Nelson Stacy takes the checkers at the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Darlington, S.C. (September 4, 1961) – Outsider Nelson Stacy used two good breaks and a neat fake to slip past Marvin Panch with six laps to go, then poured on the octane to score a surprise victory in the 12th annual running of the Southern 500 stock car classic on Monday.
It was a pulsating finish that made a mess of 80,000 manicures. And in many respects, it resembled the finish of last May’s Rebel 300 – a race won by Fred Lorenzen in a similar battle with now-banned Curtis Turner.
The 39-year-old grandfather was almost a lap behind Panch, serving as a relief driver for Fireball Roberts, the pre-race favorite. He was charging but the distance seemed too great and there was doubt that his 1961 Ford could withstand the punishment it was getting.
Then it happened – break #1. Tiny Lund, the massive Pontiac driver from Cross, S.C., blew a tire between the first and second turns on lap 338. When his car came to rest against the high rail, the caution flag came out.
Yellow must be Stacy’s lucky color. His car is bright canary yellow. And that caution flag was his salvation in the race. Lund’s accident allowed him to close the gap to less than the length of a straightaway.
The green flag started ‘em roaring once again on lap 342. Stacy was two seconds behind Panch’s 1961 Pontiac. They raced that way for four laps, with Stacy putting himself directly behind Panch with no intervening cars by lap 346.
On lap 351, Joe Weatherly, driving Ralph Earnhardt’s car, blew an engine and spun out. That was break #2. It enabled the Kentuckian, who races out of Hamilton, Ohio, to put his front bumper right on Panch’s rear chrome.
The Darlington Raceway’s mammoth new scoreboard showed it was lap 354 when the pace car pulled into the infield and let ‘em rip.
Stacy twice tried to pass Panch on the high side as they steamed into the first turn. The Pontiac wouldn’t let him by. When they reached the first turn for the 358th time, Stacy tricked Panch by cutting to the inside and whipping past him. He almost forced the Pontiac into the guardrail.
The last lap – 364 – was in sight. Most figured the more powerful Pontiac could retake the Ford, but it wasn’t the case. In fact, the Ford kept pulling ahead slightly more and won by three and a half car lengths.
Stacy’s victory earned him $19,320, including lap money while the Roberts – Panch team picked up $13,375, a total boosted by the fact the Pontiac was out front for 182 laps compared to 71 for Stacy.
One odd thing about the finish was that Stacy thought all along that Roberts was at the wheel of his chief competitor. He did not realize that Fireball had turned the wheel over to Panch, who had started the race in one of Lee Petty’s Plymouths. Panch had handled the Roberts’ Pontiac for the last 121 circuits.
Said Fireball in the pits, “I wasn’t nauseated or anything. I just felt like I was being fried.”
And well he might. The track temperature was at mid-race was reported to be between 145 and 155 degrees.
Results –
1. Nelson Stacy, Hamilton, Ohio
2. Fireball Roberts/Marvin Panch
3. David Pearson, Spartanburg, S.C.
4. Jim Paschal, High Point, N.C.
5. Emanuel Zervakis, Richmond, Va.
6. Ned Jarrett, Newton, N.C.
7. Johnny Allen, Atlanta, Ga.
8. Roscoe Thompson, Atlanta, Ga.
9. Ralph Earnhardt, Kannapolis, N.C.
10.Rex White, Spartanburg, S.C.
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