| Race details[1][2][3] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 12 of 55 in the1965 NASCAR Grand National Series season | |||
 A map showing the layout of Martinsville Speedway | |||
| Date | April 25, 1965 (1965-04-25) | ||
| Official name | Virginia 500 | ||
| Location | Martinsville Speedway,Martinsville, Virginia | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 0.525 miles (0.844 km) | ||
| Distance | 500 laps, 262.5 mi (442.4 km) | ||
| Weather | Cold with temperatures of 57 °F (14 °C); wind speeds of 8.9 miles per hour (14.3 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 66.735 mph (107.400 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 10,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Junior Johnson & Associates | ||
| Time | 24.160 seconds[4] | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Fred Lorenzen | Holman-Moody | |
| Laps | 338 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 28 | Fred Lorenzen | Holman-Moody | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | untelevised | ||
| Announcers | none | ||
The1965 Virginia 500 was aNASCARGrand National Series event that was held on April 25, 1965, atMartinsville Speedway inMartinsville, Virginia.
Fred Lorenzen, the winning driver of this race, would become the only driver to win four consecutive Martinsville races.
Martinsville Speedway is one of fiveshort tracks to holdNASCAR races.[5] The standard track at Martinsville Speedway is a four-turn short trackoval that is 0.526 miles (0.847 km) long.[6] The track's turns arebanked at elevendegrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at zero degrees. The back stretch also has a zero degree banking.[6]
The track was also one of the first pavedoval tracks in NASCAR, being built in 1947 by partners H. Clay Earles, Henry Lawrence and Sam Rice per Virginia House Joint Resolution No. 76 on the death of H. Clay Earles. (Whereas Clay Earles and his partners, Sam Rice and Henry Lawrence, opened the Martinsville Speedway in 1947 on a 30-acre site, one of the first of its kind in the nation ...) It is also the only race track that has been on the NASCAR circuit from its beginning in 1948. Along with this, Martinsville is the only NASCAR oval track on the entire NASCAR track circuit to have asphalt surfaces on the straightaways, then concrete to cover the turns.
The racing event (in what is now known as theMonster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) took approximately three hours and forty-four minutes to completely finish.[2][3] Five cautions were handed out by NASCAR officials for forty-nine laps.[2][3]Fred Lorenzen beatMarvin Panch by two car lengths in front of ten thousand people.[2][3]Curtis Crider retired from NASCAR after competing in this race. Most of the contenders in the race were drivingFord vehicles with the model years ranging from 1963 through 1965.[2][3] Terry Murchinson had aclutch problem with his unsponsored 1964Ford Galaxie after only two laps of racing and became the last-place finisher of the day. Jabe Thomas initially qualified in 11th position, withdrew from the event due to engine problem.[2][3]
Total winnings of the race were $20,725 ($206,790 when adjusted for inflation). Each driver took home winnings between $4,350 ($43,404 when adjusted for inflation) and $250 ($2,494 when adjusted for inflation) on an individual basis.[7] The transition to purpose-built racecars began in the early 1960s and occurred gradually over that decade. Changes made to the sport by the late 1960s brought an end to the "strictly stock" vehicles of the 1950s.
Ford ended up dominating NASCAR in 1965. This came about becauseDodge discouraged their vehicles from participating in the league due to theHemi engine being banned from competition.Petty Enterprises ended up going intodrag racing until Dodge solved its issues with the people who ran NASCAR at that time.[8] All but one of the top ten finishers drove a Ford vehicle; the sixth-place finisher drove a Dodge (which no longer races in the NASCAR Cup Series as of2013).[9]
Notable crew chiefs for this race includeDon Snyder,Lanty McClung,Herb Nab, andJohn Ervin.[10]
| Grid | No. | Driver | Manufacturer | Qualifying time[4] | Speed[4] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 26 | Junior Johnson | '65Ford | 24.160 | 74.503 |
| 2 | 28 | Fred Lorenzen | '65Ford | 24.220 | 74.318 |
| 3 | 21 | Marvin Panch | '65Ford | 24.220 | 74.318 |
| 4 | 7 | Bobby Johns | '65Ford | 24.320 | 73.952 |
| 5 | 29 | Dick Hutcherson | '65Ford | 24.520 | 73.409 |
| 6 | 11 | Ned Jarrett | '65Ford | 24.720 | 72.756 |
| 7 | 49 | G.C. Spencer | '64Ford | 24.830 | 72.492 |
| 8 | 59 | Tom Pistone | '64Ford | 24.900 | 72.289 |
| 9 | 76 | Larry Frank | '64Ford | 24.940 | 72.173 |
| 10 | 90 | Sonny Hutchins | '64Ford | 25.160 | 71.542 |
| 11 | 17 | Jabe Thomas | '64Ford | 25.200 | 71.428 |
| 12 | 67 | Junior Spencer | '64Dodge | 25.310 | 71.118 |
| 13 | 64 | Buddy Arrington | '64Ford | 25.400 | 70.810 |
| 14 | 34 | Elmo Langley | '63Ford | 25.570 | 70.394 |
| 15 | 53 | Wendell Scott | '64Ford | 25.580 | 70.367 |
Section reference:[2]
† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased
* denotes that the driver did not finish the race
Section reference:[2]
| Preceded by | NASCAR Grand National Series season 1965 | Succeeded by |