Around this time of year I always get to thinking about the first race I attended, the 1964 Richmond 250 Grand National that started on Sunday afternoon at Strawberry Hill and finished under the lights on Tuesday night.
Looking over the results for that race, it suddenly hit me that if all the drivers at the Virginia State Fairgrounds half-mile dirt layout for that race who would never win a Grand National / Cup race in their entire career had been prohibited from starting, it would have been a slim field of only 12 starters. That's because 56% of the field that day at Richmond - 15 drivers - would never score the "Big" one in their entire racing career.
Here is a list of those 15 drivers who never won in their entire GN/Cup career ranked by their finish position at Richmond that day:
5th Doug Yates
7th Maurice Petty
8th Larry Manning
9th Doug Cooper
10th Curtis Crider
11th Buddy Arrington
12th Joe Clark
17th EJ Trivette
18th Worth Mcmillion
21st Larry Thomas
22nd Ralph Earnhardt
23rd Jack Anderson
25th Neil Castles
26th Bunkie Blackburn
27th Bob Cooper
However, between them, those 15 drivers who never won amassed a total of 2,188 career GN/Cup starts. They earned 138 Top-5s, 585 Top-10s and 3 Pole Positions. Only three of the drivers listed never earned a Top-5 - Joe Clark, EJ Trivette, and Bob Cooper.
Fifth finishing Doug Yates of Chapel Hiil, NC earned two career Pole Positions and Ralph Earnhardt of Kannapolis, NC won the Pole for the first GN/Cup race he ever ran - at Hickory in 1956.
Back in the era when I began going to races we looked forward to seeing our weekly heroes trying to make the field. Many of them were good enough. And they drew the local fans.
If the locals didn't have a ride of their own, savy promoters like Richmond's Paul Sawyer got them a ride. That's why you'd see Ray Hendrick at Richmond in Cotton Owens' Dodge or Tom Friedkin's Plymouth.
Our local Richmond car owner, Junie Donlavey made a pretty good living for awhile fielding rent-a-racer rides. Local Delaware hero Eddie Pettyjohn made four Dover starts in Donlavey cars. If NASCAR needed an "International" flavor for a field, Junie might have Jackie Oliver in a car, or a young Italian lady. When Charlotte's Richard Howard put our own Billy Scott in his "Big Chance Special," he knew he was increasing ticket sales in the area to fans who considered Billy their weekly track hero.
Most of these drivers and owners were not what we'd call today "Start & Parkers." Most weren't "strokers," either. It was a different time and a different place.
It was a time when 4-5 car owners didn't control the field and a good local weekly racer could put a team together and qualify for a few races. He didn't have to be on a "plan" and he didn't have to agree to run the entire circuit.
I don't know all the answers, but I know we have shut out the weekly racers from making a few selected "shows" and NASCAR has stopped publicizing local tracks and drivers and seemingly placed all of its promotional resources behind a few well funded teams at the top of the heap.
I yearn for the day when a local driver could make the field and run a good race against the regulars. I am thankful that drivers like Buddy Arrington with 560 career starts were out there every week giving it their all. If there had been only 12 cars allowed in the first race I attended, I doubt I would have returned.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
