December 13, 1971: The King's Vietnam Visit

On December 12, 1971, NASCAR's top drivers concluded the inaugural Winston Cup season at Texas World Speedway in College Station. Richard Petty won the Texas 500 after a week's delay because of a rain-out on December 5th.

The upside of the week's delay was Petty (1) won his 21st race of the season and (2) was able to cement his standing as champion of the 1971 season - the first under the new branding of Winston Cup Grand National Series.

The downside of the delay was Petty had to wait a week to join a great gesture with other racing drivers. On December 6th, a contingent of Don Garlits from NHRA drag racing; Wally Dallenbach Sr., Art Pollard, and Bill Vukovich Jr. from USAC open wheel racing; and Butch Hartman from USAC's stock car division headed to Vietnam to visit American servicemen.

When rain postponed NASCAR's season-ending race by a week, Petty had his scheduled altered as well. After his win in Texas on December 12th, the King departed for Vietnam on Monday, December 13th.

Source: Daytona Beach Morning Journal via Google News Archive

Earlier this year, Petty recalled the trip in a 12 Questions column with USA Today writer Jeff Gluck:

Q: Obviously, you've had a lot of amazing experiences away from racing through your job over the decades. What's one that sticks out as being really special?

A: I've done so much. Been all over the world. But we went to Vietnam for a few weeks for one of them Christmas deals (visiting troops) and I really enjoyed that. It was kind of miserable to do it, but to see what these guys in the service have to go through, it gives you a different perspective when you see them and talk to them and thank them for being able to do what we want to do.

Q: So this was actually during the Vietnam War?

A: Yeah, it was 1970 I think (actually 1971, according to drag racer Don Garlits' autobiography). There were four or five different guys who went over there, so we spent 20-some days over there (visiting troops who couldn't go home for Christmas).

Petty has long been known as a political conservative. He like others, however, wanted to see an end to the war - regardless of political leanings. Beginning in 1971, Petty Enterprises crewmen Richie Barz (or Reggie as referred to in the following article), his brother Les, and other PE shop guys welded a peace symbol head rest in the cars for the King and teammate Buddy Baker. 

Source: Daytona Beach Morning Journal via Google News Archive

In September 1971, the King (along with Pollard, Garlits, Vukovich, and over 100 other folks involved in racing) met at the White House and with President Nixon. A photo of the President, the King and the famed 43 Plymouth was used as the cover photo for the 1972 spring Bristol race program.

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

In his book Tales from the Drag Strip, Garlits recalls about the trip to southeast Asia:

Back during the Vietnam War, President Nixon asked a bunch of racers around December if we'd go over to Vietnam and visit some of the kids who were fighting and weren't going to make it home for Christmas. So I spent 16 days rooming with Richard Petty in Saigon. I'll tell you, it was something I'll never forget when we had to helicopter  out to where the troops were in the field.

We took fire as we flew over the jungles, and we returned machine gun fire with the Viet Cong. Luckily, we were flying high enough that they couldn't hit us, but we could hit them. But the time I spent with Richard showed me he is a real person. What you see is what you get.

An AP wire story published about six months later in the San Bernadino Sun reported:

The troop of drivers were barely unpacked, the story goes, when Garlits and Hartman delighted the soldiers with an impromptu race in two 20-ton tanks. After Garlits had edged Hartman at the wire, one of the soldiers shouted, "Garlits, you jumped him, you jumped him." "Aw." said Garlits, "I heard him rev'ing his engine and figured it was time to go." 

Back: Ray Marquette, Art Pollard, General Creighton Abrams, 
Richard Petty, Butch Hartman
Front: Wally Dallenbach Sr., Don Garlits
Courtesy of The Pollard Family

Though the primary purpose of the trip was a goodwill gesture to share some joy from home with the troops, The King and Big Daddy found some time to talk the business side of racing. Garlits talked about his concerns with race purses, driver safety, etc. In turn, Petty apparently shared his perspectives and how NASCAR's drivers tried to address them through the Professional Drivers Association (PDA). That discussion led Garlits to organize the Professional Racers Association in 1972.

Source: Reading Eagle via Google News Archive

Petty's visit to support the troops as well as his visit to the Nixon White House helped earn him the prestigious 1971 Myers Brothers Award presented at NASCAR's annual awards dinner held in Charlotte NC on January 17, 1972. 

Source: Wilmington NC Star-News via Google News Archive

Lee Petty accepted the award of behalf of Richard. The King was already on his way to Riverside, California by way of Chicago and Los Angeles where he hammered out the details of a new and now legendary sponsorship agreement with STP for his Plymouth and Buddy Baker's Dodge.

Coincidentally, Art Pollard who was part of the contingent may have been the first driver to win in an STP Plymouth. He won a 200-mile Indy car race at the new Dover Downs International Speedway in August 1969.

Ray Marquette, who accompanied the racers to Vietnam, was a long-time reporter/photographer for the Indianapolis Star. He later became USAC's Vice President of Public Affairs. He, seven other USAC officials, and the pilot were tragically killed in a plane crash in April 1978.

General Abrams, included in the photo with the drivers, was appointed to Chief of Staff of the US Army in June 1972 - about six months after the drivers' visit. The army's M1 Abrams tank is named in his memory.

TMC
Edited December 14, 2014

July 29, 1973 - Petty Poaches Pocono

Throughout 2013, I've focused on blogging about Petty Enterprises wins by drivers other than Richard Petty. I figured I'd already given The King his due with my blog series about his 200 wins. But Richard also competed in a few races not sanctioned by NASCAR, and he won one of them back in 1973. Because the win isn't part of his 200-win GN/Cup tally, I didn't blog about it back then. So now - bonus edition time! A Petty Enterprises win - with Richard as the driver - but in a series other than NASCAR.

July 29, 1973: After qualifying second, Richard Petty wins the Acme SuperSaver 500 USAC stock car series race at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania.

NASCAR's Winston Cup series had a couple of open weekends between its July 22nd race in Atlanta and August 12th at Talladega. So Petty took the opportunity to head north to race in the Poconos - perhaps even to enjoy a brief respite from the summer southern heat and humidity.

Other NASCAR regulars who made the trek with the Petty Enterprises included long-time Petty rival Bobby Allison and independent drivers Dick May, Bruce Jacobi, D.K.Ulrich, Frank Warren and H.B. Bailey. The race also featured several USAC drivers who occasionally dabbled in Cup racing including Super Tex himself - A.J. Foyt, Ramo Stott, Gordon Johncock, and Jim Hurtubise.

Bob Whitlow, former center for the NFL's Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons, started the race as well. Following the end of his football career, Whitlow built a #51 Dodge Charger and raced in about 20 USAC and NASCAR stock car events from 1973 through 1976.

In his book Pocono: NASCAR's Northern Invasion, author Joe Miegoc writes:

Petty took control in the Acme 500 in 1973, beating [Butch] Hartman in a close finish that saw Petty lead 124 of the 200 laps, yet earn $10,730, or about two-thirds of what Hartman received for winning the Pennsylvania 500 in 1971.

Hartman led 39 laps and [Roger] McCluskey, who finished third, led 24. Foyt, back after skipping the 1972 race, led the other 13 laps and finished seventh after starting from the pole. Ron Keselowsi, who came out of nowhere to win in 1974 in USAC's last stock-car gasp at Pocono, was 17th, with Bobby Allison, who would be the only NASCAR driver to also run an Indy car race at Pocono, finishing 25th. Gordon Johncock who would beat Rick Mears in 1982 in the closest finish in Indianapolis 500 history, ran this stock car race for Hoss Ellington and finished 34th, losing his brakes after just 34 laps.

Petty was the big draw, but among USAC officials, the welcome mat was not exactly out for the King.

Under the organization's rules, a driver or team had to be a USAC member and run the entire series to get a garage spot at any race. Without points in the series, you were an outsider.

And that included even Richard Petty.

"We weren't exactly welcome, not really," Petty said with a laugh in 2009. "When we got there, they had some garage area, and there were some of them that were still empty, but we didn't get one. They made us park out in a tent in the gravel area, work on the car behind the garage area."

Then [track owner Joe] Mattioli, who insists he didn't pay Petty any appearance money to run at Pocono before NASCAR officially ran a race there, put his foot down.

"I told them (USAC officials) if Richard Petty didn't run that race, there would be no race," said Mattioli, who also once faced down an ABC Sports official by telling him there would be no Schaefer 500 on Wide World of Sports if the Schaefer name couldn't be used. The ABC guys, while trying to avoid giving sponsors free advertising, buckled then too.

"The gentleman that owned the track (Mattioli) decided us out in the gravel wasn't going to work,' Petty said. "He told them guys that if Richard Petty did not get in the garage area, he was going to run them all out. So that pretty much took care of all of it. Once we got there and started talking to all the guys and such, we realized that, 'hey, it wasn't the drivers, the guys we were competing against. It was the officials.' But I think everybody got on their fanny and by the time it was time to race, everybody had come around.

"We came back the second year and we were welcomed with open arms."

And true to his heritage, Petty ruled that Acme race.

Oddly, it was held as a prelude to the Pennsylvania State Fair, which among others, featured Bob Hope and the Jackson 5, with a youngster named Michael singing lead.

The King and the later King of Pop at Pocono in one weekend. Strange indeed. ~ pp. 109-110

The King and Super Tex go at it during the race.

USAC regulars Hartman and McCluskey were left to battle it out for second. Hartman tried to hang tough with Petty near the end of the race, but it wasn't to be.

Photo courtesy of Russ Thompson

The starting line-up ... and the finishing order.

So once again in his career, The King got the opportunity to snuggle up to Miss Hurst Shifter, Linda Vaughn, in victory lane.

As was so often the case, The King was the class of the field. His NASCAR rival Allison was a non-factor. Foyt - the larger-than-life personality of various open-wheel racing series over the decades - couldn't beat Ol' Blue. And the cast of USAC regulars and NASCAR independents were no match for the 43. So like the old Loony Tunes cartoons, the Coyotes couldn't catch the Road Runner (or the Dodge Charger) even with an assist from Acme.

Article courtesy of Jerry Bushmire

The race was also featured in the November 1973 issue of Stock Car Racing magazine. Writer Richard Benyo was complimentary of the NASCAR and USAC drivers and the show put on for the fans. But he was very biting in his criticism of the USAC sanctioning body and the Pocono track management for the underwhelming way the race was promoted.

A year later - plus a few days - Petty returned to Pocono for its inaugural Winston Cup race. The King picked up where he left off in 1973 by winning the 1974 Purolator 500.

Edited 2013-08-19: Petty raced the same Charger three years later at Pocono and won the 1976 Purolator 500 NASCAR Winston Cup race.

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July 29, 1973 is also memorable for another racing event - but for a painful, gut-wrenching memory. As Petty raced in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania for a second time in his STP Dodge, fellow STP driver Roger Williamson of Great Britain suited up and belted in for his second career Formula 1 race. On the eighth lap of the Dutch Grand Prix in the Netherlands, Williamson's red March-Ford wrecked with David Purley, flipped, skidded a long distance, and caught fire - with Williamson trapped inside the car but not terribly injured.

As the flames began to engulf Williamson's car, Purley ran to help his friend and fellow driver. Track officials were pathetically inept and ill-prepared. A couple of Keystone Kop type characters jogged over to the car but really had no idea what to do or have any equipment to use even if they had been able to figure out what to do. Minutes passed before any sort of rescue truck arrived. Purley tried in vain to flip the car right side up by himself but got no assistance from the course workers. Williamson died while still trapped in his car - though interestingly not from the fire. Instead, he suffocated and must have endured an agonizing death on the track.

TMC