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The ''1961 National 400'' was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Sprint Cup Series) event that was held on October 15, 1961 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. The race car drivers still had to commute to the races using the same stock cars that competed in a typical weekend's race through a policy of homologation (and under their own power). This policy was in effect until roughly 1975. By 1980, NASCAR had completely stopped tracking the year model of all the vehicles and most teams did not take stock cars to the track under their own power any more. ==Summary== David Pearson, Fireball Roberts and Junior Johnson would dominate the early portion of the race. This race would last for roughly three hours and twenty minutes; an audience of more than 35,000 NASCAR followers would see race cars reaching up to . Ken Rush was credited with the last-place finish due to problems with his rocker arm on lap 16 out of this 267-lap stock car racing event. Junior Johnson's "top ten" finish came as a result of a problem with one of his wheels on lap 256; he was destined for a "top five" finish until he encountered that problem.〔(Racing information for the ''1961 National 400'' ) at Racing Reference〕 Most of the vehicles in the race were either Pontiacs or Ford. Junior Johnson, Bob Welborn and Fireball Roberts would be the joint leaders during the middle portion of the race.〔 Fireball Roberts' vehicle would suffer from severe damage after blowing a right front tire on lap 113. Not only did the vehicle managed smash the guard rail, it also succeeded in sliding back into a herd of competing drivers; where a car slammed at it while driving in excess of . However, Fireball Roberts wasn't even remotely injured as a result of seat belts and "superior driving.〔(`Fireball' -- Racing Star's Death Spurred Changes ) at Orlando Sentinel〕" Joe Weatherly would eventually gain the lead on lap 263 and used this opportunity to rob Richard Petty of a win by being almost two car lengths ahead of him. All 43 drivers on the starting grid were born in the United States of America; no foreigner was recorded qualifying for the race.〔 Individual race winnings for each driver ranged from the winner's share of $9,510 ($ when adjusted for inflation) to the last-place finishers' share of $275 ($ when adjusted for inflation). The total prize purse offered for this professional stock car racing event was $42,050 ($ when adjusted for inflation).〔(Racing information for the ''1961 National 400'' ) at Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1961 National 400」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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