Black Saturday: NASCAR's Darkest Night and the Lost Raleigh Speedway

**Shoutout to Smyle for sponsoring this video. In addition to brand development, Smyle has several hundred thousand photographs in their archives and can tell the history of auto racing from its beginning: https://donsmyle.com ** On September 19, 1953, NASCAR scheduled a high-profile race for Modified/Sportsman cars at the Raleigh Speedway. The event paid more money to win than almost all other races and attracted the best drivers. More significantly, the event was the first night race ever held on a track over one mile. With expectations this would be a great moment in NASCAR's brief history, no one could've predicted how terrible the night would become on lap one. Bill Blevins stalled on the pace lap and went unnoticed by officials. The green flag was thrown and a field of 59 cars went racing toward him at full speed. On the backstretch, Blevins was struck by Jesse Midkiff and 15 cars were involved in the fiery crash. Both Blevins and Midkiff died in NASCAR's only double fatality. It was a stain that the modern but unpopular track couldn't erase. While Raleigh Speedway was torn down over 50 years ago, ironically the section of track where the accident occured still exists, hidden in the woods on a Raleigh side street. Heather Leah's Unearthing of Raleigh Speedway: https://abc11.com/society/hidden-history-unearthing-the-lost-raleigh-speedway-/5116435/ Follow us on Twitter: nascarman: https://twitter.com/nascarman_rr Brock: https://twitter.com/LASTCARonBROCK Brock's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lastcaronbrock Music: Dark Toys - SYBS Deep Space - Audionautix Echos of Time V2 - Kevin MacLeod #NASCAR

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