Racing History Minute - 1968 Motor Trend 500 - Riverside Raceway

The first race of the 1968 season was won by Bobby Allison on the half mile track known as Middle Georgia Raceway. The second race of the season was won by Richard Petty at the Montgomery Speedway in Montgomery, Alabama. Both races were run in November , 1967, as NASCAR started a season in November back in those days. The third race of the season brought the cars and drivers back to the twisting 2.7 mile road course in Riverside, California, where the previous races had all be won by Dan Gurney with the Parnelli Jones win of 1967 being the only exception

Forty-four cars showed up to race. Dan Gurney in a Wood Brothers Ford captured the pole with David Pearson putting the Holman-Moody Ford in second starting spot. Third place went to Parnelli Jones in what is listed as a "Bill Stroppe Ford". Stroppe was famous for his involvement with the Mercury Brand so this is somewhat of a surprise. Some sources indicate that the Wood Brothers prepared a car for Stroppe to use for his drivers in the Riverside events, thus the Ford blue oval instead of the Mercury wings. Richard Petty would start fourth in a 1967 Plymouth and LeeRoy Yarbrough started Junior Johnson's Ford in fifth.

Parnelli Jones led the first 24 laps before Gurney got around him to lead two laps. Mario Andretti, who had started 8th in a Holman-Moody Ford, took over on lap 27 but only stayed in front through lap 29 before David Pearson took over. Pearson led 2 laps and then it was Parnelli Jones out front again. On lap 44, a three way battle between Gurney, Pearson, and Jones kept the fans on their feet as the lead was traded every lap or two through lap 160 when Dan Gurney would take over and lead to the checkers. Gurney managed to win the race in spite of an extraordinarily long pit when a tire bled on lap 145 and Gurney limped into the pits to the attention of his Wood Brothers crew. While changing the tire, Glen Wood noticed parts of the blown tire wrapped around the rear axle and it took the crew 1 minute and 52 seconds to remove the tire pieces from the axle. Dan returned to the track more than 1 minute behind the leader Parnelli Jones and began to immediately cut into Jones' lead. This was Gurney's 12th overall NASCAR Grand National race and he had won FIVE times. Impressive.

A. J. Foyt, who seemed to be snake-bitten by the twisting Riverside track, blew an engine even before completing the first lap so although he had started in sixth place, he would be relegated to 43rd position with NO laps completed. Richard Petty was running in sixth place with 15 laps to go when his Plymouth blew the engine and Petty slammed into the turn six wall ending his day. Richard was uninjured. Jerry Grant, driving a Plymouth, spun his car on lap 72 and appeared to be simply a spin that ended in a car stuck in the sand. Grant, a giant of a man, was preparing to exit t he car to examine the situation and Vallie Englauf slammed into the stalled Plymouth. Grant was transported to a local hospital complaining of severe back pain.

Bobby Allison, who finished 4th in a Bondy Long Ford, left California with a 16 point lead over Richard Petty in the Grand National Standings. As odd as it may seem, in as much as Joe Weatherly was killed at Riverside in 1964 when his head hit the wall because he didn't wear a should belt, this 1968 race was the first race where several of the entries used a screen over the drivers' window to prevent such a happening again. The cars so equipped were the Ford cars as the idea of the screen was devised by Charlie Gray of Ford Special Vehicles Department. Here again, a forward look begs the question as to why the nets weren't mandatory until shorty after Richard Petty's horrific crash at Darlington in 1970. Slow movement by the sanctioning body on a definite positive safety move.

Finishing Order:

1. Dan Gurney, Wood Brothers Ford, winning $21,250.00

2. David Pearson, Holman-Moody Ford, winning $9,600.00

3. Parnelli Jones, Bill Stroppe Ford, winning $5,600.00

4. Bobby Allison, Bondy Long Ford, winning $3,250.00 (1 lap down)

5. Cale Yarborough, Wood Brothers Ford, winning $2,225.00 (2 laps down)

6. Al Unser

7. Bobby Isaac

8. Dave James

9, Scotty Cain

10. Richard Petty

11. Jim Cook

12. Henley Gray

13. Clyde Lynn

14.Clyde Pickett

15. Jack McCoy

16. Guy Jones

17. Frank Burnett

18. Sam Rose

19.Don White

20.Norm Nelson

21. Ed Brown

22. Jerry Grant

23. Darel Dieringer

24.Harold Hardesty

25.Buddy Baker

26. Frank Jones

27. Mario Andretti

28. Jerry Oliver

29. Vallie Engelauf

30. Ray Elder

31. Johnny Steele

32. Don Noel

33. Paul Dorrity

34. James Hylton

35. Roy Tyner

36. Bill Small

37. LeeRoy Yarbrough

38.Bob Link

39. Jerry Titus

40. Bo Reeder

41. Carl Joiner

42. John Sears

43. A. J. Foyt

44. Joe Clark

Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future.

A few photos from this race have been shared here on RacersReunion.

Getting ready for the start ( Richard Guido )

Gurney ( Craig Bontrager )

Mario Andretti and King Richard ( Ray Lamm )

Cale Yarborough in a 2nd Wood Brothers car. ( Ray Lamm )

Race ticket

Race program

Race report from Charleston's News And Courier

And the race was featured on the cover of back-to-back issues of Stock Car Racing magazine in April-May 1968.

Andy, I think you are correct on every count. I think the season was timed for introduction of the new models which really doesn't matter much anymore because it's hard to tell the current model from last year or even 5 years ago.

I'm not sure about John Nemechek's accident but I do have a vague recollection that his death involved severe head trauma.

I'm very happy that you added a comment to this post. Racing history is very important to me and when you jump in and add to what's been posted, it makes it all the better.

I could be wrong - but seems most of the racing history we've all posted here when a late year race was the beginning of a new season involved the teams using older model cars vs. the new ones. New year models often weren't rolled out to the track until Speedweeks in February - even if they were on showroom floors the previously fall. Seems the teams just treated the 'new' season as an extension of the concluded one.

The 1969 Riverside race Tim posted about on Jan 9 is good example. The season began in late 1968, and Richard Petty still raced a Plymouth. He won in his 1st race with a Ford at Riverside in January 1969 - but it wasn't the first race of the season.

Plus, NASCAR didn't exactly run marquis markets to feature the new cars even if the manufacturers had wanted to promote them. Tar Heel Speedway, Savannah, Speedway Park in Jax, Fayetteville, the old Charlotte short track, Birmingham, Montgomery, etc - these weren't places where the manufacturers could likely make a big splash anyway.

My hunch is track owners / promoters requested a date. Bill France cashed the check for their fee and tried to find a place to fit them into the schedule when weather would likely be cooperative.

Plus, racers raced. If the weather was OK, cars were available, and fans would watch, I suppose NASCAR and the teams and drivers said "OK, we'll be there."

Its a great question - and my reply is only a guess. Would be great to hear from someone close to the sanctioning body in those days - or one of those tracks - offer some insight about how the dates were chosen & in which season they were assigned.

Jerry Titus won the 2nd annual preliminary Permatex 100 LMS race on January 20th.

Photos from The Henry Ford Arte House

http://thehenryford.artehouse.com/perl/collection.pl?productTypeID=62&collectionID=2834&pgNumber=1&seeAllImages=1&itemsPerPage=-1

Bump

A good friend, Gary Hartman (if any of you are karters you will know the name), recently sent me some incredible slides he shot at that race. I scanned them and put them on a web page. You can see them here: 1968 Riverside photos

Adding to what Chase posted there was a great racing paper published by Bill Marvel in the mid-to-late sixties called "The Charger". Here is the front page of the issue that covered the '68 race.

Russ, is that the same Bill Marvel who was on the USAC staff?

Yes sir. One and the same.

Thanks, Russ.

And I recall Lynn Justis (bottom row photos, Bill's paper) runnng a photo business in Daytona.