Has NASCAR ever raced on Christmas?
Christmas is synonymous for basketball, football and other sports taking their turn on TV — but has NASCAR or any motorsport ever raced on the holiday?
With cold temperatures, unfavorable conditions in the Northern Hemisphere and the nature of the sport erring toward being family-oriented, Christmas is usually a tough time for motorsports to run.
That is mostly why NASCAR’s top three national series or any major motorsport has never run a race on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day — but they’ve come close.
NASCAR on Christmas
The closest NASCAR’s top national series has ever come to running on Christmas is Dec. 29. NASCAR hosted a Cup Series race at Savannah Speedway in Georgia that took place on Dec. 29, 1963 — but was contested as part of the 1964 season. The 1964 season began on Nov. 10, 1963, just a week after the 1963 season ended, and the Savannah was the fourth race of the season.
Ned Jarrett started on the pole for the 200-lap race. He led the first 67 laps and clearly had the best car until he blew an engine. He was the fourth driver to fall out of the race due to mechanical issues or a crash. In all, 12 of the 23 entrants failed to finish the race — including Jack Anderson who crashed out on lap 72 and LeeRoy Yarbrough who crashed out on lap 96.
Meanwhile, Richard Petty avoided issues and led 133 laps after Jarrett blew an engine. Petty went on to win that day by a lap over Jack Smith to claim his first of nine wins in the 1964 season.
Petty raced 61 of the 62 races that season and beat Jarrett for the championship by 5,302 points. Although Jarrett scored more wins than Petty (15 vs. 9), more top-five finishes (40 vs. 37), more top-10 finishes (45 vs. 43) and poles (9 vs. 8), each race didn’t award the same amount of points. The points awarded in each race was based on the prize money awarded in that race, meaning the highest-paying races rewarded the most points.
In 1964, Petty won the Daytona 500 and finished second in the World 600 (now Coca-Cola 600) at Charlotte, while Jarrett crashed out of each race, finishing 27th and 33rd. Petty also earned more money in the Firecracker 400 at Daytona and Bristol race in July and the October race at Charlotte to boost himself to his first of seven Cup championships.
By season’s end, Petty had 36 career wins to his name while Jarrett had 37. Both drivers looked to 1965 as their sixth season in the series but went in vastly different directions that season and beyond.
After NASCAR Cup Series’ closest race to Christmas
After NASCAR banned the Hemi engine for the 1965 season, Petty joined a Chrysler boycott of the motorsport and went drag racing. While he found some success, a Feb. 28, 1965 crash at Southeastern Dragway in Dallas, Georgia, and subsequent changes in NASCAR, ushered Petty back into the sport by the end of the season. He won four of the last 22 races but had to watch while Jarrett claimed the championship that season. After Jarrett won the 1965 championship — his second in six seasons — he retired from full-time racing.
Jarrett made 21 starts in 1966 but never made another start beyond then, ending his career with 50 wins, 185 top-five finishes, 239 top-10 finishes and 35 poles in 352 starts and a body of work that put him in the second class of NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011.
Petty went on to win another 160 races and six championships from 1966 to 1984, getting into the first NASCAR Hall of Fame class in 2010.
NASCAR in December
Including the Dec. 29, 1963 race at Savannah Speedway, there have been eight NASCAR Cup Series races ever held in December. Like the Cup Series overall, Richard Petty leads all drivers for Cup wins in the month of December:
- Dec. 11, 1955 at Palm Beach Speedway in Florida: Herb Thomas
- Dec. 2, 1956 at Concord Speedway in North Carolina: Marvin Panch
- Dec. 30, 1956 at Titusville-Cocoa Speedway in Florida: Fireball Roberts
- Dec. 1, 1963 at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida: Wendell Scott
- Dec. 29, 1963 at Savannah Speedway in Georgia: Richard Petty
- Dec. 8, 1968 at Montgomery Speedway in Alabama: Bobby Allison
- Dec. 7, 1969 at Texas World Speedway in College Station: Bobby Isaac
- Dec. 12, 1971 at Texas World Speedway: Richard Petty (2)
Other motorsports on Christmas
Records show no major motorsports series has ever run a race on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The closest any major series has come to running a race on Christmas is a Dec. 23, 1934 AAA Champ Car Series race at the Los Angeles International Airport, then known as the Los Angeles Municipal Airport. Records show Kelly Petillo beat Wilbur Shaw for the win by a lap until fog cut the race short after 126 laps.
Formula 1 contested the South African Grand Prix days after Christmas in 1962 and 1963 — on Dec. 29 and Dec. 28. Jim Clark won in 1962 while Graham Hill won in 1963.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com