1970 Georgia 500


The 1970 Georgia 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on November 8, 1970, at Middle Georgia Raceway in Byron, Georgia.
NASCAR officials would record four engine-related incidents, one major fire, two issues related to the vehicle's suspension and an oil leak.

Race report

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. 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 anymore.
Five hundred laps took place on a paved oval track spanning for a grand total of. The race took three hours, thirteen minutes, and thirty-three seconds to reach its conclusion; Richard Petty defeated Bobby Isaac in fourteen seconds. The pole position speed was ; accomplished by Richard Petty. Total winnings for this race were $20,000 with the winner receiving most of $3,275. This event would be the first of two career starts for Jimmy Watson. Notable crew chiefs for this race included Harry Hyde, Dale Inman and Lee Gordon.
Petty's wins in 1970 came at 18 different tracks. He didn't have any sweeps.
This would be the final career start for Lee Roy Carrigg; whose NASCAR Winston Cup Series race spanned nine races and 1002 laps of racing action.
Earlier that year, the second annual Atlanta International Pop Festival was held in the same venue as this racing event. Jimi Hendrix and the Allman Brothers Band performed in front of 300,000 concertgoers; the town had a population of about 2,000.
In comparison to this summer musical festival that took place from July 3–5, this autumn racing event only attracted 6500 people in order to see stock car vehicles travel at speeds averaging throughout the entire event.

Qualifying

Finishing order

Section reference:
  1. Richard Petty
  2. Bobby Isaac†
  3. Dick Brooks†
  4. Bobby Allison
  5. John Sears†
  6. James Hylton†
  7. Benny Parsons†
  8. Elmo Langley†
  9. Jabe Thomas
  10. Cecil Gordon†
  11. Neil Castles
  12. Ben Arnold
  13. Bill Champion†
  14. Jimmy Watson
  15. Friday Hassler†
  16. Henley Gray
  17. Bill Shirey
  18. Roy Mayne*†
  19. Jim Vandiver*
  20. Morgan Shepherd*
  21. Wendell Scott*†
  22. Joe Frasson*†
  23. Lee Roy Carrigg*
  24. Dave Marcis*
  25. Bill Dennis*
  26. Rod Eulenfield*
  27. Frank Warren*
  28. E.J. Trivette*
  29. Dick May*†
  30. Larry Baumel*
* Driver failed to finish race
† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased

Timeline

Section reference: