Racing History Minute - May 24, 1959

Today, we go to Nashville, TN and the half mile paved track at the Nashville Fairgrounds. Today we will run 100 miles on that half mile track withOUT a caution flag. Today, we will talk about a race in 1959 in which every car finished, although the last place finisher was 40 laps behind the winner.

Twelve cars showed up to race in Nashville on this date in 1959. Rex White would start his Chevy on the pole with Lee Petty, in a Plymouth, to his outside. Lee took the lead on the green flag and lead the first 37 laps before Tommy Irwin would take over for for 110 laps. On lap 149, Rex would take the point for the first time since the start of the event but on lap 184 of the 200 laps, Junior Johnson moved out front. With four laps to go, Rex passed Junior as Junior's car sputtered for lack of fuel. He and Rex had both tried to make the distance without a pit stop but Rex had to come in on lap 183 for just a "splash of gas" but was able to take advantage of Junior's lack of fuel.

At the time, it was the first time in the almost TEN year history of the Grand National Division that every car starting the event, finished the event. There were no mechanical malfunctions to drop a competitor out, nor were there any cautions.

All twelve finishers were:

1. Rex White, White Chevrolet, winning $900.00

2. Junior Johnson, Paul Spaulding Ford, winning $525.00

3. Tommy Irwin, Irwin Thunderbird, winning $350.00 (one lap down)

4. Buck Baker, Baker Chevrolet, winning $250.00 (two laps down)

5. Joe Lee Johnson, Honest Charley Chevrolet, winning $225.00 (two laps down)

6. Lee Petty, Petty Engineering Plymouth, winning $200.00 (four laps down)

7. Charley Griffith, Red Bank Pontiac, winning $165.00 (seven laps down)

8. Cotton Owens, W. H. Watson Pontiac, winning $150.00 (seven laps down)

9. Bob Burdick, Roy Burdick Thunderbird, winning $140.00 (eight laps down)

10. Herman Beam, Beam Chevrolet, winning $130.00 ( twenty-one laps down)

11. G.C. Spencer, Chevrolet, winning $125.00 (twenty-nine laps down)

12.Tommy Thompson, Chevrolet, winning $110.00 (forty laps down)

Records say over 9,600 fans attended the event and there is no report of disappointment for the lack of cars. This was Rex White's third Grand National win of his career and it had been almost a year since his previous victory.

Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future

I remember seeing at lot of these back in the day.

And these.

Anyone got any pictures of Joe Lee Johnson's Honest Charley Chevrolet?

This was only the second Grand National race at Nashville. Rex won the pole for both of Nashville's races that season.

The field of 12 cars at Nashville is tied with 6 other races for the fewest starters in GN/Cup history:

08/29/53 - Hickory (winner: Fonty Flock)

08/03/56 - Oklahoma City (winner: Lee Petty)

04/23/61 - Richmond (winner: Richard Petty)

-   Blog: http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-23-this-day-in-petty-history-part.html

05/01/64 - Savannah (winner: LeeRoy Yarbrough)

-   Tim Leeming post: http://racersreunion.com/community/forum/stock-car-racing-history/23168/racing-history-minute-may-1-1964

08/07/64 - Myrtle Beach (winner: David Pearson)

10/09/64 - Savannah (winner: Ned Jarrett)

I don't have anything about the 1959 Nashville race in my collection. I'm sure Russ Thompson does, but I believe he is in Indy getting ready for the 500 with the NBC crew. So I executed Plan C. I went to the Nashville library during lunch today and crawled through good ol' microfilm of archived editions of The Tennessean and Nashville Banner.

I'm glad I did because I found some neat articles - and a trivia nugget or two about the race. On May 24 - the day of the race - The Tennessean included a promo photo and article forecasting a record-setting race. The article is a bit hard to read when embedded in this post. But click on it, and the legibility should be much better for you.

More to follow...

The May 25 Monday morning edition of The Tennessean included a recap of the race. The writer, John Steen, notes the reason for the low car count. In the "notes" section near the end of his article, he mentioned NASCAR scheduled a convertible race the day before at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem. Many drivers in that race did not make the overnight drive to compete in the Nashville race - including the convertible race winner Glen Wood, 3rd place Richard Petty, Bob Welborn, Tiny Lund, and Ned Jarrett. Two drivers that DID make the trip were Buck Baker and Joe Lee Johnson.

Don't know for sure but this may have been the car Joe Lee Johnson drove at both Bowman-Gray and Nashville. One article Chase posted listed him in a '57 Chevy and the other in a '57 Ford.

DOH! Messed up by attribution. The previous comment, article, and pic was from the May 25th afternoon edition of the Nashville Banner. THIS one is from the May 25th morning edition of The Tennesseean. Rex White was trying to eke out a fuel mileage and probably puckered up when he received TWO white flags. As noted in the article, the flagman waved the first one a lap early.

That's a couple of pretty amazing stats, Tim.... especially for 1959 - no cautions and all cars finishing.

I move that Jeff put Chase on retainer as the oficial microfilm researcher of RR. That fellow sure knows what he is doing!

Dennis, I remember seeing the Honest Charley logos in the racing mags back in the day.

Music City Bump, Scoot & Boogie