Nashville's 1974 Permatex Southern 400

From 1958 through 1973, Nashville's racing facility was known simply as Fairground Speedways. The property was renamed Nashville Speedway in 1974, and the new moniker remained through 1978.

The name seemed new to many and certainly highlighted the city's name. The former, generic fairgrounds label could be used to refer to many other tracks around the country. 

After Lanny Hester and Gary Baker took over from Bill Donoho as leaseholders and promoters in December 1978, they renamed their newly acquired property Nashville International Raceway. In the years to follow with a turnstile of new promoters, the track went through additional name changes including Nashville Motor Raceway and Music City Motorplex. Today, the track's name under promoter Tony Formosa, Jr. reflects the facility's origins albeit with an alternate ending "s": Fairgrounds Speedway.

In other ways, however, the change to Nashville Speedway was a bit of a throwback. Prior to opening the fairgrounds track, promoter Bill Donoho and his partners operated a quarter-mile track near East Nashville. Most referred to the track by its original name, the Legion Bowl. By the late 1950s, however, the track was formally named Nashville Speedways.

In addition to getting a fresh name, the walls got a fresh look as well. Gone was the traditional black and white pattern.With the increased support for Cup and local racing from R.J. Reynolds, the walls were repainted red and white to match RJR's Winston branding.

Credit for both photos: Russ Thompson

Despite the name and paint changes, one song that remained the same was the running of the season-ending, 16th annual Southern 400 on September 29th.

Though the race's schedule placement did not change, the distance almost did. Before the season began, Donoho planned to extend the race one hundred laps to create Nashville's own version of the Southern 500. The race would have been the longest on Nashville's schedule - including its two Winston Cup races.

In response to the nation's energy crisis, NASCAR's Bill France Sr. asked its sanctioned tracks to make measurable cuts as a visible effort to conserve energy. In addition to various other changes, Donoho opted to reduce the Southern by one hundred laps rather than increase it.

Cutting the race would have returned the Southern to 300 laps, the traditional length from 1959 through 1972. For reasons that aren't clear, however, the decision was made later to restore the Southern back to 400 laps.

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Jack Ingram captured the pole during qualifying. Ingram was the defending winner of the Southern 400 as well as the reigning NASCAR national Late Model Sportsman champion.

Darrell Waltrip qualified second. After four seasons driving Chevelle's for owners P.B. Crowell and Ellis Cook, Waltrip moved to R.C. Alexander's Ford in 1974. In doing so, he reversed his former number 48 to Alexander's 84.

Butch Lindley began racing at Nashville in 1974 and liked his results. He won a 200-lapper and finished runner-up to Waltrip in a 100-lap event. Having gained a bit of familiarity with the track, he timed third.

Freddy Fryar returned for another shot at his third Southern and had the fourth quickest lap. Fryar was the only driver in the field with a chance at a third victory as other two-time winners Jimmy Griggs, Friday Hassler, and Red Farmer were not entered.

Top starters Ingram, Waltrip, Lindley, and Fryar

Twin 30-lap qualifying races set the remainder of the 34-car field. L.D.Ottinger and Flookie Buford won the heat races and lined up fifth and sixth, respectively.

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The track offered drivers an incentive to compete for the lead in addition to a healthy winner's purse. Drivers earned $10 for each lap led as a result of support from varying race sponsors.

Though the amount per lap sounds low by today's standards, the lap bonuses caught the drivers' eyes. One could pad the regular race dollars by spending a lot of time up front. Taking a chunk of the extra $4,000 could help pay for tires, travel expenses, or other costs.

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At the start, Waltrip fired off just as he did a year earlier. In the 1973 Southern, Waltrip got the early jump on pole-winner Randy Bethea. A year later though in a different car, Waltrip grabbed the same advantage over Ingram.

Once out front, Waltrip did as Waltrip frequently did at Nashville: lead. He led close to thirty of the first fifty laps and seemed to have the right combination to win his second Southern.

On lap 51, however, Waltrip lost a cylinder and had to park it. He went from having an early command of the race to getting a head start home to Franklin.

Waltrip's departure followed the early exit by a couple of other name drivers. Ottinger hit the wall on lap 11 and finished dead last. Jimmy Means, Nashville's 1974 late model sportsman champion, followed Ottinger to the trailer a few laps later.

With Waltrip and Ottinger sidelined, Fryar reminded the field he still knew how to race in Nashville despite two track re-configurations. He led 131 laps in the middle stages of the race, but his return to Music City ended with suspension issues and a subsequent visit to the wall on lap 245.

Two contenders remained following Fryar's exit: Ingram and Lindley. Ingram led a few dozen laps, but it was Lindley who racked up one ten spot after another as the race continued its second half.

With 120 laps to go, Ingram gained the advantage over Lindley during a pit sequence. Both roared back into action, and Ingram had his hands full with Lindley's #16 red Chevelle in hot pursuit.

As the duo barreled through turns one and two, Buford lost an engine in front of them. Ingram caught the oil and drilled Buford. He continued, but his car suffered a good bit of damage. Lindley saw the problem unfolding, dropped low, and sailed by without incident.

Though Ingram stayed in the race, he was no longer a factor and faded to a sixth place finish. Lindley led the rest of the way, collected $1,900 of the $4,000 lap money, and pocketed his second Nashville win of the season.

Most of the photos in this post were snapped by Russ Thompson, long-time racing fan, participant, and Nashville racing historian. I recommend viewing more of his pictures from the 1974 Southern 400 here.

Source for articles: The Tennessean

TMC

Nashville's 1969 Southern 300

The eleventh running of Nashville's Southern 300 at Fairground Speedways was on Sunday, September 28, 1969. The race concluded the track's season and was also the final race on the original half-mile surface.

Jim Donoho, son of track promoter Bill Donoho, worked in the family business from childhood and served in varied positions. Bill elevated Jim to track president in July 1968, and dear ol' dad further honored his son by attaching his name to the 1969 Southern 300.

Jim, still a University of Tennessee student at the time of his presidential promotion, ran point on the track's largest project since its original construction in 1958. After plenty of planning, the half-mile track was to be converted into a high-banked, 5/8-mile oval following the 1969 Southern 300.

David Sisco of Hohenwald, TN captured the track's 1969 late model sportsman title with three feature wins and consistently solid finishes. The perks of being the champ included sharing time with a couple of pretties as they promoted the season-ending event. (For the record, neither of the two women below won the Miss Southern 300 contest.)

A couple of years after his LMS title, Sisco embarked on a career as an independent NASCAR Winston Cup driver. He competed pretty much full time from 1973 through 1976. Sadly, however, he retired from racing in 1977 a few weeks after the death of his mother in a Talladega infield traffic accident.

Freddy Fryar - Nashville's 1964 track champion and 1967 Southern 300 winner - captured the pole during Friday's qualifying. Red Farmer qualified second as he prepared to defend his 1968 Southern 300 title. Farmer started on the Southern front row for the fourth consecutive year.

Charlie Binkley lined up third with P.B. Crowell timing fourth in his familiar orange-and-white #48 Chevelle. Qualifying set the remainder of the top 23 cars. The finishing order of a 30-lap consolation race determined the final ten starters similar to what had been done the previous two years.

The field included several regional drivers who'd eventually become well known at NASCAR's Late Model Sportsman, Busch Series, and Cup levels including Sisco, Darrell Waltrip, L.D. Ottinger, Gene Glover, and Benny Kerley. Waltrip needed an assist to make the show. He was not among the quickest qualifiers, but he did win the consolation race to start the 300 in 24th spot.

The drivers had some financial incentive to chase the lead in the 300. In addition to $3,000 payable to the race winner, the track paid a $5 per lap bonus to the leading driver.

Fryar roared to the lead at the drop of the green and established himself as the lap bully. He pocketed one fiver after another as he led the first half of the race.

Farmer had the car to beat in the 1966 and 1967 Southerns, but misfortune busted him both years. He finally put a full 300 laps together in 1968 and won the race. Hoping to go back-to-back in '69, it just wasn't meant to be. He made an early exit and was never a factor.

When Fryar pitted on lap 165, Binkley assumed the lead and began to assert himself as the big dawg of the race's second half. With Binkley in the lead, fans witnessed an awful wreck on lap 214 involving Ronnie Blasingim and popular Jimmy Griggs, winner of the 1958 and 1959 Southerns and Nashville's 1962 modified division championship.

Though some believed Griggs blew a tire as he headed for turn one, Griggs' crew believed he passed out in the car. Either way, Griggs spun and was center-punched by Blasingim.

Both drivers were rushed to the hospital. All things considered, Blasingim escaped with minimal damage though he did need surgery and treatment for eye, cheekbone and other head injuries. Griggs, on the other hand, was critically injured and struggled for several weeks during his recovery.

When racing resumed, Binkley retained his top spot. He continued pacing the field though he had to pit for fuel with 20 laps to go. Unfortunately for Binkley, however, his crew added only a smidgen to his tank. He ran dry a second time with victory in sight.

After losing a cylinder, Fryar struggled a bit with horsepower during the second half of the race. His gear shift also broke, and he had to coax his car to get-up-and-go on restarts while in high gear. He had conceded the win to Binkley - until Charley's crew didn't add enough gas to get him to the win.

With new life, Fryar swept across the finish time and captured his second Southern 300 win in three years. Binkley faded to a seventh place finish as his crew fumed and feuded in the pits over their fueling miscue.

Fryar's win in the final race on the half-mile track also created a bit of Nashville racing trivia. He also won the Nashville 100 on October 5, 1957 - the final race at the dirt, quarter-mile Nashville Speedways on Cowan Street. The predecessor to the Fairgrounds facility is more commonly remembered by its original name: the Legion Bowl.

After some touch-and-go days, Jimmy Griggs' health began improving steadily as the calendar moved into November. Though the accident ended his racing days, Griggs remained an important part of Nashville's racing past and present. When the Fairgrounds resumed LMS racing on its new 5/8-mile track in August 1970, Griggs served as the Grand Marshal for the Flameless 300.

Nashville racing historian Russ Thompson shared some video footage from the weekend including qualifying and/or practice by cars including Fryar (301), Sisco (15), and Alton Jones (50); driver introductions; the start of the race; the aftermath of the Griggs-Blasingim wreck; and Fryar's victory lane celebration.

Source for articles: The Tennessean

TMC

Nashville's 1967 Southern 300

The ninth running of the Southern 300 at Nashville's Fairground Speedways - the final late model race of season - was slated for Sunday, October 1, 1967. The International 300, an event for modifieds and super modifieds, closed out the season two weeks later.

A few days before the race, track promoters Bill Donoho and Bennie Goodman had received 72 entries for the race. Only the top 33 cars would start meaning more than half the entrants would be loaded before the green flag fell.

The 72 entrants did not include Coo Coo Marlin, Nashville's defending track and race champion.

After scoring 13 wins and his fourth track title in 1966, Marlin returned for another full season at the Fairgrounds along with three NASCAR Grand National races. Coo Coo picked up where he'd left off the previous year. With only a couple of races to go in the 1967 season, Marlin had collected nine victories and was in the hunt for his fifth title.

Things then went a bit awry for Marlin - on the track and in his relationship with the promoters. In a 100-lap race on September 4th, Marlin cut a tire and wrecked with 20 laps to go. With the DNF, his chances at the title were gone as winless Walter Wallace captured the title with one race to go. For some reason, Coo Coo became angry at Donoho and Goodman and swore he would not return to race.

Rain canceled the final race of the season scheduled for September 9th. With only the Southern 300 left to go as a national late model race, Donoho and Goodman had no idea if Marlin would race or not. He played hard to get in interviews about the readiness of his car and the efforts of his crew.

But sure nuff, when race weekend rolled around, Coo Coo was back. He willingly forfeited a $50 bonus payable to the defending track champion because his entry wasn't received by the due date. Marlin laughed it off and considered it money well spent just to prove some sort of point to Dohono & Goodman.

Goodman made it a point, however, to pay Coo Coo his bonus anyway because he'd verbally committed to running the race earlier in the month. When asked for a response to Marlin's comment that it was worth $50 to bug the promoters, Goodman snarked "With 75 entries, we were really worried about him."

Red Farmer returned for another shot at the Southern 300 trophy. Though Red won a handful of Nashville races over the years and was often a factor in the Southern, he'd never been able to close the big race with a victory. A year earlier, he cut a tire and bent a tie rod - ending his day with 50 laps to go and a one-lap lead on the field.

Farmer once again was fast off the trailer, and he captured the pole for the second consecutive year. After his wishy-washy opinion about racing in the Southern, Marlin qualified second - and frankly to no one's surprise.

The third-place qualifier did turn a few heads, however, as Marty Robbins hustled his #777 Plymouth around the half-mile. Local racer and two-time Southern winner, Jimmy Griggs, timed fourth quickest in R.C. Alexander's #84 Ford. All four posed with the coveted trophy.

Source: Nashville Fairgrounds Racing History

The top 25 starters were set during regular qualifying. The balance of the 33-car field was filled with the top eight finishers in a 20-lap consolation race.

The consi race turned out to be more of a hooligan show. Thirty-one cars took the green in the quick, get-to-the-front event. Four laps into the race, however, sixteen cars wrecked - half the field! Eight more tangled a couple of laps after the restart. When Bob Hunley mercifully took the checkers to advance, only thirteen of the 33 cars remained on the track.

Excitement builds as the start nears.
Charlie Higdon (4), Walter Wallace (43), Donnie Allison (47), George Bonee (14)

Farmer began the race just as he'd done a year earlier. At the drop of the green, he set sail and dared others to keep up with him. Lap by lap, bit by bit, many proved they weren't up to the challenge.

Newly crowned track champ Walter Wallace had more time to celebrate his title that Sunday because he didn't race very long. He broke a crankshaft on lap one, and his day was done before even having time to break a sweat.

Marlin, Robbins, and Griggs were quick in qualifying, but none were reliable on race day. Rear-end issues ended Griggs' day after only 100 laps, and Coo Coo accompanied him at the trailers 30 laps later with a failed engine. A broken left front wheel spindle led to a disappointing DNF day for the Twentieth Century Drifter.

Eight cautions chewed up about a quarter of the race's laps. With each restart, however, Farmer retained the lead. At the two-thirds mark of the race, Red had a two-lap lead on the field. But then, the ghosts of past races returned to haunt him again.

On lap 209, Donnie Allison lost a rear-end and spilled grease on the backstretch. Local racers Bobby Walker and Charlie Higdon collected each other as they slid through it. Farmer hit the patch of grease and sailed into the turn 3 wall - painfully ending his quest for the Southern trophy once more.

Freddy Fryar, Nashville's 1964 late model track champion, raced out of Chattanooga for several years but had relocated to Baton Rouge. He also relocated his track position at just the right time. He eased through Allison's oily mess and was sitting pretty when the green returned.

With the top four qualifiers sidelined as well as about half of the remaining starters, Fryar cruised the remaining 90 or so laps to claim his 34th regional late model win of the season.

Fryar had hoped to parlay his remarkable 1967 late model season capped by the Southern 300 win into a NASCAR Grand National ride. His plans, however, didn't pan out that way. Not only did Freddy miss out on a full-time ride, he didn't even get a part-time one.

Though he already had three NASCAR GN starts dating back to 1956, Fryar raced only three more times at the top level over the 1970-71 seasons including the 1970 Alabama 500 at Talladega driving a winged Plymouth Superbird.

Source for articles: The Tennessean

TMC

Nashville's 1964 Southern 300

The 1964 racing season at Nashville's Fairground Speedways brought significant change for drivers, owners, and fans. Gone were the modified coupes of the past six years. Replacing them were late model modifieds - full sedans.

Similar to NASCAR's top series, track promoters opted to have cars on the track that more closely resembled those in the parking lot. Also, several other Southeastern regional tracks made the switch to late models. Many drivers raced multiple tracks over varying weekday and weekend nights. So the alignment with other tracks helped Nashville continue to draw top racers who could continue to race the same equipment in different locales.

The decision to switch divisions went over with many about as well as a fart in church. Many owners, particularly owner-drivers, were less than thrilled with the idea of ditching perfectly good cars and spending hard-to-come-by dollars to buy or build entirely new cars. A couple of drivers retired rather than begin anew with the replacement division. In 2011, Nashville racing historian Russ Thompson blogged about the new era of racing at the Fairgrounds.

Despite the complaints by some, the switch was made. Though the late models replaced the modifieds, many of the same players returned for the traditional Southern 300. The seventh annual Southern was slated for Sunday, October 4, 1964.

Beginning with the first Southern race in 1958, the track wanted to build significance to the race by awarding a large trophy. Though the trophies were large in stature, they varied in design over the years.

The double-handed, fat jug design awarded to Friday Hassler for his 1963 Southern 300 win returned for the winner of the 1964 race. The size of it was compelling to the young...

...as well as to the restless!

The track offered fans a full weekend of track activity to enjoy: Sunday's 400 lapper, Saturday's qualifying, and Friday's Figure 8 races.

Figure 8 races have long since disappeared from the Fairgrounds, and much of the 1/4-mile track's infield has been paved. Some vestiges of the "X marks the spot" track, however, are still identifiable.

Bob Burcham from Chattanooga arrived in Nashville with a bit of momentum. About a month earlier on Labor Day, Burcham won a 100-lap feature at the Fairgrounds in somewhat of a tune-up for the Southern 300. He picked up where he left off and captured the Southern 300 pole.

Fellow Noogan Freddy Fryar qualified on the front row with Burcham. A year earlier, Fryar and Burcham started second and third, respectively, to pole winner Bobby Allison. The brothers Marlin - Coo Coo and Jack - took the second row. Local racer Charlie Binkley qualified fifth followed by  Hassler, the 1962-63 Southern 300 winner and a third Chattanoogan in the field.

The race had fans watching action on the track - and possible action in the skies. Hurricane Hilda battered the Gulf Coast in the days leading up to the race. Its remnants of heavy rain began making their way up through the south, and the hope was to complete the race before storms arrived.

The field included many top flight racers including several out-of-towners, but local favorite Binkley gave his guests quite the challenge. Charlie passed cars seemingly with ease throughout the race - including the leaders. After making his second stop of the race, Binkley found himself two laps down but kept digging. With about 50 laps to go, however, Binkley's engine had no more to give. The solid effort quickly devolved into a 13th place DNF.

Another local racer, Walter Wallace, triggered the day's most frightening caution soon after the 100-lap mark. Wallace spun in the third turn, and Bill Gregg and Fryar soon found themselves sideways after both clobbered the guardrail.

Fryar took the worst lick of the three. Track crews pulled him from his car and loaded him onto a stretcher as he complained of some whiplash. The rest of the field filed by as other workers began to sweep the debris.

When Allison rolled by, a spark from his car ignited a pool of fuel spilled from Wallace's Ford. A huge fireball suddenly erupted behind the yellow #62. Fortunately, Wallace, Gregg, Fryar, nor any of the track crew were injured.

Photo sequence courtesy of Russ Thompson

Over the next 200 laps, action at the front included Red Farmer, Coo Coo Marlin, pole winner Burcham, former NASCAR Grand National racer Joe Lee Johnson, and Binkley.

As the race headed into its final 50 laps or so, things began to sort out themselves.

• Farmer made an emergency stop to change a cut tire.
• Binkley fell out with his blown engine. 
• Coo Coo had to manage his fuel mileage to make it until the end.
• Burcham, Allison, and Johnson built a one lap-lead on the rest of the field because of the misfortune of others.

Burcham found his groove in the remaining laps and gapped Allison and Johnson a bit. With five to go, it was Burcham's race to lose. Then with two to go, that just happened. The Plymouth's engine delivered a crushing gut punch to its driver, and Burcham unwillingly traded a win for a third-place finish.

Allison lucked himself into the lead via Burcham's failed engine and completed the final two laps to win over Johnson. Joe Lee immediately cried foul believing Allison lost an additional lap during his pit stop than was scored. After a re-check, however, Johnson's protest was denied as Allison celebrated his unexpected W.

Burcham returned to the Fairgrounds over the next several years and won Flameless 300 races in 1967 and 1969 as well as three additional 100-lap features. Following the Fairgrounds' rebuilding of the track to its high-banked design in 1970 and subsequently the 18-degree configuration that remains today, however, Burcham could no longer find victory lane.

Source: Nashville Banner

Allison had a couple of Grand National / Cup starts in his pocket from 1961. After winning the 1964 Southern 300, he raced another eight Cup starts in 1965. He essentially became a full-time Grand National driver in 1966; however, he continued racing modified and sportsman events whenever and wherever he could - not just in 1966 but for pretty much the next 20 years.

For the first time since the track's opening in 1958, the Southern 300 wasn't the final race of the year. Two weeks after the Southern, the Fairgrounds hosted a 300-lap Open Competition race. The field was again comprised of local and out-of-town racers but with a different twist. Late model sedans, modifieds, and winged sprints all raced together in somewhat of a run what ya brung format.

Source for articles: The Tennessean and Nashville Banner

TMC

1970 Flameless 300

Since 1958, Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway closed its seasons annually for twenty years with the running of the Southern 300 during the 1960s and Southern 400 in the 1970s. Beginning in 1966, the track scheduled the Flameless 300 as its April season opener (1967 - 1968 - 1969).

A month following the 1969 Southern 300, construction crews arrived to tear up the original half-mile track and replace it with a high-banked one. Long-time Nashville racing historian, Russ Thompson, blogged in 2011:

After the fire destroyed the original grandstands in September of 1965, the track went into a holding pattern. Management realized the track needed to be updated but wanted to wait until a decision was made to reconstruct a permanent grandstand. The “temporary” stands served the track for four seasons.

During 1969 the Fair Board approved construction of a new state-of-the-art grandstand. It would be covered like the original stands, but unique in that there would be no posts supporting the roof. A revolutionary design was implemented where a series of cables would support the roof from above. With the construction of the stands, the decision was made to build a new track as well. The track would have the steepest banks in the nation at 36 degrees. And the distance would be slightly longer than the half-mile at five-eighths of a mile.

The new track was supposed to be ready for racing by May 30, 1970 - about six weeks later than the traditional season opening. Instead, multiple delays pushed the completion date until well into the summer.

The track was finally ready - barely - by mid-July. Rather than launch the abbreviated season with the late model sportsman 300-lapper, NASCAR's Grand National teams arrived to christen the new track. The Nashville 420 was slotted for July 25th - about the same of the year as it had been throughout the 1960s. Bobby Isaac won the race, but the larger story was about tires. Speeds were significantly faster on the new, smooth, high-banked track, and the tires simply couldn't cope with them.

A newer tire compound was brought in for the 1970 edition of the Flameless 300 two weeks later on August 8th, the second event of the shortened season. It was expected to be a safer, more predictable tire for the late model racers.

Source: The Tennessean

The defending and two-time winner of the Flameless 300, Bob Burcham, did not return for the 1970 race. He had been expected to race and perhaps would have done so if the race was held on one of the previously expected dates.

Freddy Fryar, also a two-time Flameless 300 winner, returned for the 1970 race after missing it in 1969. Fryar's finish in his first outing on the new track, however, hardly resembled the solid finishes he'd experienced on the old half-mile.

Source: The Tennessean

A driver making his Nashville debut was  Jerry Sisco, brother of 1969 track champion and future Winston Cup driver, Dave Sisco.

Source: The Nashville Banner

Jerry Sisco endured a bit of irony in two different rookie seasons.

• He began his Nashville racing days in the 1970 Flameless 300. 
• Six years later as a Cup rookie in Darlington's Rebel 500, he pounded the wall and went up in flames. He was pulled to safety by Dale Inman and Barry Dodson from Petty Enterprises' crew. The race was Jerry's fourth (and perhaps understandably) final career Cup start.

Jimmy Griggs, a long-time Nashville racer, winner and fan favorite, was badly injured in the 1969 season-ending Southern 300. About two-thirds of the race through the race, Griggs and Ron Blasingim were involved in a first-turn, two-car savage wreck with Griggs getting the worst end of it. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and needed months to recover.

Source: Nashville Fairgrounds Racing History Facebook Group

The accident ended Griggs' racing career. But he returned just shy of a year later to be the Grand Marshal for the 1970 Flameless 300.

Source: The Tennessean

Chattanooga, TN drivers Fryar and Burcham had ruled the night in the four previous Flameless 300 races. The duo split the four races, and Burcham won two poles to boot. Another Chattanooga driver - Friday Hassler - added to the Scenic City narrative by winning the pole position for the 1970 race. 

A two-time winner of Nashville's Southern 300 in 1962-1963, Hassler had been a frequent NASCAR GN racer since 1967, and he was the only driver in the Flameless field to also race in Nashville's GN event a month earlier.

James Ham, a local racer since 1968, seemingly loved the high banks. He qualified an unexpected second. With the new configuration, Nashville's track record was destroyed by the top qualifiers by about 30 MPH.

An occasional racer at the Fairgrounds from Owensboro, Kentucky - Darrell Waltrip - qualified third, and Bill Morton lined up fourth. Waltrip committed to run the full season, such that it was, in Nashville for the first time in 1970 in an orange-and-white #48 Chevelle owned by long-time Nashville racer P.B. Crowell.

Though the tire issues experienced in the Grand National race seemed to have been resolved, new challenges faced the late models. The speeds of the new high-banked demon stressed the cars and drivers. 

Hassler led eight of the first nine laps before breaking a rocker arm in his engine. Ham interrupted Hassler's lead but for only one lap. After only six laps, he broke a wheel spindle and within moments was joined on the sidelines by Hassler. The top two qualifiers suddenly found themselves as the bottom two finishers.

With Hassler and Ham gone, Charlie Binkley in #125 took over and led the first third of the race. Fryar in #41 and Waltrip followed close behind as all three took the high line around the speedway - not even close to the line that drivers take on today's track configuration.

Continuing the theme of the night, however, Binkley's early domination ended with a parts failure. His distributor gave up the ghost, and he parked it as had fourteen other cars before him - all before the halfway mark of the race!

Fryar broke a crankshaft a couple of laps after Binkley's exit, and he would not become a three-time Flameless 300 winner. Fryar's night was not done just yet though. Nearing lap 200, former NASCAR GN driver and middle Tennessee transplant, Bunkie Blackburn hit pit road. He almost passed out from fumes in the car and needed oxygen when pulled from his car. Fryar immediately belted into Blackburn's #42 in relief.

Before Blackburn could be transported to a local hospital, however, Fryar's night was finally done. Not long after returning to the track, Fryar wrecked Blackburn's car while trying to pass a lapped car.

A full third of the race remained, but few cars remained to challenge for the win. With many of the top starters already parked, Waltrip put 'er on cruise control and piled up lap after lap out front. When the checkered flag fell, the late model rookie was five laps ahead of second place finisher L.D. Ottinger and 25 laps ahead of third place finisher, Ben Pierce. Only eight of 33 cars were still around to see the end of the Flameless.

The victory was Waltrip's first late model win at Nashville. He followed it with 50+ more of them. Waltrip's Nashville resume is also padded with:

• two late model sportsman track titles
• eight Winston Cup victories - including four in a row
• a Busch Series win
• a USAC stock car division win, and 
• an All American 400 win.

Waltrip also won eleven Cup races at Bristol. He has noted he developed his feel for Bristol by racing on Nashville's high banks in the early 1970s.

Source: The Tennessean

Finishing Order:

1. Darrell Waltrip
2. L. D. Ottinger
3. Ben Pierce
4. Ronnie Blasingim
5. Jerry Sisco
6. Bob Brown
7. James Veach
8. Harold Carden
9. Jim Woodall
10. Junior Caldwell
11. Gene Payne
12. Bunky Blackburn
13. Dorman Adams
14. Bill Morton
15. Jimmy Kyle
16. David Sisco
17. Freddy Fryar
18. Phil Woodall
19. Charley Binkley
20. Flookie Buford
21. Charlie Higdon
22. Bobby Hargrove
23. Chester Albright
24. Bobby Walker
25. Bob Hunley
26. Jim McDowell
27. Donnie Roberts
28. Jimmy Williams
29. Art Ellis
30. David Lowe
31. B. K. Luna
32. Friday Hassler
33. James Ham

TMC