make their final NASCAR Winston Cup Series starts, while Rick Newsom would make his debut. Only manual transmission vehicles were allowed to participate in this race; a policy that NASCAR has retained to the present day. Unfortunately, this race broke Bobby Allison's streak of leading a lap from the 1971 Southern 500 all the way to the

1972 American 500 The 1972 American 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event held on October 22, 1972, at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, North Carolina. While not televised, the 1972 American 500 was covered by local radio stations WAYN-AM ...

. This streak would be known as the "

Joe DiMaggio Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "The Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yank ...

Streak" after the famous baseball player, and it has not been accomplished by any driver after this date. Individual prize winnings for each driver ranged from the winner's share of $14,920 ($ when considering inflation) to the last-place finishers' share of just $705 ($ when considering inflation). The total prize purse for this racing event was locked in at $88,270 ($ when considering inflation).

Qualifying

Finishing order

Section reference: # Buddy Baker # A.J. Foyt #

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 ...

# Bobby Allison # Hershel McGriff # Benny Parsons # Coo Coo Marlin #

Cecil Gordon Cecil Gordon (June 21, 1941 – September 19, 2012) was an American stock car racing driver. A competitor in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series between 1968 and 1985, he competed in 449 events without winning a race. NASCAR Career as driver Gordon d ...

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 ...

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

# James Hylton #

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 ...

# Ramo Stott #

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 ...

# Ben Arnold # John Sears #

Dick Brooks Richard Brooks (April 14, 1942 – February 1, 2006) was an American NASCAR driver. Born in Porterville, California, he was the 1969 NASCAR Rookie of the Year, and went on to win the 1973 Talladega 500. Brooks held off veteran Buddy Baker b ...

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 fir ...

Jim Whitt Jim or JIM may refer to: * Jim (given name), a given name * Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James * Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy * OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism * ''Jim'' (comics), a series by Jim Woodring * ''Jim'' ...

Dean Dalton Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

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 ...

Rick Newsom Rick Newsom (March 19, 1950 – August 16, 1988), was a NASCAR Winston Cup driver from Fort Mill, South Carolina. Newsom competed in 82 Winston Cup races from 1972 to 1986. He was killed in a private plane crash on August 16, 1988. Motor ...

# Harry Schilling #

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 ...

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

# Johnny Rutherford #

David Sisco David Sisco (June 26, 1937 – July 25, 2016) was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver who ran 133 races from 1971 to 1977, and was the 1969 Nashville Fairgrounds track champion. Career Sisco also managed to earn $251,359 in his seven-year NASCAR ...

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 capta ...

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 ...

# Mel Larson # Larry Smith #

Paul Feldner Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

Clarence Lovell Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a lo ...

# Buddy Arrington # Gordon Johncock #

H.B. Bailey Herring Burl "H. B." Bailey (November 15, 1936 – April 17, 2003) was a NASCAR driver. He raced his No. 36 Pontiac part-time as an independent driver in the Grand National/Winston Cup series from 1962 to 1993, making 85 races over his career. A ...

# Jabe Thomas # Frank Warren #

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 ...

Bill Hollar William Mack "Bill" Hollar, Sr. (September 6, 1938 - November 26, 2012) was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver who participated in 29 races out of his nine-year career in NASCAR. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Hollar. Prior to his NASCAR ...

Ron Keselowski Ronald William Keselowski (born September 12, 1946) is a former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Winston Cup driver who raced from 1970 in NASCAR, 1970 to 1974 NASCAR Winston Cup Series, 1974. He is the uncle of current and retired NASCAR Cup Series driv ...

# Earle Canavan # Bill Champion # Bill Seifert

References

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Texas 500 The O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 was a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) in Fort Worth, Texas. Even though it is advertised as a "500-mile" race, because TMS is a track that is in length, the actual race distance is ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

NASCAR races at Texas World Speedway