The 1973 Capital City 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 September 9, 1973, at Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway (now Richmond Raceway) in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

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 ...

won the race by two laps after leading 429 of 500 laps.

Race report

Richard Petty defeated

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 ...

by at least two laps in front of 18000 spectators; five of which were by at least one lap. After running second to Bobby Allison in the spring 1974 race, he won again in the fall 1974 and spring 1975 races, the latter by six laps. It took four hours and thirteen minutes to finish the 500-lap race with the track spanning exactly . 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 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 . The average race speed was . Five cautions slowed the race for 123 laps.

Baxter Price Baxter Price (born November 29, 1938) is an American racing driver from Monroe, North Carolina who competed in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. He made 90 Winston Cup starts from 1973 to 1981, never recording a top ten. Racing career Price ran ne ...

finished in last-place due to a crash that also took out nine other cars at the start of lap 4. Out of the 34 races on the grid, 33 were born in the United States while

Vic Parsons Vic Parsons (born November 29, 1939) is a retired Canadian NASCAR driver from Willowdale, Ontario (a suburb of Toronto). He competed in nineteen Winston Cup Series events in his career with seven top-tens. Cup career Parsons made his debut in 1 ...

was born in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

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 ...

Richard Childress Richard Childress (born September 21, 1945 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina) is an American former race car driver in NASCAR. As the owner of Richard Childress Racing (RCR), he became one of the wealthiest men in North Carolina. In 2004, he opene ...

and

Darrell Waltrip Darrell Lee Waltrip (born February 5, 1947) is an American motorsports analyst, author, former national television broadcaster, and stock car driver. He raced from 1972 to 2000 in the NASCAR Cup Series (known as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series dur ...

also participated in this race. Nearly a quarter of the race was run under the yellow flag despite the fact that there were only five caution periods during the 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, who was also involved in a fiery crash had to go to the hospital for their respective injuries. Post-race coverage was done by the local newspaper ''The Daily Times-News'' from

Burlington, North Carolina Burlington is a city in Alamance County, North Carolina, Alamance and Guilford County, North Carolina, Guilford counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the principal city of the Burlington, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Are ...

Qualifying

Top 10 finishers

Timeline

Section reference: * Start of race: Bobby Allison had the pole position to start the event. * Lap 3: Baxter Price became the last-place finisher of the race due with engine problems. * Lap 13: D.K. Ulrich fell out with engine failure. * Lap 33: Dick May lost the rear end of his racing vehicle. * Lap 51: Richard Petty took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 64: Bobby Allison took over the lead from Richard Petty. * Lap 66: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Bobby Allison; Ronnie Daniel transmission troubles. * Lap 83: Richard Petty took over the lead from Cale Yarborough. * Lap 114: Earl Brooks out after head gasket failed. * Lap 175: Ed Negre's engine failed. * Lap 179: Bobby Allison took over the lead from Richard Petty. * Lap 181: Richard Petty took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 203: John Sears engine overheated. * Lap 305: Mel Larson's engine troubles. * Lap 343: Jabe Thomas crashed, forcing him to exit the race prematurely. * Lap 383: David Sisco crashed, forcing him to exit the race prematurely. * Lap 411: Elmo Langley engine failed. * Finish: Richard Petty was officially declared the winner of the event.

References

{{1973 NASCAR Winston Cup Capital City 500 Capital City 500 NASCAR races at Richmond Raceway