The 1962 National 400 took place on October 14th at Charlotte Motor Speedway as the 52nd race of the NASCAR Grand National Series season. Fireball Roberts won the pole position with a qualifying speed of 140.287 mph and led the 44 cars to the green flag. Junior Johnson, driving the No. 3 Pontiac for Fox Racing, won the race, leading 204 of 267 scheduled laps and finishing two laps ahead of Roberts. The top five finishers were Junior Johnson in first, Fireball Roberts in second, Fred Lorenzen in third, Bunkie Blackburn in fourth, and Joe Weatherly in fifth. The race featured 10 lead changes and one caution for six laps. The race was completed with an average speed of 132.085 mph or just a little over three hours. The total purse for the event was $43,833, with the winner’s share—earned by Junior Johnson—being $11,355. These results reflect the competitive nature of early 1960s NASCAR at Charlotte, where mechanical endurance and strategy were as important as speed.
