April 29, 1973 - Martinsville's Virginia 500

The ninth race of NASCAR's 1973 Winston Cup season was the Virginia 500 at the iconic Martinsville Speedway.

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

Two weeks earlier, David Pearson won the Rebel 400 at Darlington. After the tour skipped the next weekend for Easter, Pearson picked up where he left off by winning the pole at Martinsville in the Wood Brothers Mercury. 

Donnie Allison qualified alongside Pearson in the #88 DiGard Chevy. Independent Cecil Gordon timed third - a start that was his second career best and topped only by a P2 start at Bristol a few weeks earlier. Bobby Allison and Richard Petty rounded out the top five starters.

The King made his first Martinsville start in a Dodge. A year earlier at Martinsville, Petty Enterprises announced Petty would begin a switch from Plymouth to Dodge. The 43 team continued to run a Plymouth on short tracks the rest of 1972 and began using the Dodge Charger on superspeedways. The team went all-in with the Charger in 1973.  

The year got off to a pretty good start with three wins in the first eight races - including King's fourth Daytona 500 victory. The team, however, also had three DNFs due to engine failures in that same time span.

When the green dropped, Pearson hugged the inside and led the first 60 or so laps. The Allisons never had a shot at keeping pace with him. Bobby fell out on lap 31 with engine woes followed by Donnie about 15 laps later with a similar issue.

Sixth place starter Cale Yarborough's engine, however, was just fine. After Pearson's initial stint, Cale went to the point and paced the field for 311 of the next 333 laps.

As short a day as the Allison's had, Richard Brown's day was even worse. The independent driver lost power after only 15 laps and loaded his car for the trip home. Brown himself wasn't done though - but perhaps he should have been. Fellow independent Ed Negre needed a relief driver around the midpoint of the race, and Brown belted in to the #8 Mercury to assist. Shortly after returning to the track, however, Brown stuck the car in the fence. 

Credit: Bryant McMurray / UNC Charlotte Murrey Atkins Library

The official reason for Negre's DNF was "suspension", but it's unclear if the suspension failure happened before or after Brown walloped the wall. Two years later, Negre put another driver with far less experience than Brown in his car at Charlotte. That driver was Dale Earnhardt who made his Cup debut in the 1975 World 600.

Edit: Negre's son, Norman Negre recalled this great story from that day via Twitter.

Dad was driving. It started smoking, and he came in and tried to fix it. He then went to the garage and told me to fix it. Valve covers were cracked, and I replaced them. Then I couldn’t find Dad. Richard was out of the race so I asked him to make a lap see if the smoke was gone. He stuck it right in the wall.

I walked around to the car. Richard got out and said the throttle stuck. Walking back to the pits, Dad was standing there with his arms crossed - mad - and he started chewing me out. Richard said "Ed, it’s not his fault. The throttle stuck."

Dad said "It’s been sticking. I’ve been flipping the switch all day." I said "you didn’t tell me the throttle had been sticking, Besides that, where were you???" He said "I was in the bathroom." His story is he was sitting there, heard the wreck, and then "Ed Negre is in the wall!!!" Dad thinks to himself "I’m in the bathroom. They must have the wrong guy."

That’s the story why Richard Brown was driving the car at Martinsville!

As Cale led lap after lap, Pearson's day started to come unwound. Around the time Brown shortened up Negre's car, Pearson's gas cap came off - a safety no-no. For a few decades, NASCAR has mandated a dump can connection system. In the early 1970s, however, teams still used conventional filler necks and gas caps which had to remain in place. The loss of Pearson's gas cap resulted in an unscheduled stop and loss of a lap to Yarborough. Shortly thereafter, Pearson lost a second lap when he cut a tire and made another unscheduled stop.

About the time Yarborough's long stretch of leading ended for a moment, Petty's day ended for good. The King had won 11 of the previous 14 races at Martinsville, but the Dodge debut didn't go well. Instead of adding a fourth win to his 1973 resume, the record books reflect a fourth DNF due to engine failure.

Credit: Bryant McMurray / UNC Charlotte Murrey Atkins Library

Pearson earned back one of his two laps under a caution, but Yarborough's dominance began to suggest he would not get a shot at unlapping himself a second time. But then...

As Cale was prepared to make a green flag stop, the seventh yellow flag of the day flew. The caution was needed to allow an ambulance to cross the track with a fan showing signs of heat stroke, a heart attack or some related medical emergency. 

Yarborough and car owner Junior Johnson were incensed at the timing of the caution. Though they likely didn't have all the facts at the moment, they believed the timing was suspect and were beyond frustrated that NASCAR didn't give the teams a heads-up so they could plan pit strategy accordingly.

Pearson was able to get back on the lead lap during the caution but still needed to get around Yarborough to take the lead. Twenty or so laps later, he did just that. As it did to start the race, the #21 Mercury led another sizable stretch of laps until about 60 laps to go. 

Following the final caution of the day, Yarborough got the jump on Pearson as the racing resumed. He led a lap but then washed up in turn one allowing Pearson to slide back under him for the lead. For the rest of the day, Cale's #11 Chevy rolled in the tire tracks of Pearson in an effort to close a race in which he'd dominated.

Credit: Bryant McMurray / UNC Charlotte Murrey Atkins Library

With about eight laps to go, Yarborough made his final move. He dove to Pearson's inside, but he clipped the grass and spun. By the time he gathered his car to head in the right direction, he was a half-lap behind. Pearson cruised the rest of the way to notch his 70th career win - and his only one at Martinsville.

His win earned the Wood Brothers their second Martinsville victory. In a coincidental bit of trivia, their first one was claimed in 1968 with Yarborough at the wheel with Pearson finishing second in his Holman Moody Ford.

Cale could not be convinced he gave back two laps to Pearson with the way he ran all day. And to add insult to injury, the trophy presented to him for leading the most laps was from the Dogwood 500 modified race scheduled a month earlier. The race had been rained out and rescheduled for May, and the track may have mixed the trophies following April's Cup race. One has to wonder if Jerry Cook got Cale's trophy when he led the most laps en route to winning the modified race.

Credit: Bryant McMurray / UNC Charlotte Murrey Atkins Library

Source: Spartanburg Herald

TMC

April 24, 1971 - Hambone to the Throne

Nashville's Fairground Speedways opened its 1971 season in April. The season was the second one on the new high banked version of the track - and the first full one as the track wasn't ready for use in 1970 until July.

Art Ellis was the surprise winner of the 1971 season opener, the Permatex 200. Sadly, Ellis's enjoyment of his victory was short-lived as he was killed in an accident at the fairgrounds a couple of months later. 

After the 200-lap opener, the regulars returned for the first of a weekly slate of races. The marquis event was a 30-lap late model sportsman feature.

Many drivers - local drivers, national LMS racers, and even Cup drivers - had disdain for Nashville's new banks. Some even argued the place could be a death trap because tires couldn't keep pace with the high speeds on the new surface. 

Two drivers that took a shine to it, however, were Darrell Waltrip and James Ham. Waltrip won five of the abbreviated season's 11 feature races in 1970 and captured his first of two track championships. Ham didn't win nearly as often as Waltrip, but he was fast in qualifying. He qualified on the front row for all 11 of 1970's LMS features.

Ham set a track record in winning the pole for the season opener. Seven days later, Waltrip topped Ham's week-old record and won the pole for the 30-lap feature. Keeping his streak alive, Ham lined up alongside Waltrip - swapping places with DW from the previous week. He did so by qualifying on only seven cylinders!

A 30-lap feature on a lightning-quick, half-mile track seemingly ends almost before it begins. Drivers have to qualify well, and they have to be up on the wheel from the jump.

And Ham was ready at the jump. He muscled by Waltrip at the beginning of the race and showed his horsepower - despite being down a cylinder. The short race had two yellow flags where laps under caution didn't count. Both allowed Waltrip to close back to Ham's bumper and the opportunity to launch past him for the win. On both restarts, however, Ham seized the lead and continued on to the win.

The feature was Ham's second track win. He earned his first a few months earlier in a 30-lap feature in October 1970. He'd go on to win twice more in 1971 - both 30-lap features. Ham raced at the Fairgrounds for several more years, but those four wins on the track's high banks were his only ones.

Following the race, folks learned the top two cars raced with impaired engines. P.B. Crowell, one of Waltrip's car owners told a Tennessean reporter after the race:

A push rod broke. A valve hit a piston and busted the cylinder wall. We lost an engine. We were lucky Darrell was able to go on and finish second. He ran on seven cylinders, that's all. 

A week later, Ham extended his front row streak by qualifying second to Waltrip for the Pabst Blue Ribbon 100. His winning streak, however, ended at one when his ill-handling car popped the wall around lap 30 - the same distance he covered to win in late April '71.

Source: The Tennessean

TMC

April 21, 1968 - Wilkesboro's Gwyn Staley 400

NASCAR's Grand National teams rolled into the mountains of western North Carolina in the spring of '68 for the Gwyn Staley Memorial 400-lap race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The race was the 11th of the season - just shy of being a quarter into the year's 49-race schedule.

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

The track hosted an egg hunt a week earlier on Easter Sunday. Strategic or perhaps just fortuitous kids stood to make a pretty good cash haul if they found the higher valued eggs. One has to wonder if some opportunistic, independent NASCAR drivers may have been in the mix as well in an effort to snag some funding for their tire bill. 

Source: Kannapolis Daily Independent

Jerry Grant did some searching of this own that weekend. Though there's no record he hip-checked any five year-olds in order to score an egg, he did go searching for speed. The USAC Indy Car regular laid down laps in two different cars - his GN Plymouth stock car as well as his Indy roadster that he planned to race at the Brickyard in the month of May.

Source: Spartanburg Herald

Fast forwarding a week, David Pearson won the pole in his Holman Moody Ford. LeeRoy Yarbrough qualified alongside him. A pair of Mopars raced by Bobby Isaac and Darel Dieringer lined up in the second row with Bobby Allison rounding out the top five starters. 

Pearson earned the MGM trophy as the top qualifier. The Hollywood studio sponsored the pole winner trophy as part of its promotion for the soon-to-be released movie, Speedway, starring Elvis Presley.

Source: Statesville Record and Landmark

Pearson's chief rival, Richard Petty, was scheduled to present the trophy to the Silver Fox - a photo I'd truly like to see.

Fans saw multiple leaders during the first quarter of the race. Blue Oval and Mopar fans took turns cheering as Pearson and Bobby Allison led about 50 laps and Petty, Paul Goldsmith, and Bobby Isaac split the other 50 laps. Allison may have led more had his engine not failed on lap 97 - as he was leading. Pearson's fortunes were better than Allison as he lost a cylinder after only 15 laps yet went the distance with the remaining seven. 

For the next quarter of the race, Pearson's Ford became the dominant car. Despite being down a cylinder, he led about 80 of the second 100 laps. 

Petty regained the lead on lap 209. Like Allison about a hundred laps earlier, however, Petty's Hemi blew after the King found his way back to the point. 

A few laps later, Petty belted into Darel Dieringer's Mario Rossi-owned Plymouth as a relief driver. Dieringer had been sick and bedridden for two weeks prior to the race after inhaling fumes from transmission grease during Bristol's Southeastern 500 in March. He subsequently contracted the flu and pneumonia - likely as a result of the fumes  Though it may not have been known at the time - or admitted - Dieringer likely suffered carbon monoxide poisoning.

As the race developed well into its second half, Yarbrough seized control in Junior Johnson's Ford. Though the soft-spoken Johnson wanted to win everywhere, he expected his drivers to win at Wilkesboro - his home track. And LeeRoy was well positioned to do just that. Until...

With nine laps to go and a 10 second lead over Pearson, Johnson's engine blew in Yarbrough's car sending him into the fence. Just like that, the Ingle Hollow celebration-to-be evaporated into a That's Racing moment. 

Pearson had to be chuckling a bit as he inherited the lead from waaay back. He and his struggling engine completed the final laps to claim his 33rd career win with no pressure from behind. Buddy Baker and Bobby Isaac finished second and third, respectively, and both were a lap down to Pearson. Petty brought home Dieringer's car in fourth place, and Yarbrough still managed to finish fifth despite his DNF.

Pearson's win was his first of only two Wilkesboro victories. He notched the second a year and a half later over second place Petty in the 1969 Wilkes 400. It was also his third win in the previous seven races after having won at Bristol and Richmond in back-to-back weeks a month earlier.

Source: Spartanburg Herald

TMC

April 18, 1981 - Another Sterling Season Begins

Nashville's fairgounds speedway - renamed Nashville International Raceway in the late 1970s - opened its 1981 season with a program highlighted by the CRC Chemicals 200 Grand American division race.

Courtesy of Russ Thompson

Future back-to-back Daytona 500 winner, Sterling Marlin, was featured on the track's program cover. Marlin returned to Nashville in 1981 as the defending Grand American champion from 1980. In the division's first season at the fairgrounds, Marlin won 12 of the season's 20 races.

1980 Nashville division champions James Forbes, Marlin, and Charles Casteel
Source: The Tennessean

Marlin also began the new season with a new sponsor: Coors beer. Though Coors Light later adorned the sides of his #14 Camaro - as well as his silver #40 Cup car, he began with sho-nuff Coors in April 1981.

Source: Russ Thompson

Seventeen cars took the green - an unusually low car count by Nashville standards. Former track champion and Marlin rival, Mike Alexander, had been expected to race in a car owned by Phillip Grissom from Alabama. Alexander had sold his Grand American car as he planned to focus on developing his Cup career. The arrangement did not materialize, and Grissom ended up racing his own car (or leaving a second one intended for Alexander on the trailer.)

Track promoter Gary Baker and Tennessean writer Larry Woody suggested some expected out-of-town heavy hitters opted instead to race at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina rather than tow to Music City. Butch Lindley, David Pearson, and Bobby Allison raced in Greenville, but that race had few other stars in it. Other races may have been held in the south that night, or perhaps Nashville's purse or recruiting of drivers just weren't up to snuff. 

Grissom won the pole, and Marlin started to his outside. As the race began, Marlin got the jump into turn one and quickly extended his dominance from 1980. By around lap 60, he'd just about lapped the full field. But then...

Marlin cut a tire, limped to pit road, and waited anxiously as his part-time, race-day crew mounted a replacement. He returned to action nearly two laps down. Once back on track, however, he realized he had an issue with the new tire. Forced to make a second stop, Marlin fell even further behind.

Sterling made up one of his laps during a caution around the halfway mark, and then caught a break when Grissom had a pit issue of his own. Grissom gave back a lap as his crew thrashed on pit road. With Marlin back on the lead lap, it was time for him to regain his groove. 

The Coors Camaro once again found its way back to the lead. For the remainder of the second half the race, Marlin returned to what he'd done in the first 50 or so laps. As the checkered flag fell, he'd lapped everyone but Grissom - and was close to lapping him as well.  

Sterling's win began a season that topped his 1980 championship-winning one. He captured his second consecutive track title and won 13 of 17 races.

Source: The Tennessean

Though Alexander didn't race at Nashville, he enjoyed some success a week later in Martinsville's Virginia 500 Cup race. He set a track record and was the fastest second-round qualifier in his first trip to the paper clip. Ricky Rudd set the previous mark just the day before during the opening round of qualifying. Alexander backed up his quick time by finishing 10th in the race in only his seventh career Cup start. Alexander's crew chief on his #37 Buick: famed crew chief and FOX Sports analyst Larry McReynolds.

CRC Chemicals 200 Results:

1. Sterling Marlin
2. Phillip Grissom
3. Jerry Sisco
4. Dean Bentley
5. Richard Orton
6. Al Henderson
7. Mark Taylor
8. Steve Grissom
9. Junior Williams
10. Marvin Joyner
11. Carl Langford
12. Bobby Criswell
13. Mike Montgomery
14. Tony Cunningham
15. Mike Bassett
16. Ron Tucker
17. Jimmie Lewis

TMC

April 15, 1973 - Darlington's Rebel 400

The eighth race of the 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup season was the Rebel 500 at South Carolina's Darlington Raceway. What better way than to race on tax day! (Cue the tax accountants: Technically, the filing day would likely have been extended to Monday, April 16th because of the weekend. ENOUGH!)

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

After a dozen years or so of being known first as the Rebel 300 and then the Rebel 400, the race distance was extended for the first time to 500 miles to match the length of the traditional Labor Day weekend Southern 500.

Though the race distance was extended 100 miles, the track length remained the same. And David Pearson knew how to navigate it. He won the pole in the Wood Brothers' Purolator Mercury just as he'd done in his debut with the team a year earlier. 

Pearson's top speed extended the roll he was on in the early part of the 1973 season. The Wood Brothers team skipped the short tracks at Richmond, Bristol, and North Wilkesboro. But Pearson and the 21 bunch won the previous two races they'd entered at Rockingham and Atlanta.

Cale Yarborough - another Darlington master - qualified second. The Three B's - Bobby Allison, Bobby Isaac, and Buddy Baker - rounded out the top five starters. (Tax accountants return: Technically, we counted eight B's. SHUT UP, Green Shades!)

Forty cars took the green that Sunday afternoon. Four hours later, however, attrition thinned the finishers to about a third of that number. It wasn't the extra 74 laps that did 'em in as more than half the field DNF'd well before the 400-mile mark.

Engines failed on many cars, but others retired early from accidents - some from driver errors according to those caught up in the accidents or near them. 

It didn't take long for the action to begin. Pearson seized the lead at the start. On lap three, however, Dave Marcis collided with Rookie of the Year candidate Lennie Pond. Marcis got the worst end of the deal and finished dead last as Pond continued.

Pond had more issues later in the race. Though he started second, Yarborough never led a lap. He tangled with Pond near lap 40, and Pond's second incident put his Chevy on the trailer. Cale kept a'goin, but a blown engine about three-quarters of the way through the race sent him to his nearby home with a 19th place finish.

For the first half of the race, fans witnessed a number of different leaders. Pearson, Allison, Richard Petty, Benny Parsons, and rookie Darrell Waltrip all had opportunities at the front. 

• As happened with Cale, however, the engine in Waltrip's brown Mercury laid down sending him back to Tennessee with a P24 in his Darlington debut. 
• Petty settled from the lead back into a top five pace; however, the quick pace eventually put him down a couple of laps - with more problems yet to come.
• Parsons ran a pace similar to Petty, contributed to Petty's problems, yet salvaged a good points day.

Allison's self-owned Coke Machine was the only one who could consistently keep pace with Pearson - at least through the first half. Once the second act began, however, it was all Pearson and in a big sort of way.

As was often the case at Darlington, Pearson and the Woods found a remarkable balance of speed, handling, and smoothness in banking lap after lap. For the 15 or so cars remaining on the track, seeing the 21 Mercury lap them time and again may have been equally as painful as loading early. Pearson's run was so dominant that many fans also DNF'd as they headed for the exits. (Tax accountants: What true fan leaves a race early? You never know what might happen. YOU AGA...? Oh OK, finally you make a fair point.)

Those already on the road missed the last couple rounds of drama. First, Allison's Chevy started smoking with about 25 laps to go - all but gift wrapping the presumed win for Pearson. And then The Big One unfolded a couple of laps later. 

Virginia's Buddy Arrington, though laps down, was in the racing groove. He prevented Parsons from getting by - as Petty quickly closed the gap to Parsons. Petty and Parsons remained in the hunt for a top five, and Arrington factored into which one would get the differential pay for the day.

Arrington finally took the hint and moved to the inside. He did so, however, about the same as Parsons had seen enough and dropped to the inside as well. As Parsons popped his brakes to avoid Arrington, Petty plowed into Benny who then pinballed into Arrington anyway. Arrington was turned headfirst into the wall as Petty t-boned him on the right side. Parsons squirted by the two of them and stumbled on the track apron the rest of the way, but Roy Mayne and Dick Brooks joined the fray to really make a mess of things.

As the race concluded, Pearson took the checkers to go back-to-back in the Rebel. Despite his slow crawl, Parsons survived the day for a P2. The effort paid dividends in November 1973 when he captured the Winston Cup title by a scant few points. Allison's car could go no more as the final green waved. Despite pulling off the track with a blown engine and DNF, Allison still managed to finish third. Two independents - Richard Childress and J.D. McDuffie - survived the wrecks, kept their cars in one piece, and had career days by finishing third and fourth, respectively. As crazy as it sounds, Petty had already showered and dressed before learning he still managed to finish seventh.

Pearson earned his 69th career Cup trophy with a 13 lap - THIRTEEN - win over second place Parsons. The margin of victory may be topped as the worst Cup beatdown only by Ned Jarrett's 14-lap win in the 1965 Southern 500.

 

Source: Charlotte News

TMC

April 13, 1980 - Darlington's Rebel 500

Following a pit stop during the 1979 CRC Chemicals Rebel 500, the wheels fell off David Pearson's car. Because of a miscommunication, Pearson thought the Wood Brothers planned to change two tires whereas the crew actually planned a four-tire stop and removed the left side lugnuts. 

Pearson parted ways with the Woods a few days after Darlington - a reality few could envision. As it turns out, the wheels had apparently begun to also fall off the driver-team relationship well before the embarrassing incident at Darlington.

A year later, Pearson found himself on the positive side of a driver change. Car owner Hoss Ellington began 1980 with Donnie Allison as his driver for a fifth part-time season. After only three races, however, Allison was released with Pearson hired as his replacement. 

Source: Raleigh News and Observer

 The first race for the new combo was at Darlington - a track on which Pearson flourished and one where Ellington's cars had never won.

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

Benny Parson captured the pole, and Pearson slotted second in his new ride. Three-time and reigning Cup champion Cale Yarborough, Ricky Rudd in D.K. Ulrich's independent effort, and 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year Dale Earnhardt rounded out the top five starters.

The race started as a bit of a cluster fudddggge. As the cars barreled into turn 1 of the first lap, seventh-place starting Richard Petty and Rudd made a move for the same real estate. And it didn't go well.

Source: Raleigh News and Observer

The tangle quickly ensnared second year driver Terry Labonte, Buddy Baker, James Hylton, and Neil Bonnett. All but Bonnett continued though Baker fell by the wayside seven laps later. Bonnett's DNF sent him home dead last. It was quite the coincidence since he was the driver to replace Pearson in the Wood Brothers Mercury a year earlier.

Source: Charlotte Observer

Following the clean-up on aisle four, Pearson got the jump on Parsons and led the first dozen laps. Earnhardt - a driver who eventually developed a mastery of Darlington nearly on par with Pearson - passed the Silver Fox to lead 14 laps of his own.

Drivers then and now will chirp - and rightfully so - that a race is won on the last lap and not the first one. During the 1980 Rebel 500, however, the drivers had a greater urgency to get to the front. Alll anticipated they'd likely be racing to halfway vs. the full distance for the win because of the threat of rain.

With dark skies and low clouds, Earnhardt, Parsons, Pearson, Waltrip, and Yarborough battled to get to the point. Once there, the next goal was to stay there as the rain loomed nearby. 

Sure enough, the moisture arrived near lap 90. After a few laps under caution, however, the race returned to green as the rain dissipated. Yet a few laps later, Mother Nature chuckled as she delayed the race once more. Again, NASCAR bowed up, waited it out, and restarted the race after only a few more laps under yellow. 

Then She reminded Bill France, Jr. that he only thought he was in charge on race day. Heavy rains began to pour, and the race went under the red flag. After more than two hours, however, the track caught a break. The showers moved out of the area, track drying began, and drivers returned to their steeds. 

As the green was unfurled, the new reality was darkness would determine the length of the race - particularly since DST was still two weeks away. 

Earnhardt lost the engine in his Rod Osterlund Chevy shortly after the race restarted. Yarborough made his way back to the front around lap 120 before fading and having his day doomed by the same fate as Earnhardt. 

With daylight fading, the race became a battle of the top two starters: Parsons and Pearson. Waltrip made it interesting by leading a few laps of his own, but he couldn't hang and eventually finished P4.

Pearson got back by Parsons on lap 158 and led an additional 30+ laps before NASCAR finally displayed the checkered flag. The rain and darkness resulted in the drivers completing only 189 of the scheduled 367 laps - just a few laps beyond halfway.

Few could have anticipated it at the time, but the win turned out to be the 105th and final career Cup win for the Silver Fox. Fittingly, his final win came at Darlington. AND he doubled-up after narrowily edging fellow Cup racer Dave Marcis the day before in the late model sportsman (pre-Xfinity Series) race. 

Embed from Getty Images

Audio of Universal Racing Network's radio broadcast of the race is available on Appalachian State's library website. 

Source: Raleigh News and Observer

TMC

April 12, 1964 - Hillsborough's Joe Weatherly Memorial

NASCAR's Grand National drivers rolled into Hillsborough, NC in the spring of 1964 for the Joe Weatherly Memorial race at Orange Speedway.

In 1964, the town of Hillsborough was spelled Hillsboro. And Orange Speedway was originally known as Occoneechee Speedway. The one thing that didn't change, however, was the toughness of the 9/10-mile dirt track. A fixture on the GN circuit since its first year in 1949, some argue it was NASCAR's first superspeedway. 

The track remained on the circuit until 1968 when it was closed. Fortunately, many remnants of the track remain at the site that has been developed into a park of sorts. The speedway was one of several featured in the first season of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Lost Speedways series on the Peacock streaming service.

The 1964 spring race was originally scheduled for March 15 and named in memory of two-time GN champion and future NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Weatherly. Little Joe was killed in January 1964 in a wreck during the Motor Trend 500 at Riverside, California's road course. 

Source: Asheville Citizen-Times

As a few other race promoters experienced in the spring of '64, rain washed out Hillsborough's original date. The race and celebration of Weatherly's colorful life was rescheduled for about a month later.

Two future titans of NASCAR started on the front row in a pair of Hemi-powered Mopars - David Pearson on the pole in Cotton Owens' Dodge and the future King, Richard Petty, in his Petty Blue Plymouth. Junior Johnson started third in Ray Fox's Dodge, and two Fords piloted by Marvin Panch in the Wood Brothers' 21 and Ned Jarrett with Bondy Long rounded out the top five starters.

Midwest racer , Dick Hutcherson, qualified seventh in his second career GN race. Hutch won the pole at Greenville-Pickens in his debut two weeks earlier and held his own until his Ford's lug bolts broke. 

The frequent IMCA circuit winner - on dirt - did not lack confidence as he made his way south. After winning the pole and running well at Greenville-Pickens, he wondered aloud for some to hear if he might be Junior Johnson's peer in dirt track racing. Johnson was among the best on dirt so Hutch's comment didn't pass without notice. After hearing it, Johnson quipped:

I've heard he's pretty good, and he must be. I hope he is. The better they are, the more fun it is to beat them.

Hutcherson countered once more with "I'll let what happens next Sunday (at Hillsborough) do the talking."

Driving a second family Plymouth, Maurice Petty started alongside Hutch in the fourth row. Ralph started 26th in the 28-car field, and it was the eighth and final time Maurice and Ralph started the same race.

Richard Petty dominated the first third of the 150-lap race by leading all but the opening lap of the first 50. Pearson then took the lead as Petty stayed in his tracks. Until...

Shortly after the two-thirds mark, the clutch let loose on the 43 Plymouth. He coasted helplessly into the infield with a DNF. 

With the King sidelined, Hutcherson did what he could to hang with Pearson. His efforts were to no avail, however, as Pearson led the rest of the way. About four years later as Orange née Occoneechee faded from the schedule, Hutcherson was settling into a new role at Holman Moody - Pearson's crew chief when he moved from Owens' Dodge team.

In the battle of words between Hutch and Junior, Hutcherson got the upper hand with a P2 vs. Johnson's 9th place result. Humpy Wheeler would have exploited the word with over-the-top racing promotions in the 1980s, and FOX/NBC would have touted the back and forth as a rivalry. In reality, the 'battle' was little more than respect between two truly talented and very confident drivers. 

Earnhardt rallied to have a great day with a P4. Maurice Petty, on the other hand, had about as lousy day as his brother. A broken transmission barely a third of a way into the race doomed him to a 22nd place finish.

Source: Charlotte Observer

TMC

April 11, 1976: Darlington's Rebel 500

The eighth race of NASCAR's 1976 Winston Cup Series schedule was the Rebel 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Though the season was seven races old, the story to that point was the Wood Brothers team with David Pearson. The team entered only four of the first seven races, yet Pearson won three of the four at Riverside, the Daytona 500, and Atlanta. Pearson arrived in Darlington having also won three of the past four Rebel 500 races.

Richard Petty, grew a beard in conjunction with the year-long celebration of the United States' bicentennial. After growing and showing in the legendary finish of the '76 Daytona 500 with Pearson and in victory lane two weeks later at Rockingham, The King caved and shaved during the week before Darlington.

To the surprise of ... well, no one actually, Pearson won the pole. He won it for the third consecutive Darlington race and the fourth of the five previous Rebel races. Bobby Allison, the winner of both of Darlington's races in 1975, timed alongside Pearson in Roger Penske's CAM2 Mercury.

Fans were treated to a great race from the jump. Pearson led the first lap but was soon passed by Allison. Pearson battled back a couple of laps later to regain the lead, but his time there was once again short lived. 

Others soon battled past Pearson and Allison to take their own turns at the point. Buddy Baker, Donnie Allison, Lennie Pond, Darrell Waltrip, Dave Marcis, Benny Parsons, Cale Yarborough and Petty all muscled their way to join Pearson and Bobby Allison at the front at some point during the first two-thirds of the race. Throughout the day, fans witnessed 32 lead changes - a stat generally expected at other tracks such as Daytona or Talladega.

The race featured a couple of brutal accidents - though fortunately none of the drivers involved were seriously injured. Shortly past the 80th lap, independent racer James Hylton spun and was clipped by Buddy Baker. As Hylton's car swapped ends, Waltrip had nowhere to go and drilled the nose of Hylton's 48 hard enough to launch his Gatorade Chevy a bit. Both were done for the day. 

Early leader Bobby Allison also nicked Hylton. He was able to continue but was no longer competitive. Baker damaged the nose and hood of his Bud Moore Ford, but the team made some battlefield repairs that allowed the car to remain competitive the rest of the way.

About a hundred laps later, Jerry Sisco lost it coming off turn four. He popped the outside wall along the front straightway, crossed the track near the flag stand, drilled the inside pit wall, and came to a stop as flames began to emerge from the car.

Credit: Gerald Medford

Sisco's car came to rest near the Petty pit stall. Crew chief Dale Inman and crewman (and future crew chief) Barry Dodson instinctively rushed to Sisco's aid. They leapt the pit wall and pulled Sisco to safety before rescue crews arrived.

Credit: Don Hunter / Smyle Media

Sisco, the brother of Cup racer and 1969 Nashville late model sportsman champion Dave Sisco, had only three Cup starts on his resume prior to Darlington. With the hit and near miss, his Cup days ended after his fourth one. 

Though Sisco did not return to NASCAR, his racing days continued. He returned in the early 1980s to race in the Grand American Division at Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway. Sterling Marlin's streak of consecutive track championships ended at three when Sisco won the title himself in 1983. He was later inducted into Nashville's Hall of Fame in 2012.

Car owner Wayne Day, Nashville PR Director Tom Roberts, and
1983 Grand American track champion Jerry Sisco
Source: Tom Roberts

By the time the race reached it's final 100 laps, the Track Too Tough To Tame had taken its toll on many. Ol' DW was nursing some bruises from his tough hit on James Hylton. Bobby Allison hung in as best he could after also tangling with Hylton. Cale Yarborough's engine failed around lap 170, and Richard Petty's Dodge suffered the same fate about 30 laps later.

Buddy Baker, however, was still up on the wheel. Despite the damage suffered in the Hylton crash, he remained in the hunt. He and Pearson swapped the lead several times in the second half of the race - with Baker leading most of them. 

With about 20 laps, Parsons looped his car to bring out the final caution of the day. At the time of the yellow, Baker had once again gone to the front, led a sizable chunk of laps, and gapped second place running Pearson a bit. 

As the race returned to green, Pearson had a renewed opportunity. With about 10 to go, he eased the Purolator Mercury past Baker's Ford and continued to win yet another time at Darlington. Though Baker wasn't happy with P2, he had to be pleased at leading over 200 of the race's 367 laps - most of them with a damaged car.

Pearson's 91st career win was also his sixth at Darlington and fourth of the past five Rebel races.

 

Embed from Getty Images

Source: Charlotte Observer

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April 11, 1966 - Bowman Gray Stadium

On April 9, 1966 - Easter Saturday - NASCAR's Grand National drivers raced at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina. David Pearson dominated the second half of the race and won by a full lap over Richard Petty. 

After taking Easter Sunday off for church, family, food, egg hunts, car repairs, etc., the teams were back at it on Easter Monday for a 200-lap battle on the quarter-mile track at Bowman Gray Stadium. 

After having won three times in the span of a week at Hickory, Columbia, and Greenville-Pickens, David Pearson was shooting for his fourth consecutive win. 

Pearson got off to a good start in Cotton Owens' Dodge by winning the pole. The race was the Stadium's first after a recent repaving. Pearson's qualifying lap on the new surface was about four miles per hour faster than Richard Petty's pole-winning speed the previous August and five miles per hour quicker than Junior Johnson's hot lap the previous May.

Pearson backed up his top qualifying speed by winning the first of two 25-lap heat races. Tiger Tom Pistone won the second heat in his independent Ford and started on the outside of the front row. Two more independent Fords driven by Bobby Allison and Elmo Langley made up the second row. The factory-supported Ford drivers remained sidelined as Ford Motor Company and Big Bill France of NASCAR remained at loggerheads over the Blue Oval's desired use of its new single overhead cam engine. Interestingly, 15 Fords started the race - none of which were factory-supported cars.

When the green dropped, Tiger stormed into the lead from his P2 starting spot and held serve for the first half-dozen laps. Pearson's white and red Dodge then eased by Pistone to take the lead. Once out front, Pearson controlled the rest of the afternoon. 

Despite leading lap after lap after lap, Pearson came close to being thumped by the fickle finger of fate. With about 50 laps to go and a half-lap lead on Pistone, Pearson's engine inexplicably quit. It didn't break - it just quit running. Instinctively, Pearson started jiggling some wires, ANY wires in the hopes of getting the fire to return. Finally, the Dodge roared back to life just as Pistone was making a pass for the lead - and perhaps the win. 

Pearson then had a fight on his hands for a couple of laps. He never surrendered the lead, however, and continued leading the rest of the way. In the end, Pearson led the remaining 154 laps to claim his 17th career win and fourth in a row. 

Pistone fought valiantly to hang with Pearson throughout the race. Yet he couldn't regain the lead and returned home with a solid second place finish - just as he'd started.

With Pearson banking lap after lap, fans found their excitement elsewhere in the field. Petty and J.T. Putney raced hard in the early stages of the race. On the 64th lap, Petty banged past Putney for the fourth position. The pass had a cost though as Petty lost two laps in the pits as the crew pulled back a wrinkled fender from a tire.

The King set sail after the stop and soon passed Putney with relative ease. As the race wore on, Petty once again found himself behind Putney with an opportunity to get by him for position. Putney had no intention of giving up the real estate - particularly on the quarter-mile bullring. Petty chrome-horned Putney a few times yet J.T. hung in there. Then Putney started brake-checking Petty perhaps hoping the 43's nose and radiator would go kaput. 

With about 25 laps to go, Petty seized the moment. He darted past Putney to reclaim the fourth spot that he'd lost about 100 laps earlier. Putney's heat-of-the moment emotions then got the best of him. After Petty's pass, Putney gassed it up and charged the corner in an attempt to exact some revenge on the Petty Blue Plymouth. Instead, he overshot the tight corners and found himself wadded up in the turn four guardrail. In a split second, Putney the Putz went from an all but certain top five finish to a disappointing P12.

Putney's attempted revenge on Petty may remind some of a similar move with a similar outcome by another "P" driver decades later: Danica Patrick.

Source: High Point Enterprise

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April 7, 1974 - Darlington's Rebel 500

NASCAR's seventh race of its 1974 season was the Rebel 500 at Darlington Raceway - except it wasn't.

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

As was the case for about the first half of the 1974 season, NASCAR trimmed its race distances by 10 percent in response to the US energy crisis. Darlington's spring race, therefore, was only 450  miles - though it remained billed as the Rebel 500. 

Donnie Allison captured the pole in a DiGard Chevy recently purchased from Banjo Matthews. The pole was his second in three races after also starting first at Bristol. Donnie's top spot was a mild surprise as he bumped David Pearson to the second spot in the legendary Wood Brothers Mercury. Pearson had won the pole in three of the past four Darlington races - including both races in 1973.

Bobby Allison and Buddy Baker comprised the second row, and Dave Marcis completed the top five starters in Roger Penske's AMC Matador.

Richard Petty timed tenth - not the best starting spot but certainly not the worst. Hershel McGriff entered the race in a second Petty Enterprises-prepared Dodge Charger. McGriff raced in Darlington's first race in 1950. After a couple of days of practice that didn't yield the speed needed to be competitive, the team withdrew from the race without making a legit qualifying run. 

The Allison brothers tag-teamed to lead the first 25 laps. Pearson soon rose to the occasion to pocket 25 laps of his own out front. Baker banked about 15 laps for himself as the race neared its one-third mark.

The race featured three pretty frightening accidents. Around lap 60, 1973 Winston Cup Champion Benny Parsons spun and was drilled by Bobby Isaac. Fortunately, neither were injured.

The second major incident happened about 60 laps later when journeyman racer Johnny Barnes lost an engine. James Hylton hammered Barnes in the driver's side door. After being briefly knocked out, Barnes was treated and released from a nearby hospital without any serious injuries. Just rub some dirt on that noggin, son. It'll be a'ight. 

The third major accident occurred around lap 215 when Lennie Pond, the 1973 Rookie of the Year, blew an engine and wiped out about 20 feet of guardrail including six fence posts. Pond was OK, but NASCAR red-flagged the race for about 40 minutes as safety crews made repairs to the railing.

After the three major hits, Joe Frasson brought a good bit of levity to everyone as the red flag was lifted. The long-time independent racer made a beeline for Pearson's #21 Mercury rather than return to his own car. Pearson had to wrangle the sizable Frasson from his seat so everyone could return to racing action.

The second half of the race featured great racing action between the Allison brothers, Buddy Baker, and Pearson. Though they raced for different teams and manufacturers, the one thing they had in common - at least the Allisons and Pearson - was a smaller engine. 

As Detroit's engines changed in passenger cars, NASCAR began a similar transition. Dodge racers such as Petty and Baker continued to race the famed Hemi engine. NASCAR, however, mandated the engines be fitted with a restrictor plate. The Allisons and Pearson; however, raced with smaller cubic-inch engines - but without a plate. It became apparent the smaller, unrestricted engine - along with less nose weight - made a big difference.

Though Petty's Hemi had been a powerful beast for 10 years, it gave up the ghost just past the race's two-thirds mark.

With 50 laps to go, Donnie Allison and Baker faded a bit. The battle narrowed to just Bobby Allison and Pearson. Each took a turn leading a double-digit number of laps before the other returned - all as both managed their fuel mileage. Pearson re-assumed the lead for the final time with 11 laps to go when Bobby's engine sputtered a bit as he sought every last fuel drop. Allison barely held onto P2 as Baker charged hard in a failed effort to pass him for the position.

Pearson's 78th career win was also his third Rebel win in a row and fourth in five years.

Audio of Universal Racing Network's radio broadcast of the race is available on Appalachian State's library website. 

Source: Sumter Daily Item

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April 7, 1966 - Columbia 200

NASCAR's Grand National teams arrived in South Carolina for a Thursday night rumble. The Columbia 200 was held on the venerable, half-mile, dirt Columbia Speedway.

Curtis Turner debuted Ford's Fairlane the previous weekend at Hickory Speedway - a debut that came with a bit of controversy after NASCAR DQ'd Turner and the Fairlane two races earlier at Bristol. 

Ford had greater plans than just the introduction of a new body style. As an answer to Chrysler's Hemi engine, Ford rolled out it's single overhead cam engine - the SOHC. After a good bit of back and forth in the early part of the season, NASCAR finally approved the new engine - but with a caveat. The Ford factory teams could run the engine but with an additional 400 pounds of weight.

NASCAR's announced its ruling Wednesday, April 6 - the day before the race at Columbia. Race day or not, Ford did not take the decision lightly. Ford reacted by immediately parking their factory-supported cars meaning race fans would not see the following drivers race for the foreseeable future:

• Cale Yarborough with Banjo Matthews
• Fred Lorenzen and Dick Hutcherson with Holman Moody
• Ned Jarrett with Bondy Long
• Bobby Issac with Junior Johnson
• Curtis Turner and Marvin Panch with the Wood Brothers

Source: Charlotte News

Yet as they say, the show must go on. It did in 1965 without Dodge and Plymouth. And it did so again in 1966 without the Blue Oval drivers - starting at Columbia.

Tiger Tom Pistone won the pole - coincidentally in a Ford though Tiger's car was an independent operation rather than a factory-backed team. Pistone's qualifying effort rewarded him with his second of five career poles.

J.T. Putney joined Pistone on the front row. The effort resulted in a career-best starting position for Putney - an effort he matched two more times, both later in 1966. Buddy Baker, John Sears, and Stick Elliott rounded out the somewhat surprising top five starters.

Richard Petty had quite the adventurous night at the track on which he'd win eight times between 1963 and 1971. He leapt the guardrail during qualifying and left the track. The Dale Inman-led crew thrashed on the car to get it race ready from the 18th starting spot in the 24-car field.

Pistone set out to let folks know his fast qualifying speed was no fluke. He seized the lead at the start and led the first 50+ laps. David Pearson's Dodge and the Plymouth of Paul Goldmith led the remainder of the first half of the race - along with Putney who eked out one lap up front.

Just before halfway, Petty's ill-handling Plymouth spun giving him yet another Goody's headache. The King managed to right the 43 and salvaged a sixth place finish, five laps down to the winner.

The second half of the race, however, was dominated by Pearson. Once his red and white Dodge sniffed the lead right after the halfway mark, the car stayed at the point. Pearson led the entire second half allowing Pearson to capture his 15th career win. It was also his second consecutive win in 1966 after winning four days earlier at Hickory.

Source: High Point Enterprise

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