For the third time in the last three years, the NASCAR Cup Series will race on Easter Sunday with the running of the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway. For the sport of stock car racing, the race continues a recent pattern that has broken from a long-standing tradition and observance of one of the holiest days in all of Christianity.
Throughout the modern era of the sport from 1972 onwards, NASCAR had never scheduled a Cup Series race for Easter Sunday, which had been prudent given the sport's roots and base in the Bible Belt of the nation's southeast. However, that changed in 2022, when that year's Bristol Dirt Race marked a break from tradition -- calling back to a much earlier time in the sport's history.
Nearly a dozen NASCAR Cup Series races were run on Easter Sunday before the sport's modern era. Here is an overview and recap of all 13 Cup Series races run on Easter Sunday so far.
April 14, 1953 -- Charlotte Speedway
The first NASCAR Cup Series race on Easter Sunday came in 1953, when rain led to a race at Charlotte Speedway scheduled to be run on March 22 being pushed to Easter instead. Dick Passwater earned the lone victory of his Cup Series career, leading only the final three laps in a race that featured 16 total lead changes. Passwater had seven top fives and 14 top 10s in just 20 career starts between 1952 and 1953, but dropped off the circuit following the death of car owner Frank Arford in a crash at Langhorne Speedway.
April 18, 1954 -- Orange Speedway
As luck would have it, rain would force another race on Easter Sunday the very next year, with wet weather pushing a race at Orange Speedway in Hillsborough, N.C. from April 11 to April 18. Herb Thomas won to pick up his third of 12 wins he would earn that season in the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, but he would come up short of the Grand National championship and finished second to Lee Petty.
March 29, 1959 -- Wilson Speedway
Junior Johnson won at Wilson Speedway on Easter Sunday 1959 in a '57 Ford for car owner Paul Spaulding. The race had been dominated by Curtis Turner, but Johnson led the final 24 laps en route to his first of five victories that season.
April 17, 1960 -- Wilson Speedway
Joe Weatherly won at Wilson Speedway on Easter Sunday 1960 by a full lap over second-place Lee Petty. It was only Weatherly's third career victory, but he was emerging as a rising star and would later win back-to-back Grand National championships in 1962 and 1963.
April 2, 1961 -- Orange Speedway
Cotton Owens won on Easter Sunday 1961 at Orange Speedway after taking the lead from Junior Johnson with 18 laps to go. This race is notable in that it was the first of just four times that the Petty Enterprises No. 43 was driven by Maurice Petty instead of Richard Petty, who finished second driving the No. 42.
April 22, 1962 -- Virginia 500
Richard Petty won the Virginia 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Easter Sunday 1962, which was postponed from its originally scheduled date on April 8 due to rain. Petty led 145 laps including the final 121, marking the second of Petty's 15 total Cup victories at Martinsville. He remains the track's all-time winningest driver to this day.
April 14, 1963 -- South Boston 400
Richard Petty dominated the South Boston 400 on his way to victory on Easter Sunday 1963, leading 325 of 400 laps at the legendary short track in South Boston, Va. South Boston held 10 total Cup races from 1960 until 1971, including two in 1963 that were both won by Petty.
April 18, 1964 -- Gwyn Staley 400
Local hero Junior Johnson won the Gwyn Staley 400 at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Easter Sunday 1965, leading all but 44 laps but still having to take the top spot back from Marvin Panch with 11 laps to go to take the victory. Johnson won a career-high 13 times in 1965, which proved to be his second-to-last season before he retired from driving after just seven races in 1966.
April 6, 1969 -- Hickory 250
Bobby Isaac won the Hickory 250 at Hickory Motor Speedway in a rout on Easter Sunday 1969, leading every single lap and taking the checkered flag by two laps over Richard Petty. A native of the greater Hickory, N.C. area, Isaac won four consecutive Grand National races at Hickory from 1969 to 1970, and likely would have won more had the track not been dropped from the schedule following the 1971 season. Isaac continued to compete at Hickory until he died after suffering a fatal heart attack in a late model race at the track in 1977.
March 29, 1970 -- Atlanta 500
Bobby Allison won the Atlanta 500 on Easter Sunday in 1970, taking the lead from Cale Yarborough with six laps to go to earn his first of what would be three wins that season. Allison ran the famed Dodge Daytona that season, a car which is remembered to this day for the massive rear wing it featured.
March 26, 1989 -- Pontiac Excitement 400
After the beginning of NASCAR's modern era in 1972, the Cup Series stopped racing on Easter Sunday for almost 50 years with one exception. In 1989, NASCAR was forced to postpone the Pontiac Excitement 400 at Richmond from its originally scheduled date of February 26 due to a snowstorm, and they wound up moving the race to Easter Sunday. The race would be won by Rusty Wallace, who passed Alan Kulwicki with 20 laps to go to earn his second of what would end up being six wins on the year en route to the Winston Cup title.
This race was notable in that Richard Petty failed to qualify, breaking a streak of a then-record 513 consecutive starts. Petty's record would stand for seven more years until it was broken by Terry Labonte in April 1996.
April 17, 2022 -- Food City Dirt Race
In 2022, Easter Sunday was once again made a part of the NASCAR Cup Series calendar when the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway was moved to Easter Sunday night. The new date put an increased national spotlight on Bristol's Dirt Race, which ran for three seasons from 2021 to 2023.
This particular race would feature a dramatic finish -- Tyler Reddick was half a lap away from his first career win when Chase Briscoe pulled a last-ditch effort at a slidejob for the lead entering turn 3 on the final lap. The two collided and spun, allowing Kyle Busch to run both down from third place and take the win before Reddick could straighten out and get back up to speed soon enough to cross the finish line.
It would wind up being Busch's final victory for Joe Gibbs Racing, as he would leave the team following the 2022 season.
April 9, 2023 -- Food City Dirt Race
Christopher Bell would win the third Food City Dirt Race at Bristol on Easter Sunday 2023, which would ultimately end up being the last Cup race on Bristol Dirt before the track's spring race returned to concrete in 2024. Bell led 100 of 250, sealing the win when a crash on the final lap snuffed out a final charge for the win by Tyler Reddick.
Bell's win long stood as his lone victory of 2023 until he won at Homestead in October, which gave him a berth in the Championship 4 for the second year in a row.
