June 10 - This day in Petty history

1973 - Starting from the outside pole, Richard Petty leads 77 laps and banks his 152nd career victory by winning the Alamo 500 at Texas World Speedway in College Station, TX.

Petty's win was his third in four races at TWS. For newer NASCAR fans, Texas WORLD Speedway isn't the same track as today's Texas MOTOR Speedway. TWS was closer to the Houston market whereas TMS is between Dallas and Ft. Worth.

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

Rookie Darrell Waltrip finished second, and pole sitter and former Petty Enterprises driver Buddy Baker finished sixth. Baker dominated much of the race and led 168 of 250 laps. But he broke a battery cable - a battery cable!, had to pit, lost a lot of time, and simply couldn't make it back to the front before the 43 took the checkers.

Photos from races at TWS seem to be hard to come by. So I was thrilled to stumble across this collection of color ones taken on the starting grid, throughout the race and during pit stops.

Article courtesy of Jerry Bushmire

Bonus trivia: Petty's Texas win was his fourth of the season, but it was his first win since shaving his handlebar mustache a couple of weeks earlier following the birth of his daughter, Rebecca. He had sported the stache since the beginning of the season including wins at Daytona, Richmond, and North Wilkesboro.

But when number 4 was born, wife Lynda wanted the mustache gone. So out came the razor before the King raced in the World 600.

Source: Gadsden Times via Google News Archive

TMC
Edited: June 10, 2014