NASCAR Rocks Halloween
by Tom Jensen October 28, 2025
The first race at a new NASCAR track was the sport’s first on Halloween and a final taste of glory for a legendary wheelman.
In a first race at a new track a NASCAR star won for the final time. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images.
In the entire history of NASCAR, the Cup Series has raced on Halloween just seven times, the first coming in 1965 when North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham hosted the American 500.
The race was historically significant for several reasons. First, it was the inaugural race at Rockingham, which would go on to host 78 Cup Series races before falling off the Cup schedule in 2005 as part of NASCAR’s move to bigger markets.
Some 35,000 fans showed up for the first race at Rockingham, a huge crowd, given the track’s relative isolation in rural North Carolina.
Another significant factor was that the winner was Hall of Famer Curtis “Pops” Turner (Class of 2016), who was driving the No. 41 Ford Galaxie fielded by fellow Hall of Famers Glenn (Class of 2012) and Leonard Wood (Class of 2013) and the Wood Brothers Racing team.
Side note: Glenn founded the team in 1950, and Leonard was the mechanical genius who built and prepared the team’s race cars. Now on its third generation of family run management, Wood Brothers Racing is NASCAR’s oldest continually operating race team. The NASCAR Hall of Fame is celebrating the team’s 75th Anniversary with a Great Hall exhibit titled, “Wood Brothers 75 Years.”
Back to Rockingham: Turner, a skilled and flamboyant racer, had been banned for life by NASCAR founder and Chairman William H.G. France (Class of 2010) in 1961 for attempting to unionize the drivers. In 1965, France lifted the ban, allowing Turner to return to competition.
Turner, a skilled and flamboyant racer, had been banned for life by NASCAR founder and Chairman William H.G. France in 1961 for attempting to unionize the drivers.
— Tom Jensen
In the late 1950s and early ‘60s, Turner was one of the sport’s biggest attractions, a swashbuckling Virginian who grew up running moonshine and made and lost fortunes in the timber industry. A man with deft car control and a larger-than-life personality, Turner’s return was welcomed by race fans eager to see him work his magic again.
The Rockingham race was the penultimate event on NASCAR’s 55-race schedule, and it was Turner’s first victory since winning on the 0.500-mile Concord (North Carolina) Speedway on March 8, 1959. So Turner’s Halloween triumph at “The Rock” broke a drought of more than six-and-a-half years, an eternity in auto racing.
At Rockingham, Turner won by a margin of 11 seconds over Cale Yarborough (Class of 2012) in a Banjo Matthews-owned Ford. Coming in third was Marvin Panch in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford. Turner’s triumph was worth $13,090. Turner’s victory was the seventh race win that season for the Stuart, Va.-based Wood Brothers team, who also won races that season with drivers Panch, A.J. Foyt and Dan Gurney.
Turner would compete in 31 races over the next three seasons, but Rockingham would be his 17th and final career premier series win, a memory cherished by the driver, the team and a lot of NASCAR race fans.
Plan your visit to the NASCAR Hall of Fame and purchase tickets by visiting nascarhall.com/tickets.
