1978 Southern 200 and Marty Robbins 500 weekend - Nashville Fairgrounds

Another Ricky Haynes digitized film. This is from the 1978 season-ending weekend. The long-time race that ended the Nashville season was the Southern 200 (and over the years it had been 300 and even 400 laps). It was scheduled to be run on Saturday. The 2nd annual Marty Robbins World Open 500 was to be run on Sunday. Rain postponed the 200 to Sunday, so both races were held back-to-back. A race fan's dream - 700 laps of racing! Harry Gant was entered in both races - in the same car. Gant won the Southern 200 then turned around and ran the same, much heavier car in the 500 - and finished 3rd. He completed 696 laps of competition in a single day. An amazing performance.