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

Schaefer Year in Review: 2016

The Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor - a bunch of good-time-havers and ne'er-do-wells - once again had a fantastic year of fun. As best I can tell, The SHOF and SROH were represented at eight NASCAR Cup races, the Daytona qualifying twins, the All Star Race, and a handful of cable-company and truck division races.

The year started with a bang at the Daytona 500. For the first time since 1997, Schaefer HOF co-founder Philly and I were in the seats. Unlike 20 years ago, our experience was on a much grander scale - but with little out-of-pocket spend.

Good fortune plopped us into a friend's winter home free o'charge. No flea bag inn. No overpriced hotel. FREE! - the favorite price of the SHOF. After our arrival on Thursday, we dropped our gear, celebrated with a quick cold one, and made our way to the track.

It was quite the sight to see and experience the completed Daytona Rising renovated facility.

It was also cool to see the twins for the first time on a balmy Florida night.

On Friday, we headed to what has become one of our favorite spots in the area: Racing's North Turn on the beach in Ponce Inlet. The food is fantastic, the service is very polite and prompt, the view is spectacular, the racing history is rich, and the brews are ice cold.

Though the North Turn doesn't serve Schaefer, they do sell good times - and interesting coincidences. After I tweeted the following picture of our beachfront scenery, a guy walked from just a few chairs from us.

"Are you toomuchcountry?"
"Umm, yeah. I guess you'd say that. Why?"
"Holy cow, I only follow about 20 people on Twitter - and you're one of them. I saw your tweet and that Starters koozie. Figured it had to be you."

On our way out the door, we noticed an elderly gentleman signing books and shaking hands at a table near the front door. I stopped to talk with him and learned he was Russ Truelove. Russ is from the northeast and still lives there. In the 1950s, however, he made a handful of trips to Daytona to run the famed beach and road course.

After I returned a bit of history knowledge of my own, Russ realized I wasn't there to simply get a selfie with someone I thought might be famous. He took me to his restored race car outside, and we had a great conversation for about 20 minutes. We chatted about Fish carburetors, the process for measured mile qualifying on the beach, car owner Carl Kiekhaefer (which coincidentally rhymes with Schaefer), how he got number #226, etc.

He also talked about his tremendous tumble on February 26, 1956. #226 flat wiped out on 2/26.

After concluding a fun encounter with Russ, we headed back to the house before we got wiped out at the North Turn. Once home, we found the rest of our crew had rolled in. They were prepared for a night of fun - which we had. The good times, of course, started with a Schaefer.

On race day, we felt the palm fronds provided an element of dignity and class to our tailgating set-up. Don't think so? Well then, that's a you problem.

Though a fair argument can be made that racing is better at other tracks, few if any compete with the sheer speed and spectacle of Daytona.

As has been the case for many years, the Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor were well represented at Charlotte's version of Speedweeks in May.

Woodhead, 2015 Schaefer Ring of Honor inductee, enjoyed Schaefer at the NASCAR All Star Race the week before the Coca-Cola 600.

We enjoyed hot passes for the 600 weekend thanks to a new acquaintance of SHOFer Cuba. Like many of us, Cuba usually just settles in before a plane's departure. But on a flight from Texas to North Carolina, he struck up a conversation with his seatmate. After some small talk, bada bing, bada boom, he learned his seatmate was involved with NASCAR. A couple of days later, he arranged for Cuba and his contingent to get hot passes for the weekend. Mighty fortuitous.

Though plenty of other drink options were available, Schaefer had its own dedicated cooler. And what better way to identify the designated cooler than with bacon tape!

Schaefer is the perfect thirst quenching complement to a good ol' fashioned low country boil.

Among our new guests at the 600 in 2016, was SHOFer Rookie's Uncle Joey. Though he was new to our group and a Cup track, he arrived ready to roll with his Kyle Busch swag.

Hard to believe 2017 will the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Schaefer tradition and resulting SHOF and SROH. Some mighty good friendships have been developed with this crowd.

Rookie wasted no time after the 600 in continuing the Schaefer tradition at the beach near Wilmington NC with a few of his friends.

One of the challenges for the SHOF is the increasing scarcity of Schaefer. I don't travel as much as I once did; therefore, opportunities to bootleg Schaefer in a suitcase have dwindled significantly. Both Bruton and Philly, however, were able to leverage their far-reaching networks to have folks bring the Schaefer to them in 2016.

Schaefer isn't all about racing. Schaefer Hall of Famers often find other varied ways to enjoy it. For instance, Bruton enjoyed Schaefer on the links...

...out on the boat dropping a line...

...and on opening day of Georgia Bulldogs football season.

Though Schaefer isn't all about racing, who's kidding who. It's mainly about racing.

Four SHOFers returned to Daytona for July's Coke 400.

This guy wouldn't sit down and kept blocking my view. I started to have a word with him. But since he was a fellow SHOFer, I let it slide.

Labor Day weekend was a true treat for me. From the mid 1980s through 2000, I went to a handful of races that were tagged as part of the Winston Million incentive program. As tough as it was for a driver to win 3 of the 4 biggies, it was even tougher for me to attend 3 of the 4.

The program has long been discontinued, but I accomplished my own version of winning the Winston Million in 2016 by attending the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, and the Southern 500 at Darlington. I embraced the old school, throwback theme for the weekend by breaking out some old racing gear from days gone by.

I'd only been to one other race at Darlington, and the 2016 Southern 500 was my first legit Labor Day weekend race at the track. Adding to the excitement was our privilege to walk the garage and pits from stem to stern both days.

The highlight of our walkabout was easily meeting Leonard, Delano, Len and Eddie Wood and Richard and Kyle Petty.

And as icing on the cake, we also ran into 8-time Cup champion crew chief and NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Inman. None of these encounters had anything to do with Schaefer, but the chance to chat a bit with so many legends ranks right up there with it.

With a few hours to kill before the green flag on Sunday, we returned to our parking spot. A couple of racing and Schaefer noobs parked behind us, and we soon struck up a conversation. They earned a rookie stripe for attending their first race.

We also introduced them to Schaefer. They almost forfeited the opportunity to drink it when one of them said "Never heard of it. Is it a microbrew?"

Their response after a first taste? Same one as we get time after time. "Hmm. It's not that bad."

With our hospitality out of the way, it was soon time to go racing boys! We hiked our sun-scorched selves to our seats near the start-finish line and settled in for an evening of racing dominated by Martin Truex Jr. 

Again with this guy! Dude! Please sit down.

"Oh my bad. Need a fresh Schaefer?"

The only currently active father-son, SHOF / SROH combo - Philly and Woodhead - took in the action.

Traveling light, we didn't have the set-up for another low-country boil. As a substitute, some homemade pork rinds washed down well with a cold Schaef.

A few weeks after Darlington, Schaefer Ring of Honor member 200WINZ had the good fortune to run into his longtime idol, The King, at dinner before the fall Dover race.

As the calendar turned to October, the Schaefer HOF had somewhat of an impromptu Most Photogenic contest. Thoughts on a winner?

SHOFer Philly & Lanie at the fall Charlotte race?

...or SHOFer Rookie and Uncle Joey at Talladega? Yikes.

The SHOF closed its 2016 racing adventures with a trip to Martinsville - my first race at the paperclip. As we roamed the garage on Saturday, we had the good fortune to cross paths with Dale Inman again. He, Maurice Petty, and Kyle Petty had been inducted into the Randleman High School Athletic Hall of Fame the night before, and Dale was proudly sporting the ring presented to him.

Though not on our original agenda, we called an audible and chose to hit Saturday's truck race. Cold morning temps rose to reveal a spectacular fall afternoon for racing.

On Sunday morning, we enjoyed a cold one with some folks from South Boston, Virginia...

...and enjoyed it again ourselves high atop the grandstands.

With the racing season completed, I made my annual trip to Newark NJ and New York City. Once again, I enjoyed a Schaefer at The Liberty NYC - just a few clicks from Madison Square Garden and Penn Station. As I ordered it, the bartender said I looked familiar. I told her I'd stopped in a year earlier to enjoy one. Shockingly, she replied "Yeah! You're the guy that travels all over trying to find Schaefer. I remember you!"

I did a bit of research a couple of nights later and learned The Greene Hook in Jersey City had Schaefer as a beer offering. Though I wasn't sure how current the menu was, I figured it was worth an Uber ride to find out. Sure enough, they had several in the chiller. The Schaef was a nice addition to one of their fantastic burgers and fries.

The Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor hopes you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

With the calendar now turned to 2017, let's enjoy a new batch of memories with the recently re-branded NASCAR Schaefer Cup... I mean Monster Energy Cup Series.

As always, please let me know if you see Schaefer for sale - or being enjoyed by yourself or others. Reply with a comment here, hit me on Twitter, or email me at toomuchcountry(at)gmail(dot)com.

TMC