May 11, 1974: The King rocks Music City USA

TMC Chase
@tmc-chase
12 years ago
4,073 posts

Actually, the 1974 Music City 420 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway was STARTED on May 11. It FINISHED on May 12.

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-11-this-day-in-petty-history.html

Gotta love an old school race memory where the winner was greeted in victory lane by a guy named John Jay Hooker.




--
Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
Dave Fulton
@dave-fulton
12 years ago
9,137 posts

Back in those days John J Hooker was always running for some office in Tennessee.

I haven't found a photo yet, but I remember in 1966 when Buddy Baker ran 5 races in the Emory Gilliam #00 Dodge. They got the pole at Maryville and also ran it at Bristol, as well as the Northern Tour races at Oxford, Fonda and Islip.

The #00 on the door was incorporated into the name HOOKER.

I believe he may have done the same thing with Neil Castles and some others in the 60s-70s, but it is the Buddy Baker #00 at Bristol that I remember. Should be some photos out there of HOOKER on those #00 cars.




--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
Dave Fulton
@dave-fulton
12 years ago
9,137 posts

Funny stuff here...

From TIME Magazine , October 15, 1973....

Rotund Andy Granatelli, chairman of STP Corp., has become one of television's most familiarindeed, unavoidablecommercial pitchmen, touting his much criticized engine-oil additive as the "racer's edge." A little more than a week ago, Granatelli, 50, got the razor's edge when his board of directors abruptly cut him loose and replaced him with John J. Hooker Jr. , entrepreneur and sometime politician . Hooker was hand-picked by Derald H. Ruttenberg, chairman of the widely diversified Studebaker-Worthington Inc., which owns a controlling interest in STP. The keenly publicity-conscious Granatelli was almost as incensed by what he believed was inadequate press coverage of his ouster...

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,910820,00.html#ixzz1ua3SaV00




--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
TMC Chase
@tmc-chase
12 years ago
4,073 posts

Here is JJH in victory lane with the Petty clan again at the 1974 Talladega 500.

How John Jay managed to land the top gig at STP - or anywhere else for that matter - is remarkable to me. In the late 1960s, he and his brother decided to launch a second major fried chicken chain to compete with KFC. They supposedly licensed Minnie Pearl's name for it - though there is some debate about how that deal worked contractually and financially. They took the company public without having any significant operations and were busted by the Securities & Exchange Commission.A lot of prominent Nashville area businessmen, politicians, and money-people lost a chunk.

The whole failed venture, scam, fraud or whatever you want to label it was told in Bill Carey's book about the history of many Nashville businesses: Fortunes, Fiddles & Fried Chicken . [ Click Here ] for an excerpt about JJH and his chicken business.




--
Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

updated by @tmc-chase: 05/11/17 05:37:06PM
Dave Fulton
@dave-fulton
7 years ago
9,137 posts

Bump Draft




--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"