1954 NASCAR Grand National Series

The 1954 season consisted of 37 events from February 7 through October 24 of the year; opening in West Palm Beach, Florida, with a Herb Thomas victory, and concluding in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, at the North Wilkesboro Speedway with a Hershel McGriff win. While Thomas captured the opening event in a Hudson, the year was witness to the increased power of GM, Ford and Chrysler as Hudson slipped in its domination of the sport from previous years. Petty completed the season with 32 top-10 finishes of the 34 events that he competed in. Through 1953, and up until the Southern 500 in 1954, Petty strung together a streak of 56 consecutive races where he was still running at the end of the race. While Petty won fewer races (7) than Herb Thomas (12), his consistency in finishing in the top 10 a total of seven times more than Thomas proved to be the deciding factor in winning the championship with a 283-point margin. Rising star Buck Baker captured the winner's purse a total of four times in 1954, and finished third after a 12th-place effort in 1953. Although several of the top stars of the sport had disagreements, and even walked away from NASCAR for a time, the sport showed itself to be larger than any of the individual stars. When Tim Flock was disqualified at Daytona, he quit the sport for a time. Fonty Flock, Al Keller and Hershel McGriff also resigned at various times throughout the year. Also in 1954, drivers Petty, Thomas, Baker, Dick Rathman, McGriff, Keller, Jim Paschal, Curtis Turner, Gober Sosbee, John Soares, and Dan Letner all captured at least one victory during the year. == Season highlights ==

Two-time champion Herb Thomas' season opening victory in February earned him $1,600, which included prize monies from both the Pure Oil Company and Champion Spark Plugs. On February 20 Cotton Owens captured a modified-sportsman victory in an event that featured 136 starting entries; the largest ever starting field in a NASCAR event. A day later, Tim Flock reached the checkered flag first, but was disqualified for using a two-way radio, and Lee Petty was awarded the victory. It was the first time that radios were used in a NASCAR event, and Flock quit after the disqualification. ==Race summaries==

1954–01 The first race of the season was run at Palm Beach Raceway in West Palm Beach, Florida. Dick Rathman won the pole. Top 10 results • 92 - Herb Thomas • 87 - Buck Baker • 42 - Lee Petty • 80 - Jim Paschal • 24 - Ray Ruhigg • 6 - Ralph Liguori • 86 - Don Oldenberg • 126 - Dave Terrell • 82 - Joe Eubanks • 181 - Tommie Elliott 1954–02 The second race of the season was run at Beach & Road Course in Daytona Beach, Florida. Lee Petty won the pole. Top ten results • 42 - Lee Petty • 87 - Buck Baker • 14 - Curtis Turner • 3 - Dick Rathman • 2 - Bill Blair • 122 - Jack Smith • 13 - Emory Lewis • 25 - Fireball Roberts • 51 - Gober Sosebee • 77 - Stan Kross 1954–03 The third race of the season was run at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida. Curtis Turner won the pole. Top ten results • 92 - Herb Thomas • 14 - Fonty Flock • 42 - Lee Petty • 82 - Joe Eubanks • 87 - Buck Baker • 86 - Don Oldenberg • 23 - Al Keller • 181 - Tommie Elliott • 6 - Ralph Liguori • 4 - Tommy Moon International 100 The International 100 was the first NASCAR Grand National Series held on a road course in series history, occurring on June 13, 1954. Held on a temporary five-turn road course built of the runways and taxi lanes of Linden Airport in Union County, New Jersey, the race featured a battle of American-built stock cars versus European built sports cars. 43 cars entered, with speculation that the American cars would be stronger on the straights and the European cars stronger in the turns. After starting on pole position, Buck Baker led the early part of the race, leading the first 19 laps until being passed by Herb Thomas. Seven laps later, Al Keller, driving a Jaguar XK120 Competition Coupe, grabbed the lead from Thomas, a position he would not relinquish the rest of the event. Baker had begun to catch up to Keller but his brakes began to fail, resulting in him holding back and giving second place to Joe Eubanks. 5,000 spectators witnessed the race at Linden Airport. It would mark the second and final NASCAR Grand National Series win for Keller, having won at Oglethorpe Speedway in March 1954. It would also be the only race held at Linden Airport. Overall, the race took five hours, sixteen minutes, and one second from the first green flag to the checkered flag. The average speed was and the pole speed was . There were two cautions for four laps and the margin of victory was twenty-six seconds. Attendance of the race was confirmed at 28,000 people during the start of the race. Notable racers that appeared and did not finish in the top ten included Lee Petty (whose streak of 36 top-ten finishes ended at this race), Cotton Owens, Jimmie Lewallen, Ralph Liguori, Arden Mounts, Elmo Langley (in his NASCAR debut) and Buck Baker (pole winner). Top ten results • 92 - Herb Thomas • 44 - Curtis Turner • 98 - Marvin Panch • 58 - Johnny Patterson • 88 - Jim Paschal • 40 - John Soares • 25 - Fireball Roberts • 7 - Gwyn Staley • 13 - Joel Million • 12 - Speedy Thompson Mid-South 250 The 1954 Mid-South 250 was a NASCAR Grand National race that took place on October 10, 1954, at Memphis-Arkansas Speedway in the community of LeHi, Arkansas. One hundred and sixty-seven laps were raced on a dirt track spanning . Twelve-thousand people attended this untelevised race where Buck Baker won in his 1954 Oldsmobile. Other notable competitors included Lee Petty (who led 150 laps which was considered to be the most laps), Marvin Panch, Jimmie Lewallen, Arden Mounts, and Junior Johnson. The average speed of the race was and the race took two hours, forty-eight minutes, and fifty-one seconds to complete. Top ten results • 87 - Buck Baker • 3 - Dick Rathman • 42 - Lee Petty • 92 - Herb Thomas • 4 - Herschel Buchanan • 114 - Slick Smith • 98 - Marvin Panch • 189 - Lou Figaro • 14 - Hershel McGriff • 44 - Gober Sosebee ==Final championship standings==