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.
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| 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.
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.
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.
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| Source: Montgomery Advertiser |
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