1973 Alamo 500

Race report

It took three hours and twenty-six minutes to resolve a race spanning 250 laps. Richard Petty defeated Darrell Waltrip by at least two laps in front of 27000 people; Waltrip finished a lap ahead of Joe Frasson, both of whom scored their first Cup Series podium in their careers. It was Frasson's only podium, while for Waltrip it was the first of 197 podia in his career. There were always large margins of victory at Texas World Speedway because of many long green-flag runs. Drivers were either became very cautious or very lucky and they managed to avoid having to deal with relatively long yellow-flag runs. Five cautions were handed out by NASCAR officials for 27 laps.

Twenty-eight lead changes were reported amongst five leaders. Nearly two years later, Darrell Waltrip would actually win a superspeedway race.

Only manual transmission vehicles were allowed to participate in this race; a policy that NASCAR has retained to the present day.

Buddy Baker would earn the pole position with a speed of 169.248 mph. J.D. McDuffie would make a top-ten finish here; a rare occurrence considering that he finished last-place the most often. Richie Panch would become the last-place finisher of the race due to an ignition problem on the first lap. This would be the last race done at Texas World Speedway until the 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. There were 38 American-born drivers on the racing grid. Bob Whitlow and Ed Sczech would make their NASCAR debuts at this racing event; Whitlow was driving a second car for Ed Negre.

Petty would receive a prize amount of $17,820 for winning the race ($ when considering inflation) while Panch would collect a mere $920 as his "reward" for finishing in last place ($ when considering inflation).

Notable crew chiefs who fully participated in this race were Tim Brewer, Jake Elder, Travis Carter, Harry Hyde, Dale Inman, and Bud Moore.

Qualifying

Finishing order

1. Richard Petty (No. 43)
2. Darrell Waltrip (No. 95)
3. Joe Frasson† (No. 11)
4. Cale Yarborough† (No. 18)
5. Cecil Gordon (No. 24)
6. Buddy Baker† (No. 71)
7. Benny Parsons† (No. 72)
8. Ramo Stott (No. 9)
9. David Sisco (No. 05)
10. J.D. McDuffie† (No. 70)
11. H.B. Bailey† (No. 36)
12. Jabe Thomas (No. 25)
13. Frank Warren (No. 79)
14. Bill Champion† (No. 10)
15. James Hylton† (No. 48)
16. Walter Ballard (No. 30)
17. Buddy Arrington (No. 67)
18. Charlie Roberts (No. 77)
19. Henley Gray (No. 19)
20. Ed Sczech* (No. 61)
21. Bob Whitlow (No. 08)
22. Dean Dalton (No. 7)
23. Tony Bettenhausen Jr.*† (No. 38)
24. Lennie Pond* (No. 54)
25. Raymond Williams* (No. 47)
26. Bobby Allison* (No. 12)
27. Elmo Langley*† (No. 64)
28. Coo Coo Marlin*† (No. 14)
29. Marty Robbins*† (No. 42)
30. Jimmy Crawford*† (No. 22)
31. D.K. Ulrich* (No. 40)
32. Bobby Isaac*† (No. 15)
33. Dave Marcis* (No. 2)
34. Rick Newsom*† (No. 20)
35. Richard Childress* (No. 96)
36. Mel Larson* (No. 04)
37. Ed Negre* (No. 8)
38. Richie Panch*† (No. 98) † signifies that the driver is known to be deceased

** Driver failed to finish race*

References

before = 1973 Gwyn Staley 400 | after = 1973 Capital City 500| title = Richard Petty's Career Wins| years = 1960-1984 |

References

1. "1973 Alamo 500 weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac.
2. "1973 Alamo 500 race information". Racing Reference.
3. "1973 Alamo 500 race information (third reference)". Ultimate Racing History.
4. "1973 Alamo 500 race information (third reference)". Database Racing.
5. "1973 Alamo 500 race information (second reference)". Race Database.
6. "1973 Alamo 500 race winnings information". Everything Stock Car.
7. "1973 Alamo 500 crew chiefs information". Racing Reference.