#45 - North Wilkesboro
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05/29/2018 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
This week's history column presents a bit of a problem
in that there has only been one race at Texas Motor Speedway and the story
hardly needs repeating. For those of you who missed it, let me sum it up. Rain,
rain, rain, first corner, bang, crash, boom; not long after bang, crash, boom,
DOH!!!, bonehead, crash, boom, see ya Jeff; bang, crash, boom; Jeff Burton wins
his first race and the fat man runs laughing all the way to the bank.
There, then. Instead, let me recount the story of a
legendary track where races were traditionally held this weekend, and where
many people still feel they should be, North Wilkesboro. If that legendary
speedway could talk, oh what tales it would tell. Every hero and legend of the
sport competed at the half-mile bull ring in North Wilkesboro, and the select
few won there. Of the tracks that were on the first year schedule in NASCAR's
premiere season of 1949 only Martinsville remains, now that North Wilkesboro,
where the season finale was held in 1949,has been unceremoniously dumped in
favor of Texas.
The 1949 season finale in what was then called the
"Strictly Stock" division, was held October 16th, back when North
Wilkesboro was still a dirt half-mile oval. (The track was not paved until
1957) That day Bill Blair, driving a black 1949 Cadillac, of all things, took a
commanding lead at the drop of the green and went on to lead 180 of the 200
laps. Finally, the big Caddy's engine began going away and on lap 191 Blair
retired from the event. That left it to Bob Flock in a
Oldsmobile, and Lee Petty in a Plymouth to decide it, and the racing was fierce
by standards of the day. Most races that year had been decided by a margin of
several laps, but that day Flock beat Petty by a mere 300 feet. Though he had a
dismal day and wound up 16th, that finish earned Red Bryon, an injured War
Veteran, enough points to become NASCAR's Strictly Stock champion.
Junior Johnson, a local boy, has made his name
synonymous with North Wilkesboro, and he enjoyed a lot of success there both as
a driver and a car owner, to the delight of the highly partisan crowd. One
victory that stands out in his career as a driver was held May 15, 1958. Junior
was in a slump, not having won a race in three years, but that day his Ford was
the class of the field. Jack Smith led most of the first half of the race, but
Junior stormed by him on lap 79, with the bit hard between his teeth. At one
point, Junior drove so hard into a corner his big Ford went up and over the embankment
and into a field of high grass. He never lifted out of the throttle as he spun
the car around, charged back up the embankment and onto the track without even
losing the lead. North Wilkesboro has known a lot of heroes, but there will
always be just one Junior Johnson. The car he drove that day carried the number
"11", which would become a trademark of winning cars stabled in
Johnson's garage.
Not all the great moments at North Wilkesboro occurred
during the terms of now dead presidents. Richard Petty was the most successful
driver ever at the facility, chalking up 15 wins, with his first April 15, 1962
and his last April 5 1981. Another legend at North Wilkesboro is Dale
Earnhardt, who scored five wins and 19 total top five finishes at the track during
his career. His aggressive driving style seemed perfectly suited for one of the
toughest tracks on the circuit. Earnhardt scored the first victory for Goodyear
radial tires in Winston Cup racing on April 16th, 1989. It seemed it didn't
matter to him, radials or bias ply, he just drove the tires off the car either
way. More than once, a driver who got into his way wasn't very happy with the
result.
One event, held on April 18th 1993, that had its share
of fiery wrecks and tempers, stands out at North Wilkesboro. The fireworks
began before the race even got started. Ricky Rudd and Brett Bodine had been
involved in a wreck the previous race at Bristol and Rudd placed the blame
squarely on Brett. Brett managed to claim the pole, and afterwards Rudd said
something to him along the lines of it was a good run, but it was too bad it
wouldn't count for much because he planned to put Bodine into the wall at his
earliest opportunity. More words were said and Ricky took a swing at Brett,
earning them both a trip to NASCAR's trailer. Early in the race, Ernie Irvan
and Geoff Bodine got together and Bodine went spinning up into the wall. As he
slid back across the track, Michael Waltrip, Dick Trickle and Mark Martin all
got swept up into the wreck. Martin's right front tire was torn clear off his
car, and it suffered a major oil fire as well. After the race, the senior
Bodine had some choice words for Irvan. He had to wait in line behind Morgan
Shepherd who accused Irvan of spinning him out to keep him from passing Kenny Schrader,
in a case of Chevys ganging up on Fords. Rookie Jeff Gordon backed his car hard
into the wall on his first visit to North Wilkesboro and his car also erupted
in flames, forcing Jeff to scramble to safety. In the end Rusty Wallace managed
to prevail by a few car lengths over Kyle Petty.
The spring race of 1992 had one of the closest
finishes in North Wilkesboro history. By North Wilkesboro standards the race
was relatively clean, with no cars failing to finish due to crash damage.
NASCAR did issue a warning to Dale Earnhardt after he bumped Rusty Wallace from
behind a few times trying to get around him, but after the race even Wallace
laughed and said that was just how you drive at North Wilkesboro, and he and
Dale enjoyed running together like that. Davey Allison was still healing up
from injuries to his shoulder and ribs from a crash at the previous race, to
the point he had to have Jimmy Hensley qualify the car for him. With Allison
leading in the points hunt, but a red hot Bill Elliott gobbling up his
advantage, Allison was slated to start the race to get the points, then have
Hensley take the wheel. As Benny Parsons is fond of pointing out, a sick or
injured driver doesn't feel too bad when his car is running strong, and Allison
had a stout mount that day. His race was not without incident however. While he
and Kyle Petty were racing for position, the two cars made contact and Allison
got the worst end of the "racing deal", spinning out. Davey managed
to keep it out of the wall and get his car righted without going down a lap.
Kyle was involved in a late race banging incident with Bobby Hillin that sent Kyle spinning and Hillin
to the penalty box, where Felix Sabates had a few words for him that got Felix
fined as well. It came down to a closing-laps battle between Davey and Rusty
Wallace, and while contact was made, they raced each other clean. Allison held
on to win by .15 seconds.
Perhaps the most memorable finish at North Wilkesboro
in the spring involved two of Junior Johnson's cars in 1985. The team cars,
Darrell Waltrip in the 11 and Neil Bonnett in the 12, both sponsored by
Budweiser and Kentucky Fried Chicken, wound up battling for the lead. Earlier
in the race, Dale Earnhardt and Kyle Petty had gotten involved in an on track
wrestling match that ended with Earnhardt putting a bumper to Petty's rear
bumper and Kyle spinning into the wall. When Earnhardt came around the next
lap, Kyle gave him a single finger salute that that particular day didn't mean
"You're number one." Still infuriated, Kyle charged into the pits,
and went roaring into Dale's pit stall, almost running over a NASCAR official
trying to block his path and forcing the man to leap onto the hood of the car
to avoid being crushed. Kyle parked the car so Dale couldn't pit, and exchanged
some harsh words with the #3 crew. Fortunately, Darrell and Neil raced each
other clean, though they made contact more than a few times in the closing laps
as Darrell looked for a way around his teammate. In the end, Bonnett held on
and took the victory by a car length over Waltrip. Having Junior Johnson's cars
finish one-two delighted not only Junior but the local crowd, which roared its
lusty approval. Short track racing at North Wilkesboro, a little beating and
banging going on, Junior Johnson, Chevy, Budweiser and KFC; a true American
Classic. It just doesn't get much better than that.
*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.