1964 Volunteer 500
auto race at Bristol International Speedway in 1964
The 1964 Volunteer 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on July 26, 1964, at Bristol International Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee.
Buddy Baker won the Saturday qualifying race to earn 25th starting position, but was replaced by Jimmy Helms in the 500 lap feature.
Race report
There was a racing grid of 36 drivers who were all born in the United States of America. Fred Lorenzen defeated Richard Petty by slightly more than a lap in front of 25,500 people in order to win the top prize of $4,185 USD ($43,444 when adjusted for inflation). Petty was considered to be on pace to win the race until his rear end failed on the last lap; forcing him to accept a second-place finish. However, Petty's car developed the problem sometime before starting the final lap. As a result, Petty had a big enough lead to where Lorenzen did not catch him until the car failed entirely.
Five lead changes were made and the caution flag was waved only once for 14 laps. Darrell Bryant received the last place finish and a measly $275 paycheck ($2,855 when adjusted for inflation) for a fuel pressure issue on lap 1 that forced him out of the race. Petty would receive the pole position for his qualifying speed of 82.910 miles per hour (133.431 km/h) while the average speed of the race would be 78.044 miles per hour (125.600 km/h).
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This entry incorporates text from “1964 Volunteer 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.