#94 - Charlotte in the Fall
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06/14/2018 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 fall event at Charlotte Motor Speedway has always
lived in the shadow of the bigger Memorial Day weekend World 600 run at the
same track, but the fall classic has provided many memorable moments, helped to
decide several championships and unfortunately, time to time, terrible wrecks
and firestorms of controversy. To this day, the aftermath of the 1983 fall
event at Charlotte remains one of the darkest off track chapters in NASCAR
history.
The inaugural fall event at the track was staged
October 16th, 1960. The track, its owner Curtis Turner and his right hand man
Olin Bruton Smith were in dire financial trouble due to the huge cost overruns
in building the superspeedway. Even the 29,000 plus spectator turnout was not
enough to stave off the financial ruin that wound up with Turner and Smith
ousted in 1961. Speedy Thompson, driving the Wood Brothers Ford, entered that
event mired in a deep slump that had seen him go winless for two years. Even
before the race there was a rash of controversy. Rex White was drawing close to
clinching the 1960 Grand National Championship, and decided to test at the
track in the week leading up to the event, hoping to gain an edge that would
allow him to leave the track as the champion. The racing surface was extremely
rough, and another driver testing with White, "Tiger" Tom Pistone,
crashed heavily. Rex White packed up his car and left, blaming the wreck on the
lousy track conditions. Track officials (read, Bruton Smith) threatened not to
let White enter the event unless he apologized. The incident bears striking
similarities to the brouhaha between Rusty Wallace and the same Bruton Smith
after the inaugural race at Texas in 1997. White backed down and was allowed to
race. The race was marred by a terrible crash. Lennie Page put his Thunderbird
hard into the wall, and bounced back into the path of Don O'Dell who struck
Page's car right in the driver's side numbers. Page was knocked unconscious and
had several broken ribs, but by far the most life threatening injury was a deep
gash to his neck, which was bleeding profusely. A young Chris Economaki, at
that point still a track side photographer for National Speed and Sport News,
dropped his camera and rushed to the injured driver's aid. Economaki used his
own shirt to apply direct pressure to staunch the bleeding until track rescue
crews arrived, and in doing so saved Page's life. Fireball Roberts dominated
most of the event but blew a tire and slammed the wall. At that point, Speedy
Thompson took control of the event and led to the checkers, posting the first
of six wins at Charlotte for the Wood Brothers' team. Emergent newcomer of the
season, Richard Petty, came home second.
Coming into the 1961 event, Joe Weatherly had a
different sort of image problem than Speedy Thompson had the previous year.
While Weatherly had won his fair share of races as of late, in the eyes of many
of the other drivers, fans, and even his car owner Bud Moore, Weatherly was playing
"vulture", driving conservatively, waiting for wrecks and mechanical
misfortune to slim the field of hard chargers, then cruising to a good finish.
While that may be the norm today, in those days, when racing was racing, fans
loudly booed such a strategy. That day Joe Weatherly would show what he was
really made of. A long smoky slide to avoid a spinning car seemed to eliminate
Weatherly from contention for the victory, but throughout the rest of the
event, he put on a determined charge back towards the front. Once again the
race was marred by a frightening accident. Fireball Roberts, who had dominated
the race early, lost an engine, slowed dramatically and got sideways. Bill
Morgan plowed into the passenger side door of Fireball's stricken Pontiac. Contemporary
reports described the sound of the wreck as "like a bomb going off".
The front bumper of Morgan's car wound up into the side of the driver's seat of
Robert's car, though miraculously, Roberts was not hurt. He did say however, he
was picking bits of glass out of his neck and back for the next two weeks. With
five laps to go, Weatherly charged past his Bud Moore teammate, Bob Wellborn ,
but Richard Petty was right on his rear bumper and coming on hard as well.
Weatherly fought off the King-To-Be's determined
attempts to pass him and prevailed by little more than 12 feet at the checkers.
He was presented his trophy by a teenage (well, according to her biography
anyway) Miss Pontiac, later to be Miss Hurst, Linda Vaughn. Ned Jarrett, who
had hoped to clinch the title with a strong run that day, lost an engine and
finished a disappointing 18th, while his championship rival, Rex White, came
home fifth to keep his slim hopes of repeating as champion alive. Jarrett would
go on to be the 1961 champion despite only posting a single race victory.
Stock car racing was a very different sport in 1971,
with the heyday of factory involvement coming to a close. Several top name
drivers and car owners had left the sport and fan interest was dwindling as a
result. Richard Howard, who had inherited the financial mess of the Charlotte
Speedway from Turner and Smith and turned the track into a great success, was a
forward thinking man, always looking for a way to sell more tickets and improve
the health of the sport. As such, he contacted Junior Johnson about the
possibility of preparing a Chevrolet (a brand that had been missing from the
top ranks of stock car racing for close to a decade) to enter at the World 600
race in Charlotte. Junior, who had retired when he could not find sponsorship
money, indicated he was interested, but only if the effort didn't cost him
money. Howard staked the team. While he had hoped Junior would drive the car
himself, Johnson was not interested in a return to the driver's seat, so
Charlie Glotzbach was hired on to pilot the Monte Carlo. (Incidentally the
first Monte to race in NASCAR and it carried the number 3). A huge crowd showed
up to see the return of the Bowtie brigade and one of North Carolina's favorite
sons, Junior Johnson, to racing. Glotzbach did not disappoint, putting the
white Monte on the pole for the event and leading the event four times before
being eliminated in a crash. The venture was so successful Howard announced
Junior's Chevy would run any races that a promoter was willing to put up
sufficient appearance money to make it worthwhile. Naturally Junior, Charlie,
and the white Monte were back at Charlotte in the fall, looking to claim the
prize that had narrowly eluded them. Once again Glotzbach showed his Chevy had
a lot of muscle and led early and often, but in addition to the other cars, the
drivers that day were racing bad weather. Rain had pelted the track and
darkness was falling. Bobby Allison, who was leading in a Holman-Moody Mercury,
was caught by surprise as much as anyone was when the starter displayed the
white flag to him on lap 237. He bought it on home for the win, but there was
some ill feeling amidst the other drivers as a result of the unannounced scheme
to end the race early. NASCAR explained that Allison was leading comfortably,
and they were afraid if they gave the "five to go" word with the
track as damp as it was, the drivers might drive recklessly and there would be
big wrecks. Again, there is an eerie similarity to the hastily concluded World
600 of 1997.
Bobby Allison was back for the fall race at Charlotte
in 1973. Ironically enough, he had taken the place of Charlie Glotzbach in
Junior Johnson's Chevy. While Junior said he would have preferred to keep
Charlie on, Bobby had the sponsorship backing of Coca Cola to bring to the
table with him and Junior needed that money to field a team for the full
season. The combination had been quite successful, with Allison having racked
up eight wins already going into that event, tying him with Richard Petty, his
nemesis in the points battle for victories. Those two
drivers were also embroiled in a bit of controversy, having recently done a lot
of feuding, fussing and cussing on the short tracks, in one of the most storied
rivalries in Winston Cup history. Both drivers were told prior to the event,
the blatant sheetmetal combat from the previous race at North Wilkesboro could
not be allowed to continue on the superspeedway at Charlotte, for fear someone
would get hurt. In a bit of a bizarre twist prior to the race, Fred Lorenzen
who was slated to drive for Hoss Ellington, up and disappeared the night before
the race, leaving Hoss a note on his motel room pillow he did not feel well
enough to drive. Ellington quickly contacted Cale Yarborough, who had quit the
NASCAR circuit after the factory money dried up, to race Indy cars, to make a
rare appearance on the Winston Cup circuit. Bobby Isaac was also trying to make
a comeback, and led early, but was sidelined when a "fan" threw a
beer car out onto the track and it took out his oil pan. In those days, fans
frequently tried to help out their favorite drivers or penalize drivers they
disliked by hurling things over the fence, in an ugly display we unfortunately
don't seem to have outgrown today. The feared Allison/Petty war was by and
large a non-issue. Bobby had the dominant car that day, and the King, who had
refocused his attention on trying to clinch his fourth title, seemed content to
cruise in second place, a good distance behind his rival. With 16 laps to go,
however, Petty blew a tire and slapped the wall, bringing out a caution flag.
(Though the wreck ended his day and he thus finished 16 laps off the pace,
Petty had run enough laps that he was credited with 10th place in the final run
down) The yellow allowed Buddy Baker to restart on Allison's rear bumper and
the two waged an epic duel, swapping the lead 5 times in the final nine laps,
with Allison finally reasserting himself and winning by two car lengths. The
crowd was thrilled. Baker was not. He accused Bobby of dirty driving and said
he understood why Petty had gone at Allison on the short tracks after the
experience that day. A miffed Allison claimed he had never touched Baker.
A pre-race decision by NASCAR caused some fireworks at
the fall 1974 event at Charlotte. In those days the rules stated that a driver
had to start the race on the same tires he had used to qualify. Buddy Baker
qualified third for the event on his first lap against the clock, but spun out
on the second lap and flat spotted the tires. His car owner Bud Moore asked
NASCAR's permission to replace the tires prior to the start of the race for
safety's sake. NASCAR refused the request. Moore pulled out a hunting knife and
slashed the tires of the car while stunned NASCAR officials looked on, then
drawled it looked like he would have to replace them after all. Unamused,
NASCAR let the team replace the tires all right…but added they would have to
start at the back of the field. An enraged Buddy Baker told the press, "I'll
be in the lead by the 10th lap, or I'll be crashed out by the tenth lap."
Let's just say he never led the race. On the second lap Baker was charging
through the field like a man possessed and the inevitable happened. He ran into
the slower car of Ramo Scott, veteran independent
driver, and set off a horrendous wreck that wound up involving seven cars. Poor
Marty Robbins was faced with either hitting a car right in the driver's side
door and risking badly injuring that driver or going head on into the wall. He
chose the noble course of action and wound up with severe facial lacerations.
Moore was told not to bother trying to repair the car to get Buddy back into
the fray. All the other pre-race favorites, Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale
Yarborough, the Allison brothers, and Darrell Waltrip took their turn at the
point, but in the end superspeedway legend Pearson held off Richard Petty by
1.4 seconds to score his sixth win in 17 starts. Yarborough was sidelined by an
engine failure on lap 206 and handed the championship to second place finisher
Richard Petty.
Nothing in NASCAR history has, or hopefully ever will,
matched the uproar following the 1983 running of the fall race at Charlotte. By
way of background, a very few cars were dominating the sport, and dominating it
badly. Rumors were rampant a lot of those front running teams were cheating.
Among the drivers being humiliated week in and week out, was the once
all-conquering King of Stock Car racing, Richard Petty. He had won two races
early in the season but had a terrible year after that. Petty kept telling the
crew he needed more horsepower to be competitive. Darrell Waltrip, Benny
Parsons and Tim Richmond seemed to have the cars to beat throughout most of the
event. While Richard stayed on the lead lap, he was never a serious threat and
led no laps. A caution flag flew on lap 293 and afterwards Richard's car all of
a sudden came on strong. With 22 laps to go, the King went by Darrell Waltrip
like Darrell had decided to stop the car and relax a few moments. Petty
streaked to an easy victory 3.1 seconds ahead, to the stunned delight of the
crowd. But from there things quickly went downhill. While Petty was busy
celebrating his 198th career victory, his STP mount was rolled into the
inspection garage for the normal post-race check. Immediately, a NASCAR
official noticed that the car was riding on four left side tires. The left side
tires in those days were of a stickier compound than the rights (which were
harder for safety's sake) and it was illegal to run the left side tires on the
other side of the car. In a race earlier that year at Martinsville, Tim
Richmond had been caught with four left side tires, was black-flagged and held
five laps. A similar penalty would have dropped Petty to 18th. The panicked official,
knowing he was dealing with the popular King of the sport, called his
higher-ups to ask what to do. Meanwhile in victory lane, Richard was told of
the infraction by a reporter. The King seemed stunned and pointed out he just
drove the car, he didn't pick the tires during pit stops. Meanwhile back in the
inspection garage, things went from bad to worse. The engine in the 43 car was
found to be way oversize, 382 cubic inches as opposed to the allowed 358. Petty
was asked to join the growing crowd in the inspection barn, and excused himself
from victory lane. After learning of the serious rules infractions, Richard
admitted the tasks of team owner and meeting heavy sponsor appearance
commitments had him a bit out of touch with what was going on, on his team. He
had told the crew he needed more power and they had misinterpreted his wishes
as being a license to cheat. He went on to say later, "Things are going to
be different next year. I don't know how, but they will be different."
After three hours of deliberation including all the top officials, a stunning
verdict was announced. Richard Petty would be allowed to keep the victory after
all. He would be fined a record $35,000 and stripped of 84 points. The
decision, in the face of the blatant rules violations, bought howls of protest
and allegations of favoritism. In a case of the pot calling the kettle black,
the loudest voice of protest belonged to Junior Johnson, who had been known to
bend a rule or two himself… including getting caught with an oversized engine
at the same track in 1973. NASCAR locked the barn door after the horse was gone
by announcing that in the future, anyone caught with an oversized engine would
be suspended for 12 weeks or three races, whichever was longer… no matter who
it was. A few days later Richard Petty stunned the racing community by
announcing that in 1984 he would leave his own Petty Enterprises team to drive
for Mike Curb. And with that, one of the sorriest episodes in NASCAR history
came to a close… until none other than Junior Johnson got caught with an
oversize engine at Charlotte during the running of the 1991 Winston. Sort of
makes Tiregate seem like small potatoes, doesn't it?
*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.