A rare NASCAR Winston Cup appearance by former Champ Car team owner and driver Tony Bettenhausen Jr. would make this race into a landmark event in motorsports history.

Land owned the property, which is settled in the sandhills of North Carolina, and together, they set out to find funding.

The American 500[4] was a 500-lap, 500-mile NASCAR Grand National Series race won by Curtis Turner at an average speed of 101.942 miles per hour.

The American 500 was the 54th of 55 races in the 1965 season, which included NASCAR legends Cale Yarborough (who finished second), Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett (who would go on to win the championship), Buddy Baker, David Pearson, and Junior Johnson.

[2] Joe Frasson's difficulties in handling his steering problems on lap 4 caused him to be credited with the last-place finish for this event.

David Sisco noticed that his vehicle's suspension was giving him problems on lap 357; forcing him to accept a 26th-place finish.

[2] After four hours and thirteen minutes of racing, David Pearson would defeat Cale Yarborough by slightly more than two seconds in front of an eager audience of 35,000 NASCAR followers.

[6] Only manual transmission vehicles were allowed to participate in this race; a policy that NASCAR has retained to the present day.