1954 Southern 500

1954 Southern 500

Race details
Race 31 of 37 in the 1954 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season
Date	September 6, 1954 (1954-September-06)
Location	Darlington Raceway (Darlington, South Carolina)
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.375 mi (2.221 km)
Distance	400 laps, 500 mi (800 km)
Avg Speed	95.206 miles per hour (153.219 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Buck Baker	Bob Griffin
Most laps led
Driver	Curtis Turner	Elmer Brooks
Laps	266
Winner
92	Herb Thomas	Herb Thomas
Television
Network	WJMX (local AM radio)
Announcers	Local radio announcers

The 1954 Southern 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Sprint Cup Series) race that took place on September 6, 1954 at Darlington Raceway in the American community of Darlington, South Carolina.

Summary

There were 364 laps done on a paved oval track that spanned 1.375 miles (2.213 km). Van Van Wey would make his NASCAR debut in this race; starting in 43rd place and ending in 20th place due to a crash on the 260th lap of the race.

Overall, the race took five hours, sixteen minutes, and one second from the first green flag to the checkered flag.The average speed was 95.026 miles per hour (152.930 km/h) and the pole speed was 108.261 miles per hour (174.229 km/h). There were two cautions for four laps and the margin of victory was twenty-six seconds. Attendance of the race was confirmed at 28,000 people during the start of the race. Notable racers that appeared in the race and didn't finish in the "top ten" included Lee Petty (whose streak of 36 top-ten finishes ended at this race), Cotton Owens, Jimmie Lewallen, Ralph Liguori, Arden Mounts, Elmo Langley (in his NASCAR debut) and Buck Baker (pole winner).

The total winnings of the race was $27,405 ($237,170.41 in today's money) with the winner taking home $6,830 in winnings ($59,108.7 in today's money). Manufacturers involved in the race included Hudson (defunct), Oldsmobile (defunct), Dodge (active), Mercury (active but not racing), Cadillac (active but not racing), Buick (active but not racing), Nash (defunct), Plymouth (active but not racing), Studebaker (defunct), Chrysler (active but not racing), Ford (active), but no entry by any Chevrolet (active) vehicles.

Top ten finishers

1. Herb Thomas (winner)
2. Curtis Turner
3. Marvin Panch
4. Johnny Patterson
5. Jim Paschal
6. John Soares
7. Fireball Roberts
8. Gwyn Staley
9. Joel Million
10. Speedy Thompson

References

• Racing Reference
• Stat Sheet
• Everything Stock Car

Preceded by 1953

Southern 500 races 1954

Succeeded by 1955