Cale Yarbrough battles with Buddy Baker during the
1973 Music City 420. Yarborough would led
416 laps of the race to capture his first
victory at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. (Photo:
Nashville Speedway)
Cale Yarborough leads the field as the cars move
out to start the race. K&K Insurance Dodge
driver Buddy Baker starts on the outside of the
front row. Yarborough won the pole with a
speed of 105.741 mph.
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 Cale
Yarbrough captured his first of seven victories
at the Fairgrounds by two laps over Benny Parsons.
The Timmonsville, South Carolina driver is pictured
at right in Victory Lane after capturing the
420 lap event.
Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway
was awarded a second NASCAR Winston Cup date after
the attendance success of the 1972 Nashville 420
coupled with that of the 1972 Mr. D's 200 Grand
National East event. 1973 marked the first season
since 1965 that Nashville would play host to two
NASCAR Grand National Winston Cup events during
the same year.
The race would set a track record with a
98.419 average speed recorded by winner Cale
Yarborough.
This was the first event
at the Fairgrounds to exceed 20,000 in attendance.
This was the first NASCAR
race at the track since the corner banking was cut
back to 18 degrees.
Hometown favorite
Darrell Waltrip, of nearby
Franklin, gets ready to take his 1971 Mercury out
on the 5/8 mile for his qualifying run.
Waltrip
would qualify his car at 105.239 mph, which was
good enough to earn the young driver a 10th place
starting position for the inaugural Music City
420. (Photo: Jack Corn The Tennessean)
Waltrip's career would include three NASCAR
Cup Championships, 84 wins and an induction into
the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
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The cars of Rick Newsome (20),
Henley Gray (19) and Coo Coo Marlin (14) battle
for position on the back straight of Nashville Fairgrounds
Speedway.
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Cale Yarborough prepares for
his pole-winning qualifying run of 110.892 mph.
(Photo: Jack Corn The Tennessean)
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