Most NASCAR fans are very familiar with Bristol Motor Speedway’s popular NASCAR Cup Series night race.
There was a time when the Bass Pro Shops Night Race was so popular that it was an automatic sellout. Weeks before the event, speedway officials had to tell fans that no tickets were available. Rest assured, speedway folks were delighted.
It happened largely because Bristol evolved into a handsome, high-banked and most impressive 0.533-mile facility featuring exciting, bump-and-run racing (and plenty of subsequent caution periods), which delighted fans. At one time, it could seat 160,000 people.
But changes to the track that eliminated most of the rough and tumble racing didn’t please fans, although it was welcomed by competitors.
Additionally, NASCAR’s once soaring popularity leveled off. But that does not eliminate the appeal of Bristol’s night race.
It originated in 1978 without much fanfare. In fact, the first Night Race, the Volunteer 500, was largely considered just another event on the Cup schedule. No one could imagine what that Bristol race would evolve into.
Actually, the first Night Race was part of an effort to give slumping Bristol a jump start. Race attendance had stagnated in recent years, and the speedway’s new owners were determined to change that.
Larry Carrier, a recreational conglomerate businessman, announced in early January 1961 his intentions to build a race track in Bristol, which would expand his business in Tennessee’s Tri-Cities area.
Bristol was born and it conducted its first race, the Volunteer 500, in July of 1961. It was won by Jack Smith.
Of course, the Bristol track of 1961, and for many years afterward, was a far cry from what it is today. Although banking in the turns was higher than at most short tracks, seating for fans consisted of two concrete grandstands along the front and backstretches. Capacity was listed at 30,000.
But as the 1970s progressed, attendance was seldom that high. In fact, by the time the Volunteer 400 was conducted on Aug. 28, 1977, only 12,000 fans were in the grandstands.
Perhaps one reason for the slump was Cale Yarborough. He was the driver for Junior Johnson and Associates and had won so often at Bristol that fans became bored.
The driver from Timmonsville, S.C., had won five races in five years at Bristol, including a string of three in a row, which included his victory in the 1977 spring Southeastern 400.
To no one’s surprise, Yarborough made it four in a row in the Volunteer 400. Afterward, it took the sparse number of fans only 30 minutes to clear the grandstands and parking lots. The media in the press box spent about the same amount of time filing their stories.
Carrier announced in November of 1977 that he had sold the speedway to Lanny Hester and Gary Baker for $1 million. Hester was an entrepreneur and Baker was a lawyer with close ties to the Nashville music industry.
The duo knew of Bristol’s attendance woes and determined that changes needed to be made. When the purchase was announced, Baker and Hester said they intended to make significant improvements to Bristol.
They intended to spend $200,000 to expand seating and add amenities. Additionally, races would return to 500 laps. And, most importantly, the Volunteer 500 would become a night race.
Now, night races weren’t anything new. They had been the staple at many short tracks across the United States. But one on the Cup Series schedule was unique.
Bristol did not spend a huge amount of money adding lights, as has been the norm since. Instead, it utilized temporary lighting, located at strategic points around the track. It was adequate but far from perfect.
But it improved attendance. The race was a sellout. Unfortunately, the resurgent crowd was not treated to an exciting race.
Yarborough, again, made mincemeat of the field. He led 327 of 500 laps and beat Benny Parsons to the finish line by a whopping 16 seconds. They were the only drivers on the lead lap.
It was Yarborough’s sixth win of the season and seventh in the last 10 Bristol events.
“They ought to call this place the home of the Cale Yarborough 500,” said a bemused member of the media in the press box.
“I had to work really hard for this one,” said Yarborough. “I had to do a lot of dirt-track racing because the track was so slick. I usually don’t get tired here, but tonight, I’m really tired.”
He didn’t look it.
The only race drama was provided by Darrell Waltrip and Lennie Pond. Pond, trying to save his job with team owner Harry Ranier, won his fourth pole position of the year.
Waltrip, meanwhile, was all but assured he would be Pond’s replacement, which is something he wanted badly because he was at odds with his team owner, Bill Gardner of DiGard Racing Co.
Well aware of their situations at Bristol, the two drivers were rivals and, sure enough, they were involved in an incident.
On lap 105, Pond spun in the second turn and whacked Waltrip, who lost two laps in the pits but came back to finish third.
Pond retired from the race and was credited with a 28th-place finish, which didn’t improve his chances of remaining with Ranier.
“They ought to send Pond back to driving school or something,” said Buddy Parrott, Waltrip’s crew chief. “If it hadn’t been for him, we would have won the race.”
Ranier said later that as far as he was concerned, Waltrip would be his driver starting in 1979. But he added there was no way he was going to buy out his contract with Gardner, which ran through 1982.
Had he done so, NASCAR history would have changed. As it turned out, Waltrip spent one more unpleasant season with DiGard before Johnson, who bought out the contract and made him his driver in 1980.
Buddy Baker replaced Pond and drove for Ranier for two seasons. Pond competed for nine more seasons, but never again on the full schedule.
As for Bristol, the Baker-Hester ownership lasted three years before California businessman Warner Hodgdon — who was in the midst of a spending spree — took control.
Hodgdon lost all of his NASCAR holdings when he entered bankruptcy in 1986 and Carrier again assumed ownership, which he held until 1990.
That was the year Bruton Smith and Speedway Motorsports, Inc. took over Bristol and initiated what became, over the years, the behemoth everyone knows today.
Bristol and its night race are just two examples of a fact in NASCAR: Many times, things that are small and relatively insignificant eventually grow into something large and impressive.
Steve Waid has been in journalism since 1972, when he began his newspaper career at the Martinsville (Va.) Bulletin. He has spent over 40 years in motorsports journalism, first with the Roanoke Times-World News and later as publisher and vice president for NASCAR Scene and NASCAR Illustrated.
Steve has won numerous state sports writing awards and several more from the National Motorsports Press Association for his motorsports coverage, feature and column writing. For several years, Steve was a regular on “NASCAR This Morning” on FOX Sports Net and he is the co-author, with Tom Higgins, of the biography “Junior Johnson: Brave In Life.”
In January 2014, Steve was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame. And in 2019 he was presented the Squier-Hall Award by the NASCAR Hall of Fame for lifetime excellence in motorsports journalism. In addition to writing for Frontstretch, Steve is also the co-host of The Scene Vault Podcast.