1977 Nashville 420

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]}

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

Four hundred and twenty laps were done on a paved oval track spanning .596 miles (0.959 km) for a grand total of 250.3 miles (402.8 km).^[2] The race took three hours, ten minutes, and nine seconds to successfully complete.^[2] Darrell Waltrip defeated Bobby Allison by more than one lap^[3] in front of seventeen thousand and five hundred people.^[2] This race was important to Waltrip as this track was considered his "local" Winston Cup Series track at the time. Ten cautions were given for fifty-four laps.^[2] Notable speeds were: 78.999 miles per hour (127.137 km/h) as the average speed^[4] and 104.21 miles per hour (167.71 km/h) as the pole position speed.^[2] Total winnings for this race were $56,175^[4] ($291,486.86 when adjusted for inflation) and the winner walked away with $9,415 of that amount ($48,853.56 when adjusted for inflation).

Waltrip was overcome by the excessive heat shortly after the race. As a result, he took oxygen while on top of his vehicle's hood and wasn't lucid enough to give a post-race interview. Ronnie Thomas was supposed to make his debut on this track but got into a wreck and didn't get it fixed in time to qualify. He would make his debut in the 1977 running of the Old Dominion 500 (now Tums Fast Relief 500) instead.

Mike Kempton made his official NASCAR debut in this event while Henley Gray would retire from professional stock car racing as a driver after this event.^[5]

Grid	No.	Driver	Manufacturer
1	72	Benny Parsons	Chevrolet
2	5	Neil Bonnett	Dodge
3	11	Cale Yarborough	Chevrolet
4	3	Richard Childress	Chevrolet
5	12	Bobby Allison	Matador
6	88	Darrell Waltrip	Chevrolet
7	43	Richard Petty	Dodge
8	15	Buddy Baker	Ford
9	90	Dick Brooks	Ford
10	52	Jimmy Means	Chevrolet
11	27	Sam Sommers	Chevrolet
12	48	James Hylton	Chevrolet
13	92	Skip Manning	Chevrolet
14	70	J.D. McDuffie	Chevrolet
15	68	Janet Guthrie	Chevrolet
16	64	Elmo Langley	Ford
17	22	Ricky Rudd	Chevrolet
18	67	Buddy Arrington	Dodge
19	41	Grant Adcox	Chevrolet
20	40	D.K. Ulrich	Chevrolet

† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased
* Driver failed to finish race