Full Throttle

(NOTE, this is part of the Good Old Days series of posts. When applicable they will highlight various points of interest from that weeks Sprint Cup venue or geographic area.)

One would think LVMS wouldn’t be part of NASCAR’s history beyond the last ten events held under the auspices of Bruton Smith. One would be wrong.

There is a single dusty memory of the Good Old Days of NASCAR, the Desert Classic was held was on Oct. 16, 1955. The place was Las Vegas Park Speedway, a one-mile dirt track, now the site of a Hilton hotel.

Norm Nelson, driving a ‘55 Chrysler for legendary car owner Carl Kiekhaefer, won the dirt-track race. Nelson collected the grand sum of 4,745 dollar and averaged a tick over 44 mph. Primarily a USAC stock car star (three-time series champ) the Vegas event was his only Cup win in five career starts the last at Riverside in 1968

The event, was the 43rd of the 45-race season. Scheduled for 200 laps, it was shortened to 111 due to darkness caused in part by a 12-car accident early in the race.

Interestingly, this event didn’t have any of that years championship contenders in the starting field. That honor went to Martinsville, VA where Speedy Thomson won on the same day, Oct. 16, 1955.

In a special kick in the behind to the “NASCAR is dominated by one team” crowd that is so prevalent today, Tim Flock won the Cup in ‘55 and set a record that will never be broken. At the wheel of the powerful Carl Kiekhaefer Chrysler 300 D’s Flock won 16 events, 11 times leading from flag-to-flag!

On the other hand I don’t think the Frontier Casino featured Bikini Bull Riding then. So you have to take the bad with the good I guess.