The 1952 Wilkes 200, the 32nd race of the 34-race 1952 NASCAR Grand National Series season, was held on Sunday, October 26 at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.
A crowd of 6,200 watched the 27-car field compete on the rough 0.625-mile dirt oval for 200 laps (125 miles). Herb Thomas, driving his #9 Hudson, captured the pole position with a qualifying speed of 76.013 mph. He took the lead from Fonty Flock on lap 9 and dominated the rest of the distance, leading 192 laps to score a convincing victory.
Fonty Flock finished second, followed by Donald Thomas in third, Tim Flock in fourth, and Dick Rathmann in fifth. Thomas’s win came at an average speed of 67.044 mph with three cautions for 12 laps. He earned $1,000 for the victory — his 15th career Grand National win.
The result tightened the championship battle, moving Thomas to within 146 points of points leader Tim Flock. Mechanical attrition and the demanding dirt surface once again played a major role, as was typical in this rugged era of NASCAR racing.
