Racing History Minute -1972 Winston Western 500

The 500 mile race kicking off the 1972 season lost its "Motor Trend 500" title and became the "Winston-Western 500" after R. J. Reynolds came in the year before to re-brand the sport. The track was 2.62 miles of narrow, twisting, up and down hill race track as usual, but the weather on race day was questional as to whether or not the race could finish the distance.

A. J. Foyt started on the pole after a qualifying speed of 110.003 mph, but Bobby Allison was the fastest qualifier with a speed of 110.212 mph. A.J. was driving a Wood Brothers '71 Mercury while Bobby was driving a Richard Howard owned '72 Chevrolet. Richard Petty would start second, Mark Donahue in a Roger Penske Matador would start third, Ray Elder, winner the previous year would start his Dodge fourth and Dick Bown would roll off fifth in a Don Ober Plymouth.

Foyt led the first two laps and then Petty took over for 2 laps. Foyt got around Petty and led 2 more laps before a hard charging Bobby Allison blew by in that Chevy and was setting sail to lead from lap 7 to 73. Foyt took over on lap 74 but stayed in front only 3 laps before Allison took over the front spot again. This time Allison would lead, easily, through lap 110before yielding the spot to Petty. Richard stayed out front for 6 laps before Allison put the Chevy in front on lap 118 and stayed there for 2 laps before Petty went back to the front.

On lap139 of the scheduled 191 lap race, NASCAR notified the pit crews that the checkered and red flags would be waved together on lap 149 as a very thick fog was rolling in and would soon make visibily on the track impossible. It was about that same time that Allison's Chevy began to experience problems in the drive train and he began to fall back from the lead. A. J. Foyt, who along with Petty and Allison had dominated the lead, fell out when his Wood Brothers Mercury developed transmission problems on lap 107.

Mark Donohue who was driving that American Motors Matador from the Penske Stable had dogged the three hotshoes for the first 14 laps of the race before a broken suspension piece sidelined that effort.

This race was the introduction of the STP brand to the Petty Enterprises effort. This sponsorship would continue for years, becoming the longest sponsor-driver association in the sport. TMC Chase should be able to contribute the story of how the sponsorship deal was worked out asw that is quite an interesting story in itself.

After the race, in his Victory Lane interview, Richard stated "The three of us (Allison, Foyt, and Petty) all ran the same speed but Allison and Foyt had trouble with their cars and I didn't and I wound up winning". This was the 141st win for Richard Petty in the Grand National Division of NASCAR.

Finishing order:

1. Richard Petty, Petty Enterprises Plymouth, winning $18,170.00

2. Bobby Allison, Richard Howard Chevrolet, winning $10,720.00 (6l.5 secs back)

3. Bobby Isaac, K&K Insurance Dodge, winning $7,845.00 (3 laps down)

4. Ray Elder, Fred Elder Dodge, winning $4,945.00 (3 laps down)

5. Hershel McGriff, Beryle Jackson Plymouth, winning $3,250.00 (4 laps down)

6. Kevin Terris

7. James Hylton

8. Elmo Langley

9. Friday Hassler

10. Cecil Gordon

11. John Soares, Jr.

12. Carl Joiner

13. Dick Bown

14. Walter Ballard

15. Raymond Williams

16. Don Noel

17. Charlie Roberts

18. J. D. McDuffie

19. Johnny Anderson

20. Ivan Baldwin

21. Henley Gray

22. Jerry Oliver

23. Dick Kranzler

24. Larry Esau

25. Frank James

26. David Pearson

27. Ed Negre

28. A. J. Foyt

29. Frank Warren

30. Jim Danielson

31. David Ray Boggs

32. Chuck Bown

33. Paul Dority

34. Ron Keselowski

35. Ron Gautsche

36 Jack McCoy

37. Neil Castles

38. Joe Frasson

39. Mark Donohue

40.Benny Parsons

PERSONAL NOTE: I vividly recall it was only 4 or 5 days before the Riverside race when the deal between Petty and STP was announced. I knew about STP but I never expected what the deal with Petty would become. My first look at the combo colors of STP and Petty Blue didnot sit well with me as I totally loved those entire Petty Blue cars. But by mid-season, I not only accepted the change but applauded it, I began to collect the STP stickers that were showing up every where and was twice given a case of them by Petty employees and I literally had STP stickers displayed on everything. Not only that, but I used STP in everything with an engine. Guess you could say the marketing effort with STP and Petty was paying off in at least one household. Actually, as history shows, it was many households across the country.

I still love seeing those STP red-Petty Blue cars at the Petty Museum and wherever else they may appear. The Lair is full of diecast models in that paint scheme. Oh the great memories!

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

That fog / smog at Riverside was legendary. Some days you could see the mountains, some days you couldn't. I guess the pilots at the nearby air base mostly made instrument landings, not visual.

I was like you about the red added to the #43. Didn't care for it in the beginning. But, wasn't it amazing how soon the grandstands were filled with a sea of ball caps with alternating panels colored Petty Blue and Da-Glo red? If more recent fans think they saw a lot of black hats with #3, they should have been at the track in the 70s to see a grandstand filled with blue & red caps.

The photo below of me and my wife was taken at Riverside in 1981. You can see the hazy smog rather than blue sky in the background:

And, here's a picture of the blue & red cap given to me at Daytona one February by Ralph Salvino of STP that I wore this past Tuesday & Wednesday when I was walking the dog:

I can remember seeing STP stickers everywhere, before we even knew what STP was and the Petty deal was made. The 1972 Winston Western 500 also turned out to be the last race completed by my favorite driver, Friday Hassler in the #39 Rock City Chevrolet. He had a good 9th place finish, and things were looking pretty good heading to Daytona.

I blogged about this race a couple of years ago as part of my 200 Wins series. I focused more on Petty and STP than I did the race itself.

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/01/january-23-this-day-in-petty-history.html

Tim, you referenced Donohue in the Penske Matador. This race was the debut for both in GN/Cup racing.

Chuck Binder has a neat poster from that race. A pic of it is shared in his RR collection .

David Pearson raced a butterscotch colored 15 Ford for Bud Moore. (From Matt's collection )

With the pullout of the factories in the early 70s, teams were left to fend for themselves. I'm not sure its ever been proven if STP contacted the Pettys - or if PE reached out to them. Either way, with days remaining before the start of the 72 season a meeting was scheduled at STP's HQ in Chicago. The team and crew headed to California as scheduled with a Petty Blue Plymouth Road Runner. Richard, Maurice, probably Lee, and I'm guessing some business and legal folks went to meet Andy Granatelli.

The landmark deal was just about settled until the wheels nearly fell off when the issue of the 43 car's paint scheme was raised. Granatelli wanted an all-dayglo-red STP car like he'd had on his Indy cars with drivers such as Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones, Bobby Unser and Jim Hurtubise.

Richard, however, was insistent on staying with tradition and keeping Petty Blue cars on the track. I'll let Richard himself take it from there.

In the end, both sides agreed on money and car design. Richard, Maurice and Andy head out to LA for the press conference.

Meanwhile, the STP marketing folks hastily applied STP decals on the 43 Plymouth to give it a unique look in its debut.

I've read too that Maurice had other concerns beyond the car design. He wasn't altogether happy with the STP deal even though racing economics had pretty much taken them in that direction. I understand he was concerned whether Granatelli would insist the Petty crew wear uniforms similar to the "pajamas" style his teams wore at Indy.

To hear Richard tell it, he was willing to give up between $50,000 and $100,000 (depends on which version of the story you hear from him) to maintain the tradition of running at least a partially Petty Blue car vs. all red one. In the end though, I have a feeling a Level Cross bank processed a check for that extra money. Because when the teams moved from Riverside to Daytona's Speedweeks, the Pettys brought a second car for Buddy Baker. And yep, it was 100% day-glo STP red.

The cover of the April 1972 issue of Stock Car Racing magazine featured the debut of Donohue and Penske as well as the STP sponsorship deal with the Pettys. I've found it interesting the more I find out about the sponsorship how it was spun that STP 'bought' Petty Enterprises. From Russ Thompson's SCR cover collection .

The King's win also made the cover of the February 12, 1972 edition of Autoweek.

The Henry Ford Arte House has a collection of 73 photos from the 72 WW500 and its preliminary race, the Permatex 200 late model sportsman race.

http://thehenryford.artehouse.com/perl/collection.pl?collectionID=2906&productTypeID=62

A few choice ones.

Hershel McGriff celebrates his 2nd Permatex win at Riverside in 4 years.

A.J. Foyt perhaps asking Granatelli "Why didn't you call me? I would have painted my cars all red."

Mark Donohue strapped in and ready for his first NASCAR Cup race.

The 1971 Motor Trend 500 winner Ray Elder returned in 1972 to defend the win. He started and finished 4th.

The King and Andy in victory lane for the first time. With no time for embroidered patches, STP decals were slapped everywhere.

Though David Pearson raced Bud Moore's 15 Ford, Bud wasn't there to see it happen. He had to make a stop in Amarillo Texas on the way to California to undergo an emergency appendectomy. From Spartanburg Herald

Race report for Permatex 200 won by McGriff. From Spartanburg Herald

I really like the Superbird, but this series of Roadrunner/Charger are probably my favorite stock car bodies ever. The street cars weren't bad looking either. I wasn't too upset when Petty went red/blue because I didn't have many years invested in the sport, and the paint scheme was fairly subdued at first. But the red became more and more prominent and I began to resent it. It would have been terrific if they'd agreed to paint Buddy's car red and just put the STP decal on the rear quarter of Richard's car.

I remember STP stickers all over everything in 1972-73 and most up North hadn't heard of Richard Petty. Whoever was in charge of promotions at STP did an outstanding job because there were a good fifteen years where you couldn't go a day without spotting an STP decal on something. My guess is that kids like to mess things up, like they do with graffiti today. You give them a handful of stickers and they'll do all of your advertising for free. I remember that there were various alternate phrases for what the letters stood for, and that made it more fun because it was a secret teenage language. They probably thought up all of those other slogans at the PR headquarters too.

I don't remember seeing STP pajamas on Maurice's crew but I definitely remember the Coke Machine crew.

Updated link to view photos from The Henry Ford Art House

http://thehenryford.artehouse.com/perl/collection.pl?productTypeID=62&collectionID=2906&pgNumber=1&seeAllImages=1&sortBy=createdDate

Just listened to the race on MRN's throwback Thursday. They played a interview from earlier in the weekend. Petty mentions that Andy had reached out to him at the 71 finale in Texas. Then they basically played phone tag for the rest of the off season. Hope this helps.

Jerry

Bump

Chase, I don't recall ever hearing about Bud Moore's in-flight emergency until reading the Gene Granger clip in your blog.

Here is another example of the smog. I took this shot at the 1987 June race. If you look above the freeway signs you can see the faint outline of a mountain on the right side.