Nashville's Sterling Beer Trophy

Nashville's Fairground Speedways opened in 1958, and quickly built a solid reputation for its annual NASCAR Grand National race, the season-ending Southern 300 late model event, and the weekly modified and later late model sportsman programs.

A new tradition began in 1969. Sterling Beer introduced the rotating champion's trophy. The winning driver's name of the track's annual late model sportsman division points title was added to the trophy. The driver apparently retained custody of the trophy for the following season, and it was then returned to be awarded to the new champion. The trophy was to be permanently retired only if a driver won three track championships.

The trophy was first awarded to Dave Sisco who captured the track's LMS title in 1969. Sisco advanced to NASCAR's Cup series in 1971 where he raced as an independent pretty regularly through 1977.

The second recipient of the champion's trophy was Darrell Waltrip in 1970. After a few additional seasons in Nashville, Ol' DW moved up to Cup where his accomplishments are well known.

A few days before the annual awards dinner, Sisco and Waltrip rehearsed the passing of the trophy to the new champion.

Source: The Tennessean

Waltrip celebrated his championship with his wife, parents, and inlaws. A portion of the trophy can be seen on the table at the right edge of this photo.

Coincidentally, Waltrip secured Sterling Beer as his sponsor for the following season. Sterling also sponsored the Sterling Beer 100 late model race in July 1971, and Waltrip used his champion's trophy and postcards to help promote it.

Source: The Tennessean

Flookie Buford earned the honor of hoisting the champion's trophy in 1971. He won 13 LMS races at Nashville from 1969 through 1974. His son, Joe Buford, later became a four-time track champion and is Nashville's all-time win leader.

Buford's promotional photo for the 1972 season included his R.C. Alexander-owned Ford Fairlane and the champion's trophy from '71.

Buford won his second consecutive championship in 1972, and he became the first driver to have his name on the champion's trophy twice.

The 1973 season was another turning point for the track. After three years with banking steeper than Bristol, Nashville lowered its banking to 18 degrees where it remains to this day. Despite the change in configuration, Waltrip captured his second championship in four years. For much of the season, Buford contested Waltrip in an effort to win his third consecutive championship. After going winless, however, Buford's car owner replaced him ending any hope for Flookie to capture the champion's trophy for a third time and permanently.

Before being awarded the champion's trophy for the second time, Waltrip looked it over along with the other hardware with mini-stock division champion Maurice Hassey and limited sportsman division champion George Bennett.

Source: The Tennessean

The 1974 track champion was an out-of-towner. Jimmy Means traveled each week from Alabama, and he outpointed the local contingent of drivers. Interestingly, photos haven't surfaced of Means being awarded the champion's trophy. Perhaps Waltrip wasn't ready to surrender it to the new champion - or maybe he was too busy with first few races of the 1975 Cup season to make the transfer. Nashville's awards dinner was March 1, 1975 - right in the thick of Waltrip's commitment to a three-race stretch of Daytona, Richmond, and Rockingham.

Means did receive his 1974 Winston Racing champion's helmet. Though he didn't receive the rotating champion's trophy, the helmet went into a bit of rotation on its own. Some time later, Jimmy passed along his helmet to his son, Brad. More recently, Brad passed along the helmet to good friend, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Future NASCAR inspector, Walter Wallace, won his second track title in 1975 and received the champion's trophy from Don Naman of Alabama International Motor Speedway. Wallace earned his first championship in 1967 - two seasons before the introduction of the champion's trophy.

Courtesy of Russ Thompson

As Jimmy Means did in 1974, Alton Jones traveled from Alabama each week and won the track title in 1976. How he did so is a bit of a mystery. Jones won three feature races as compared to the eleven victories by rookie Mike Alexander. Consistent finishes by Jones helped him in the end, however, as Alexander had some struggles with a few DNFs and injuries.

The ninth and final season to be recognized on the rotating trophy was in 1977. Steve Spencer of Old Hickory, TN, a Nashville suburb, captured the title over drivers such as Alexander, Sterling Marlin, Dennis Wiser, and P.B. Crowell III. Spencer later became the personal pilot for Marlin.

Though Spencer's name is the last one engraved, the champion's trophy rotated once more. Racers and fans returned in 1978 for yet another season of Late Model Sportsman racing. All were stunned when track operator Bill Donoho announced the sale of his rights in the track's lease to Lanny Hester and Gary Baker. The new operators then announced weekly racing would not continue in 1979 as they focused on track improvements and larger events.

In that final season, Mike Alexander earned his first Nashville track LMS championship. As with Jimmy Means, Walter Wallace, and others, he was presented a Winston Racing Series commemorative champion's helmet. Because of the change in track operators and cessation of the weekly racing for 1979, the formal awards dinner to recognize the 1978 champions was scuttled. Consequently, Alexander was not presented the champion's trophy.

The trophy, however, had been returned by Spencer - or at least had remained at the track during the year. Knowing what it represented and knowing he earned it, the Sterling Beer Champion's trophy rotated once more to an ... ahem, permanent location.

Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway is now readying for racing again this season under new management. In this writer's opinion, 2020 would be an ideal year to renew the tradition of a rotating champion's trophy. Of course, it would need to be a new trophy as the 1969-1978 one has been retired.

TMC

Nashville's 1978 Winston 200

Nashville Speedway opened its 1978 season with a marquis NASCAR national late model sportsman race just as it had since 1966. The Winston Salute To America 200 ran on Saturday, April 15, 1978.

Though the 200-lap season-opener held to tradition, fans experienced many changes during and after the season that altered all sorts of traditions.

In December, the track's lease was sold by long-time track promoter, Bill Donoho, to local racer Lanny Hester and businessman Gary Baker. Donoho operated the track since its opening in 1958, but he spent much of his time in 1976-1977 overseeing a project to build a Nashville-areas superspeedway.  The track was to have been built about 20 miles south of Nashville. One problem after another arose; however, and Donoho's project was scrapped in early 1978.

The season also turned out to be the final full year for the late model sportsman division. After featuring modifieds as the top division in the early years, Donoho replaced them with the LMS division in 1964. Hester and Baker opted to run only a handful of LMS races in 1979 with the traditional Novas and Chevelles. Then in 1980, the new promoters introduced a new Grand American division featuring primarily Camaros and Firebirds.

Local racer Steve Spencer experienced a bit of change as well. Spencer earned Nashville's 1973 rookie of the years honors and won the 1977 LMS title in an orange Chevelle. In the offseason, he purchased a late model Nova from North Carolina racer Randy Tissott. Furthermore, his sponsor (an avid Vanderbilt Commodores sports fan), asked Spencer to paint the car black and gold.

Source: The Tennessean

Source: Nashville Fairgrounds Racing History

Another local racer, Mike Alexander, had expected a change - though it happened later than originally thought. During his two previous full-time LMS years, Alexander raced a mid 60s Mercury Cougar. For the new season, he expected to race a newly-built Ford Granada. Multiple problems with the car during testing, however, led Alexander to return the car to the builder. Instead, he stuck with his trusty Cougar for the first part of the season.

Source: The Tennessean

In addition to Spencer and Alexander, Sterling Marlin returned for his third season of LMS racing. The trio represented the strongest of the local racer contingent. As a national LMS feature, the race also attracted several out-of-towners as it typically did. The list of Big Dawgs included racers such as two-time national LMS champions Jack Ingram and L.D. Ottinger, 1978 national LMS champ Butch Lindley, Bob Pressley, Morgan Shepherd, and late entrant Donnie Allison.

Despite the presence of several touring pros, the local fellas let 'em know they knew their way around the Fairgrounds track quite well. Marlin won the pole, and Spencer joined him on the front row.

Source: Hemmings.com

Spencer's newly purchased Nova was fast. He got the jump on Marlin at the green and pulled the field into turn one. The 1977 track champ found his early groove and enjoyed the view out front. Lap after lap, Spencer's #27 Chevrolet stayed out front.

Meanwhile, Alexander, P.B. Crowell III, and Dennis Wiser were all gone by halfway. The three drivers along with Marlin comprised the highly touted Kiddie Corps two seasons earlier. Marlin stayed in the hunch though he seemingly had nothing for Spencer. His lack of speed was compounded by pit miscues followed by a tangle with another car late in the race. He still managed a P7 finish - though 10 laps down to the winner.

With 55 laps to go, Spencer had to make his stop to make it to the end. Like Marlin, he too had issues making a clean pit stop. He suffered a painful one-lap penalty for running the pit-out stop sign. And like Marlin, he knicked another car - Ironman Ingram - late in the race. Though he continued to a P4 finish, Spencer realized he'd missed out on a golden opportunity to bank a premier LMS win.

After pit challenges by the local racers, veteran racer Donnie Allison - and his seasoned crew - made his pit stop cleanly. Allison took over the top spot and led the remaining laps that Spencer could not. Donnie captured his third season-opener win at Nashville in seven seasons. His other victories were the 1972 Permatex 200 and 1976 Winston 200.

Source: Nashville Fairgrounds Racing History

Many of the local and national racers' names had been touted in the run-up to race day by the track's promotional team. Allison's name, however, was not among the names mentioned because he had not yet submitted an official entry. Some speculated Allison, a NASCAR Cup regular, wanted more show money than Donoho was willing to pay. Allison held back his entry perhaps as a countermove to limit Donoho's use of Donnie's name in marketing efforts.

Source: The Tennessean

Finishing Order:

1. Donnie Allison
2. Bob Pressley
3. Gene Glover
4. Steve Spencer
5. Al Henderson
6. Wayne Carden
7. Sterling Marlin 
8. Tony Cunningham
9. John Huskey
10. David Ray
11. Charlie Whitefield
12. Jack Ingram
13. Morgan Shepherd
14. Butch Lindley
15. James Ham
16. Butch Applegate
17. L. D. Ottinger
18. P.B. Crowell, III
19. Jack Hill
20. Mike Alexander
21. Paddlefoot Wales
22. James Climer
23. Ken Gay
24. Dennis Wiser 
25. Marvin Joiner
26. Dorris Vaughn

TMC

Nashville's 1977 Winston 200

Nashville Speedway at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds opened its 1977 season with the Winston Salute To America 200 on April 16th. The 200-lap race was sanctioned as a NASCAR national late model sportsman event.

Times were tough for racers in the mid 1970s - locally and on the national level. L.D. Ottinger, NASCAR's two-time national Late Model Sportsman champion, had done enough barnstorming to accumulate points.

Ottinger continued to race and win, but he longer had the hunger to bounce all over the eastern and southern U.S. to bank points. Jack Ingram reached the same decision after winning his third consecutive LMS title in 1974.

Locally, Nashville's 1976 LMS champion, Alton Jones, didn't return to defend his title. Jones was from Alabama, but he'd raced off and on at Nashville since the early 1970s. He raced the full schedule in 1976 and won the title over rookie Mike Alexander. Because of a lack of sponsorship, however, Jones opted not to return to Music City in 1977.

With Jones gone along with some of the late model veterans of the early 1970s, most expected the storyline of Nashville's 1977 season to be the further maturation of the Kiddie Corps.

Mike Alexander, P.B. Crowell III, Sterling Marlin and Dennis Wiser

All four up-and-comer drivers were second generation racers.

• Mike Alexander, Nashville's 1976 LMS rookie of the year, was the son of R.C. Alexander, a long-time owner for winning drivers dating back to the late 1950s. 
• P.B. Crowell III, Nashville's 1975 LMS rookie of the year, was the son of P.B. Crowell, Jr. a former winning driver who became a prominent owner in the late 1960s when he hired a kid from Owensboro, Kentucky: Darrell Waltrip.
• Sterling Marlin was the son of four-time Nashville track champ and Cup independent, Coo Coo Marlin. Before he began his driving career, Sterling worked as a crewman and mechanic on his father's Cup cars.
• Dennis Wiser was the son of Kenneth Wiser, a long-time noted car builder and mechanic. Among his other accomplishments, Kenneth built the car raced by 1967 track champ and future NASCAR official, Walter Wallace

Source: The Tennessean

Though many expected the young guns to win their share of races, experienced drivers still planned to have a say in the outcome and leave town with the trophy and the loot. Several big names helped pack the stands for the season opener.

• Cup regular and two-time Nashville LMS champion, Darrell Waltrip, flew between Bristol and Nashville to balance practice and qualifying for the Southeastern 500 Cup race and his #88 Gatorade Nova in Nashville. 
• Ottinger still came to Music City even though he wasn't chasing points. 
• Ingram finished second in a Friday night late model race in Kingsport, TN before towing to Nashville for its Saturday night feature.
• Randy Tissot wrecked his car in the Kingsport race. He came to Nashville anyway with a generous offer by Ingram to race his backup car.

Other out-of-towners included Neil Bonnett, Harry Gant, Morgan Shepherd, and the son of late model legend Ralph Earnhardt.

Mike Alexander, Steve Spencer, Darrell Waltrip, Sterling Marlin, & Dale Earnhardt

Dale Earnhardt arranged to race Waltrip's white #17 in his second ever Nashville start. Later, Waltrip had the car painted orange-and-white. The Robert Gee-painted Nova matched the colors of Crowell's #47.

Though he was young, third-year racer Crowell was already a track veteran. He won the pole by matching the track record of 20.01 seconds. Gant lined up alongside him on the front row.

Source: Nashville Fairgrounds Racing History

Nashville hosted three main divisions of weekly racing in 1977: mini-stocks, limited sportsman, and late model sportsman. The track also featured a demolition derby division. The Winston 200 wasn't part of that schedule, but it may as well have been with the way the race unfolded.

Earnhardt's night in his borrowed ride didn't last even a quarter of the race. He spun on lap 40 and collected Marlin with him.

Wiser, another one of the young'uns, popped the wall shortly after halfway, and he too was done - as was Steve Spencer. Fortunately for Spencer, the night did not start a trend for him. He won frequently during the year and captured the 1977 LMS title.

Cup independent and 1969 Nashville LMS champion, Dave Sisco, tangled with Shepherd to end both their nights. And with about 20 laps to go, Crowell's pole-winning car laid down sending his car to the trailer.

With five to go and Ingram leading, Benny Kerley apparently hit a patch of fluid and spun in turn three. Ingram was already past Kerley, but second-place running Gant also hit the oil and clipped Kerley as he tried to avoid him.

As Gant slowed and twitched, he was then drilled in the right side by local racers Ricky Marlin and and Dave Hill. Fast approaching Waltrip and Tissot took evasive action to dodge the three-car wreck.

As Gant's totaled car was towed to the garage, it was apparent to all the roll cage wasn't nearly as strong as required. Handsome Harry was fortunate to return to North Carolina without injury.

Source: Nashville Fairgrounds Racing History

On the restart, Waltrip went high in turn one in hopes of getting momentum to launch past Ingram. His car stumbled, however, and he immediately faded. Ottinger had issues too - at the very moment he didn't need them.

Feeling no pressure from the others, Ingram and Tissot clicked off the remaining laps to finish 1-2. Waltrip and Ottinger remained on track and finished third and fourth.

Fans saw a remarkable and perhaps exasperating 11 cautions totaling 65 laps. Of the 28 starters, only nine cars made it to the end. With so many cars out of the race or many laps down to the leaders, Kerley and Gant still managed to finish fifth and sixth despite their DNFs!

Ingram captured his fifth national LMS win at Nashville and eighth victory overall. He won three more times at the Fairgrounds - a 250-lap national LMS race in 1979 and a Busch Grand National race in 1984.

Source: The Tennessean

Finishing order:

1. Jack Ingram
2. Randy Tissot 
3. Darrell Waltrip 
4. L.D. Ottinger 
5. Benny Kerley 
6. Harry Gant 
7. Gary Sircy 
8. Ricky Marlin 
9. Buzzy Reynolds 
10. Dorris Vaughn 
11. David Panter 
12. P.B. Crowell 
13. Thomas Mount 
14. David Hill 
15. Mike Alexander 
16. David Rogers 
17. Jerry Sisco 
18. Dennis Wiser 
19. Steve Spencer 
20. Carl Langford 
21. Terry Vickers 
22. Dale Earnhardt 
23. Art Sommers 
24. Sterling Marlin 
25. Morgan Shepherd 
26. David Sisco
27. Marvin Joyner 
28. Charlie Whitefield

TMC

May 12, 1979 - Sun-Drop Music City 420

The 1979 Cup season ranks comfortably in the top five of all-time memorable NASCAR seasons. The season began with a Waltrip win on Riverside's road course in January, and then the entire nation seemingly took notice of the legendary finish of the Daytona 500.

Through ten races of the season:

• Richard Petty won the Daytona 500 for the sixth time and notched his fifteenth Martinsville victory in the Virginia 500. 
• Darrell Waltrip logged two wins, and Bobby Allison banked three. 
• Cale Yarborough won at Richmond after two rough finishes at Daytona and Rockingham.
• Buddy Baker recovered from a disappointing Daytona finish with a win at Atlanta. 
• Rookie Dale Earnhardt picked up his first career Cup win in at Bristol.

A roadie, two superspeedways, three intermediates, and four short tracks to open the season. Ahhhhh.

After Bobby Allison captured his third win of the season at Talladega, the circuit headed to Nashville for the fifth short track race of the season.

After years of being known as Fairground Speedways and Nashville Speedway, the track was re-branded as Nashville International Raceway by the track's new leaseholders and promoters, Lanny Hester and Gary Baker. The wording choice perplexes me to this day because the only thing international about Nashville in 1979 was the house of pancakes near Vanderbilt.

The Winston 500 raced with a full field of 40 cars. By contrast, 28 drivers answered the call a week later to Gentlemen, Start Your Engines! in Nashville - the second lowest car count of the season.

One driver who raced at Talladega but opted not to race at Nashville was independent Coo Coo Marlin. Coo Coo was a four-time Nashville late model champion and had raced in all but two of Nashville's Cup races since his debut Cup event in 1966. (His son Sterling raced his dad's car in the two races Coo Coo didn't start.)

The new promoters implemented a change to charge crew members a pit entry fee - including Sterling's crew at a late model race a few weeks before the 420. Coo Coo fervently disagreed with the new policy, took a stand, and and refused to race at his home track.

Source: The Tennessean

Coo Coo was peeved, but another local driver was relieved. Steve Spencer, the track's 1977 late model sportsman division champion, got the opportunity to make his Cup debut on his home track. Owner/driver Henley Gray put Spencer in his car, and Steve did an admirable job in his debut by qualifying 15th and finishing 12th.

Source: The Tennessean

Spencer raced in seven more Cup events in his career, and he later became Sterling Marlin's personal pilot. His weekend was made a bit more memorable as he won the 50-lap late model feature following Friday night's first round of Cup qualifying.

Dale Earnhardt was already a raw but popular and promising rookie. He brought a fan base from both his father's legacy as well his late model experience on tracks in the Carolinas. (Hint to NASCAR: a return to supporting short track heroes will result in their bringing a fan base with them to trucks, Xfinity, and Cup.)

Earnhardt, however, was not the only promising rookie in the 1979 class. Other talents in what was arguably the most talented collective group of rookies in Cup history included Joe Millikan, Terry Labonte, and Harry Gant.

Joe Millikan had been tabbed as a Petty protégé. He grew up in Level Cross, worked for Petty Enterprises for the better part of ten years, and won Daytona and Talladega late model sportsman races in an STP sponsored Petty Dodge.

Millikan got his chance at the big time in 1979 by landing a ride with L.G. DeWitt whose team had won the 1973 title and 1975 Daytona 500 with Benny Parsons. Earnhardt nabbed a win at Bristol, but Millikan had been impressive as well in the early part of the season. His #72 Chevy unloaded quick off the truck, and Joe captured his first (and ultimately only) Busch pole award.

Source: The Tennessean

Flanking Millikan was Buddy Baker - an unusual qualifying spot for him on a short track. Baker was known as more of a superspeedway racer though he did win at Nashville in 1973 and Martinsville later in 1979. Waltrip, Cale, and the King rounded out the top five starters.

Cale and Bobby Allison tangled in February at Daytona, but they soon put the incident behind them. The fact both of them had wins on the ledger by the time Nashville rolled around likely helped ease things a bit.

Source: The Tennessean

Millikan leveraged his top starting spot when the green fell, and he led the first 31 laps. Unfortunately for him, that brief time out front was the highlight of his race. Engine woes forced him out of the race with a DNF after only 120+ laps.

Long-time independent driver J.D. McDuffie took the lead from Millikan on lap 32. J.D. had himself quite the career race that spring night in Nashville. Over the course of the race, he led 111 laps across the four times he found himself out front. The number of laps led was easily the highest he had in any of any of his 653 career starts by a factor of 10! Though he didn't win the race, he finished a solid 5th - his 12th and final career top 5.

Before McDuffie headed to the front, he tangled a bit with Yarborough. Cale lost a lap because of his spin, but he didn't hit the wall or otherwise damage his Olds 442. Adding insult to injury was a second spin in the first half of the race. But again, racing luck favored Cale as he managed to keep it out of the wall a second time.

Part of McDuffie's secret sauce was his McCreary tires vs. the Goodyears worn by other cars. His tires provided a speed advantage in the short run, but they had a tendency to fall off quicker later in a run.

The STP Monte Carlo was out front when McDuffie wasn't. Petty led a stretch of 100+ laps in the middle stages of the race. Knowing McDuffie's McCreary tires wouldn't last as long, the 43 seemed to be in good position to capture the trophy.

Because of his need for new tires, J.D. surrendered the lead to Petty with just under 150 laps to go. Petty led the next 61 laps before officially losing the lead to Yarborough in a controversial turn of events.

During his final stop, Petty got tangled up a bit on pit road with Benny Parsons in his #27 M.C. Anderson Chevy. The King did a half-spin on pit road and had to straighten up to complete his stop. But the Dale Inman-led crew completed their service and sent the King back on track as the leader.

NASCAR ruled, however, that Yarborough had unlapped himself and taken the lead from the King during the 43's pit road bobble. After the race, Petty insisted he had not lost the lead to Cale and believed he was the winner of the race. Bobby Allison - in a rare moment of unanimity with Petty - agreed Petty won with Allison as the second place finisher.

But...NASCAR maintained its position and insisted Cale had made up his lost laps, passed Petty, and led the remaining laps to the checkers. Yarborough returned to Timmonsville, SC with yet another Nashville trophy as Petty and Allison scratched their heads.

The win was Cale's third in a row at Nashville and seventh in a 13-race stretch. The race was also the 27th time Petty and Cale finished in the top two spots.

Source: The Tennessean

Source: The Tennessean

TMC

19 Shades of (Henley) Gray Part 2

Here is part 1 of my 2-part series about Henley Gray.

Now where was I? Oh yeah...

Petty portion of the story

In mid-1978, Richard Petty made the stunning announcement that Petty Enterprises was leaving Dodge and moving to General Motors. Though the move was carefully made, the readiness for it was not. Petty made his final start in a Dodge in the Talladega 500. Then it was on to Chevy.

Without much lead time, the Pettys had to rally a car. They bought a Monte Carlo from Cecil Gordon, re-worked it, re-painted it, and hauled it to Michigan for its debut. The car ran pretty well and Petty landed a 14th place finish, but he wrecked the car - the only one he had - near the end of the race.

With only six days to spare before the following race, the Volunteer 500 (Bristol's first night race), the team arranged with Gray to borrow his Monte Carlo. The car Henley provided seems to be the same one Elmo Langley raced at Dover - though originally slotted for Woody Fisher.

Credit: Richard Stockman of RIS Photography

The Pettys masked the blue, painted STP day-glo red over the yellow, and raced the car to a fifth place finish.

Credit: Donald Evans at RacersReunion.com

The unfortunate part of the transaction for Gray, however, is his regular #19 Chevy was heavily damaged in a wreck with Dave Marcis and Frank Warren. Photographer David Allio captured the trio as the three cars came together.

Source: Spartanburg Herald Journal via Google News Archive

Super Tex part of the story

When the Pettys decided to switch to GM, they purchased two cars - the Monte Carlo from Cecil Gordon and a Buick from A.J. Foyt. The Buick wasn't a popular choice for teams in 1978, but Foyt and car-builder Hutcherson-Pagan believed the body style had a favorable aero package.

Source: Reading Eagle via Google News Archive

Foyt was lightning quick in the Buick at Speedweeks. He won his 125-mile qualifying twin (the same race in which Woody Fisher exited on lap 1 in Henley's car) and was considered among the favorites in the 500.

View image | gettyimages.com

About a third of the way through the 500, Benny Parsons blew a tire going into turn 1 with Foyt behind him. Parsons spun down through the grass, had little damage and continued. Foyt had to check up as Parsons began to spin but then lost the car. He spun down to the grass water logged from several days of rain and then began to flip as his car caught the wet grass. He was taken from his destroyed Buick and transported to the hospital.

Foyt spent a significant amount of time rehabbing his injury. But as he proved countless times in his decades of racing, a wreck never kept Super Tex down for long. A new Buick was constructed, and A.J. was ready to run again - this time at Talladega.

He qualified second but started at the rear of the field after pitting on the pace lap to fix an issue with his in-helmet radio. Once the green dropped, however, he served notice the Buick was back in business. In short order, he was up front with the Cup regulars. He finished third proving yet again the Hutcherson-Pagan built Buick was a hoss. It was logical Petty would be interested in the car.

The Petty team examined their new purchase and apparently ran some aero tests on it to compare to the numbers for other makes. At the time, they may have considered running it in superspeedway events in 1979 as A.J. had done in 1978. Instead, the team made the decision to build a new Olds Cutlas 442 speedway car to take to Daytona. The decision was a good one as the King won his sixth Daytona 500. Coincidentally, Foyt was third in his own, new Olds.

Back to Henley

Once the decision was made to build an Olds, the Pettys had no need for the Buick. The sheet metal was removed and given to Henley - perhaps as thanks for letting Richard borrow the Monte Carlo at Bristol. (What Petty Enterprises did with the Foyt chassis remains unknown.)

Henley and his son Steve re-skinned one of their cars (perhaps the one Dick May wrecked at Bristol) with the hand-me-down Buick sheet metal. Dick May raced the 'new' Buick at Martinsville and North Wilkesboro, and Elmo Langley was back behind the wheel of it at Rockingham - still painted in Foyt's Poppy Red paint.

With the 1979 season underway, Henley relied primarily upon the Monte Carlo as the car of choice for the drivers he hired. The Buick was brought to the track only a couple of times for back-to-back races at Nashville and Dover in May. Steve Spencer - Nashville's 1977 late model sportsman division champion - got the opportunity to make his Cup debut in the 1979 Sundrop Music City 420. He drove Henley's Buick, still painted Poppy Red, to a respectable 12th place finish.

The Monte Carlos continued to be painted yellow-and-blue - the scheme that began when it seemed Woody Fisher would be Gray's regular driver in early 1978. Virginia's Lennie Pond, the 1973 Winston Cup Rookie Of The Year, raced the #19 Monte Carlo in the 1979 Champion Spark Plug 400 at Michigan. Coincidentally, Richard Petty won the race - one year after he debuted his newly purchased Monte Carlo at the same track

Courtesy of Ray Lamm

As the 1980 season began, NASCAR's teams faced a mandated obsolescence deadline. NASCAR had announced all cars would be downsized to a 110-inch wheelbase chassis beginning in 1981. The teams had one remaining year to get all they could out of their 1970s era cars. Gray's team again used the Buick - presumably the same one used since getting the old Foyt sheet metal - but focused its use on the superspeedways. J.D. McDuffie raced it in the Daytona 500. John Anderson and Dick May raced it in the two Talladega races - now painted yellow-and-blue.

Source: Rome News-Tribune via Google News Archive

Dick May raced the Buick again at Texas World Speedway, and Henley's son - Steve Gray - raced the #1 Buick for what seems to be the final time in the CRC Chemicals 500 at Dover. (John Anderson raced Henley's #19 Chevy.)

Credit: Steve Gray Facebook

Though 1981 brought new cars and the shorter wheelbase, it didn't bring a new car make or colors for Henley Gray's team. As did many other Cup teams in 1981-1982, Gray chose to run the Buick Regal. He kept the blue and yellow scheme and hired many familiar names to drive it including Dick May.

Credit: John Betts of RacersReunion.com

Henley dramatically cut back the number of races in which he fielded cars beginning in 1981. He continued to build cars on his own - as he'd done from the beginning - and entered a few races each year until he finally called it a career in 1993.

Gray is still around today. He runs his own trucking business in Rome, Georgia.

Thanks to John Evanich, Mark Agee, Jeff Droke, Chris Hussey and Russ Thompson for their assistance. 

TMC