Strange as it may seem in retrospect, Ned Jarrett wasn’t the outright pre-race favorite when the odds were drawn for the Southern 500 in 1965. Other flat-footed drivers were considered harder chargers, and the memories of Jarrett’s most recent go in the Labor Day classic may have remained fresh enough to make him a slight dark horse.
In the previous year’s 500-miler at rugged Darlington Raceway, Jarrett opened the endurance race with a rare Lap 1, Turn 1 spinout. Trying to gather up his No. 11 Bondy Long-owned Ford, he lost control again — all before one circuit was complete.
“Fortunately, I was able to go on and I managed to finish in fourth place,” Jarrett told the Florence Morning News in 1999, “but I was thinking what 500 miles is going to be like if I can’t even finish one lap.”
The next year, Jarrett sought out some divine help. The night before the 500, he served as a guest speaker for the Darlington Methodist Youth Fellowship group. As a former NASCAR Cup Series champion and a certified star, the fee for the eloquent Jarrett’s public-speaking appearances was increasing, but he never charged church or civic groups for his time. The favor the youth group returned was all the payment he needed.
“They said they would pray for me,” Jarrett told reporters. “Well, somebody did, including myself.”
The next day, Jarrett established one of stock-car racing’s untouchable performance achievements, surviving a contest of attrition to win the Southern 500 by a whopping 14 laps. Jarrett’s staggering 19.25-mile margin of victory still stands as a Cup Series record, one that turns 60 years old next week and remains a historic highlight as Darlington celebrates its 75th anniversary season.
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The story of the 1965 Southern 500 is one of chaos and tragedy, attrition and perseverance and ultimately the tale of a true, unassailable record, set at one of NASCAR’s most treacherous venues. A Cup Series race’s margin of victory hasn’t been measured in laps since Geoff Bodine finished on a lap of his own in 1994 at North Wilkesboro Speedway. In this era of greater competitive parity, it’s a mark that’s highly unlikely ever to be repeated.
“It’s a Southern 500 win by 14 laps. You know, we talk about records are made to be broken,” said Dale Jarrett, Ned’s Hall of Famer son and a three-time Darlington winner in his own right. “Well, I think that’s one that’s going to withstand the test of time.”
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Dale Jarrett was just a couple of months shy of turning 9 years old in the summer of 1965 when the stock-car racing schedule turned to Darlington, but his memories of that weekend remain vivid.
He remembers the high school band from his adopted hometown playing, marching in formation in their tablecloth-checked shirts and white shorts. Actors from the cast of the hit TV show “Gunsmoke” waved from the parade around Darlington’s town square. ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” provided on-the-spot coverage. The fanfare matched the magnitude.
“It was just amazing to be there,” Dale Jarrett says. “I mean, there were so many things that lined up. We obviously lived in Camden, South Carolina, where Bondy Long had the race team. We had moved from North Carolina down to there, and so Darlington was like our home track.”
Though he was in the midst of another title-caliber season, Ned Jarrett received less pre-race attention than some of the hotshots — Junior Johnson, Fred Lorenzen and Marvin Panch among them — who outpaced his No. 11 Ford in qualifying. Even with Richard Petty, David Pearson and a host of Chrysler teams missing from the field after competition officials banned the Hemi V-8 engine in 1965, the early laurels went elsewhere.
Though Jarrett had won 11 of the 44 races to that point of the season on smaller ovals, the motoring press considered him overdue for a prestigious payday. A 10th-place starting position seemed like it might prolong his wait. Darlington’s tenacity and the unreliable nature of 1960s equipment toiling for a 500-mile test in searing heat tilted the balance in favor of Jarrett’s steady approach.
Johnson — one of those popular favorites — started from the pole position, figuring to set the early pace while fighting off a flu virus that had laid him low earlier in the weekend. His goal lasted just half a lap, when his No. 26 Ford misfired with ignition trouble, handing the lead to the fair-haired Lorenzen.
Tragedy unfolded with just two laps complete. Buren Skeen — a competitive Bowman Gray Stadium regular from Denton, North Carolina, making his first Darlington start — was critically injured when his No. 23 Ford was speared in the driver’s door by Reb Wickersham’s No. 03 entry after a Turn 1 spin. Skeen perished a week later in a Florence hospital.
Another crash a third of the way in produced another fright, but also relief that both contenders escaped unscathed. Cale Yarborough made an inside move on Sam McQuagg in their contest for the lead on Lap 119, but their cars became entangled and slid up against the retaining wall through the first turn. Yarborough’s Banjo Matthews-prepared car teetered after the impact, vaulting over the guard rail and tumbling over the banking. Both drivers were done for the day, but uninjured.
Fifteen drivers were already out of the race by then, including Marvin Panch’s Wood Brothers No. 21 Ford, which succumbed to engine woes and a spin in its own fluids. That left the fray up front to Lorenzen in his Holman-Moody No. 28 Ford and the speedy Darel Dieringer, who ended up leading the most laps in Bud Moore’s No. 15 Mercury.
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Jarrett, meanwhile, kept on the fringes of the top five, moving up when others made pit stops. At one point, he was content to let Dieringer by while keeping his steady pace and staying mindful of his big-picture points battle with Dick Hutcherson for the standings lead.
Trouble found Lorenzen and Dieringer in short order as the laps ticked down, with Jarrett running third and set to capitalize. Engine failure halted Lorenzen’s charge, and Dieringer’s seemingly clear path to victory closed when his car’s differential gave way, forcing him to make multiple stops before eventually parking 19 laps short of the finish. He had a four-lap lead at the time.
“This is the one I really wanted,” a downtrodden Lorenzen told ABC’s Chris Economaki after his exit. Of all the crown-jewel wins Lorenzen amassed, the Southern 500 remained a glaring void until his career’s end. Dieringer returned the next year to give Hall of Famer Bud Moore his only Southern 500 triumph.
Jarrett wasn’t home free, and he fretted about the overheating that his debris-battered No. 11 Ford had to endure in the baking sun. He backed off the throttle, preserving his growing lead over eventual runner-up Buddy Baker, who drove in relief of his father, Buck. The Baker entry had its own issues with rising temperatures and could get no closer.
The Bondy Long pit board that showed Jarrett the word “Water?” just moments earlier was soon chalked with a dollar sign. Though Baker had pulled up to Jarrett’s bumper in time for photos of the finish, the number of laps in the margin of victory required a hands-and-toes count. Just 15 of the 44 starters were running at the finish, and Jarrett stood atop them all.
“It was quite a ride, there was no doubt about it,” Jarrett told Economaki before recalling his speaking engagement on the eve of the race. “Don’t let anyone ever tell you that prayer don’t help.”
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The Jarrett family still claims the neighboring towns of Newton, Conover and Hickory in the North Carolina foothills as their homes, but for a brief window in the 1960s, Camden, South Carolina, got the billing.
“Camden is no racing hotbed,” Ned Jarrett noted back then, even though the town sits just a 45-minute drive east to Darlington. So when word of Jarrett’s Southern 500 triumph spread, the veteran driver was one of the most surprised.
“Most of them had never paid the slightest attention to stock-car racing until I moved there two years ago,” Jarrett told the Richmond Times-Dispatch a week after his victory. “Now they listen to radio broadcasts of races and talk to me about racing. They gave me a welcome home after Darlington I’ll never forget.”
Jarrett returned to find his home’s lights on in the setting sun and his driveway and lawn filled with well-wishers. A banner spread across the front of the house touting his Darlington win, and though 10 races remained on the Cup Series schedule that season, the party felt like a coronation for Jarrett’s commanding lead in the standings.
“People were everywhere. Oh, it was just unbelievable,” Dale Jarrett says. “They had decorated, and they basically went ahead and crowned Dad as the champion and the Southern 500 winner. So it was just amazing to see how the town had embraced our family. It was just a small town, just like what we came from in Conover, North Carolina, and it was just great that they understood that and how much it meant.”
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The massive Southern 500 victory was the 49th of Ned Jarrett’s 50 career wins. Less than a year later, with Ford briefly withdrawing from stock-car competition, Jarrett found himself without a regular ride. He announced his retirement from driving at the relatively young age of 33.
“I feel that I have accomplished about as much as one driver could expect to …,” Jarrett told the Bristol Herald Courier then. “My goal has always been to quit when I’m as high up the ladder as I’ve ever been. I don’t want to go down the other side.”
Darlington remained a revered place for the Jarrett family after the transition. Ned Jarrett returned many times as a broadcaster and a dignitary, and his son, Dale, cherished his time racing at NASCAR’s first superspeedway, growing up nearby and keeping the tradition of the Darlington Stripe in the family for a new generation.
“It’s just a special place because of what the track is and the history of it,” Dale Jarrett says. “I mean, you talk about 75 years coming up, and it’s just amazing through the years when you look back at the great champions that have raced and won there. To be a part of that, even though I never won the Southern 500, I did win the spring race three times, and it’s just amazing to be able to follow in my dad’s footsteps and win at such a difficult race track like that. So it holds a special place in our heart, again for many reasons.”
Years later, Ned Jarrett called Darlington “the toughest track that was, and still is, run by NASCAR.” Jarrett was known as a meticulous planner, one who took great care in his preparation and his approach. Winning the Southern 500 was one of the goals he’d set, and it remains one of his most memorable accomplishments. The record-setting margin means it won’t be forgotten.
“As far as races that I’ve won, it ranks at the top,” Jarrett told the Florence Morning News in 1999. “The absolute top.”
