July 20, 1975 - 250 Miles - Purse $41,495

Originally Scheduled for July 19 but postponed due to rain

Cale Yarborough celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the 1975 Nashville 420 (Photo: Fred Marchman).

Junior Johnson's cars would win an incredible 13 races at Nashville, all of these coming on the tracks 5/8 mile configuration.  

There were 25 races contested at Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway from 1975 - 1984.  Johnson's drivers would win 53% of those events:

Bobby Allison 1

Cale Yarborough 7

Darrell Waltrip 5

 

   Cale Yarborough dominated the race by leading 385 laps of the 420 lap event in his Junior Johnson Monte Carlo. This was Yarborough's second straight Nashville 420 victory. At right, car owner Junior Johnson prepares the Holly Farms Chevrolet for qualifying.  Johnson had competed in three Grand National events at Nashville, with a third place finish in the 1959 Music City 200 being his best performance.

Houston's Walter Ballard led a career high 15 laps before being passed by Yarborough on lap 51.  Ballard would drop out of the race on lap 238 with rear gear issues.

Darrell Waltrip qualified second but dropped out of the race on lap 17 due to transmission failure.

Neil Bonnett made his first NASCAR Winston Cup start in Bobby Allison's Richard Kelly Chevrolet sponsored Laguna.

Veteran driver Bill Champion made the last of his seven starts at the fairgrounds. 

 


Darrell Waltrip and Benny Parsons led the field at the start of the 1975 Nashville 420		  

Richard Childress' 1975 Chevrolet
     


Richard Petty and Dave Marcis battle down Nashville's back straight
  

The Dodge Chargers of Frank Warren, Ed Negre and Dick May


The 1973 Chevrolet of Fairground's LMS racer Alton Jones

  

Walter Ballard leads Cale Yarborough during the early stages of the race (Photo: Bill Easley The Tennessean)


Drivers battle for position (Photo: Bill Easley The Tennessean)

  

Richard Petty and his STP Dodge


The Del Reeves Special Chevrolet of fan favorite Neil Castles		  

The Junior Johnson crew in action


















Action Collectibles and the Incorrect Earnhardt’s First Start Paint Scheme

In 1998, NASCAR was riding a wave of merchandising popularity and at the time there was no star bigger in the sport than Dale Earnhardt, Sr.  Action Collectible was ready to cash in on the popularity of Earnhardt and was poised to mass produce both 1/24 and 1/64 die casts of the Ed Negre-owned car that Earnhardt, Sr. had made his first career CUP start in at Charlotte.  However, the only photo that Action could locate on the internet was one I had taken at Fairgrounds Speedway in July 1975 (shown at left).  The photo was hosted on a car modeling forum bulletin board during the 1998 time period.  

Action used the photo I had taken at Fairgrounds Speedway and went on to produce thousands upon thousands of the 10,000 RPM sponsored number 8 Dodge Charger. The only problem was Earnhardt had run the Negre Dodge at the World 600 on May 25, 1975, using a one-time only blue paint scheme (shown at right).

 

Eventually, photos taken at the World 600 began to surface and Action realized the error.  However, the proverbial die had been cast and the rest is merchandising history.

 
Average Speed:  89.792 mph Time of Race:   2:47:16 Margin:    1 Lap
Pole Winner:      Benny Parsons   103.247 mph Attendance:      21,000 Cautions:  2 for 19
Lap Leaders:  Waltrip 1-18, Yarborough 19-33, Marcis 34-35, Ballard 36-50, Yarborough 51-420
 
DriverDDriver Fin Str Car Team / Owner Car Laps Money Status Led
Cale Yarborough 1 3 11 Holly Farms  -
Jr Johnson & Assoc		 75 Chevrolet 420 7,735 Running 385
Richard Petty 2 4 43 STP  -  Petty Enterprises 74 Dodge 419 6,205 Running 0
Dave Marcis 3 5 71 K & K Insurance  -
Nord Krauskopf		 74 Dodge 418 4,560 Running 2
Benny Parsons 4 1 72 King's Row Fireplace  -  L.G. DeWitt 75 Chevrolet 412 3,185 Running 0
Cecil Gordon 5 14 24 Bob Stott Motors  - Cecil Gordon 75 Chevrolet 407 1,585 Running 0
Richard Childress 6 9 96 L.C. Newton Trucking  -  Tom Garn 75 Chevrolet 407 1,485 Running 0
David Sisco 7 11 05 Reliable Plumbing  -  David Sisco 75 Chevrolet 404 1,385 Rrunning 0
Carl Adams 8 20 65 Travel Lodge -
Richard Mummert		 73 Ford 403 1,035 Running 0
J.D. McDuffie 9 7 70 Butler's HP -
J.D. McDuffie		 75 Chevrolet 395 1,185 Running 0
Elmo Langley 10 16 10 Bill Champion 73 Ford 393 835 Running 0
James Hylton 11 21 48 Nitro 9   -
James Hylton 		74 Chevrolet 390 1,035 Running 0
Alton Jones 12 29 68 Crimson Dale Nursery -  Butch Hawkersmith 74 Chevrolet 383 735 Running 0
Bruce Hill 13 10 47 Bruce Hill 75 Chevrolet 379 935 Running 0
Neil Bonnett 14 30 12 Richard Kelly Chevy  -  Bobby Allison 74 Chevrolet 377 635 Oil Pressure 0
Ed Negre 15 13 8 10,000 RPM Speed Equipment  - Ed Negre 74 Dodge 375 835 Running 0
Frank Warren 16 18 79 Frank Warren 74 Dodge 341 785 Running 0
Richard D. Brown 17 27 44 Bush Olds   -
Jerry Brown		 74 Pontiac 334 485 Running 0
Walter Ballard 18 8 30 Walter Ballard 75 Chevrolet 238 685 Rear end 15
Bruce Jacobi 19 25 37 Opal's Truck Stop 
Opal Voight		 75 Chevrolet 227 385 Rear end 0
D.K. Ulrich 20 15 40 Garden State Auto -
D K Ulrich		 75 Chevrolet 181 335 Over
Heating		 0
Jabe Thomas 21 22 25 Ward's Mobile Homes   -
Don Robertson 		74 Chevrolet 132 325 Engine 0
Baxter Price 22 24 45 Baxter Price 74 Chevrolet 109 320 Over
Heating		 0
Earl Brooks 23 23 23 Don Robertson 74 Dodge 103 315 Engine 0
  Paul Dean Holt 24 26 39 Holt Racing   73 Ford 86 310 Engine 0
Buddy Arrington 25 19 67 Arrington's Union 76 73 Plymouth 41 555 Engine 0
Coo Coo Marlin 26 6 14 Cunningham-Kelley   - H.B. Cunningham 75 Chevrolet 30 550 Crash 0
Grant Adcox 27 17 41 Adcox-Kirby  Chevy  -Herb Adcox 75 Chevrolet 29 295 Crash 0
Darrell Waltrip 28 2 17 Terminal Transport  -  Darrell Waltrip 75 Chevrolet 19 1,965 Transmssn 18
Neil Castles 29 12 06 Del Reeves Special   - Neil Castles 75 Chevrolet 9 285 Blown Head Gasket 0
Bill Champion 30 28 64 Elmo Langley 73 Ford 1 530 Broken Valve 0