The 1964 NASCAR Grand National season, which would see a huge dispute arise between NASCAR, Ford and Chrysler over the use of Chrysler's power Hemi engine, actually stated on this date, 1963, on a half-mile dirt track locted in Concord, NC. The "Textile 250" was 125 miles to be contested between 26 competitors.
David Pearson put a 1963 Cotton Owens Dodge on the pole with a speed of 69.257 mph. Junior Johnson in the Holly Farms Chevrolet would start second, Ned Jarrett in the Burton-Robinson Ford third, Richard Petty in the Petty Engineering Plymouth fourth and Jack Smith in his Plymouth fifth.
David Pearson led the first 39 laps before Ned Jarrett took over. Ned led through lap 133 before Joe Weatherly moved his Bud Moore Pontiac out front for two laps. Richard Petty then led laps 136-148. Lil Joe was back in front on lap 149 and he was moving away from the field until lap 231 when Ned went to the lead to remain there until the end of the race.Somewhat of a "vanilla" sounding race, right? But, oh no!
The crowd of 3,000 were on their feet as Joe Weatherly ran up behind Tiny Lund who was some 30 laps down. Weatherly was trying to pass Lund to continue to build his lead over Jarrett and when Joe finally got what he considered an opening, he pushed the Pontiac to go by Lund. But it didn't happen that way! Lund moved up and crunched Weatherly's fender. As the altercation between Lund and Weatherly was going on, Ned smoothly moved out front. It was then that Weatherly spun Lund in turn four.
Lund dove into the pits and waited until Weatherly was coming back through turns 3 and 4 and then pulled out of the pits directly in front of Joe. Lund veered into Weatherly going into turn one and the Pontiac of Weatherly almost left the speedway over the enbankment but Weatherly held on and ran down Lund going into turn four where he crashed into Lund. As the cars exited turn four and head down the front chute, Bud Moore, Weatherly's car owner, threw a rock and hit the LundFord in the driver's door.
Jarrett was flagged the winner and Bud Moore crammed a wrench in his back pocket and headed to where his driver was parking the number 8 Pontiac. The wrench was "insurance" should things get rough. Weatherly climbed from his battered Pontiac and was ready to head for the crushed and wreck Ford of Lund and everyone was expecting a huge fight to ensue. However, unbelieveable as it may seem, fans seeking autographs swarmed around both drivers and the drivers were prevented from encountering each other. Bud did not have to use the wrench that night but he had plenty of body work to do.
After the race, Lund said "Joe had run over me once before in the race and he has knocked me around at other tracks". Joe responded that "yea, I tapped Tiny because he had been holding me up for 10 laps and Jarrett was cutting into the lead I had built up".
Jarrett's average winning speed was 56.897 mph which is credited as being "remarkable" as the track had deterioated into a mess as the race went on. By the end of the race, there were 1 foot deep furrows all around the track.
Finishing order:
1. Ned Jarrett, Burton-Robinson Ford, winning $1,350.00
2. Joe Weatherly, Bud Moore Pontiac, winning $1,000.00
3. Richard Petty, Petty Engineering Plymouth, winning $650.00 (2 laps down)
4. David Pearson, Cotton Owens Dodge, winning $500.00 (9 laps down)
5. Maurice Petty, Petty Engineering Plymouth, winning $400.00 (9 laps down)
6. Jack Anderson
7. Larry Thomas
8. Larry Manning
9. Curtis Crider
10. Tiny Lund
11. Doug Cooper
12.Buck Baker
13. Roy Tyner
14. Worth McMillion
15. Billy Wade
16.Bill Widenhouse
17. Wendell Scott
18. Jimmy Pardue
19. Junior Johnson
20. G. C. Spencer
21. Jack Smith
22. Darel Dieringer
23. Lee Roy Bolton
24. Neil Castles
25. Ed Livingston
26. Jimmy Massey
Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future
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What a change! It's been awhile since I've checked in and I'm quite surprised. It may take me awhile to figure it our but first look it's really great.
updated by @tim-leeming: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
