68 cars leave the be and move smoothly into the first turn behind the pace car. Bill Prans president of NASCAR the national association for stop (stock) cars leads them around On the pole position inside front row Carl Bergs, car number 20 Badgu Mathews, Fireball Roberts and Marion Farb complete the first two rows.

When the pace car dives into the pit road on the next go round the green flag will turn them loose.

 

Moving smartly out of the long first and second turn, they reach the back stretch of the two and a half mile speed way completed only one year ago. Their moving faster now, riding higher on the 31 degree back bank turn designed for speeds of 200 miles an hour. The Pace car's off the track, here they come!

They're racing !!

 

Badgu Mathews grabs the lead, fireball Roberts right behind him as they climb  the bank into the first turn, roaring down the back stretch 68 cars play follow the leader at 150 miles an hour. Start of the fourth turn end of lap one.

 

The leaders at record speed but the rest of the field is in trouble back in the fourth turn. The most fantastic pile-up in auto racing history takes 37 cars out of the race. Some drivers free themselves from the wrecked cars to find out - is anyone hurt?

There's a serious threat of fire, fuel tanks were split by the impact.

 

All drivers accounted for, only 8 of the 37 drivers suffered even minor cuts and bruises and perhaps most amazing of all – no fire!

Roll bars,crash helmets, seat belts and lady luck saved lives this afternoon. 24 of the 37 cars are wrecked, 12 are totally demolished, the others are moved to their pits for quick repair if possible.