| Race details[1][2] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 21 of 44 in the1960 NASCAR Grand National Series season | |||
 1960 World 600 program cover | |||
| Date | June 19, 1960 (1960-06-19) | ||
| Official name | World 600 | ||
| Location | Charlotte Motor Speedway,Concord, North Carolina | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 1.500 miles (2.414 km) | ||
| Distance | 400 laps, 600 mi (965 km) | ||
| Weather | Very hot with temperatures of 89.1 °F (31.7 °C); wind speeds up to 13.8 miles per hour (22.2 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 107.735 miles per hour (173.383 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 35,462 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | John Hines | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Jack Smith | Jack Smith | |
| Laps | 198 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 89 | Joe Lee Johnson | Paul McDuffie | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | ABC | ||
| Announcers | Bill Fleming &Chris Economaki | ||
The1960 World 600 was the inaugural running of theWorld 600, aNASCARGrand National Series event. It was run on June 19, 1960, at theCharlotte Motor Speedway inConcord, North Carolina. It was NASCAR's first 600-mile race and it was the longest NASCAR race distance.Joe Lee Johnson was the winner of the inaugural race.
Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located inConcord, North Carolina, thirteen miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The track is a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) asphalt quad-oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including theWorld 600 and theNational 400. The speedway broke ground in 1958 withBruton Smith andCurtis Turner as the architects. Charlotte Motor Speedway is now operated bySpeedway Motorsports.
The race was postponed for three weeks because of construction delays. During the race, Don O'Dell's Pontiac crashed into the driver's door of Lenny Page's Chevy. Lenny Page, who was lucky to survive the crash due to the safety systems at that time, was near death afterward, but reporterChris Economaki rushed to the scene and aided Page with CPR until safety crews arrived. He was later credited with saving Lenny's life.
Cars were allowed to run dirt track style screens to protect the radiators from debris, as officials were aware of the problem before the race started. This is the only time a father and son have been disqualified in the same race.[3] This was the last time the #89 has won in the Cup Series.[4]
Ed Markstellar and Japanese-American driver George Tet would make their stock car debuts in this race while Jim Austin, Arnold Gardner and Gene Marmor would make their finale.[3] Johnny Wolford would run his only NASCAR Cup Series race here.[3] Rex White would take away the championship lead from Richard Petty with his sixth-place finish as opposed to Petty finishing in 55th place due to a disqualification.[3] Petty and five other drivers (Lee Petty, Bob Welborn, Paul Lewis,Junior Johnson, and Lenny Page) were all disqualified for making illegal entrances to pit road.[3]
Notable crew chiefs includedLouis Clements,Bud Allman,Ray Fox,Shorty Johns,Bud Moore,Mario Rossi,Dale Swanson andPaul McDuffie.[5]
Section reference:[1]
Section reference:[3]
| Preceded by | NASCAR Grand National Series Season 1960 | Succeeded by |