1957 Grand National Series

1957 Grand National Series
Duration	November 11, 1956 through October 27, 1957
Season statistics
No. of races	53
First race	1957-01
Last race	1957-53
Drivers' champion	Buck Baker
Manufacturers' champion
Rookie of the Year	Ken Rush
Most popular driver	Fireball Roberts
Previous	1956
Next	1958

The 1957 Grand National Series was the 9th season of the NASCAR Grand National Series. The season began on November 11, 1956 at Willow Springs Speedway and ended at Greensboro Fairgrounds on October 27.

Buck Baker won his second consecutive championship in his fifth full-time season, becoming the first driver to win consecutive championships in NASCAR history, and becoming the first driver to win consecutive championships driving for two different teams. He won 10 races in 1957 with a striking black paint scheme on his Chevrolet, leading to the car earning the nickname “Black Widow.”

The season was notable for seeing the retirement of Herb Thomas and Fonty Flock, while also seeing Cotton Owens score Pontiac’s first win, the first race at Watkins Glen, and the debut of Cale Yarborough at Darlington in the Southern 500.

Schedule

Round	Date	Race Name	Track
1	November 11, 1956	1957-01	Willow Springs Speedway
2	December 2, 1956	1957-02	Concord Speedway
3	December 30, 1956	Indian River Gold Cup 100	Titusville-Cocoa Speedway
4	February 17, 1957	1957-04	Daytona Beach Road Course
5	March 3, 1957	1957-05	Concord Speedway
6	March 17, 1957	1957-06	Wilson Speedway
7	March 24, 1957	1957-07	Orange Speedway
8	March 31, 1957	1957-08	Asheville-Weaverville Speedway
9	April 7, 1957	Wilkes County 160	North Wilkesboro Speedway
10	April 14, 1957	1957-10	Langhorne Speedway
11	April 19, 1957	1957-11	Southern States Fairgrounds
12	April 27, 1957	1957-12	Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds
13	April 28, 1957	1957-13	Greensboro Fairgrounds
14	April 28, 1957	1957-14	Portland Speedway
15	May 4, 1957	1957-15	Cleveland County Fairgrounds
16	May 5, 1957	Richmond 250	Rural Exposition Fairgrounds
17	May 19, 1957	Virginia 500	Martinsville Speedway
18	May 26, 1957	1957-18	Portland Speedway
19	May 30, 1957	1957-19	Eureka Speedway
20	May 30, 1957	1957-20	Lincoln Speedway
21	June 1, 1957	1957-21	Lancaster Speedway
22	June 8, 1957	1957-22	Ascot Stadium
23	June 15, 1957	1957-23	Newport Speedway
24	June 20, 1957	1957-24	Columbia Speedway
25	June 22, 1957	1957-25	Capital Speedway
26	June 29, 1957	1957-26	Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds
27	June 30, 1957	1957-27	Jacksonville Speedway
28	July 4, 1957	Raleigh 250	Raleigh Speedway
29	July 12, 1957	1957-29	Southern States Fairgrounds
30	July 14, 1957	1957-30	Memphis-Arkansas Speedway
31	July 14, 1957	1957-31	Portland Speedway
32	July 20, 1957	Buddy Shuman 250	Hickory Speedway
33	July 24, 1957	1957-33	Norfolk Speedway
34	July 30, 1957	1957-34	Lancaster Speedway
35	August 4, 1957	The Glen 101.2	Watkins Glen International
36	August 4, 1957	1957-36	Kitsap County Airport
37	August 10, 1957	1957-37	Lincoln Speedway
38	August 16, 1957	1957-38	Old Bridge Stadium
39	August 26, 1957	1957-39	Coastal Speedway
40	September 2, 1957	Southern 500	Darlington Raceway
41	September 5, 1957	1957-41	New York State Fairgrounds
42	September 8, 1957	1957-42	Asheville-Weaverville Speedway
43	September 8, 1957	1957-43	California State Fairgrounds
44	September 15, 1957	1957-44	Santa Clara Fairgrounds
45	September 15, 1957	1957-45	Langhorne Speedway
46	September 19, 1957	1957-46	Columbia Speedway
47	September 21, 1957	1957-47	Cleveland County Fairgrounds
48	October 5, 1957	1957-48	Southern States Fairgrounds
49	October 6, 1957	Sweepstakes 500	Martinsville Speedway
50	October 12, 1957	1957-50	Newberry Speedway
51	October 13, 1957	1957-51	Concord Speedway
52	October 20, 1957	Wilkes 160	North Wilkesboro Speedway
53	October 27, 1957	1957-53	Greensboro Fairgrounds

Results

Round	Race	Pole Winner	Winner	Make	Cautions	Caution Laps	Average Speed	Number of Lead Changes
1	1957-01	Marvin Panch	Marvin Panch				78.648	2
2	1957-02	Curtis Turner	Marvin Panch				55.883	1
3	1957 Indian River Gold Cup 100	Paul Goldsmith	Fireball Roberts				69.106	1
4	1957-04	Banjo Matthews	Cotton Owens		1		101.541	5
5	1957-05	Mel Larson	Jack Smith		1		59.860	5
6	1957-06	Fireball Roberts	Ralph Moody				55.079	1
7	1957-07	Fireball Roberts	Buck Baker				82.233	5
8	1957-08	Marvin Panch	Buck Baker				65.693	2
9	1957 Wilkes County 160	Fireball Roberts	Fireball Roberts		2	5	75.015	0
10	1957-10	Paul Goldsmith	Fireball Roberts		1	3	85.850	5
11	1957-11	Marvin Panch	Fireball Roberts		3		52.083	3
12	1957-12	Speedy Thompson	Marvin Panch				55.130
13	1957-13	Buck Baker	Paul Goldsmith		4		49.905	3
14	1957-14	Art Watts	Art Watts		0	0	64.754	0
15	1957-15	Tiny Lund	Fireball Roberts		2		54.861	5
16	1957 Richmond 250	Russ Hepler	Paul Goldsmith				62.445	2
17	1957 Virginia 500	Paul Goldsmith	Buck Baker		3	51	57.318	5
18	1957-18	Art Watts	Eddie Pagan				64.732
19	1957-19	Parnelli Jones	Lloyd Dane				55.957
20	1957-20	Marvin Panch	Buck Baker		1		76.126
21	1957-21	Buck Baker	Paul Goldsmith				61.622
22	1957-22	Eddie Pagan	Eddie Pagan				0.000
23	1957-23	Speedy Thompson	Fireball Roberts				60.687
24	1957-24	Buck Baker	Jack Smith				58.045
25	1957-25	Art Watts	Bill Amick				59.580
26	1957-26	Lee Petty	Lee Petty		3		46.287	1
27	1957-27	Lee Petty	Buck Baker				55.342
28	1957 Raleigh 250	Frankie Schneider	Paul Goldsmith		2	14	75.693	8
29	1957-29	Tiny Lund	Marvin Panch		4	12	56.302	6
30	1957-30	Speedy Thompson	Marvin Panch		2		67.167	4
31	1957-31	Art Watts	Eddie Pagan				64.539
32	1957 Buddy Shuman 250	Gwyn Staley	Jack Smith				58.737	8
33	1957-33	Bill Amick	Buck Baker				47.987
34	1957-34	Speedy Thompson	Speedy Thompson		0	0	66.543	0
35	1957 The Glen 101.2	Buck Baker	Buck Baker		0	0	83.064	0
36	1957-36	Art Watts	Parnelli Jones				38.959
37	1957-37	Tiny Lund	Marvin Panch				77.569
38	1957-38	Rex White	Lee Petty		1	4	65.813	4
39	1957-39	Johnny Allen	Gwyn Staley				50.782
40	1957 Southern 500	Cotton Owens	Speedy Thompson		6	23	100.094	13
41	1957-41	Gwyn Staley	Gwyn Staley				80.591	2
42	1957-42	Bill Amick	Lee Petty		1	10	67.950	5
43	1957-43	Danny Graves	Danny Graves				68.663
44	1957-44	Lloyd Dane	Marvin Porter				0.000
45	1957-45	Paul Goldsmith	Gwyn Staley				72.759
46	1957-46	Buck Baker	Buck Baker				60.514
47	1957-47	Buck Baker	Buck Baker		4	19	53.699	6
48	1957-48	Lee Petty	Lee Petty				51.583
49	1957 Sweepstakes 500	Eddie Pagan	Bob Welborn		4	14	63.025	6
50	1957-50	Jack Smith	Fireball Roberts				50.398	3
51	1957-51	Jack Smith	Fireball Roberts		5		59.553	6
52	1957 Wilkes 160	Fireball Roberts	Jack Smith		2		69.902	5
53	1957-53	Ken Rush	Buck Baker				38.927	4

Final Points Standings

Pos.	Driver	Races	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s	Poles	Points	Difference
1	Buck Baker	40	10	30	38	6	10716
2	Marvin Panch	42	6	22	27	4	9956	-760
3	Speedy Thompson	38	2	16	22	4	8580	-2,136
4	Lee Petty	41	4	20	33	3	8528	-2,188
5	Jack Smith	40	4	17	26	2	8464	-2,252
6	Fireball Roberts	42	8	21	27	4	8268	-2,448
7	Johnny Allen	42	0	4	17	1	7068	-3,648
8	L.D. Austin	40	0	1	13	0	6532	-4,184
9	Brownie King	36	0	1	16	0	5740	-4,976
10	Jim Paschal	35	0	9	17	0	5136	-5,580
11	Tiny Lund	32	0	6	15	3	4848	-5,868
12	Billy Myers	28	0	4	9	0	4682	-6,034
13	Paul Goldsmith	25	4	10	15	4	4224	-6,492
14	Cotton Owens	17	1	3	6	1	4200	-6,516
15	Eddie Pagan	15	3	11	11	2	3624	-7,092
16	Bill Amick	21	1	8	12	2	3512	-7,204
17	Dick Beaty	20	0	1	7	0	3220	-7,496
18	Jim Reed	6	0	2	3	0	2836	-7,880
19	Clarence DeZalia	25	0	0	6	0	2828	-7,888
20	Frankie Schneider	10	0	3	6	1	2516	-8,200
21	Rex White	9	0	4	6	1	2508	-8,208
22	Curtis Turner	10	0	2	4	1	2356	-8,360
23	George Green	17	0	1	4	0	2216	-8,500
24	Whitey Norman	13	0	1	4	0	1920	-8,796
25	Lloyd Dane	10	1	7	10	1	1864	-8,852
26	Jimmie Lewallen	7	0	0	0	0	1796	-8,920
27	Johnny Mackison	5	0	1	2	0	1764	-8,952
28	Bobby Keck	16	0	0	2	0	1740	-8,976
29	Billy Carden	3	0	0	2	0	1600	-9,116
30	Bill Benson	11	0	0	2	0	1592	-9,124

Rookie of the Year

With 1 Top 5 and 6 Top 10s in 16 starts, Ken Rush was the 1957 Rookie of the Year.

Manufacturer's Championship

With 26 wins, Ford won the 1957 Manufacturer's Championship.

Position	Make	Race Wins
1		26
2		21
3		4
4		0
5		2