1961

1961 (MCMLXI) was. Its rendering using the Hindu-Arabic numeral system creates a numeral which looks the same when put upside down. The next such year will be 6009.

History

 * The Southeastern 500 was actually held in late October that year. The race was won by popular Virginia driver Joe Weatherly and it was surrounded by championship implications. The championship points structure was somewhat complicated back in those days as a few races paid quite a bit more points than others.


 * continued winning, taking 41 races in all. Pontiac won 30 and Chevrolet won 11, but Ford won only seven times. Chrysler managed to win four short-track events. Ned Jarrett won only one race during the 1961 season—a 100-miler at Birmingham in June—but it was good enough to walk away with the NASCAR Grand National championship.
 * Marvin Panch, driver of the No. 20 Pontiac, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Daytona 500 on February 26, 1961.
 * Ned Jarrett only won one race in 1961, at Birmingham, Alabama, but his consistency proved to be the winning factor in capturing the season's championship. Second place finisher, and 1960s defending champion, Rex White won 7 times throughout the season, but Jarrett's 33 top-10 finishes over 46 of the 52 events was enough to capture the points needed for the season's championship.  Third place finisher Emanuel Zervakis captured 2 wins in 38 attempts, and former champion Joe Weatherly won a total of 9 times in only 25 attempts.  NASCAR icon Fireball Roberts also had two victories, but only raced in 22 events.
 * ABC began showing highlights of NASCAR events on its Wide World of Sports television programs in 1961. Pontiac won 30 and Cheverolet 11 times over the course of the 52 event season, giving General Motors a dominating performance.  Ford managed to capture 7 victories, while Chrysler managed a 4 short track wins. After Pontiac took 5 of the top 6 finishing positions, including the top 3, at the Daytona 500, they began advertisements touting their dominating performance.   Pontiac rose to 3rd in US automotive sales throughout the year.
 * Joe Weatherly took the season opening win at the Southern States Fairgrounds track in Charlotte in November 1960, with Lee Petty capturing the next event at Jacksonville Speedway Park in Florida. When the series moved to Daytona in February, Weatherly and Fireball Roberts each won their respective qualifying events prior to Marvin Panch grabbing the checkered flag for the Daytona 500.   On March 5, defending 1960 NASCAR champion Rex White captured his first victory of the season at the Asheville-Weaverville Speedway.  Roberts, Cotton Owens, and Bob Burdick also won events throughout the month of March. On April 9 Fred Lorenzen, who had previously won a USAC championship, captured his first NASCAR win at Martinsville Speedway during the Virginia 500.  The race was called due to rain after 159 of its scheduled 500 laps, but a follow-up race at Martinsville was then scheduled.  Lorenzen followed that up with a second win, on May 6, at Darlington in the Rebel 300.
 * On May 28 during the second running of the World 600 at Charlotte, future NASCAR legend David Pearson also captured his first NASCAR victory. Pearson blew a tire with more than a lap to go, but continued on to win the race even though he finished on just 3 wheels.  Throughout April and May Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, Lloyd Dane, and Eddie Gray all add their names to the list of winners in the 1961 season.