Tim Leeming, the usual author of the daily Racing History Minute feature is out of town and asked if I'd try to pen a memory for August 25, which would be our Sunday morning look back. Since I hope to watch the Bristol Cup race on Saturday night and may "sleep in" on Sunday the 25th, I'm posting this history minute a day before.
I made Tim aware that I have no racing reference books at the house, but would try my hand at picking a distinctive race of interest and I believe I've found one. It's a "not too old, not too new" race at a venue no longer visited by NASCAR's "Premier Division" - the series that has gone by the names Strictly Stock, Grand National, Winston Cup, Nextel Cup and Sprint Cup.
It was a tough assignment to find a race during the time frame of my memory during this period of August that didn't involve a win by a Petty driver or a Petty team. We try to defer to our member, TMC-Chase to do his wonderful recaps of those events, which are plentiful. The race I have have picked, however, takes us to the backyard of RR members TMC-Chase and Russ Thompson and I hope they'll chime in with memories, clips and photos.
The event we'll visit today took place 40 years ago on August 25, 1973, at the venerable Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tennessee. The race is the 1973 Nashville 420 NASCAR Winston Cup event - 420 laps over the tough 5/8th mile, banked fairgrounds layout where an amusement park operated off the 4th turn during the race events. The race had many story lines and featured an unexpected winner.
1973 was a big year for me, personally. In January 1973, I got involved with a dirt car that ran in eastern North Carolina at Wilson, Raleigh and Roanoke Rapids/Weldon. I also met my wife to be that spring, took her to her first races and then married her in November.
I was pulling each week for a rookie Cup driver who cut his teeth on my hometown weekly Southside Speedway track in Richmond and who was campaigning for NASCAR Rookie of the Year. That driver was the diminutive, laid back, and very quiet Lennie Pond, wheeling Ronnie Elder's beautiful #54 Chevy Malibu sponsored by Master Chevrolet.
For some reason, my wife to be (I think to spite me) took an immediate liking to a brash, outspoken young fellow from Kentucky who'd made a big name for himself in weekly racing at Nashville. That driver, of course, was rookie Darrell Waltrip, wheeling a Chevy #95 sponsored by his wealthy father-in-law's Terminal Transport. My future wife proclaimed he was the best looking driver she'd ever seen in a race uniform (she obviously hadn't seen many) as I gagged. I think she must of read David Pearson's quote from the 1973 Atlanta race where Pearson proclaimed the future "Jaws" the best rookie he'd ever seen on a racetrack. When 1973 ended, I had a temporary last laugh, though, as a "special" NASCAR voting panel named Lennie the 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year over DW.
1973 was also the year that featured an improbable run to the Winston Cup Championship by a former Detroit cab driver with Wilkes County, North Carolina roots driving for an Ellerbe, North Carolina peach grower. We all know the inspiring story of how rival crews pieced the car of Benny Parsons and L.G. DeWitt back together after a bad crash in the year's final 1973 race at Rockingham to secure the National Championship.
I'm also kind of partial to the Nashville track because of personal memories of standing in its victory lane ten years after today's featured race - in 1983 with Dale Earnhardt and Bud Moore representing their Wrangler Jeans car sponsor.
On August 25, 1973, a stupendous crowd estimated at 25,000 spectators gathered at Nashville to watch 33 Winston Cup drivers go at it for 420 laps. For the 1973 season, NASCAR divided the points standings into three segments. The Nashville race would conclude the second segment and a $10,000 bonus would be awarded to the points leader following Nashville.
Left to right, the #95 of Darrell Waltrip, #14 of CooCoo Marlin and #96 of Richard Childress are lined up for technical inspection before the 1973 Nashville 420 as featured at www.nashville420.com .
Leading the field to the green would be Cale Yarborough debuting the new 1973 Monte Carlo body style for car owner Richard Howard in the Junior Johnson prepared KarKare #11. Cale had lapped the Nashville oval at a pole winning speed of 108.071 mph. That Monte Carlo body style would be favored by many car builders right through 1980.
The race quickly shaped up as a battle between Cale, hometown rookie Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison in his own #12 Coke Machine Chevy. DW would retire early with rear end problems and Allison's oil scavenger pump failed. Cale would ultimately lead 196 laps.
Cale Yarborough on the inside and Bobby Allison on the outside contest first place in the 1973 Nashville 420 in this uncredited photo as posted on www.nashville.com . Note the new 1973 Monte Carlo body style debuted by Junior Johnson for Cale that evening.
Rookie Waltrip had posted a fast 3rd in qualifying on his home track and wrested the lead from Yarborough on lap #68, leading until lap #82.
An unlikely driver would be trailing leader Cale Yarborough on lap 258 when Cale exited the 4th turn as the caution light flashed and the yellow flag flew. Cale uncharacteristically lost control as the yellow waved and crashed on the front stretch, needing repairs that would ultimately take 14 laps before he returned to action.
The unlikely driver who inherited the lead when Cale crashed was Buddy Baker, wheeling the famed burnt orange #71 K&K Insurance Dodge Charger 1973 model prepared by Harry Hyde for car owner Nord Krauskopf. Baker is credited with "officially" taking over the lead on lap 261 and leading to the conclusion of the 420-lap affair, dominating the final 160 laps and finishing 4 laps ahead of 2nd place Richard Petty in the #43 STP Dodge, also a '73 Charger.
Buddy Baker practices for the 1973 Nashville 420 in this photo furnished by Russ Thompson to the web site www.nashville420.com
Baker was noted as a superspeedway star and, in fact, the 1973 Nashville 420 would prove to be the first of just two (thanks for the correction TMC-Chase) wins on a short track in a storied career of fast driving.
Finishing in 3rd and 4th positions were two Tennesse drivers, veteran Coo Coo Marlin of Columbia and David Sisco of Nashville. Tragically, Sisco's mother would be killed four years later in August 1977 when she was hit by a pickup truck in the Talladega infield during the 1977 Talladega 500.
Ed Negre also posted a top-5, holding down the 5th position when the checkers flew. 6th through 10th at Nashville were taken by James Hylton, Walter Ballard, Cecil "Flash" Gordon, Alton Jones and Bill Champion.
8th finishing Cecil Gordon encountered mechanical difficulties that might have had him retire his car. Instead, he worked feverishly on the car himself behind the wall to get back on the track. He did get back out, securing enough points to capture the second leg $10,000 bonus paid to the points leader. Getting back out earned Gordon an additional $6,000. His good fortune continued into the next week's Southern 500 at Darlington, where he'd make headlines by pacing 2nd day qualifying.
Cecil "Flash" Gordon earned a $10,000 bonus for leading the 2nd leg of the 1973 Winston Cup points standings following the Nashville 420.
By the way, speedster Buddy Baker was furiously being given the "EZ" sign by Harry Hyde in the late stages of the Nashville 420 instructing him to slow down. Not being used to leading on a short track, Buddy ignored the instruction, reasoning that he never ran well when he slowed down!
One other driver would have a career day in the 1973 Nashville 420. Fort Mill, South Carolina's Rick Newsome, after driving in just one Winston Cup race in 1972, would wheel his '71 Holbrook Waterproofing Ford #20 to an 11th place finish at Nashville in 1973. It would be his best career finish in 82 Winston Cup races between 1972-1986.
On August 16, 1988, while working as a commercial pilot, Rick and two passengers would lose their lives in a crash landing at the Monroe, North Carolina airport. That crash occurred just a week after Rick had sought me out in Charlotte to see if I might help find some sponsorship dollars for a return to Cup racing in 1989.
The late Rick Newsome with one of his #20 Holbrook Waterproofing #20 Fords.
I would never attempt to duplicate the wonderful Racing History Minutes prepared every day by Tim Leeming, but I hope you've enjoyed this one as a "fill-in" and will add to it and correct errors when you find them. The results recap below is from Racing Reference:
1973 Nashville 420
NASCAR Winston Cup race number 21 of 28
Saturday, August 25, 1973 at Nashville Speedway, Nashville, TN
420 laps on a .596 mile paved track (250.3 miles)
Time of race: 2:48:12
Average Speed: 89.31 mph
Pole Speed: 108.071 mph Cautions: 3 for 28 laps
Margin of Victory: 4 laps +
Attendance: 25,000
Lead changes: 5
Fin St # Driver Sponsor / Owner Car Laps Money Status Led
1 7 71 Buddy Baker K & K Insurance (Nord Krauskopf) '73 Dodge 420 6,750 running 160
2 8 43 Richard Petty STP (Petty Enterprises) '73 Dodge 416 4,960 running 0
3 4 14 Coo Coo Marlin Cunningham-Kelley (H.B. Cunningham) '72 Chevrolet 409 2,125 running 0
4 19 05 David Sisco Sisco Racing (Charlie McGee) '72 Chevrolet 402 1,750 running 0
5 11 8 Ed Negre Negre Racing (Ed Negre) '73 Dodge 399 1,570 running 0
6 13 48 James Hylton Hylton Engineering (James Hylton) '71 Mercury 398 1,220 running 0
7 15 30 Walter Ballard Ballard Racing (Vic Ballard) '71 Mercury 394 1,160 running 0
8 6 24 Cecil Gordon Gordon Racing (Cecil Gordon) '72 Chevrolet 392 985 running 0
9 24 68 Alton Jones Jones Racing (Butch Hawkersmith) '72 Chevrolet 390 650 running 0
10 21 10 Bill Champion Earl Powell Auto Parts (Bill Champion) '71 Ford 387 875 running 0
11 28 20 Rick Newsom Holbrook Waterproofing (Rick Newsom) '71 Ford 384 585 running 0
12 32 67 Buddy Arrington Cherokee Construction (Buddy Arrington) '72 Dodge 384 825 running 0
13 17 19 Henley Gray Gray Racing (Henley Gray) '71 Mercury 380 915 running 0
14 1 11 Cale Yarborough Kar-Kare (Richard Howard) '73 Chevrolet 377 2,150 running 196
15 20 40 Frank Warren Warren Racing (D.K. Ulrich) '71 Ford 377 595 running 0
16 30 26 Earl Brooks Race Fans (Earl Brooks) '71 Ford 375 470 running 0
17 29 77 Charlie Roberts Sunny King (Charlie Roberts) '71 Ford 358 690 running 0
18 16 70 J.D. McDuffie McDuffie Racing (J.D. McDuffie) '72 Chevrolet 346 745 running 0
19 5 72 Benny Parsons DeWitt Racing (L.G. DeWitt) '73 Chevrolet 324 625 engine 0
20 9 96 Richard Childress L.C. Newton Trucking (Tom Garn) '73 Chevrolet 235 570 crash 0
21 22 64 Elmo Langley Langley Racing (Elmo Langley) '72 Ford 159 520 engine 0
22 2 12 Bobby Allison Coca-Cola (Bobby Allison) '73 Chevrolet 145 1,835 engine 49
23 12 54 Lennie Pond Master Chevy Sales (Ronnie Elder) '73 Chevrolet 136 385 rear end 0
24 3 95 Darrell Waltrip Terminal Transport (Darrell Waltrip) '73 Chevrolet 131 305 rear end 15
25 23 44 Richard D. Brown Brown Racing (Jerry Brown) '72 Chevrolet 126 250 rear end 0
26 31 25 Jabe Thomas Robertson Racing (Don Robertson) '73 Dodge 102 500 rear end 0
27 14 7 Dean Dalton Belden Asphalt (Dean Dalton) '71 Mercury 62 615 crash 0
28 25 08 Dick May Negre Racing (Earl Brooks) '71 Ford 61 250 overheating 0
29 26 45 Vic Parsons Seifert Racing (Bill Seifert) '71 Ford 52 250 crash 0
30 18 47 Raymond Williams Williams Racing (Raymond Williams) '72 Ford 30 345 overheating 0
31 27 73 Mel Larson ThermaSol (Don Robertson) '73 Dodge 23 250 vibration 0
32 10 90 Dick Brooks Truxmore Industries (Junie Donlavey) '71 Mercury 16 275 engine 0
33 33 58 Robert Brown Jones Construction (Allan Brown) '73 Chevrolet 5 250 suspension 0
Lap leader breakdown:
Leader From
Lap To
Lap # Of
Laps
Cale Yarborough 1 67 67
Darrell Waltrip 68 82 15
Cale Yarborough 83 85 3
Bobby Allison 86 134 49
Cale Yarborough 135 260 126
Buddy Baker 261 420 160
The Spartanburg Herald carried Nashville Qualifying results:
The Spartanburg paper also carried the race coverage below:
Complementing the Associated Press coverage in the Spartanburg paper is the story beow in the Tuscaloosa News :
Cecil Gordon's earning the $10,000 bonus for winning the second leg of the 1973 Winston Cup Points Standings was still a hot topic when "Flash" led 2nd-day qualifying for the Southern 500 at Darlington the following week as covered in the Lakeland Ledger :
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
