1977 Music City USA 420
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| Race details[1][2] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 11 of 30 in the 1977 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season | |||
 | |||
| Date | May 7, 1977 | ||
| Official name | Music City USA 420 | ||
| Location | Nashville Speedway, Nashville, Tennessee | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 0.596 miles (0.959 km) | ||
| Distance | 420 laps, 250.3 mi (402.8 km) | ||
| Weather | Hot with temperatures of 86 °F (30 °C); wind speeds of 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 87.490 miles per hour (140.802 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | DiGard Motorsports | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Cale Yarborough | Junior Johnson & Associates | |
| Laps | 398 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 72 | Benny Parsons | DeWitt Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | untelevised | ||
| Announcers | none | ||
The 1977 Music City USA 420 was a 420-lap race that took place on May 7, 1977, at Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tennessee.
Nashville Speedway was converted to a half-mile paved oval in 1957, when it began to be a NASCAR series track. The speedway was lengthened between the 1969 and 1970 seasons. The corners were cut down from 35 degrees to their present 18 degrees in 1972.[citation needed]
Race report
The race itself took two hours, fifty-one minutes, and forty seconds from the first green flag to the checkered flag.[2] Benny Parsons was the race winner with an average speed of 87.49 miles per hour (140.80 km/h), while the pole position winner Darrell Waltrip had a speed of 103.643 miles per hour (166.797 km/h) and finished the race in 3rd place.[2] Cale Yarborough led the race with most number of laps (275) and was the points leader after the race for the NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship.[2] However, Benny Parsons would defeat him by one second.[2]
Ricky Rudd made his fourth 4th career top-10 finish at this race.[3]
Twenty thousand people attended this race that had a total prize purse of $56,350 ($299,388.39 in current US dollars).[2] The winner would leave the event earning $9,565 ($50,818.99 in current US dollars) while the last-place finisher would walk away with $255 in cash earnings ($1,354.82 in current US dollars).[4]
Other notable names among the drivers included Ricky Rudd, Coo Coo Marlin, Richard Petty, Elmo Langley, and Richard Childress.[2] Notable crew chiefs included Buddy Parrott, Jake Elder, Joey Arrington, Kirk Shelmerdine, and Dale Inman.[5]
Paul Dean Holt would retire from NASCAR after this race after competing in 85 races, while Ralph Jones would make his introduction into NASCAR racing during this race.[6]
Qualifying
| Grid[2] | No. | Driver | Manufacturer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 88 | Darrell Waltrip | Chevrolet |
| 2 | 72 | Benny Parsons | Chevrolet |
| 3 | 11 | Cale Yarborough | Chevrolet |
| 4 | 43 | Richard Petty | Dodge |
| 5 | 12 | Bobby Allison | AMC Matador |
| 6 | 2 | Dave Marcis | Chevrolet |
| 7 | 15 | Buddy Baker | Ford |
| 8 | 52 | Jimmy Means | Chevrolet |
| 9 | 92 | Skip Manning | Chevrolet |
| 10 | 3 | Richard Childress | Chevrolet |
| 11 | 70 | J.D. McDuffie | Chevrolet |
| 12 | 22 | Ricky Rudd | Chevrolet |
| 13 | 81 | Terry Ryan | Chevrolet |
| 14 | 67 | Buddy Arrington | Dodge |
| 15 | 14 | Coo Coo Marlin | Chevrolet |
Finishing order
Section reference:[2]
- Benny Parsons (No. 72)
- Cale Yarborough (No. 11)
- Darrell Waltrip (No. 88)
- Dave Marcis (No. 2)
- Richard Petty (No. 43)
- Buddy Baker (No. 15)
- Bobby Allison (No. 12)
- Coo Coo Marlin (No. 14)
- Jimmy Means (No. 52)
- Ricky Rudd (No. 22)
- James Hylton (No. 48)
- Gary Myers (No. 4)
- Cecil Gordon (No. 24)
- D.K. Ulrich (No. 40)
- Buddy Arrington (No. 67)
- Rick Newsom (No. 20)
- Earl Brooks (No. 33)
- Ralph Jones (No. 98)
- David Sisco (No. 16)
- Ferrell Harris (No. 25)
- Skip Manning* (No. 96)
- Dick Brooks* (No. 64)
- Elmo Langley* (No. 45)
- J.D. McDuffie* (No. 70)
- Henley Gray* (No. 19)
- Richard Childress* (No. 3)
- Terry Ryan* (No. 81)
- Paul Dean Holt* (No. 39)
- Frank Warren* (No. 79)
- Dean Dalton* (No. 7)
* Driver failed to finish race
