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Rain & Records. At the end of 105 laps (of a scheduled 200) Parsons drew up to his pit, got refueled and had two right tires changed in 90 seconds, and was off again. It cost him the lead, first to Rose, then to 1949 Indianapolis Winner Bill Holland in his Blue Crown Special. But each in turn had pit stops to make too, and by the 115th lap Johnnie Parsons was back in front again. Before the race Johnnie had asked his pit crew to watch the sky for signs of rain, give him the high sign (two vertical arrows) on the communications blackboard in his pit. Johnnie caught sight of the big black cloud at about the 300-mile mark, before his pit crew did.
"Everything was shaping up," he said. I was leading, I had lots of gas, the car was running swell." When the rain came at the 345-mark it bucketed down for only a minute, but that was enough to make the track glass-slick and end the race. The winner, at the end of 138 laps: Johnnie Parsons, who pulled down the driver's 35% of a record $57,458.63 in prize money. Despite the cracked engine block, his average speed was better than 124 m.p.h., upping Bill Holland's record-breaking 1949 average (for 500 miles) by 2.675 m.p.h. Holland was second, Rose was third.