Sunday 22nd October 1961
Joe Weatherly surged to the front in the late stages to win the Southeastern 500, just the second race for NASCAR’s top series at Bristol Motor Speedway, Tennessee, US. Weatherly passed Rex White with 82 laps to go and leads the rest of the 500-lap race, holding off White by seven car-lengths at the finish. Nelson Stacy came home third as the only other car on the lead lap. Junior Johnson, who led a race-high 294 laps, was relegated to a 24th-place finish after rear-gearing failure.
