#97 - The Hickory Wind Blows Cold
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10/24/2018 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
You can add the name of Hickory Speedway to that of
North Wilkesboro and many other short tracks that NASCAR has outgrown. This
week it was announced that next year the Busch series will no longer pay a
visit to the picturesque little speedway in the heart of Stock Car country.
Losing Hickory is like losing an old friend for longtime race fans, and the
pain is compounded by the news that the Asheville Speedway was recently sold to
real estate developers. Did you know for some 18 years the Grand National (now
Winston Cup) circuit used to visit Hickory twice a year? Nestled as it is in
the heart of stock car country, in an area infamous for the late night exploits
of bootleggers, Hickory has also served as the birthplace for many a rising
young driver working his way up to NASCAR's top ranks. While the list is too
long to recount completely, some of those drivers included Junior Johnson, Ned
Jarrett, and all three generations of the Earnhardts;
Ralph, Dale, and more recently Dale Junior. The list of winners at Hickory
Grand National events reads like a Who's Who of stock car racing, and includes
Lee and Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, Tim Flock, and David Pearson.
Hickory first entered the Grand National circuit in
May of 1953. It was a simpler and more innocent time in our sport's history. In
the rural South, the arrival of the Grand National drivers was a welcome relief
from the day to day monotony of life, and men in white starched shirts would
bring out the whole family to see the excitement. Five dollars paid for a
ticket in those days, and they were available at the gate. Tim Flock won that
first event at Hickory driving a 53 Hudson owned by Ted Chester. While already
a legend of the sport, Tim was off to a slow start that season, and the race
was his first victory that year. The fall race at Hickory in 1953, also marked
Tim's return to racing, after devastating head injuries he suffered when he was
run over while sleeping in the infield. While Flock did not win that day, he
did earn the pole and led early in the race, to the delight of the crowd.
No discussion of Hickory could be complete without
recounting the exploits of another local boy made good, Junior Johnson. During
his career Junior won seven times at Hickory, more than any other Grand
National driver. Junior had a reputation for being a hard charger, who either
bought home the trophy, or bought home a wrecked car. Sometimes he did both.
The tough little track suited Junior's style just fine, and the fans loved the
bootlegger turned race legend and his wide-open style. Johnson scored the first
Grand National win of his career at Hickory in May of 1955, and he did it the
hard way. Junior led the early parts of the race, but got overly aggressive and
spun out after making contact with Tim Flock in Carl Kiekhaefer's
Chrysler. Taking the bit between his teeth, he began charging back towards the
front, only to make contact with another car, and spin out yet again. Despite
having damaged his Oldsmobile in that incident, Junior once again started
making up ground, and on lap 172 he passed Tim Flock for the lead and never
looked back. The win was somewhat of an upset victory, because the Kiekhaefer
team was so dominant in NASCAR at that time. In fact, in four starts Carl's
cars won three events. (Tim Flock in the Fall of 55 and Speedy Thompson in both
Hickory races of 1956 were Kiekhaefer's winning
drivers.) At the May race at Hickory in 1959, Junior won the pole. During a
practice, he flipped his pole winning Ford. The car came down on all four
wheels, so Junior calmly drove back to the pits. The team did some sledgehammer
surgery to get the car back race-ready, and hours later Johnson went out and
won the race in his thoroughly battered car. Junior's cars were usually pretty
battered up after a race, but that day he started the race in one too. As hard
as it may be to believe, Junior pulled off the same stunt in the September race
of 1963. He rolled his Chevy during practice, but hasty repairs were made to
get the car fixed well enough to race, and if it had four wheels under it,
Junior was always a threat to win. He and another hometown hero, Ned Jarrett,
treated the fans to a hard-fought battle on the dirt bull ring, until Jarrett's
Ford began overheating and fell off the pace. Johnson went on to win the race
by four laps over G C Spencer. Johnson also won at Hickory in 1965, a year he
won 13 races. At the end of that season Junior retired. But while he never
drove a full season again, Junior did come out of retirement many times, and
one of those times was at the September race at Hickory in 1966. Junior had
grown tired of Curtis Turner, his driver at that point, for blowing up or
wrecking cars, so he fired Curtis and announced he was coming out of
retirement. To the great delight of the crowd, Junior stormed into the lead.
Contact with a lapped car flattened one of Johnson's tires while he was on a
lap to himself. His luck just kept getting worse. Junior tried to pit to get
the tire replaced, but found his pit stall blocked by the track fire engine,
while the fire crew was trying to extinguish Buddy Baker's Ford, which had gone
up in flames during a fuel stop. Junior lost two laps getting a new tire, and
promptly decided to retire again. He handed his car over to Dick Hutcherson,
who had been in the infield watching the race. Hutcherson managed to work his
way back to fourth place, before rolling the car. Junior promptly fired Dick,
and announced he was un-retiring again.
Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson were complete
opposites. Ned was tall and lanky, while Junior was overweight. Junior's family
was in the moonshine business, while the Jarretts
were devout Christians. Junior had a reputation as a headstrong driver, while
Jarrett was known for being a smart and calculating racer. But they had some
things in common as well. Both drivers retired early, while still at the top of
their game, within a year of each other. Both scored 50 wins during their
careers. And both were hometown heroes at Hickory. Despite his reputation as a
quiet and cerebral racer, Jarrett was one of the best ever at driving short
dirt tracks. His trademark was to throw his car hard into the corner and let
the rear bumper guide him along the outside wall, while Ned kept his foot hard
to the floor. Jarrett's first Grand National start took place at Hickory in
1953. While he won countless races at the track in other divisions, it was not
until May of 1964 he finally won a Grand National race there. That day he
battled most of the race with David Pearson, another master of Hickory. A flat
tire late in the going thwarted Pearson's efforts, and Jarrett went on to win,
to the enthusiastic applause of 10,000 fans in the stands.
Richard Petty, another native of North Carolina, seemed
snake bit early in his career at Hickory. It wasn't until September of 1965
that Richard scored his first victory at the track, following in the footsteps
of his father Lee, a two-time winner at the track. Apparently that day Richard
figured out how to get around Hickory, because he went on to win four more
races there over the years. NASCAR hadn't seen a team as dominant as Petty
Engineering in 1967 since the Carl Kiekhaefer dynasty. Richard won both Hickory
races that year. The win at the fall race was one of ten in a row for the King,
a record that may never be broken. Hickory was paved between the spring and Fall races of that season, but as dominant as Richard was
that year, it didn't matter to him if the track was dirt or paved. He won
almost everywhere. Petty also won the spring 68 Hickory race, to make it three
in a row. Newer fans may be surprised to learn that the King had to sit out the
June 1970 Hickory event. He had thoroughly destroyed the team's short track car
in a savage crash at Darlington early that May, and the car wasn't repaired in
time for him to race. In this era where teams have a fleet of cars at their
disposal, and almost all bring a backup car to each event, it is hard to
imagine in those days even a well-funded team like the Pettys made do with two
or three cars. Most of the independent drivers only had one. Richard's final
victory at Hickory came in March of 1971. To earn the trophy, he had to hold
off a determined charge by independent car owner Dave Marcis
(Yes, that Dave Marcis. He's been at this game
awhile.) Marcis actually led much of that race, until
engine problems relegated him to tenth place.
The final Grand National race at Hickory took place on
August 28th, 1971. The days of Hickory, and the other bull rings, were numbered.
Winston had come aboard as NASCAR's title sponsor, and they didn't want to
sanction any events of less than 250 miles. That would have been more than 600
laps at Hickory and it's doubtful that any cars would have been running at the
end of an enduro that grueling. Tiny Lund is credited with winning that final
race at the track. NASCAR was struggling that year, in the wake of the auto
manufacturers curtailing their involvement in the sport. With the factory money
gone, a lot of drivers and teams had quit the sport. To help fill out the
starting grids at short tracks, NASCAR allowed the smaller Grand American cars
to compete with the Grand National taxi cabs. Lund drove a Chevy Camaro to
victory that day, edging out Elmo Langley and Richard Petty in Grand National
entries.
Not all the heroes of Hickory had their names
inscribed on Grand National trophies there. One of the most memorable races at
the track took place in July of 1957. The action on the track was just as hot
as the weather that day. Speedy Thompson, and the indomitable Curtis Turner
engaged in a spirited scrap for the lead early in the race. Curtis repeatedly
put a bumper to the rear of Speedy's car trying to
convince him to get out of the way. Finally on lap 47, Curtis was able to make
the pass, but it seems he was a bit annoyed by Thompson's refusal to yield. No
sooner had he passed his rival than Curtis slammed on the brakes to show his
displeasure. Thompson rammed into the back of Turner's Ford and split his
radiator. Thompson headed to the pits for repairs, but not to try to win the
race. He wanted revenge. Turner was still leading the race when Thompson
returned to the track, slowed up waiting for Curtis, then cut in front of him
and slammed on the brakes. Both cars were destroyed. After the race, Speedy and
Curtis had to be physically separated from one another in the pits.
Ralph Earnhardt made his first Grand National start at
Hickory in November of 1956. While a rookie to the Grand National circuit,
Earnhardt knew his way around Hickory from Sportsman races (He was track
champion five times at Hickory), and he managed to finish second that day to
Speedy Thompson. In fact, there was some debate after the race as to who had
actually won, and the partisan crowd, by and large, thought Ralph had won.
NASCAR quickly rechecked their scoring with both drivers looking on. When it
was decided that Speedy had indeed won, the promoters asked Earnhardt to make
an announcement he was satisfied the results were correct, to keep his fans
from tearing the place down. Those fans that attended races at Hickory in the
early 70s might also recall Ralph's son Dale running pretty well there, in an
old white Camaro.
The Winston Cup circuit and now the Busch series have
abandoned Hickory, as if casting aside the wife of their youth for a new and
flashier model. Despite that, the track will still continue to thrive. Hickory
hosts a lot of exciting Late Model racing each week. If you're in the area, you
might want to stop by and have a look. Who knows? Perhaps you'll get a look at
a star of the future, some young driver rocking the cradle of legends in
Hickory, North Carolina.
*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.