Sunday 21st May 1950
The fourth race of the 1950 NASCAR season was run at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia, the first race in the lineage of the Virginia 500, the spring race at the track. Buck Baker won the pole. Curtis Turner got his second-straight Grand National win with a decisive triumph. The Roanoke, Virginia, “Blond Bomber” dashed ahead of Baker in the 11th lap and led the rest of the way in the 150-lap, 75 mile feature at the half-mile dirt oval. Jim Paschal finished second in a four-year-old Ford, Lee Petty was third and Glenn Dunnaway came in fourth. Cyde Minter picked up fifth spot. Turner’s Oldsmobile outdistanced the field by two full laps. He up to only 2.5 points behind leader Tim Flock, who fell victim to rear end problems after 97 laps. Baker started on the pole at 54.216 mph in a Ford police special. He faded to eighth at the finish. Herb Thomas was running among the leaders in his Ford when a spindle broke in the final laps. He got credit for 14th in the field of 25.
