#96 - David Slays Goliath
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10/18/2018 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 date was October 21, 1973, and the Winston Cup
teams were in Rockingham, North Carolina for the final event of the season, the
American 500. Going into the race Benny Parsons had what most people thought was
a comfortable lead in the Winston Cup title chase, though owing to a bizarre
points system, one of several fumbled attempts by NASCAR in the 70's, no one
was quite sure what he needed to do to take the title. One thing everyone knew
was that Parsons needed to keep his Chevy off the wall. But there on the
unlucky 13th lap sat Benny Parsons in a thoroughly mangled racecar, his hopes
for a championship seemingly strewn along the length of the first and second
corners, right along with major pieces of his car.
A little background on the events leading up to that
day may help explain things. There were only 28 events on the 1973 schedule,
the second year of a downsized schedule that had once averaged about 48 races a
year. Winston, which had become the title sponsor of NASCAR's senior division
in 1971 had insisted in 1972 any race of less than 250 miles be dropped from
the schedule. It had been those rough and tumble short track races that had
once given the smaller teams a chance to compete with the big dogs of the day,
Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, and David Pearson. Many teams were no longer
attending every event and in fact only six teams had gone to every race in
1972. In an effort to lure more teams into running the full circuit, rather
than "cherry picking" (running only the events with large purses) a
points system was devised where the winner received 100 points, and every team
got a half point for every lap they completed. Thus, a team hoping to take the
title had to go to every race and run every lap possible. A driver finishing
12th, but on the lead lap, received just as many points as the driver who
finished second if they were on the same lap. The system was not quite a
bizarre as it seems because in those days it was not unusual for the winner to
be on a lap by himself, and a car that finished fifth to be 10 or 20 laps down.
Benny Parsons drove a pumpkin-orange with Petty blue
wheels, 73 Chevelle. (Let's keep in mind the 70s were an aesthetic disaster).
The car was owned by L.G. DeWitt, and ran without a primary sponsor at most
races, though UNOCAL 76 was on the car's quarter panels occasionally as was
Dewitt Trucking, or any other sponsor interested in a one race deal. The team
was lightly funded and lightly regarded, though Parsons and Dewitt had won a
hundred-mile event at the tiny South Boston track in 71. Parsons was a
well-liked driver with an infectious sense of humor, but was considered a
journeyman driver who had come up through the ARCA ranks. The team's ability to
continue operating depended on winning enough money at each event without
tearing up the car, to get to the next race.
Going into the 1973 season, the odds-on favorite to
take the title was Richard Petty in his heavily funded STP Dodge. Petty had won
the title in 1971 and 1972, scoring 21 victories in the 71 season alone. His
primary competition was Bobby Allison in a Coca-Cola sponsored Chevrolet.
Allison had been the runner up in 72. Cale Yarborough was returning to NASCAR,
after a brief stint in the Indy Car ranks, and driving for the Junior Johnson-
Ron Howard team was also considered a threat. Though they would only compete in
18 events, the combination of David Pearson and the Woods Brothers Mercury
would be a contender at the big tracks. The rest of the drivers would have to settle
for the crumbs.
1973 was a turbulent season, and almost from the
outset the big teams were complaining that the points system rewarded
consistency rather than running hard. Meanwhile, the smaller teams were
complaining only the big dogs got appearance money and that the purses were
ridiculously small. Everyone was pointing fingers at everyone else and
complaining they were cheating. Midway through the season, NASCAR made a highly
controversial rules change trying to achieve "parity" (yes that
dreaded word has been around all these years). The big 426 Hemis and Ford Boss
429 engines were saddled with smaller restrictor plates to try to give the
production based Chevy 427 Rat a chance with its conventional cylinder heads.
The Ford based teams were particularly vocal because to that point, (and indeed
throughout the entire season) only Pearson and his Wood Brothers' Mercury had
won races for the blue oval folks. Sounds rather like NASCAR's giving the Fords
a break last year, though only Jeff Gordon has won in a Chevy, does it not?
And throughout it all, Benny Parsons was quietly out
there running, careful to avoid wrecks, or hurting an engine, even while the
big name drivers were blowing up or wrecking fighting over the lead. The season
was not without its incidents for Parsons. He lost an engine at Daytona and
wound up 30th, a poor way to start things. The team only had a couple of the
new Chevelles and often had to run year-old Monte
Carlos, which were about as aerodynamic as a brick outhouse, and in one case a
71 Mercury because that was what they had left that was running.
Benny did have his one shining day in the sun, July
8th at Bristol. The day was so brutally hot, only six drivers made the entire
race without needing a relief driver. Even Benny was forced to put John Utsman in the car after Parsons built up a comfortable
lead. How comfortable? He was credited with finishing seven laps ahead of the
second place driver L.D. Ottinger. Most of the big
name drivers were felled by mechanical problems or wrecks that blistering day
in Tennessee. For the win, Parsons was awarded the princely sum of $6,800.
Quietly, Parsons continued marching towards his championship, finishing in the
top ten in 21 out of 27 starts that year, and in the top 5 fifteen times.
The pundits were stunned when Parsons arrived at the
track in Rockingham for the last race of the year with a 194.3 point lead. Not
only were Parsons and the Dewitt team in the lead, two other lightly regarded
drivers, James Hylton in a family team Mercury, and Cecil Gordon, in the number
24 Monte Carlo (just a coincidence. Cecil is no relation to the current Gordon
who drives the 24 Monte) were also in the top six in the points, right along
with Richard Petty, Buddy Baker and Cale Yarborough.
Benny knew what he needed to do... finish the race and
run as many laps as possible without taking any risks. He was honest about the
fact he was not gunning for a win that day, telling reporters "My very
livelihood is at stake. Richard or Cale's isn't. The
championship would assure us of continuing racing. Everyone needs a sponsor and
winning would give us a selling point for additional backing next year. Nothing
less than winning the championship affords us that opportunity." Well as
the saying goes, “the best laid plans of mice and men..." On that fateful
13th lap, Johnny Barnes got sideways in the first corner. Parsons tried to duck
low to avoid him and ran out of room. The resultant impact sounded like a bomb
going off. When the smoke cleared there sat Benny's Chevy with its right side
torn away, its roll cage can-openered open, the right
front tire gone and the entire rear axle assembly laying separate from the car.
The car looked hopeless, and a dejected Benny Parsons told the press,
"There just went fifty thousand dollars down the drain." It may seem
hard to believe to anyone of you who was still getting ready to duke it out in
the Fallopian Tube 500 back in the seventies, but $50,000 was the points
champion's take in those days. But Parson's crew chief, Travis Carter, (current
owner of the 23 team) wasn't ready to throw in the towel. The wreck was towed
back to the garage area and something remarkable happened. Members of other
independent teams came hurrying over to give the DeWitt crew a hand trying to
piece back together the shattered Chevy. Another Chevelle that had failed to
qualify was pressed into service as a parts car, and the right side portion of
the roll cage was cut off and welded into place on Parson's car. The damaged
sheetmetal was removed with a torch and the suspension was rebuilt. The miracle
that occurred that day is right up there with the ending of the Charlie Brown
Christmas special, where the Peanuts gang brings the ugly little tree back to
life. Only that Christmas tree looked great. What was left of Parsons' car was
so ugly you'd have had to tie a steak to the roll cage to get a dog to relieve
itself on one of the tires. There was no right front fender, door panel or
quarter panel. The windshield, deck-lid and hood were held on with duct tape. The
color of the roll cage section grafted in didn't match and the welds looked
like they were squeezed out of a toothpaste tube. But it ran. On the 149th lap
Parsons returned to the track in his beat up racecar to wild cheers from the
fans in the stands. Parsons had one bit of good luck, even while his car was
being jury-rigged back together. Richard Petty retired on the 133rd lap with
mechanical problems. Parsons drove slowly around the track collecting lap
points, while in his pits, Carter scribbled frantically away trying to
determine how many laps Benny had to complete to take the championship. On the
394th lap Benny parked the car, which was vibrating too badly to continue by
that point. But it was enough. That day David slew Goliath, and Benny Parsons, and
the under-funded DeWitt team won the 1973 Winston Cup championship with a
little help from their friends.
AFTERMATH. 1973 was the only Winston Cup championship
that Benny Parsons won, though he went on to win 19 more races before hanging
up his crash helmet at the end of 1988 and signing on as a commentator for
ESPN. In his career, which spanned three decades, he won about $4.4 million,
less than Jeff Gordon has won this year. The other big story of 1973 was David
Pearson, who won 11 of 18 races he entered, 10 of them on superspeedways.
Richard Petty returned to form, winning the championship the following two
years. Parsons' championship was the first for a Chevrolet driver since 1961.
LG DeWitt's team continued running until 1980. In 1978 he prepared a car for
one race for an up and coming rookie by the name of Bill Elliott.
*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.