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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