1960 National 400

Around 29,166 spectators traveled to Charlotte Motor Speedway to watch the race. Located in Concord, North Carolina, Charlotte Motor Speedway is a banked 1.5-mile (2.4 km) quad-oval that opened a few months earlier for the inaugural World 600.

Charlotte Motor Speedway was designed and built by Bruton Smith and partner and driver Curtis Turner in 1959. The first World 600 NASCAR race was held at the 1.5 mi (2.4 km) speedway on June 19, 1960. On December 8, 1961, the speedway filed bankruptcy notice. Judge J.B. Craven of US District Court for Western North Carolina reorganized it under Chapter 10 of the Bankruptcy Act; Judge Craven appointed Robert "Red" Robinson as the track's trustee until March 1962. At that point, a committee of major stockholders in the speedway was assembled, headed by A.C. Goines and furniture store owner Richard Howard. Goines, Howard, and Robinson worked to secure loans and other monies to keep the speedway afloat.[3]

Bob Barron and Friday Hassler would make their NASCAR Grand National debut appearances here. Unfortunately, this would be Bob Barron's only start of the 1960 NASCAR Grand National Series season.[4] Charlie Glotzbach would also make his NASCAR big league debut at this race but to a much smaller fanfare.

The race was held on a dry circuit; with no precipitation recorded around the speedway.[5]

It took three hours and thirty-two minutes to complete 267 laps on a paved oval track spanning 1.500 miles (2.414 km).[2][6] Seven cautions were waved by NASCAR officials for 34 laps.[2] Speedy Thompson defeated Richard Petty by one lap and twelve seconds in front of nearly 30,000 spectators while going 112.905 miles per hour (181.703 km/h);[2][7] helping the Wood Brothers' racing team earn their one of their first NASCAR wins as owners. Thompson would get his penultimate win of his NASCAR Cup career in this race; winning for the last time at the 1960 Capital City 400.[8]

Fireball Roberts was the qualifier for the pole position with a speed of 133.465 miles per hour (214.791 km/h).[2] Eight notable crew chiefs participated in the event; including Cotton Owens, Leonard Wood and Bud Moore.[9] He would eventually blow a tire on lap 232; causing him to crash and lose the lead.[10] There were fifty drivers who would ultimately participate in this event; all of them were American-born males.[2]

Fred Lorenzen would earn the event's last-place finish for a vibration problem that he developed on lap 4; earning only $200 for that day ($1,470 when adjusted for inflation).[2][11] Lowe's was one of the corporate sponsors of this racing event;[2] they still sponsor NASCAR to this very day through frequent Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson.

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