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With the NASCAR Truck series running at Eldora Wednesday night, the first major NASCAR event to be held on dirt in 43 years, I thought it might me interesting to look back at that last race in 1970 that was held at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, NC...
The track ran three NASCAR GN races, the one in 1970, one the year before (won by David Pearson) and one in 1955 that was won by Junior Johnson...
The race was 200 laps on the half-mile dirt and a nice crowd of 6,000 was on hand... That sounds good, but with more sponsor money coming into the sport, the sponsoring bigwigs were now wanting to race in front of crowds of 50,000 plus... thus the demise of NASCAR GN short track racing in general...
23 cars started the race and just 12 finished... Most were the underfunded "independent" drivers as just a handful of the "name" guys were in the field...
Richard Petty ended up winning the race but was not driving a Petty Enterprises car as they did not have one left that was set up for dirt... The team rented a 1969 Plymouth from Don Robertson whose regular driver was Jabe Thomas (who was also in the field)... Of course the Petty clan put one of their own engines in the car...
Big John Sears, who was a much better driver than most people give him credit for, surprised everybody by winning the pole in his own Plymouth... He then led the first ten laps of the race before the engine went south and he dropped out on lap 16, finishing dead last...
Benny Parsons, driving a Ford for L. G. DeWitt took over and led until lap 89, then his engine blew up seven laps later...
Petty took over and led the rest of the way... There was just one caution flag, so nobody really got a chance to deal with him...
Neil Castles had one of his best career finishes taking second, but was two laps behind Petty...
Bobby Isaac was entered in the K&K Insurance Dodge and started third but battled overheating problems... still finished third, five laps down...
James Hylton was fourth, 7 laps back and Cecil Gordon took fifth but was 14 laps down...
Bobby Allison was entered in his Coca-Cola Dodge but never got on track all day and struggled to a sixth place finish, 17 laps behind Petty...
As you can see, once Parsons fell out, there wasn't much competition... mostly just guys trying to get their cars to the finish...
Interestingly enough, of the 23 starters, only Hylton and Allison were driving 1970 models...
Let's hope this week's race is a little better than this one...
Some interesting stuff about the race held at Raleigh in 1955... Johson won by a lap over Fonty Flock and Buck Baker with Lee Petty fourth, two laps down... so the finish in 1955 was quite a bit closer... The race was also slated for 200 laps but cut to 172 because of rain...
27 cars started the 1955 race and 18 finished... You have to remember that the bulk of the NASCAR GN races in 1955 were run on dirt...
The most interesting fact is that Johnson won $1,350 for winning in 1955 and Petty, 15 years later, won $1,000!!! No wonder the guys didn't want to run dirt anymore!!!
The track ran three NASCAR GN races, the one in 1970, one the year before (won by David Pearson) and one in 1955 that was won by Junior Johnson...
The race was 200 laps on the half-mile dirt and a nice crowd of 6,000 was on hand... That sounds good, but with more sponsor money coming into the sport, the sponsoring bigwigs were now wanting to race in front of crowds of 50,000 plus... thus the demise of NASCAR GN short track racing in general...
23 cars started the race and just 12 finished... Most were the underfunded "independent" drivers as just a handful of the "name" guys were in the field...
Richard Petty ended up winning the race but was not driving a Petty Enterprises car as they did not have one left that was set up for dirt... The team rented a 1969 Plymouth from Don Robertson whose regular driver was Jabe Thomas (who was also in the field)... Of course the Petty clan put one of their own engines in the car...
Big John Sears, who was a much better driver than most people give him credit for, surprised everybody by winning the pole in his own Plymouth... He then led the first ten laps of the race before the engine went south and he dropped out on lap 16, finishing dead last...
Benny Parsons, driving a Ford for L. G. DeWitt took over and led until lap 89, then his engine blew up seven laps later...
Petty took over and led the rest of the way... There was just one caution flag, so nobody really got a chance to deal with him...
Neil Castles had one of his best career finishes taking second, but was two laps behind Petty...
Bobby Isaac was entered in the K&K Insurance Dodge and started third but battled overheating problems... still finished third, five laps down...
James Hylton was fourth, 7 laps back and Cecil Gordon took fifth but was 14 laps down...
Bobby Allison was entered in his Coca-Cola Dodge but never got on track all day and struggled to a sixth place finish, 17 laps behind Petty...
As you can see, once Parsons fell out, there wasn't much competition... mostly just guys trying to get their cars to the finish...
Interestingly enough, of the 23 starters, only Hylton and Allison were driving 1970 models...
Let's hope this week's race is a little better than this one...
Some interesting stuff about the race held at Raleigh in 1955... Johson won by a lap over Fonty Flock and Buck Baker with Lee Petty fourth, two laps down... so the finish in 1955 was quite a bit closer... The race was also slated for 200 laps but cut to 172 because of rain...
27 cars started the 1955 race and 18 finished... You have to remember that the bulk of the NASCAR GN races in 1955 were run on dirt...
The most interesting fact is that Johnson won $1,350 for winning in 1955 and Petty, 15 years later, won $1,000!!! No wonder the guys didn't want to run dirt anymore!!!
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