After racing on a Friday night at New Asheville Speedway in North Carolina, NASCAR's Grand National teams rolled into Byron, Georgia's Middle Georgia Raceway for the Macon 300 on a Sunday afternoon.
Though the race was Middle Georgia's first Grand National race of the year, the track had already offered local racing action to fans earlier in the spring. Beyond action on the track, Middle Georgia experienced plenty of action under the track the previous fall.
On Saturday, September 23, 1967, the county sheriff and Federal agents discovered a remarkably well-concealed moonshine still under the track and confiscated 3,000 gallons of white lightning. Track owner Lamar Brown was arrested and charged two days later. Authorities opted to destroy the still by cutting it apart with torches rather than the traditional, more expedient method of using TNT. Had they chosen to blow up the still, the track above it would have been destroyed.
Source: Atlanta Constitution
With the track in tact and Brown out on bond as he awaited trial, racing continued as scheduled - including June's Macon 300. David Pearson recovered from an early DNF and a fracas between him, journeyman racer Stan Meserve, and their crews on Friday night in Asheville to capture the pole at Middle Georgia. Dodge driver and Pearson friend, Bobby Isaac, qualified second.
Tiny Lund qualified third in Bud Moore's Mercury. The day before the Macon 300 GN race, Lund won the Cracker 100 Grand Touring preliminary race in Moore's Mercury Cougar.
Richard Petty had won the previous year's Macon 300 and captured the win in Asheville two days earlier. The 43 team obviously planned to keep their mojo rolling, and The King led 54 laps. His opportunity at a Middle Georgia Threepeat (he also won the track's 1966 spring race) ended, however, when he had to make two unscheduled stops. Twice, sharp edges from broken asphalt punctured his Plymouth's tires.
Isaac paced the field for 11 laps in addition to the 54 led by Petty. The remaining 235 laps (including the final 92), however, belonged to Pearson. His #17 Holman Moody Ford rebounded nicely from a dismal Friday night. Pearson captured his 38th career win, his eighth of the season, and his lone victory at Middle Georgia.
Lamar Brown posted a win of his own. His trial began in December 1968, and quick proceedings resulted in his acquittal.
NASCAR completed the first third of its 49-race, 1968 Grand National division schedule with the Tidewater 250 at Langley Field Speedway in Hampton, Virginia.
Track promoter Henry Klich noted how NASCAR was evolving. New speedways had opened or were on the drawing board. Several dirt tracks had begun a conversion to a paved surface. So after years of operating as a dirt track, Klich replaced the red clay with asphalt. The project was completed in time for the GN regulars to roll into town.
Despite Langley Field's switch from dirt to asphalt, Richard Petty captured his third consecutive pole at the track. He was also the two-time defending winner of the race after going back-to-back in 1966 and 1967.
To the surprise of no one, David Pearson joined Petty on the front row. What was a bit of a surprise, however, was Pearson's appearance at all. Just three weeks earlier, Ford Motor Company announced Pearson and his Holman Moody car would stop running the short tracks and focus on speedway races. The announcement was made despite Pearson's three short-track wins to that point of the season. In doing so, Pearson would also forfeit his shot at winning a second Grand National points title.
In the days after the announcement, Pearson won his fourth short-track race of the year at Asheville-Weaverville followed by a win at Darlington. Ford reversed its decision, and Pearson continued to enter all races. He notched his fifth short-track race of the year at Beltsville Speedway in Maryland the night before Langley Field, and was looking to extend his winning streak to four on the newly paved Virginia track.
Though it's not clear who or what led Ford to backpedal on their position, one person quite happy with moving forward was Pearson's crew chief, Dick Hutcherson. Just four years earlier, Hutch relo'd from the midwest and a successful IMCA stock car career to try his hand at NASCAR.
After earning an impressive 14 wins in 104 starts, Hutch left the driver's seat after the 1967 season to become a crew chief for Holman Moody. Paired with Pearson, the duo began racking up wins on a regular basis.
Source: Newport News Daily Press
Pearson got the jump on Petty as the race began. He led the first 55 laps around the tight track before Petty went to the top spot.
After a few laps, Pearson got back by Petty's 43. His return, however, was short-lived as Petty once again put his Plymouth in the wind with no intentions of surrendering the lead again.
Petty led about 100 of the next 120 laps. Buddy Baker led a stretch of about 20 laps during a cycling of pit stops. Eventually, however, Petty returned to the top and seemed to be on his way to a Langley Field threepeat.
Things tightened up though with about 80 laps to go. Pearson's Ford closed on Petty's Plymouth, he got alongside him, and the two battled side by side for about 20 laps. The 43 then twitched a bit and doored Pearson's #17. As Petty cracked the throttle to straighten his car, Tiger Tom Pistone doinked him to send the King spinning.
After popping the fence, Petty headed for the pits but lost three laps as his Dale Inman-led crew thrashed to make sure the car was okay to return to the track. Petty roared back into action and made up one of his lost laps.
The damage and Petty's urgency to make up the lost distance were too much for the car's engine. The Hemi started bellowing smoke with about 10 laps to go, and Petty finally had to park it with four to go. The DNF was his second in as many nights and his fifth in seven races.
With Petty's late race issues, Pearson rolled on with no pressure. He led the last 60+ laps to capture his 37th career win. The victory was also his sixth short-track win of the year and his fourth consecutive victory.
Though Petty missed out on his threepeat, Pearson began one. The Silver Fox went back-to-back with a second victory in August and then completed the triad in May 1969.
NASCAR's Grand National drivers battled in mid-May 1969 for the third time in a week and on back-to-back nights. After racing at Beltsville Speedway in Maryland on Friday night, the teams made the short trek to Langley Field Speedway in Hampton, Virginia for the Tidewater 375.
The six previous GN races at Langley Field had been 250-lap, 100-mile events around the 4/10-mile, paved oval. The distance was extended for the first time in 1969 to 375 laps for 150 miles.
David Pearson captured the pole for the race and was flanked by Bobby Isaac. Pearson had already won four races during the season-to-date, and Isaac had claimed six victories - including at Beltsville the night before the race at Langley Field.
Independent, lower-funded drivers comprised much of the rest of the 24-car field. Virginia racing legend, Ray Hendrick, had planned to run the race. Hendrick knew the track like the back of his hand and won often at Langley Field in the track's modified and late model sportsman divisions.
Source: Newport News Daily Press
Hendrick raced in a handful of GN events - including a month earlier at Richmond. Though it's not clear if Hendrick failed to make the race during qualifying or if his expected ride didn't materialize, he wasn't on the track when the field took the green that Saturday night.
Another driver who wasn't in the field was Richard Petty. Two weeks earlier, Petty suffered what he says was the toughest hit of his career. He blew a tire coming out of turn four during the Fireball 300 at Asheville-Weaverville Speedway, and stuck it in the wall. Long before SAFER barriers and unlike many other tracks who used wooden or steel guardrails in that era, Petty's 43 Ford drilled the concrete wall and stopped suddenly.
The King rallied his sore body to qualify second and finish 11th the next weekend in the Rebel 400 at Darlington. The Petty Enterprises team, however, skipped the next two races at Beltsville and Langley Field.
Physically, Petty may have been able to make the starts. The Weaverville wreck destroyed their short-track car; however, and it wasn't rebuilt in time to run the back-to-back races.
A couple of calls were placed to other Ford teams to see if a spare car could be rallied for Petty to run the two races. When nothing surfaced, the team focused on readying Ol' Blue for the upcoming World 600 at Charlotte and getting the short-track car back in form for races beginning in June.
With almost no other top team cars in the field, the race was a battle between rivals and friends Pearson and Isaac. Pearson leveraged his top starting spot to grab the lead at the start and hold it for the first 40 laps. Isaac then passed Pearson and paced the pack for about the next 30 laps when the race's first caution flew.
Dick Hutcherson, Pearson's crew chief, called the #17 Ford to pit road. Isaac's crew chief Harry Hyde, however, made the call for Isaac to stay on the track. His plan was to have Isaac build a big lead over Pearson after the race returned to green and then pit under a subsequent caution.
With the race back under green, Isaac extended his lead over Pearson who was navigating traffic behind Isaac's #71 Dodge. Isaac remained out front for over 125 laps.
As the race neared halfway, Hyde realized his pit strategy had backfired. The subsequent caution never occurred, and Isaac was forced to pit under green and surrender the lead back to Pearson.
Though Pearson returned to the lead, Isaac tracked him down after 60 laps and motored by him with about 150 laps to go as he sought his seventh win of the year.
About 25 laps later, Pearson made a second stop to ensure he had enough fuel to go the distance. Though the second stop put him well behind Isaac, Hutcherson firmly believe Pearson still had a shot at the win.
Isaac continued to churn lap after lap as the race neared its conclusion. But then with about 15 laps to go, his Dodge's Hemi burped as the tank ran dry. As he coasted to the pits, Pearson flashed by to take the lead. Isaac's stop was agonizingly slow as the crew scrambled to get the car to re-fire. In the blink of an eye, Isaac went from a dominating day and a possible win to a P4 finish seven laps down to the winner.
Pearson led the rest of the way. He banked his 51st career victory, his fifth of the season, and his third consecutive win at Langley Field.
NASCAR's Grand National fleet rolled in to the small state of Maryland on a Friday night in mid-May 1968. The teams hastily prepared for a one-day show to qualify and race 300 laps around the paved, half-mile Beltsville Speedway.
Richard Petty won the pole for Beltsville's 1967 200-lap spring race and led 151 laps en route to a second place finish. He returned in September to again win the pole for the track's first 300-lap race. The King also finished one spot better than he had in the spring by leading 171 laps and capturing his first win at Beltsville and eighth in a row - a streak that ultimately grew to ten.
Petty picked up where he'd left off eight months earlier. He set a track record and captured his third Beltsville pole in a row. David Pearson, winner of the circuit's two previous races at Asheville-Weaverville and Darlington, timed second.
Pete Hamilton qualified third. Hamilton captured NASCAR's GN rookie of the year title in 1968 and later drove a second Plymouth Superbird for Petty Enterprises in 1970. Virginia's Bill Champion and James Hylton rounded out the top five starters.
Petty wasted no time in regaining his groove from the previous September. He launched at the green and led 158 consecutive laps. Then as the 43 headed down the frontstretch with a 10-seconds lead over second running Pearson, POOF - the King's Hemi went up in smoke.
In 1967, the Petty Plymouth was seemingly untouchable with 27 victories including 10 in a row. The 1968 season, however, brought new challenges. The 43 team suffered its fourth engine failure of the season at Beltsville and fourth DNF in six races. Over the next two races, the lousy streak would grow to six DNFs in eight races.
As Petty coasted to the garage to try again another day, Pearson went to the point. The Holman Moody #17 Ford led all but twelve of the remaining laps. Bobby Isaac led the other twelve laps and finished second to Pearson.
Pearson claimed his 36th career win - and this third one in a row in the '68 season.
NASCAR began the second quarter of its 1970 Grand National division season with the Rebel 400 at Darlington on Saturday, May 9th. Because of state blue laws, Darlington's races were held for years on Saturday in the spring and Labor Day Monday in September for the Southern 500.
The 1970 Rebel edition was the final one held on Saturday. A change in law or some sort of lobbying resulted in the 1971 race being scheduled for a Sunday. Darlington didn't host another Saturday Cup race until 2005 when their relocated Southern 500 was booked the day before Mother's Day for the better part of eight years.
Chargin' Charlie Glotzbach set a track record in winning the pole in his purple, winged Dodge Daytona. Bobby Allison timed second in another winged Daytona prepared by Mario Rossi.
Defending and three-time NASCAR Grand National champion, David Pearson, qualified third. During practice prior to qualifying, Pearson clipped the wall four times. Crew chief Dick Hutcherson made several spring adjustments, and the changes helped as Pearson logged the third quickest lap without any additional misadventures with the fence. Nonetheless, the track's PA announcer had a bit of fun at Pearson's expense by introducing him to the crowd as David "Wall" Pearson.
Pearson was flanked by Pete Hamilton who was driving a second Plymouth entry for Petty Enterprises. After Hamilton's qualifying run, he commented candidly to reporter Bob Myers:
I honestly believe we are running too fast for this race track. In the fourth turn, we are headed straight for the wall coming out. There it is near impossible to avoid hitting the wall. - Charlotte News
Though Hamilton was in a second Petty team car, he had the only Petty Superbird in the race. His teammate, the King, qualified his Superbird seventh on the first day of time trials. After logging his lap, Petty returned to the track during a follow-up practice session. Just as Hamilton had observed, Petty lost the handle coming off turn four, popped the wall, sailed back across the track, and pounded the pit wall.
Source: Greenville News
Source: Charlotte News
The crew loaded the trashed Superbird, forfeited their starting spot, returned home to Level Cross, and readied the team's Plymouth Roadrunner short track car to qualify again the next day. After a quick night's work - likely with limited, if any, sleep - the team returned with its backup. The Roadrunner was plenty quick, and the King timed 12th - only five spots lower than his forfeited day one slot. Yet his weekend problems were far from over.
Glotzbach grabbed the lead at the drop of the green. After a few laps, Allison roared back by him to lead for over 50 laps.
After the two Dodges led the first 60 laps, its factory cousin let it be known it wanted some prime time exposure. Hamilton's Superbird seized the lead for a couple of laps before teammate Petty put the Roadrunner out front.
Allison, however, wasn't done. His red and gold Daytona returned to the point to lead a couple of stretches for another 30 laps or so. Near halfway though, the Dodge's Hemi could handle no more. Allison was done for the day, and he headed to the garage to join Glotzbach who'd also retired with engine issues about 10 laps earlier. After starting on the front row, Glotzbach and Allison ended their days by finishing 22nd and 20th, respectively.
Four laps after Allison's exit, Pete Hamilton spun and destroyed the Petty team's second Superbird in only a matter of days.
With Glotzbach's and Allison's winged Daytonas out of the race and Hamilton's wounded Bird loaded for the ride home, Petty's short-track Roadrunner suddenly became the stalwart Mopar on the track. The car was fairly sporty after having led a few laps. The 43 bunch just needed to wrap up the day and hope for better ones down the road.
About 25 laps after Hamilton's wreck, however, the Petty team's weekend devolved from bad to worse. Much worse. Similar to the wreck he experienced in the Superbird, the King destroyed a third team car with far more force and in the most spectacular fashion. As he did following qualifying, Petty pounded the wall coming off the fourth turn and drilled the pit wall. The force broke the cement wall and sent Petty's Roadrunner into a series of terrifying flips - right in front of the packed grandstands.
The 43 crew, driver LeeRoy Yarbrough, Francis Allen (a Yarbrough crewman), and Glotzbach crewman Buck Brigance immediately broke into an all-out sprint to the car. Many fans and crew members feared the worst - especially when it seemed his body had come apart and ruptured blood onto the track. Though bad optically, it was several red shop rags that had flown out of the car. For much of his career, the King kept a wet rag in his mouth in an effort to help with hydration.
Though he was alive, the battered driver suffered a dislocated shoulder. The injury forced him to miss the next five races. The team skipped four short track races and fielded former team driver Jim Paschal in the World 600 at Charlotte.
After Petty's wreck, the race concluded with 100 caution-free laps. The final third featured great racing between factory rivals on the track but between drivers who were good friends off the track. Pearson in his Holman Moody Ford battled Bobby Isaac in the Harry Hyde-prepared Dodge Daytona. Each took turns leading sizable chunks of laps before the other went back out front.
With about 30 laps to go, however, Isaac drifted high with a cut tire. Pearson decided it was go-time and seized the moment. He eased by Isaac and led the remaining laps to capture his 58th career win. The victory was his second Rebel 400 win in three years after also capturing the 1968 Rebel 400.
Though Petty spent the night in a hospital bed as his rival celebrated in victory lane, the King exhibited class as he always has. He called Pearson on Sunday morning to congratulate him on his win.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
After an abbreviated NASCAR season in 1965, Richard Petty returned full-time in 1966. The King picked up at Daytona where he left off in 1964 by winning his second Daytona 500 in three years.
The season, however, belonged to David Pearson in Cotton Owens' Dodge. Together, the duo claimed Pearson's first NASCAR Grand National title. The Level Cross bunch came back with a vengeance in 1967 and shattered the record books.
Pearson and Cotton couldn't keep their 1966 mojo rolling, and the two parted ways before the season even reached its mid-point. After leaving Owens' team, Pearson latched on with the famed Holman Moody team.
Pearson's 1968 season was pretty uneventful in the first two races held in November 1967. But he and the #17 Ford team then knocked down a runner-up finish at Riverside, P5 in the Daytona 500, and a win over Petty at Bristol.
Cotton skipped the first two races that opened the 1968 season. Buddy Baker raced the Dodge at Riverside, and USAC's Al Unser raced Cotton's #6 at Daytona. After skipping Bristol, Cotton finally hired another full-timer. After only a handful of GN starts over the three previous seasons, Chargin' Charlie Glotzbach was tapped to take over the ride beginning with the Richmond 250 on March 24.
Source: Spartanburg Herald
Bobby Isaac - always quick in Harry Hyde's Mopars - won the pole. Glotzbach settled in quickly with Cotton's Dodge and qualified alongside Isaac. Petty timed third, and independent Elmo Langley posted an impressive fourth quickest lap. Starting almost out back was Pearson who started 16th in the 20-car field. He got caught up in a practice session accident, and the team thrashed to get his car ready for qualifying.
Isaac leveraged his top starting spot to lead the first nine laps. Glotzbach then put a smile on Owens' face by charging to the front to lead the next 30 laps or so. Pearson then took the lead - but only for 3 laps before Glotzbach returned to the top spot where he stayed for another 30-lap stint.
King Richard then made his presence known. The two-time Richmond defending winner put the Petty Blue Plymouth on point and stayed there for 48 laps. Until. With a sizable lead over Glotzbach, however, the Maurice Petty-built Hemi gave way. The 43 was done after only 147 laps.
While Glotzbach and Petty were leading, Isaac was involved in an accident with Wayne Smith. He lost 40 laps as the crew made repairs. He eventually returned but finished 13th - last among the cars still running at the end of the race.
With Petty and Isaac's Mopars out of the picture, the race then became one between the remaining powerful Dodge of Glotzbach and its former occupant Pearson in his Ford.
Glotzbach led another 18-lap chunk after Petty's exit, but Pearson then went to the point. Through the speed of his car and quickness of his crew, the Silver Fox was able to lead the remaining 95 laps of the race to take the win. Though Pearson won by a full lap over his former car, Cotton and Charlie had to be pleased with their debut together. Langley hung around all day and earned a quality third place finish.
The win had to have been satisfying for Pearson:
Hey, it's a win, right? ALL are satisfying.
He triumphed over his previous ride.
He overcame issues in practice that affected his staring position.
He overcame an early race spin down through the pits that also caused him to run over several wooden braces installed around light poles.
Pearson's 32nd career win is also notable for two additional reasons.
His 16th starting spot was the deepest in the field he ever started for any of his 105 wins.
The 1969 NASCAR Grand National season began in November 1968 followed by Riverside's road course race in January and Daytona's Speedweeks in February, The circuit then began its grind two weeks later with the Carolina 500 at North Carolina Motor Speedway.
The Silver Fox - still dark-headed at the time - put his Holman Moody Ford on the pole in Wednesday's qualifying session. Perhaps as motivation for a bit of extra speed, he taped to his dash a picture of his victory lane smooches from his Daytona qualifying twin win.
Second round qualifying was rained out on Thursday - stretching an already long-week in Rockingham even longer. Race day was a bit overcast, but the cars were pushed to the grid and the drivers belted in.
Pearson and Isaac led the field to the green. Donnie Allison and Charlie Glotzbach in in Cotton Owens' Dodge tried to stay with the front row at the jump.
The King started fifth in his Petty Enterprises Ford but didn't have the best outing in Rockingham's final race on the low banks. Following the race, he quipped "Well, look at it this way. We've got the the car handling great on the straightaways. Now all we have to do is get it to handle through the corners. At least we're halfway there."
Courtesy of Dave Fulton
On race day, Pearson's blue and gold #17 Holman Moody Ford was the class of the field. Class of the Field, however, didn't mean a win would come easily.
With the manual scoring system in place at the time, NASCAR and the teams became confused about who was in front of whom and who was on the lead lap.
The challenges of the scoring system were revealed early in the race. At one point, NASCAR officials couldn't figure out who the leader was and allowed 22 laps to be run under caution before the pace car finally picked up Cale Yarborough as the leader. That decision set crew chiefs along pit road to gnashing their teeth and rending their garments as no one believed the Wood Brothers' Mercury with Cale aboard was the leader.
As the race neared its end, Mario Rossi, Bobby Allison's car owner and crew chief insisted Allison was in front of Pearson. But NASCAR officials shrugged their collective shoulders, chomped on a toothpick I'm sure, said Nope, and allowed the race to continue.
Petty wasn't the only driver to have an up-close encounter with the guardrail. Pearson went to the high side himself and popped the Armco twice. It was during those misadventures that Rossi believed Allison gained ground on Pearson.
When the checkers finally fell, Pearson was flagged the winner with Allison scored in second - the only other car on the lead lap. Cale came home third, and Paul Goldsmith and Petty rounded out the top five. The win was Pearson's 48th career victory and the first of five wins at Rockingham.
Source: Charlotte Observer
Though Pearson took the trophy to his home a few miles down the road in Spartanburg, Allison and Rossi sulked their way out of the track. A day later, both remained convinced the #22 Coke Machine had won the race. Even Dick Hutcherson (Pearson's crew chief) wasn't entirely convinced the 17 had gone the full distance, but he wasn't about to surrender the official win.
Source: Spartanburg Herald
As noted earlier, Petty took his rough day in stride. Rather than blame the crew, stew at the media, point fingers at other drivers as is often seen in contemporary Cup racing, the King largely laughed it off as that's racing.
