On February 28, in:

[Littleman]

1940
Mario Andretti... Born

1965
Richard Petty, driving in a drag race at the Southeastern International Dragway in Dallas Georgia, lost control of his car and it went into the spectators killing an 8 year old boy.

1971
A.J. Foyt won the 500-mile NASCAR GN race at Ontario Motor Speedway. Foyt drove the Wood Brothers Mercury past Buddy Baker with 14 laps left and crossed the finish line 8.5 seconds in front of Baker's Petty Dodge. 51 cars took the green flag starting three-abreast in the first NASCAR race on the 2.5 mile OMS oval.

Note: Question – how many races did NASCAR start 3-wide?

[exfasteddy]

1940
Mario Andretti... Born

1965
Richard Petty, driving in a drag race at the Southeastern International Dragway in Dallas Georgia, lost control of his car and it went into the spectators killing an 8 year old boy.

1971
A.J. Foyt won the 500-mile NASCAR GN race at Ontario Motor Speedway. Foyt drove the Wood Brothers Mercury past Buddy Baker with 14 laps left and crossed the finish line 8.5 seconds in front of Baker's Petty Dodge. 51 cars took the green flag starting three-abreast in the first NASCAR race on the 2.5 mile OMS oval.

Note: Question – how many races did NASCAR start 3-wide?

just guessing, one?

[Littleman]

Could very well be just that one!

[DavidM]

Didn't they start the old Southern 500 three wide back in the 50's?

[indybigjohn]

IIRC, they did start the Southern 500 three-wide, at least the first one. Not sure how many they did that way. Got a photo somewhere. I'll try to find it.

[DavidM]

IIRC, they did start the Southern 500 three-wide, at least the first one. Not sure how many they did that way. Got a photo somewhere. I'll try to find it.

There's a photo on the Darlington site, but it's small. They used to also run 4 laps to qualify like Indy also.