1966 Virginia 500 - NASCAR Race

Name of Race:	1966 Virginia 500
Name of Track:	Martinsville Speedway
Date:	N/A

Martinsville Speedway is an International Speedway Corporation-owned NASCAR stock car racing track located in Martinsville, Virginia. At 0.526 miles in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.

NASCAR Paperclip

The track was also one of the first paved "superspeedways" in NASCAR, being built in 1947 by H. Clay Earles. The track is often referred to as paper clip-shaped and is banked only 12° in the turns. The combination of long straightaways and flat, narrow turns makes hard braking going into turns and smooth acceleration exiting turns a must.

Original Ownership

The track ownership was a joint venture of brothers Jim and Bill France, Jr., and H. Clay Earles, the majority owner, along with daughters Dorothy Campbell and Mary Weatherford, and Dorothy Campbell's children, Sarah Fain and Clay Campbell.

Grandfather Clock Trophy

Winners of Martinsville's Nextel Cup and Whelen Modified Tour events receive a longcase clock as a trophy instead of a regular trophy, a tip of the cap to the fame of the Martinsville furniture industry. One of the neat things one can see while watching a NASCAR race is a Norfolk Southern train running along the tracks outside the speedway, although the tracks were recently moved back 100 feet.

$192 Million Price Tag

Although sold for $192 million in 2004, the track continues to prosper under the new ownership of International Speedway Corporation. The track hosts two Nextel cup races, currently the DirecTV 500 in April and the Subway 500 in October, along with Busch, Craftsman Truck, and Late Model Stock Car races. The track had plans to add an additional 20,000 seats along the backstretch, boosting capacity to over 85,000 seats, but nothing more has been officially mentioned regarding this by track management since the sale of the track to ISC.

Courtesy of Wikipedia.

1966 Virginia 500 NASCAR Race Results

Below are the race results for 1966 Virginia 500, in order of finishing place.

Fin	Driver	Num	Start	Money	Laps	Status	Sponsor
1	Jim Paschal	14	1	$4,550	500	running	Friedkin Enterprises
2	Paul Goldsmith	99	2	$2,150	500	running	Nichels Engineering
3	Richard Petty	43	4	$1,250	495	running	Petty Enterprises
4	Elmo Langley	64	6	$775	488	running	Elmo Langley / Henry Woodfield
6	Paul Lewis	1	24	$675	485	running	Paul Lewis
7	Bobby Allison	24	23	$575	483	running	Betty Lilly
8	James Hylton	48	22	$535	476	running	Bud Hartje
9	David Pearson	6	5	$575	474	running	Cotton Owens
10	Buddy Baker	88	28	$450	469	running	Buck Baker
11	Buck Baker	87	27	$425	467	running	Buck Baker
13	Joel Davis	77	25	$390	462	running	Harold Mays
15	Henley Gray	97	17	$395	450	running	Henley Gray
16	Sam McQuagg	98	3	$435	449	engine	Nichels Engineering
18	Wendell Scott	34	12	$365	439	running	Wendell Scott
19	Bobby Johns	7	7	$355	437	diff	Shorty Johns
22	Tom Pistone	59	20	$450	357	engine	Tom Pistone
23	Bill Champion	72	10	$325	315	u joint	Bill Champion
24	Doug Cooper	2	19	$350	290	diff	Bob Cooper
26	Gene Cline	95	38	$275	242	diff	Gene Cline
27	Jimmy Helms	53	16	$300	170	brakes	David Warren
30	Clyde Lynn	20	13	$300	130	diff	Clyde Lynn
31	Pee Wee Ellwanger	73	32	$250	127	diff	Joan Petre
32	Stick Elliott	18	30	$250	124	brakes	Toy Bolton
35	Neil Castles	86	33	$250	43	oil leak	Buck Baker
36	Buddy Arrington	67	26	$275	36	vibration	Buddy Arrington
38	Bob Derrington	5	35	$250	4	vibration	Bob Derrington
39	Sonny Lamphear	96	40	$250	4	clutch	Homer O'Dell
40	Ed Jordan	50	31	$250	1	handling