#29 - The Factories Go Home and Petty Goes on a Tear
|
04/11/2018 Matt McLaughlin |
(Editor’s Note) In 1997
- 1998, Matt McLaughlin penned a special Anthology of historical pieces in
honor of the 50th Anniversary of NASCAR entitled "50 Years of NASCAR
Racing." Matt has entrusted the entire collection, minus one or two that
were misfiled back then and cannot be salvaged, to my tender, loving care.
As NASCAR turns 70, the
Anthology itself will celebrate a 20th anniversary through 2018, and will run
again here on Race Fans Forever. As before, there is no record of which pieces
came first, so it will appear in the sequence presented earlier. Please, sit
back and enjoy as you take a journey back through the pages of history and
perhaps relive a memory or two.
As always, many thanks
to Matt, and God bless you my friend. ~PattyKay
The Grand National Circuit, in the process of becoming
the Winston Cup, was very different than it had been when the drivers and teams
had been there in 1970. The Factory Wars were over. Ford had announced it would
not run any factory teams in 1971, and Chrysler was supporting only two cars,
Richard Petty in a Plymouth and Buddy Baker in a Petty Enterprises Dodge. Among
those left out in the cold was Bobby Isaac, who had claimed the 1970
championship for Dodge. NASCAR had some new rules as well. The winged Mopars were all but banned, with a rule stating they had to
run a 305 cubic inch engine as opposed to the 426 and 429 big blocks of the
time in other cars. Restrictor plates had been added between the carbs and
manifolds of all cars to slow them down as the speeds were once again beyond
the capabilities of tires of the time.
Defending Daytona 500 champion, Pete Hamilton, won the
first 125-mile qualifier race in his new ride, a Plymouth out of Cotton Owens'
shop. Also in the race was Fred Lorenzen, attempting a comeback, in a Plymouth
sponsored by STP. Lorenzen actually led during the race until AJ Foyt got by
him in a Wood Brothers' Mercury. On the final lap of the race, Foyt had a solid
lead on Hamilton when Ron Keselowski rolled his Dodge directly in front of
them. Foyt got out of the gas, while Hamilton made a kamikaze dash past him,
avoided the wreckage and took the win. The second qualifying race seemed like
it was going to be a Buddy Baker/Bobby Isaac show, until a flat tire ruined Isaac's
chances. In the closing laps David Pearson in the Holman-Moody Mercury entry
came out of nowhere and calmly blew away the field to take the win. Baker took
home second place honors. In third was Dick Brooks, driving a Dodge Daytona
with the tiny 305 cubic inch engine the rules mandated for the winged cars.
During Saturday practice, Pearson was caught with an oversized restrictor plate
which called the legality of the car he drove to the win in the second 125
qualifier into question. NASCAR fined the team $500. Compare that to the fine
imposed on the Cale Yarborough team earlier this year for the offset manifold
studs.
Early in the Daytona 500 of '71, rookie Maynard Troyer
set a record of a dubious sort. After popping an engine in the second corner on
lap nine, Troyer managed to roll his Ford 16 times. He was rushed to the
hospital in serious but stable condition.
AJ Foyt was leading the event when a miscalculation in the pits, or
possibly sabotage, caused his car to run out of gas with 39 laps left to run.
Glen Wood claimed after the race they found that the fuel line had been twisted
and crimped, by person or persons unknown, which did not allow the car to use
all the gas in the tank. Donnie Allison took the point and was leading when the
caution flag flew for a blown engine that ended Pete Hamilton's day. While
running under the yellow flag, his brakes locked up, putting Allison into the
wall. A surprised Buddy Baker found himself in the lead. Richard Petty and his
new teammate swapped the lead a few times, but Petty took the checkered. Some
folks contend that Baker was told to back off and let the boss take the win.
Such problems did plague Baker during his career with Petty Enterprises. Fred
Lorenzen staged a successful comeback, bringing the STP Plymouth home fifth.
Dick Brooks was seventh in his mini-motor Daytona. NASCAR promptly reversed
their decision and outlawed the winged cars all together.
1972 bought a lot of changes to the Winston Cup scene.
Races of less than 250 miles were taken off the schedule, leaving the tour with
31 dates, down from the previous year's 48. Among the casualties were the
twin-125s, which had been points paying events until that year. From 1972 on,
the 125s helped determine the starting order of the Daytona 500, but they no
longer paid points. Chrysler had withdrawn their support from Petty Enterprises
and the factories were officially out of the racing business.
While it paid no points, the first 125-qualifier in
1972 did cost a driver his life. Friday Hassler was killed in a 13-car pileup
caused by Dave Boggs' flat tire on a restart. Bobby Isaac drove to an easy win
over Coo Coo Marlin, Sterling's dad. The second race
was caution free and Bobby Allison, in a Coca-Cola sponsored Chevrolet owned by
Junior Johnson and Richard Howard, returned the bow tie to victory lane at
Daytona. AJ Foyt finished in second place, driving the now legendary Wood
Brothers' Purolator Special Mercury with the white and red paint job that would
become a trademark on the Winston Cup scene for a decade. Purolator had signed
on with the Wood Brothers in '71 to help with expenses after the Ford factory
withdrawal.
The 1972 Daytona 500 was one of those rare events at
the track that was about as exciting as watching paint dry. AJ Foyt and Richard
Petty were in a class by themselves. When Petty blew a motor on lap 80, Foyt
cruised to an easy victory. AJ even admitted in victory lane he had gotten
bored out there running with no one to challenge him. Charlie Glotzbach was in second place almost two laps down, Jim Vandiver finished third, and Benny Parsons bought his
Mercury home fourth. Also of note that year, Roger Penske made his first
Daytona 500 start as a car owner, with Trans Am/Can Am/Indy car legend Mark
Donohue at the wheel. The car was a double-ugly red, white and blue AMC
Matador, and fans were probably greatly relieved when the hideous circus wagon
retired on the 18th lap with a bent push rod. Donohue and Penske were credited
with 35th place. By winning, Foyt became the third Wood Brothers' driver to win
the Daytona 500, joining Tiny Lund and LeeRoy Yarbrough. It was also the
beginning of a period when three or four "super-teams" with heavy
financial backing dominated the sport for a decade.
Buddy Baker had quit Petty Enterprises after 1972 and
took the seat in the K and K Dodge. He made the most of his new ride in the
first qualifier, holding off a determined Cale Yarborough in the Johnson/Howard
Chevy for a win in the first qualifying race. The second qualifying race of
1973 produced one of the biggest upsets in Daytona history. Veteran independent
driver Coo Coo Marlin took the win after Bobby Isaac
lost an engine in his Bud Moore Ford. For sake of comparison for newer fans,
imagine Dave Marcis winning a qualifying race in 1998
after Dale Jarrett blew an engine. It was the only Winston Cup checkered flag
Coo Coo would ever take, though of course his boy
Sterling has done all right at Daytona since then. The pundits looked at
Isaac's blown engine as proof of conventional wisdom. Ever the innovator, Bud
Moore took advantage of NASCAR's new rules giving small block engine equipped
cars a substantial weight break and installed a 351 cubic inch engine in the
Torino. Most folks felt that was like showing up at a gun fight with a knife.
Once again the outcome of the Daytona 500 was decided
in a large part by mechanical failure for some of the top drivers. David
Pearson, Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough all were sidelined by engine failures.
Buddy Baker seemed to be driving to a comfortable win, but the master of
Daytona, Richard Petty, was in second and wasn't ready to throw in the towel.
On the last pit stop Petty decided to forego new rubber for track position and
went with gas only. He made up the gap Baker had opened, and actually took the
lead. It seemed like a classic battle was brewing between Petty and the driver
that had quit his team, as Baker reeled Petty in, lap after lap. Unfortunately,
it was not to be. With six laps to go, Baker's engine went up in a cloud of
smoke. Richard Petty drove to an easy victory, two laps ahead of his closest
competitor. Bobby Isaac knifed his way to a second place finish in the
mini-motor Ford. Buddy Baker, whose bad luck streak at the Daytona 500 was very
much like Dale Earnhardt's today, was visibly despondent after the race. (I
crave your indulgence here-but on a personal note, among the 103,000 fans in
attendance that day was a skinny little runt of a 13-year old kid screaming
himself hoarse at his first stock car race watching his hero Richard Petty win-
yours truly.)
The world had turned topsy-turvy by the time the
Winston Cup teams arrived in Daytona for the 1974 event. The Arabs had shut off
the spigot that provided the life blood of the American economy, cheap oil. The
most visible effect of the oil embargo was the Daytona 500 being cut back ten
percent to the Daytona 450. But there were other problems as well. The economic
turmoil had caused many large companies to reconsider their involvement with
motorsports and even the big teams were struggling to find sponsors. The
American auto industry was in chaos. The sudden gasoline shortage had turned
traditional V8 powered cars into dinosaurs that sat unsold on dealership lots,
overnight. Americans were clamoring for smaller cars from Japan and Germany
that got better mileage. The only American entries in the "economy car
class" were the three ugly sisters- the Pinto, the Vega and the Gremlin.
Any support from the factories was a thing of the past.
Richard Petty still had his STP sponsorship, with the
oil additive company suddenly advertising how their product helped cars get
better mileage, rather than better performance. He was an odds-on favorite at
the 450 as a result. Even the qualifier races had been shortened to 112.5
miles. In the first event, Bobby Isaac piloted a Banjo Matthews' Chevy to the
win, edging out Trans-Am star George Folmer, who had
replaced Isaac in the Bud Moore Ford. Donnie Allison, driving for the DiGard
team, finished third ahead of his brother Bobby, with Darrell Waltrip coming
home fifth. Petty's 1974 effort did not have an auspicious start. He took the pole for the second qualifier but hand-grenaded
an engine on the 26th lap. Cale Yarborough in the Johnson/Howard Chevy
continued Junior's tradition of strong runs at Daytona taking the win in that
race.
The 1974 Daytona 500 came down to a battle between
Richard Petty in his Dodge and Donnie Allison in the DiGard Chevy. The
advantage seemed to go to Allison when Petty suffered a cut tire and had to
pit, returning to the fray 38 seconds behind Donnie. Then the pendulum swung
the other way. Allison was coming up to pass a lapped car when the engine in
that car expired, blowing shrapnel all over the track. Allison cut down both
front tires driving through the debris and had to limp to the pits with 11 laps
to go. Petty streaked on for his 5th Daytona 500 win and became the first man
to win two in a row. Coo Coo Marlin almost finished
an outstanding second, but he thought the race was over when he took the white
flag and lifted off the gas. That allowed Cale Yarborough and Ramo Scott to streak by him, before Marlin realized his
mistake and recovered to finish fourth. Darrell Waltrip also enjoyed a top ten
finish, bringing the Chevy he and his wife owned home seventh. Attendance was
down to 85,000 people that year owing to government mandate that gas stations
be closed from 9:00 Saturday evening until midnight Sunday. To help make up for
the lost ticket revenues ABC paid $300,000 for broadcast rights to the race.
The first half was taped to show highlights, while the second half was shown
live, the first live broadcast of the Daytona 500.
The energy crisis was over by the time the 1975
February Classic was held in Daytona Beach. Buddy Baker's foul luck continued
in the first qualifier race that year when he blew a tire while leading. Bobby
Allison in a Penske Matador and Dick Brooks in a Ford lined up behind the pace
car to settle things in a three-lap dash to the checkers. The finish was an
anticlimax in that Brooks missed a shift, allowing Allison to drive the most
ungainly looking car ever into Daytona's victory lane. Brooks held on to take
second place. The second qualifier came down to a shoot-out between the two
drivers who dominated on the big tracks in those days, Richard Petty in the STP
Dodge, and David Pearson, wheeling the Wood Brothers' Purolator Special
Mercury. It came down to a chess game, with Pearson drafting past Petty on the
last lap, then blocking the King's attempt to return the favor out of the last
corner. Cale Yarborough came home third and Dave Marcis
finished fourth as the latest driver of the orange K and K Dodge.
Every once in a while in Daytona history a surprise
winner makes it to Victory Lane in a major upset. Such was the case in 1975.
Buddy Baker's Daytona curse stayed alive as he lost a timing chain after having
led for several laps. Richard Petty had a strong car but his run was hampered
by a series of tire failures that resulted in unplanned pit stops and left him
hopelessly out of contention. With Petty hobbled, David Pearson winning the
race was almost a foregone conclusion. Pearson was stroking, holding more than
a five second advantage over Parsons, and no-one thought Benny's LG DeWitt
Chevy had the horses to run down the mighty Wood Brothers Mercury. Into the
fray rode the King, who must not have thought much of someone making a daring
last lap pass on him in his kingdom during a qualifying race. He motored
alongside Parsons and waved for Benny to tuck in behind him. Parsons did so,
and the two cars drafting together began cutting into the lead of Pearson, who
was running by himself out there. Seeing the Petty/Parsons freight train
coming, Pearson turned up the wick. While trying to get by the lapped car of
Cale Yarborough, who was trying in turn to get by the lapped car of Richie
Panch, Pearson and Yarborough got together sending Pearson spinning. Both
drivers blamed the other for the incident. Meanwhile Benny Parsons streaked on
for the win, beating Bobby Allison, Cale, and Pearson who recovered to finish
fourth. Petty came home in seventh place. It was one of the most jubilant
victory lane celebrations in Daytona history, with Benny celebrating the upset
win. The presence of Bebop Hobel, Miss Winston, would
have been enough to celebrate even without the big check.
Pearson was clearly miffed after the 500, one prize he
had yet to claim, and not only with Cale. He had some unkind things to say
about Richard playing favorites as well. Thus Richard and David had a score to
settle when they returned to Daytona Beach in February 1976.
*Matt can no longer
field comments or email at Race Fans Forever. If you have comments or
questions, please leave them below and I’ll do my best to supply answers.
~PattyKay Lilley, Senior Editor.