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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