1978 Henley Gray - Petty connection? Need some assistance

[ Donald Evans ] posted this unique looking Petty car about a year ago. Its from the 1978 fall race at Dover. It was only the 5th start for The King after changing from Dodge to Chevy.

I knew then it was a unique paint design. But I hadn't given it a lot more thought. Figured PE was just experimenting with how the new manufacturer cars should look. Until now that is...

Last night, a friend emailed me a link to this pic. As best I can tell, its from the 1978 Mason-Dixon 500 - the SPRING Dover race.

#10 Winston Cup 1978" height="267" width="400"> The race rundown shows Elmo Langley drove this car for Henley Gray. But a couple of things jump out at me. The rookie stripe - Elmo was no rookie in 1978. And the Petty blue and yellow paint are other clues. I've tried making out the name on the door, and I THINK it says Fisher - as in maybe Woody Fisher?

You may recall Petty Enterprises built a Dodge Charger for Woody Fisher in the mid 70s - and it was later renumbered and raced by his brother, Bobby Fisher.

The yellow design on the Charger matches the yellow on Henley/Elmo's 10 car. And the design on the blue/yellow Monte Carlo match the pattern on the King's blue/STP red Monte.

My hunch is Woody paid to have the 10 car painted by PE for the spring race with the colors he raced on the Dodge. But for a reason I don't yet know, it looks like Woody didn't actually qualify or race the car - Elmo did. So maybe his lap times were poor, maybe he didn't bring a race sponsor with him (notice the 10 car has zero sponsor decals), or who knows. But it looks like Elmo was given the car over Fisher. Woody did make 3 Cup starts in 1978 - all in #19 Chevys fielded by Henley. (Dick May raced Henley's 19 car in that spring Dover race.)

The next hunch is PE must have bought the car from Henley, masked it, and painted over the yellow with STP red to run the fall Delaware 500.

Anyone with any insight as to how all this went down? Am I even in the ball park?

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM

Dont know how it went down but the first pic is from Richmond, also this car ran at Nashville.

NONE of the above photos are from Richmond. In 1978 Richmond had double tiered red & white Armco steel guardrail separating the track from pit road and pipe rail behind pit road, just as in the 1980 Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway Late Model Sportsman race photo posted by RR member Woody Delbridge below:

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Now I understand Chase's interest in Woody Fisher. He was a BEER distributor!!!

Interesting story in the February 3, 1979 Wilmington (NC) Star-News :

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

In April 1980, the Wilmington paper carried this tidbit:

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

I may have erred on track ID for the 43. Agree with Dave that its not Richmond. And in comparing what I thought was a fall 78 Dover race to what I'm sure is a spring 78 Dover race, its clear the pit "wall" is different. I was so quick in comparing the cars that I likely made the false jump that both were from Dover. In going through the remaining races after the King changed to Chevy, I now think the 43 pic may be from Bristol.

(Choices were Michigan, Talladega, Darlington, Richmond, Dover, Martinsville, Wilkesboro, Charlotte, Rockingham, Atlanta, Ontario and Bristol)

For the record, the Bobby Fisher pic is from a 77 Charlotte LMS race.

So my questions grow:

• Is the 43 shot from Bristol? If not, where?
• Did PE paint the 10 car for Henley based on previous relatioship with Woody Fisher?
• Did PE buy the car from Henley?
• Did PE maybe just borrow the car, fix it up, race it, and later return it to Henley - complete with all the Petty parts - kind of like they did with the car swap to Don Robertson and Jabe Thomas in 1970?
• Why did Elmo Langley end up racing the 10 car in the spring 78 Dover race vs. Woody?

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

Oh my interest in Woody & Bobby Fisher began more than two years ago...

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/01/woody-fisher.html

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/02/searching-for-bobby-fisher.html

I'm convinced there is a pic out there somewhere of one of the Fishers racing a Schaefer sponsored late model. No proof. But I can feel it in my bones. haha

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

This is a deal that I wish could have happened. Herk - Jim Hurtubise - entered a car for the 1977 Indy 500 with Woody as the name driver. But from what I understand, the deal never materialized far enough for a car to hit the bricks.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

Chase, I think you are correct with the first pic being taken at Bristol. I have a blurry image of this car at a night race. Bristol's first event under the lights was in August of 1978.

The blue and yellow Chevy was the car that Woody ran three times early in 1978. I will guess that Woody could not make the Dover race and Elmo start and parked it

Richard needed a car for Bristol as they had not yet built a stable of Chevy's so he gave a call to Henley. PE did a quick paint and went to Bristol.

Speaking of Elmo, he had stopped driving but still had his license so Henley put him in it for the payday.

I did some research on Racing Reference.and discovered a sub culture of midpackers. Henley Gray had eight different drivers in his cars in 1978.
Back then with a little experience you could run a Grand National event. People like Henley Gray, Junie and others gave many drivers a shot

Richard... agree with you and Chase that the first photo is Bristol. In 1981, my driver, Dale Earnhardt, in the Richard Childress Wrangler Pontiac #3 took out several of those pit road guard rail posts when he exited the pits and was forced by another car into the rail. Tore the car all to pieces and he made only 31 laps that August night. Here's two David Allio photos, from 1978 & 1981 showing the single Armco rail on each side of the Bristol pit road at the time:

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"