1963 Old Dominion 500
auto race held at Martinsville Speedway in 1963
The 1963 Old Dominion 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on September 22, 1963, at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia.
Background
Martinsville Speedway is one of five short tracks to hold NASCAR races. The standard track at Martinsville Speedway is a four-turn short track oval that is 0.526 miles (0.847 km) long. The track's turns are banked at eleven degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at zero degrees. The back stretch also has a zero degree banking.
Race report
The race was scheduled for 500 laps; taking three hours and forty-two minutes to complete. Fred Lorenzen defeated Marvin Panch by a single lap and two seconds. Twenty thousand people came to witness three lead changes and five cautions for eighteen laps. Junior Johnson won the pole position for this race; driving speeds up to 73.379 miles per hour (118.092 km/h) in qualifying. Speeds during the actual race managed to reach up to 67.486 miles per hour (108.608 km/h).
The public source identifies “1963 Old Dominion 500” as auto race held at Martinsville Speedway in 1963. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Dominion, auto and race.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “1963 Old Dominion 500”, the useful work is to connect “auto race held at Martinsville Speedway in 1963” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19867109. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1963.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “1963 Old Dominion 500”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 1963 Old Dominion 500 primary sources, 1963 Old Dominion 500 archive and Dominion research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1963 Old Dominion 500”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “1963 Old Dominion 500” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.