The National 400 was contested on Sunday, October 15, 1961, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, as part of the NASCAR Grand National Series. This 267-lap, 400-mile event attracted a crowd of more than 35,000 fans, who watched stock cars reach speeds up to 120 mph around the fast 1.5-mile quad-oval. In qualifying, David Pearson staked out the pole position with a strong lap time, putting his No. 3 Pontiac at the front of the field as engines fired and the fall afternoon sun settled over the speedway.
From the drop of the green flag, several of the era’s top drivers took turns at the front. David Pearson, Fireball Roberts, and Junior Johnson dominated the early stages, while the middle portion saw Bob Welborn and others contend for position as attrition and strategy began to shape the running order. A dramatic moment unfolded on lap 113 when Fireball Roberts suffered a right-front tire blowout, slamming into the guardrail and then being struck by another car at over 100 mph. Thankfully, Roberts was uninjured, but the incident took him out of contention and underscored how quickly fortunes could change in Grand National racing.
In the closing laps, it was Joe Weatherly who emerged with the advantage. After a race marked by four caution periods — including time for debris and wreck cleanup — Weatherly seized the lead on lap 263 and held off a hard-charging Richard Petty to score the victory by nearly two car lengths. The win was Weatherly’s seventh of nine on the 1961 season, underlining his dominant run that year and propelling him to further success in the season’s final events. He made four pit stops during the race, each time taking on new tires to maintain his position among the leaders, and was the only driver who started in the top ten to also finish there.
