The 1954 NASCAR Grand National season consisted of 37 races from February 1, 1954, and to November 1.

Lee Petty Lee Arnold Petty (March 14, 1914 – April 5, 2000) was an American stock car racing driver who competed during the 1950s and 1960s. He was one of the pioneers of NASCAR and one of its first superstars. He was NASCAR's first three-time Cup ch ...

, driving for

Petty Enterprises Petty Enterprises (formerly Lee Petty Engineering) was a NASCAR racing team based in Level Cross, North Carolina, USA. It was founded by Lee Petty with his two sons Richard Petty and Maurice Petty. The team was later owned by Richard Petty, h ...

, won the championship, his first of three in the series.

Season recap

The 1954 season consisted of 37 events from February 7 through October 24 of the year; opening in

West Palm Beach, Florida West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lagoon. The populati ...

, with a Herb Thomas victory, and concluding in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, at the

North Wilkesboro Speedway North Wilkesboro Speedway is a short oval racetrack located on U.S. Route 421, about east of the town of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, or 80 miles north of Charlotte. It measures and features a unique uphill backstretch and downhill fr ...

with a Hershel McGriff win. While Thomas captured the opening event in a Hudson, the year was witness to the increased power of GM, Ford and

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automotiv ...

as Hudson slipped in its domination of the sport from previous years. Petty came back to win the second race of the year at

Daytona Beach, Florida Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County near the Atlantic coastline, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. Daytona Beach is approximately nort ...

, in his Chrysler. Petty completed the season with 32 top-10 finishes of the 34 events that he competed in. Through 1953, and up until the

Southern 500 The Southern 500, officially known as the Cook Out Southern 500 for sponsorship reasons, is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, United States. The race distance is and consists of 367 laps. Fro ...

in 1954, Petty strung together a streak of 56 consecutive races where he was still running at the end of the race. While Petty won fewer races (7) than Herb Thomas (12), his consistency in finishing in the top 10 a total of seven times more than Thomas proved to be the deciding factor in winning the championship with a 283-point margin. Rising star Buck Baker captured the winner's purse a total of four times in 1954, and finished third after a 12th-place effort in 1953. Although several of the top stars of the sport had disagreements, and even walked away from NASCAR for a time, the sport showed itself to be larger than any of the individual stars. When Tim Flock was disqualified at Daytona, he quit the sport for a time. Fonty Flock, Al Keller and Hershel McGriff also resigned at various times throughout the year. Also in 1954, drivers Petty, Thomas, Baker, Dick Rathman, McGriff, Keller, Jim Paschal, Curtis Turner, Gober Sosbee, John Soares, and Dan Letner all captured at least one victory during the year.

Season highlights

Two-time champion Herb Thomas' season opening victory in February earned him $1,600, which included prize monies from both the Pure Oil Company and Champion Spark Plugs. On February 20 Cotton Owens captured a modified-sportsman victory in an event that featured 136 starting entries; the largest ever starting field in a NASCAR event. A day later, Tim Flock reached the checkered flag first, but was disqualified for using a two-way radio, and Lee Petty was awarded the victory. It was the first time that radios were used in a NASCAR event, and Flock quit after the disqualification. On February 20, 136 cars took the green flag at a 100-mile event in Daytona; making the event the largest ever starting field in a NASCAR sanctioned event. The following day NASCAR ruled that Tim Flock was disqualified due to the use of a two-way radio. On March 28 Dick Rathmann won a 125-mile race at

Oakland Speedway The Oakland Speedway was the first motor racing track near Oakland, California, a one-mile, banked dirt oval track built in 1931, which operated throughout the Great Depression and postwar years. The track featured AAA National Championship race ...

after starting the event in last place. The track was unusual in its configuration in that it consisted of dirt corners and paved straightaways. On June 13, NASCAR held its first ever road course event, at the airport in Linden, New Jersey, with driver Al Keller coming away with the win in a

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

, as 20 of the 43 starting entries were foreign made vehicles. The victory was the only win for a foreign-manufactured vehicle until

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

captured its first victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March 2008 and as of the 2022 season, it is the only win scored by both

and a European manufacturer in the

NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the 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. In 1971, ...

Race summaries

1954-01

The first race of the season was run at Palm Beach Raceway in

. Dick Rathman won the pole.

Top 10 results

#92 - Herb Thomas #87 -

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 ...

#42 -

#80 -

Jim Paschal James Roy Paschal, Jr. (December 5, 1926 – July 5, 2004) was a Grand National and Winston Cup Series driver. Career summary Paschal won twenty-five races and twelve poles over his career. Elected to the "Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame" in 1 ...

#24 - Ray Ruhigg #6 - Ralph Liguori #86 - Don Oldenberg #126 - Dave Terrell #82 - Joe Eubanks #181 - Tommie Elliott

1954-02

The second race of the season was run at Beach & Road Course in

won the pole.

Top ten results

#42 -

#87 -

#14 - Curtis Turner #3 - Dick Rathman #2 - Bill Blair #122 - Jack Smith #13 - Emory Lewis #25 - Fireball Roberts #51 -

Gober Sosebee Gober C. Sosebee (October 15, 1915 – November 11, 1996) was an American racecar driver. He won on the Daytona Beach Road Course in 1949, 1950, and 1951. He was born in Dawson County, Georgia, and began his career in 1940 at Atlanta's Lakew ...

#77 - Stan Kross

1954-03

The third race of the season was run at Speedway Park in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which th ...

. Curtis Turner won the pole.

Top ten results

#92 - Herb Thomas #14 - Fonty Flock #42 -

#82 - Joe Eubanks #87 -

#86 - Don Oldenberg #23 - Al Keller #181 - Tommie Elliott #6 - Ralph Liguori #4 - Tommy Moon

International 100

The 1954 International 100 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 ...

Grand National Series The name NASCAR Grand National Series refers to former names of the following NASCAR series: *National-level stock car series: **NASCAR Cup Series (known as NASCAR Grand National Series between 1950 to 1970, then the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand Nation ...

race that took place on June 13, 1954, on a temporary road course at Linden Airport in

Linden, New Jersey Linden is a city in southeastern Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area, located about southwest of Manhattan and bordering Staten Island, a borough of New York City, across the Arthur Kill ...

. It was the first ever road course event in NASCAR competition.

won the pole, with a speed of 80.536 miles per hour. Al Keller, racing a Jaguar XK120, won the race to score his second and final victory in the NASCAR Cup Series. It was the first race to be won by a foreign manufacturer car and as of 2022, it remains as the only win scored by

in NASCAR. #4 - Al Keller #82 - Joe Eubanks #88 -

#2 -

Bill Claren Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pla ...

#32 -

Bob Grossman Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places *Mount Bob, New York, United States * Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Bob (surnam ...

#7-A - Harry LaVois #92 - Herb Thomas #3 - Dick Rathman #21 - Laird Bruner #42 -

Southern 500

The 1954

was a

race that took place on September 6, 1954, at

Darlington Raceway Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located in Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed "The Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition." It is ...

in the

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 ...

community of

Darlington, South Carolina Darlington is a city located in Darlington County, South Carolina, United States. In 2010, its population was 6,289. It is the county seat of Darlington County. It is part of the Florence, South Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. Darlington ...

. There were 364 laps done on a paved oval track that spanned . Van Van Wey made his NASCAR debut in this race; starting in 43rd place and ending in 20th place due to a crash on the 260th lap.''1954 Southern 500'' racing information
at Racing Reference Overall, the race took five hours, sixteen minutes, and one second from the first green flag to the checkered flag. The average speed was and the pole speed was . There were two cautions for four laps and the margin of victory was twenty-six seconds. Attendance of the race was confirmed at 28,000 people during the start of the race. Notable racers that appeared and did not finish in the top ten included

(whose streak of 36 top-ten finishes ended at this race), Cotton Owens, Jimmie Lewallen, Ralph Liguori,

Arden Mounts Enoch Arden Mounts (July 9, 1917 – March 4, 2003) was an American NASCAR Grand National Series driver from Gilbert, Mingo County, West Virginia. His primary vehicle was the #18 self-owned Pontiac machine; although he would occasionally drive a ...

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 ...

(in his NASCAR debut) and

(pole winner). #92 - Herb Thomas #44 - Curtis Turner #98 - Marvin Panch #58 -

Johnny Patterson John (Johnny) Francis Patterson (1840–1889) was an Irish singer, songwriter and circus entertainer. He is now best known for composing the song "The Garden Where the Praties Grow". Early life He was born in Kilbarron, Feakle, County Clare. ...

#88 -

#40 - John Soares #25 - Fireball Roberts #7 - Gwyn Staley #13 - Joel Million #12 -

Speedy Thompson Alfred Bruce "Speedy" Thompson (April 3, 1926, in Monroe, North Carolina – April 2, 1972, in Charlotte, North Carolina) was an American stock car racer in the NASCAR Grand National series from 1950 to 1971, capturing 20 wins along the way. R ...

Mid-South 250

The 1954 Mid-South 250 was a

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap st ...

race that took place on October 10, 1954, at

Memphis-Arkansas Speedway The Memphis-Arkansas Speedway was a dirt oval track located just west of West Memphis, Arkansas, United States, in the community of Lehi. This speedway had a total distance spanning . Its elevation is 200 feet above sea level and all races used ...

in the community of LeHi, Arkansas. One hundred and sixty-seven laps were raced on a dirt track spanning . Twelve-thousand people attended this untelevised race where

won in his 1954

Oldsmobile Oldsmobile or formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it pro ...

. Other notable competitors included

(who led 150 laps which was considered to be the most laps), Marvin Panch, Jimmie Lewallen,

, and

Junior Johnson Robert Glenn Johnson Jr. (June 28, 1931 – December 20, 2019), better known as Junior Johnson, was an American NASCAR driver of the 1950s and 1960s. He won 50 NASCAR races in his career before retiring in 1966. In the 1970s and 1980s, he became ...

. The average speed of the race was and the race took two hours, forty-eight minutes, and fifty-one seconds to complete. #87 -

#3 - Dick Rathman #42 -

#92 - Herb Thomas #4 - Herschel Buchanan #114 - Slick Smith #98 - Marvin Panch #189 - Lou Figaro #14 - Hershel McGriff #44 -

Final championship standings

References

{{NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, state=collapsed NASCAR Cup Series seasons