1974 Mason-Dixon 500 - NASCAR Race

Name of Race:	1974 Mason-Dixon 500
Name of Track:	Dover International Speedway
Date:	May 19th

Dover International Speedway

Dover International Speedway is a NASCAR race track located near Dover, Delaware.

The Monster Mile

Dover International Speedway is unusual in several respects. It is a concrete track; most NASCAR tracks are asphalt. It is co-located with a horse racing track, Dover Downs, and in fact is sometimes also referred to by this name. It is also exactly one mile long; technically this means that it is neither a superspeedway nor a short track.

The speedway is also notoriously hard on cars, and its standard nickname is The Monster Mile. The horse track is part of an extensive entertainment complex including other forms of gambling; at one time both it and the speedway were owned by the publicly-traded Dover Downs Entertainment, but they have since been split into two separate enterprises, partly at the encouragement of NASCAR.

500 Miles Is Too Long

At one time the NASCAR Cup races held here were 500 miles long until a NASCAR rules change limited 500 mile races to being held only at tracks over a mile in length; the current Nextel Cup races here are 400 miles long.

Dover also hosted Indy Racing League races in 1998 and 1999 won by Scott Sharp and Greg Ray.

Dover International Speedway Ownership

In February 2002, Dover Downs Entertainmnet changed its name to Dover Motorsports following the spin-off of its gaming operations to its existing shareholders. As a result, the name of the track was changed from Dover Downs International Speedway to Dover International Speedway.

Dover Motorsports (formerly Dover Downs Entertainment) which owns Dover International Speedway also owns several other racing facilities, including Nashville Superspeedway. It has been suggested that one of the two current Cup races held there could be shifted to Nashville but this seems unlikely as both current Cup races at Dover are easily sold out.

The Dover ownership is one of only three publicly-held ownership groups of NASCAR tracks, the other two being International Speedway Corporation, controlled by NASCAR's founding France family and owners of the Talladega and Daytona tracks, among others, and Speedway Motorsports, Inc., led by Bruton Smith and H. A. "Humpy" Wheeler, which owns Lowe's Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, among others. Aside from these three ownership groups, NASCAR tracks are privately held by one or a few individuals.

Courtesy of Wikipedia.

1974 Mason-Dixon 500 NASCAR Race Results

Below are the race results for 1974 Mason-Dixon 500, in order of finishing place.

Fin	Driver	Num	Start	Money	Laps	Status	Sponsor
1	Cale Yarborough	11	3	$18,300	500	running	Kar-Kare
2	David Pearson	21	1	$8,900	500	running	Purolator
3	Richard Petty	43	2	$8,250	498	engine	STP Oil Treatment / Oil Filters
4	Benny Parsons	72	5	$7,150	492	running	King's Row Fireplace
5	George Follmer	15	10	$5,850	492	running	R.C. Cola
6	Lennie Pond	54	9	$2,425	488	running	Master Chevy Sales
7	Dave Marcis	2	15	$2,500	480	running	Deppe Enterprises
10	James Hylton	48	14	$2,125	477	running	Stott
12	Buddy Arrington	67	16	$1,895	473	running	Arrington Racing
13	Dean Dalton	7	35	$1,045	466	running	Belden Asphalt
16	Earle Canavan	1	28	$1,020	452	running	Kava Instant Coffee
18	Elmo Langley	64	29	$1,470	427	running	Langley Racing
19	Bill Champion	10	21	$1,045	384	brakes	Champion Racing
20	Darrell Waltrip	95	7	$1,345	382	engine	Terminal Transport
21	Richard Childress	96	19	$1,595	373	clutch	L.C. Newton Trucking
22	Walter Ballard	30	17	$1,570	320	engine	Ballard Racing
27	Cecil Gordon	24	12	$1,595	145	engine	Gordon Racing
28	Bobby Allison	12	4	$3,695	99	heating	Coca-Cola
29	Jack Donohue	51	31	$645	95	engine	Donohue Racing
30	Donnie Allison	88	6	$1,095	87	engine	DiGard Racing
33	Jim Bray	56	32	$605	65	oil line	Bray Racing
34	Tony Bettenhausen	9	26	$1,150	54	engine	Vita Fresh Orange Juice
35	Richard D. Brown	44	33	$595	51	engine	Bush Olds