The 1973 Dixie 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on July 22, 1973, at Atlanta International Raceway in Hampton, Georgia.

Background

Atlanta International Raceway (now Atlanta Motor Speedway) is one of ten current intermediate tracks to hold NASCAR races; the others are Charlotte Motor Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Homestead Miami Speedway, Kansas Speedway,

Kentucky Speedway Kentucky Speedway is a tri-oval speedway in Sparta, Kentucky, which has hosted ARCA, NASCAR and Indy Racing League racing annually since it opened in 2000. The track is currently owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Before 2008 J ...

, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway. However, at the time, only Charlotte and Darlington were built. The layout at Atlanta International Speedway at the time was a four-turn traditional oval track that is long. The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, and the back stretch are banked at five.

Race report

It took three hours and fifty minutes for

David Pearson David or Dave Pearson may refer to: * David Pearson (librarian) (born 1955), British librarian and scholar * David Pearson (racing driver) (1934–2018), American car racing champion * David Pearson (scientist) (born 1942), Canadian scientist, a ...

to defeat

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 more than one lap. Pearson would take home $16,650 in prize money ($ when adjusted for inflation) while last-place finisher Charles Barrett would receive $880 ($ when adjusted for inflation). Though running a limited schedule, this was David Pearson's ninth win in the last ten races that he and the Wood Brothers entered, with a second in the other race. In the NASCAR Cup Series after 1972, nobody has ever matched this. Maybe the most impressive finish for Jabe Thomas, finishing 9th in a 40 car field at Atlanta. He had higher finishes but many were at small tracks no longer used after 1971. Fourteen lead changes were exchanged among six drivers (Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Bobby Isaac, Cale Yarborough, Donnie Allison, and David Pearson). Six cautions lasted 47 laps and the average speed of the race was . Thirty-thousand people would see a racing grid of 39 American drivers and one Canadian driver (

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 ...

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 ...

would win 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 speed of .

Qualifying

Failed to qualify:

Phil Finney Phil may refer to: * Phil (given name), a shortened version of masculine and feminine names * Phill, a given name also spelled "Phil" * Phil, Kentucky, United States * Phil (film), ''Phil'' (film), a 2019 film * -phil-, a lexical fragment, used as ...

(#80),

Richard D. Brown Richard David Brown (born October 31, 1939) is an American historian specializing in Colonial history of the United States, colonial, American Revolution, revolutionary, and early American society and culture. He is a Board of Trustees Distingui ...

(#44)

Finishing order

# David Pearson† (No. 21) # Cale Yarborough (No. 11) # Donnie Allison (No. 88) # Joe Frasson† (No. 18) # Jody Ridley (No. 90) # Lennie Pond† (No. 54) #

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 ...

† (No. 70) # G.C. Spencer† (No. 49) # Jabe Thomas† (No. 25) # Larry Smith† (No. 92) # Buddy Arrington (No. 67) #

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 ...

† (No. 20) # Henley Gray (No. 19) # Frank Warren (No. 79) # Walter Ballard (No. 30) # Randy Tissot (No. 32) # Bill Champion† (No. 10) # Ed Negre† (No. 8) # Charlie Roberts (No. 77) # Raymond Williams (No. 47) # James Hylton† (No. 48) #

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 * ...

(No. 7) #

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 ...

(No. 96) #

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 ...

*† (No. 24) # Benny Parsons*† (No. 72) # David Sisco*† (No. 05) # Bobby Allison* (No. 12) # Ed Sczech* (No. 61) #

* (No. 45) # Coo Coo Marlin*† (No. 14) #

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 ...

* (No. 95) #

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) #

* (No. 43) #

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. 71) # Bobby Isaac*† (No. 15) # John Sears*† (No. 4) # Tommy Gale*† (No. 03) # Elmo Langley*† (No. 64) #

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 ...

*† (No. 39) # Charles Barrett* (No. 09) ''* Driver failed to finish race''
''† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased''

Timeline

Section reference: * Start of race: Bobby Allison was ahead of the other drivers as the green flag was waved. * Lap 3: Bobby Isaac took over the lead from Bobby Allison; Charles Barrett's vehicle developed engine issues. * Lap 7: H. B. Bailey's vehicle developed a problematic engine. * Lap 32: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Bobby Isaac. * Lap 39: A faulty engine managed to end Tommy Gale's day on the track. * Lap 40: Bobby Allison took over the lead from Cale Yarborough. * Lap 42: David Pearson took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 43: Donnie Allison took over the lead from David Pearson. * Lap 45: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Donnie Allison; John Sears' vehicle developed a troublesome engine. * Lap 52: Bobby Isaac had a terminal crash. * Lap 56: David Pearson took over the lead from Cale Yarborough. * Lap 58: Bobby Allison took over the lead from David Pearson. * Lap 61: David Pearson took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 65: Axle issues brought Buddy Baker's race to an early end. * Lap 71: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from David Pearson. * Lap 72: Engine issues dethroned Richard Petty for the day, making him accept a 33rd-place finish. * Lap 91: Lug bolt issues ended Dave Marcis' day on the track. * Lap 110: Engine issues knocked out Darrell Waltrip from the race. * Lap 124: Donnie Allison took over the lead from Cale Yarborough. * Lap 125: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Donnie Allison. * Lap 152: Coo Coo Marlin would end the day once his vehicle's engine stopped working. * Lap 157: Vic Parsons' dodgy transmission managed to bring him out of the race. * Lap 164: David Pearson took over the lead from Cale Yarborough. * Lap 169: Ed Sczech's faulty engine managed to render his chance of finishing the race non-existent. * Lap 205: Bobby Allison would fail to finish the race due to an awful engine. * Lap 240: David Sisco's engine stopped working in a timely manner. * Lap 248: Benny Parsons noticed that his vehicle had a troublesome oil pump. * Lap 262: Cecil Gordon's engine problem would make him the final DNF of the event. * Finish: David Pearson was officially declared the winner of the event.

References

{{authority control Dixie 500 Dixie 500 NASCAR races at Atlanta Motor Speedway