Today In NASCAR History

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1961: Joe Weatherly surges to the front in the late stages to win the Southeastern 500, just the second race for NASCAR’s top series at Bristol Motor Speedway. Weatherly passed Rex White with 82 laps to go and leads the rest of the 500-lap race, holding off White by seven car-lengths at the finish. Nelson Stacy came home third as the only other car on the lead lap. Junior Johnson, who led a race-high 294 laps, was relegated to a 24th-place finish after rear-gearing failure.

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.