May 11, 1968 - Darlington's Rebel 400

As NASCAR's Grand National division neared its one-third mark of the 1968 season, the teams arrived for the Rebel 400 at Darlington Raceway on a Saturday afternoon. Because of South Carolina's blue laws, races weren't held on Sundays for many years. The spring races were instead held on Saturday afternoons with the Southern 500 run on Monday, Labor Day each year.

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

To that point of the season, the wins had been pretty evenly distributed among a handful of drivers. David Pearson had won four races, Cale Yarborough and Richard Petty banked three trophies each, and Bobby Isaac had pocketed a couple of skins in his Dodge. 

In qualifying at Darlington, only Pearson was quick enough to start up front. Four Fords dominated the top five starting spots. LeeRoy Yarbrough won the pole in Junior Johnson's Ford followed by Pearson and his Holman Moody entry. Darel Dieringer in Mario Rossi's Plymouth split the two pair of top Ford starters. The Allison brothers, Bobby and Donnie, started fourth and fifth, respectively.

Curtis Turner started his first race in about eight months. He qualified eighth in Tom Friedken's Plymouth - generally a solid car that multiple drivers had raced. 

Despite the rust of being out of a race, Turner's natural talent never left him. He ran a decent pace and was in the top 10 much of the day. Engine failure about 40 laps from the end of the race, however, doomed him to P15 - a finish that could have been lower had it not been for the race's high attrition rate.

Pearson seized the lead at the drop of the green and retained it for 18 laps. Yarbrough then put Junior's Ford in the wind and led the next nine laps. Following Cale's stint, Buddy Baker reminded folks the Mopars had race strength even if it wasn't necessarily on display during qualifying. 

Baker eased by Pearson and Yarbrough and paced the field for 116 of the next 130 laps. His last long venture at the front came at the expense of Charlie Glotzbach, who recently passed away in April 2021. Glotzbach led eight laps in Cotton Owens' Dodge. As Baker closed on Glotzbach, however, Baker carried him high and into the guardrail. 

Baker rolled on to lead another stretch of 42 laps, but Glotzbach faded. He struggled to keep up in the laps to follow and finally fell out of the race with oil pressure problems about 30 laps later. 

As good a first half of the race as Baker had, the second half presented more of a challenge. Battling continual tire issues, he mustered only a fourth place finish despite leading a ton of laps early. 

The King hung tough with the leaders on a track that really challenged him throughout his career. His Hemi-powered Plymouth led 21 laps, but tire issues and pit miscues dropped him to a P3 finish. With about 40 laps to go, Petty hit pit road for his final stop. After returning to the track, his crew realized they had left off the gas cap. Petty hit pit road a second time to replace the cap - and then pitted a third time to change one of the new tires because of an inner liner problem. Though he finished on the lead lap, his opportunity to challenge for the lead went kaput.

With Glotzbach's Dodge out of the race, the tire issues with Baker's Dodge, engine woes for Turner's Plymouth, an underwhelming performance for Bobby Isaac's Harry Hyde-prepared Dodge, and a three-stop fail for Petty's Plymouth, the Mopar faithful were running low on remaining opportunities to capture a win. 

Third place starter Dieringer remained Plymouth's final hope. His owner and crew chief, Mario Rossi, nervously burned through a gaggle of cigarettes as he watched his driver stalk the leader. In the end, however, Dieringer led zero laps en route to a second place finish. Though disappointed with P2, Dieringer was pleased as he seemed to have recovered from his health woes resulting from exhaust inhalation (and likely carbon monoxide poisoning) at Bristol several weeks earlier.

Pearson - the only driver to lead more laps than Baker - calmly waited as other drivers seemed to self destruct one by one. He and crew chief Dick Hutcherson made a pre-race decision to run a smaller engine with less car weight rather than a larger engine and heavier car favored by others in the field. The decision resulted in a solid balance between horsepower and handling.

After Petty had his ill-fated stop, Pearson led the rest of the way and won his 35th career race by a comfortable margin over Dieringer. The victory was his first of what ultimately became ten career GN/Cup wins at Darlington.

And though he'd won the previous week at Asheville-Weaverville and three others earlier in the season, his Darlington victory was his first superspeedway win since the 1961 Dixie 400 at Atlanta. To celebrate the win, he fired up a lung dart before the car even came to a stop for his interview with ABC's Wide World of Sports.

Pearson never lacked for confidence during his driving career; however, he also believed in his fair share of superstitions. Racers always embrace luck in whatever form they can get it. In Pearson's case, his 1968 win total to-date of five races may have been aided by the presence of his middle son Ricky. At Darlington, Asheville-Weaverville, and North Wilkesboro - Pearson's three most recent wins - Ricky was in attendance. 

Pearson's oldest son and future two-time NASCAR Busch Series champion, Larry, became a bit envious of his younger brother getting to see all of the wins. So Daddy Pearson made sure Larry was there with Ricky at Darlington to double the luck, and sure enough the trio got to enjoy victory lane together.

As a side note, Lennie Waldo finished 18th in his first of four career GN starts. The late model racer drove for owner Elmer Buxton who fielded cars in nine races - the last four with Waldo. It's possible NASCAR has not seen a better pairing of two perfect racing names. I now have a sudden urge to go watch Shawshank Redemption for the gazillionth time.

Source: Charlotte Observer

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May 5, 1974 - Talladega's Winston 500

NASCAR's Cup teams were back in Talladega for the 10th race of the 1974 season. Though the race was billed as the Winston 500, it was in reality a 450-mile race. NASCAR agreed to cut its races by 10 percent in response to the country's energy crisis.

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

David Pearson, the two-time defending winner of the race, won the pole in his Wood Brothers' Purolator Mercury. Indy Car regular Gary Bettenhausen qualified alongside Pearson in Roger Penske's AMC Matador. Bettenhausen raced in three NASCAR events in 1967 for car owner H.B. Ranier, father of Harry Ranier who had great success with drivers such as Cale Yarborough and Davey Allison. After spending the late 1960s and early 1970s in Indy Car, Bettenhausen returned to NASCAR in 1974 with a limited schedule in Penske's car.

As Cup began a transition from big-block engines with restrictor plates to small-block engines whose design generally remains in today's racing, the starting lineups of several races had several interesting names up front. Several drivers could lay down a fast lap with their small-block vs. the established teams still running an inventory of proven big-blocks.

With that in mind, Bettenhausen was joined near the front by a couple of other head-scratching names to many race fans - George Follmer and Dan Daughtry - who started third and fourth. Follmer was an accomplished racer in his first season with long-time owner and NASCAR Hall of Famer Bud Moore. Daughtry qualified for only his third Cup start after finishing 38th in the Daytona 500 and 32nd at Atlanta earlier in the season. 

Other notable drivers in the 50-car field included:

• Red Famer - The 2021 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee made only 36 Cup starts in his career. After the 1974 Winston 500, he started only three more Cup races - Talladega's '74 summer race and both Talladega races in 1975.
• Neil Bonnett - A member of the Alabama Gang along with Farmer and the Allison brothers, Bonnett made his Cup debut that day. It was a less than ideal start, however, as he suffered engine failure and finished 45th.
• Marty Robbins - The country music crooner qualified and finished a respectable 15th in his purple and yellow Dodge.
• Johnny Ray - The race was Ray's Cup debut. He eventually participated in eight Cup races, four of which were at Talladega. For many years, he was better known for hauling the American flag around Talladega attached to his big diesel rig.

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One driver not in in the field was second-year Cup driver, Darrell Waltrip. He blew an engine in qualifying and missed his third consecutive race. The weekend in general was dismal for DW as he dominated a 50-lap LMS race at Nashville the night before - only to helplessly fade as a tire's valve stem came loose eight laps from the finish with a half-lap lead over second place.

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To keep the 188-lap count consistent with other Talladega 500-mile races, the first 18 laps (50 miles) were neither run nor scored. As the field took the green for the first time to begin lap 19. Bettenhausen seized the lead followed the next lap by Daughtry.  

That two lap exchange set the tone for the rest of the afternoon, and it was the type of racing Talladega fans have grown to expect. The race featured 53 lead changes among 14 drivers. Many name drivers as well as many independents or so-called backmarkers got an opportunity to pace the field for a lap or two at a time.

Of the race's 170 laps, 60 were run under caution primarily because of a couple of rain showers - plus a blown engine that nearly had tragic consequences. 

Tennessee's Dave Sisco blew an engine on lap 105 resulting in a caution. As he made his way around the track and into the garage, Sisco left a trail of oil - including on the rain-slickened pit road. Bettenhausen, still in the hunt after leading 35 laps, pitted during the caution. As his Penske team serviced the Matador, rookie Grant Adcox slipped in an oily puddle and crashed into the back of Bettenhausen's car.

The collision crushed volunteer crewman Don Miller between the cars and injured two other crew members. One of Buddy Baker's crewmen and future NASCAR crew chief, Buddy Parrott, ran to Miller's aid and immediately used his belt as a tourniquet high on Miller's shattered leg. Upon realizing the severity of the accident, Adcox withdrew from the remainder of the race. 

Though Miller survived, he lost his right leg in the accident. Miller became an integral part of Penske's NASCAR operations in the decades to follow, and he was instrumental in pairing Penske with driver Rusty Wallace.

Even after the near-tragic pit road accident and two extended delays for rain, the drivers still mixed it up in the second half of the race. Follmer showed folks he was no slouch by leading off-and-on for 26 laps. Benny Parsons, the defending Winston Cup champion from 1973, also jumped in the fray and led nine laps. 

As Follmer, Parsons, and a couple of others cycled to the lead one or two laps at a time, the driver who generally took the lead back was Pearson. Shortly after taking the lead back from Parsons, Pearson made his final stop with 20 laps to go. 

Pearson was leading as he made his final pit stop with just a handful of laps remaining. Though he seemed slow exiting the pits, he quickly amp'd his speed down the backstretch. In seemingly no time at all, he sailed by Parsons and led the remaining 17 laps. Parsons finished a close second followed by Petty. After having a solid day, Follmer's engine blew with about 20 to go dooming him to P28.

With his 79th career win, Pearson three-peated in the Winston 500 after also winning in 1972 and 1973. The victory was the fourth consecutive Winston 500 for the Wood Brothers as Donnie Allison won the race for them in 1971.

Source: Montgomery Advertiser

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May 6, 1973 - Talladega's Winston 500

On Sunday, May 6th, NASCAR's Winston Cup Series rolled into Talladega for the Winston 500 as the 10th race of the 1973 season. How Cinco de Mayo may have been celebrated on Saturday - if at all - in the Talladega infield is unknown. What is known, however, is the infield crowd would not have needed a made-up holiday to party as they've always done there. 

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

David Pearson and the Wood Brothers team arrived riding a remarkable streak. Pearson and his Purolator Mercury had won the four previous events in which the team raced: Rockingham, Atlanta, Darlington, and Martinsville. The team didn't enter the car at Bristol or North Wilkesboro, but it's entirely possible they could've swept them too if they had!

Harry Hyde's well-tuned, red Dodge Charger won the pole for the second consecutive year. Bobby Isaac laid down the hot lap in 1972, and Buddy Baker captured the top spot in 1973. Pearson, the defending race winner, qualified on the front row alongside Baker. Richard Petty timed third in his Hemi-powered STP Dodge, and Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison rounded out the top five starters.

 

When Sunday's start rolled around, 60 cars took the green - SIXTY! Though the race didn't represent the largest starting field for a NASCAR race (see Darlington in the early 1950s and Daytona in the early 1960s), it certainly was the largest for the fastest track ever to occupy a slot on the Cup tour.

Baker seized the lead and pulled Yarborough and Allison with him. Pearson lagged back just a tick as the early pace developed. 

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With the 60-car field, Baker needed only a few laps to catch the rear of the field and begin lapping cars. The caution waved as the leaders crossed the start-finish line to complete the 10th lap. Ramo Stott had blown an engine coming off turn two. Though he coasted to the grass off the backstretch to get out of the way, he left a long trail of oil. NASCAR's policy in that era was to not only race back to the caution but to also continue doing so until they caught up to the pace car. Before drivers could react and crack the throttle, about 20 cars spun in Stott's oil and wrecked badly enough to send up a curtain of impenetrable dust and smoke. 

Contemporary fans have come to expect The Big One during races at Daytona and Talladega. To that point in only Talladega's fifth season, however, no one had seen the hot mess that unfolded on the backstretch. The wreck wiped out pole-winner Baker, Yarborough, and Allison from the top five starters. It also ensnared 1973 rookie of the year candidate (and eventual winner) Lennie Pond, Ron Keselowski (Brad's uncle), and several independents. 

Wendell Scott got the worst of it with a broken leg, pelvis, and ribs. He was hospitalized for over a month, and the wreck effectively ended his racing career. He returned just once more to race in the National 500 at Charlotte that fall. 

Petty avoided the wreck, but he ran over some debris and damaged the underside of his car. Though he returned to make a few more laps, the King parked it for good around lap 50. 

Pearson took over the lead when the thinned field returned to racing. He had wriggled through the wreck but knew many of his fellow competitors had been involved in the wreck. His Wood Brothers crew didn't volunteer any information - and Pearson didn't ask. He raced the rest of the day not knowing who may have been injured or worse.

After Pearson surrendered the lead after 15 laps to pit, Charles Barrett took over the lead in only his second career Cup start. Barrett raced a Ford fielded by George Elliott, father of Bill Elliott and grandfather of Chase Elliott. Barrett's short-lived lead was followed by nice showings from drivers unaccustomed to time at the front including J.D. McDuffie, Coo Coo Marlin, and Cecil Gordon. 

Rookie Darrell Waltrip then found his way to the lead and paced the field for an impressive 26 laps before his Mercury's engine failed well shy of the race's halfway mark. Though he led a sizable chunk of laps in 1973, DW's frustration grew as his streak of engine failures and poor Talladega finishes grew to three. (As an aside, Waltrip finished P7 in that summer's Talladega 500.)

 

With most of the big dogs wrecked or otherwise on their trailers early, Pearson took over to dominate the relatively-quiet second half of the race. Perhaps fittingly though, the race finished under caution when Vic Parsons wrecked with three laps to go. 

Pearson led 96 of the race's final 102 laps - including the final three under caution. He notched his 71st career win, won his second consecutive Winston 500, and extended his 1973 winning streak to five.

Source: Winston Cup Museum

Source: Anniston Star

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May 5, 1968 - Weaverville's Fireball 300

The 14th race of NASCAR's 1968 Grand National season was the Fireball 300 at Asheville-Weaverville Speedway. NASCAR began racing at the North Carolina half-mile in 1951, and the spring race generally didn't have a race title. 

Following Fireball Roberts' death in July 1964 after being badly burned in the World 600, Weaverville named its spring race in Roberts' memory. The first one under the new name was the Fireball 200 in 1965. The race was lengthened to 300 laps in 1966; hence, the 1968 Fireball 300 was considered the third annual running of it.

A week after finishing a close second to Cale Yarborough in the Virginia 500 at Martinsville, David Person captured the pole at Weaverville. Richard Petty qualified second as he tried to break a bad luck streak. The King lost an engine at North Wilkesboro, had rear end failure after leading nearly 300 laps at Martinsville, and broke an axle in Augusta, Georgia two days before the Weaverville race. After three consecutive DNFs, the King needed to right the ship. Tiger Tom Pistone, Bobby Isaac, and Big John Sears rounded out the top fiver starters.

Credit: ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images

Pearson got the hole shot at the green and set an early pace. Petty's recent race woes continued as he cut a right front tire on lap 42. Though he finished the race for the first time in a few weeks, he never regained the time he lost during the unscheduled pit stop.

As regular, scheduled stops began during a caution around lap 85, Pearson surrendered the lead on lap 87 to Buddy Baker for a lap. After Pearson's #17 Ford returned to the track and Baker made his stop, Pearson went right back to the point. 

About 20 laps after leading a lap and making his stop, Baker's day took an unfortunate turn...err, slide? He and Isaac raced hard for position. Isaac dove inside of Baker, and they clanged off each other. Buddy hammered the wall, slid through turn three, and came to rest on the apron. Isaac continued, but Baker was done for the day. 

Pearson was pretty much on cruise control the rest of the way. He led 299 of the race's 300 laps to capture his 34th career win. The victory was his first of two career wins at Asheville-Weaverville, the other coming later in 1968 in the Western North Carolina 500.

Isaac finished second, two laps down to Pearson. Though he couldn't make up the lap from the early stop - nor additional laps lost during another green-flag stop, Petty still managed to finish third, three laps down to the winner.

The final caution flew with about 30 laps to go. An ambulance needed to cross the track to transport a fan who had suffered a heart attack to a local hospital. Coincidentally, Pearson benefited from a similar caution to win at Martinsville about five years later. 

Source: Asheville Citizen

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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

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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

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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

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