1975 - Richard wins his 174th race the hard way and in dramatic fashion in the Delaware 500 at Dover. He leads much of the race and builds a sizable lead. But with about 150 laps to go, he has problems, pits, and is lapped
eight times. Yet he un-laps himself down the stretch and still manages to win the race.
Greg Fielden writes in
Forty Years of Stock Car Racing - The Modern Era:
Buddy Arrington, running over 50 laps behind, parked his Plymouth in a turn in an effort to bring out the day's fifth and final caution flag with less than 15 miles remaining. NASCAR officials decided Arrington's car was out of the main racing groove and left the green light on. Arrington drove the car to the pits and after talking with his pit crew, drove back on to the track and parked in the upper groove in the third turn. He waited there until NASCAR dropped the yellow flag. The caution period enabled Petty to close the gap on leaders Dick Brooks and Benny Parsons... After the yellow flag came out, Arrington drove to the pit area where NASCAR black-flagged him for the day. But the damage had been done. Petty, manning the fastest car in the race, drove around Brooks and Parsons with nine laps to to go and won going away... Arrington had just purchased a car-hauler from Petty Enterprises..."I couldn't have won without that last caution flag," Petty admitted. "I don't know anything about that, so I'd best not say anything about it." pp. 140-141
The King closes the gap on Bobby Allison in his #16 American Motors Matador and Jabe Thomas in #25.
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| Photo credit to and courtesy of Lee Greenawalt at RacersReunion.com |
TMC
Edited September 14, 2014
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