On Monday following Easter Sunday, the Grand National cars participated in a one-day event at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem.
General Motors products captured the first five starting spots with Rex White laying down the quickest lap in his Chevy followed by Junior Johnson (Pontiac), eventual 1962 GN champion Joe Weatherly (Pontiac), reigning GN champ from 1961 Ned Jarrett (Chevy) and Jack Smith (Pontiac).
From the jump, Johnson was the class of the field. He built a comfortable lead and lapped every car in the field except White's #4 Chevy.
As the 200-lap race neared the half-way mark, Johnson's luck turned sour as he blew a left front tire (which seems odd by contemporary racing trends that really punish the RIGHT front). He tried to stay out, make laps, and eke out a decent finish because rain was beginning to fall. He realized he race could soon well be called official. But by lap 100, he could go no further & had to pull into the pits.
Then on lap 104, Wendell Scott spun to bring out the caution. As Wendell spun, the rainfall began to increase. NASCAR ran 4 more laps under caution before calling the race official at lap 108.
By the time of Wendell's spin and the resulting yellow, three cars were able to get their lap back - but none did so in time to get around Rex White. As the checkers fell on the slowed field, Rex was declared the winner. Smith, Weatherly and 7th place starter George Run finished 2nd thru 4th on the lead lap. Richard Petty finished 5th, the first car 1 lap down.
White's win was his fourth consecutive GN win at the quarter-mile stadium track having also won there three times in 1961. The victory was also his sixth and final one at the track with the other two coming in 1959.
Junior's dominating performance was for naught. He went from leading, to lapping all but 1 car, to having a rain-shortened victory almost in hand ... to blowing a tire and ending up 15th in the 19-car field. Of course, that often seemed to be the M.O. throughout much of Junior's driving career. Show up, drive it as fast as she will go, take no prisoners, and win or suffer "blowed up" trying.
Race report from News & Courier
| Fin | Driver | Car |
| 1 | Rex White | '62 Chevrolet |
| 2 | Jack Smith | '61 Pontiac |
| 3 | Joe Weatherly | '62 Pontiac |
| 4 | George Dunn | '62 Chevrolet |
| 5 | Richard Petty | '61 Plymouth |
| 6 | Jimmy Pardue | '62 Pontiac |
| 7 | Ned Jarrett | '62 Chevrolet |
| 8 | Jim Paschal | '62 Pontiac |
| 9 | G.C. Spencer | '60 Chevrolet |
| 10 | Fred Harb | '61 Ford |
| 11 | Larry Thomas | '62 Dodge |
| 12 | Herman Beam | '60 Ford |
| 13 | Curtis Crider | '60 Ford |
| 14 | Tom Cox | '60 Plymouth |
| 15 | Junior Johnson | '61 Pontiac |
| 16 | Wendell Scott | '61 Chevrolet |
| 17 | Neil Castles | '60 Ford |
| 18 | Bill Delaney | '62 Pontiac |
| 19 | Billy Wade | '61 Pontiac |
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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM