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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Source: Spartanburg Herald |
TMC
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