The 1975 Music City USA 420 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 May 10, 1975, at

Nashville Speedway Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway is a motorsport racetrack located at the Nashville Fairgrounds near downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The track is the second-oldest continually operating track in the United States. The track held NASCAR Grand Nati ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

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 ...

won his first NASCAR Cup Series race

Background

was converted to a half-mile paved oval in 1957, when it began to be a NASCAR series track. The speedway was lengthened between the 1969 and 1970 seasons. The corners were cut down from 35 degrees to their present 18 degrees in 1972.

Race report

There were 28

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

-born drivers in the entire racing grid;

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 ...

received credit for the last-place finish after his car overheated on the second lap.''1975 Music City USA 420''
racing information at Racing Reference There were 420 laps in this race. They were completed in more than two and a half hours with

defeating

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 ...

by at least two laps in front of an audience of 20000 people. It was the first of 84 career Cup Series wins in what would become a

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

career. Waltrip earned 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 ...

in qualifying for his fast qualifying run of ; driving a 1975

Chevrolet Chevelle Laguna The Chevrolet Chevelle Laguna is a mid-sized automobile produced by Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the ...

in that event.''1975 Music City USA 420''
racing information at Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet Only one caution flag was given out for a period of eight laps; two changes in the first-place position were made between Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip. Notable crew chiefs who attended the race were

Tim Brewer Timothy Ivan "Tim" Brewer (born February 4, 1955) is an American former stock car racing crew chief and television analyst for '' NASCAR on ESPN''. He was part of '' NASCAR Countdown'', the pre-race show, with host Brent Musburger and fellow anal ...

Travis Carter Travis Carter (born November 21, 1949) is a former car owner and crew chief in the NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known fo ...

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, and Jake Elder.1975 Music City USA 420 crew chiefs
at Racing Reference

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 retain his championship points lead over Dave Marcis by 225 points. He had won five races and earned two pole positions prior to qualifying this event.''1975 Music City USA 420''
racing information at Driver Averages Frank Warren was the lowest finishing driver to actually finish the race; being 47 laps behind Waltrip. Attrition took its toll again as only twelve cars were running at the end. Other notable drivers who raced included

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,

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 ...

and

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 ...

. Monetary awards given out to this race ranged from $6,500 for Waltrip ($ when adjusted for inflation) to $305 for last-place finisher Arrington ($ when adjusted for inflation). Engine problems and overheating issues would cause many of the qualifying drivers not to finish the race.

Qualifying

Finishing order

Section reference: # Darrell Waltrip (No. 17) # Benny Parsons† (No. 72) # Coo Coo Marlin† (No. 14) #

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. 71) # Cecil Gordon† (No. 24) # Alton Jones (No. 68) # Richard Petty (No. 43) #

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 NASCA ...

(No. 05) #

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) #

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. 30) # J.D. McDuffie† (No. 70) # Frank Warren (No. 79) # Rick Newsom*† (No. 20) # Cale Yarborough* (No. 11) # Elmo Langley*† (No. 64) # Richard Childress* (No. 96) # Earle Canavan* (No. 01) # Bill Champion*† (No. 10) #

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) # Baxter Price* (No. 45) # Paul Dean Holt* (No. 39) #

Earl Brooks Earl Lee Brooks (August 11, 1929 – July 21, 2010) was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver whose career spanned from 1962 to 1979. His career came at a time where NASCAR was less organized than it is today and drivers independently owned their v ...

*† (No. 23) # Bruce Hill* (No. 7) #

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

* (No. 8) # Richard D. Brown* (No. 44) # Travis Tiller* (No. 46) #

Jody Ridley Jody Ridley (born May 19, 1942) is a former NASCAR driver. He won the 1980 NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year award and one race at Dover International Speedway the next year, the only Cup victory for Donlavey Racing. His career statistics in ...

* (No. 6) # Buddy Arrington* (No. 67) ''† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased''
''* Driver failed to finish race''

Timeline

Section reference: * Start: Darrell Waltrip was leading the starting grid as the green flag was waved. * Lap 2: Buddy Arrington managed to overheat his vehicle. * Lap 11: The suspension on Jody Ridley's vehicle developed severe problems. * Lap 13: Travis Tiller blew his engine while driving at high speeds. * Lap 15: Richard D. Brown managed to overheat his vehicle. * Lap 16: Ed Negre blew his engine while driving at high speeds. * Lap 19: Bruce Hill blew his engine while driving at high speeds. * Lap 33: Earl Brooks managed to overheat his vehicle. * Lap 34: Transmission problems got the best of Paul Dean Holt's vehicle. * Lap 38: Baxter Prices noticed that his vehicle was leaking oil. * Lap 48: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Darrell Waltrip. * Lap 54: Jabe Thomas blew his engine while driving at high speeds. * Lap 91: The rear end came off of Bill Champion's vehicle in an unsafe manner. * Lap 165: Earle Canavan blew his engine while driving at high speeds. * Lap 192: Richard Childress blew his engine while driving at high speeds. * Lap 321: Darrell Waltrip took over the lead from Cale Yarborough. * Lap 322: Cale Yarborough and Elmo Langley blew their engines while driving at high speeds. * Lap 351: Rick Newsom blew his engine while driving at high speeds. * Finish: Darrell Waltrip was officially declared the winner of the race.

Standings after the race

References

{{Coors 420 Music City USA 420 Music City USA 420 NASCAR races at Fairgrounds Speedway