Racing History Minute - June 2, 1961

This entry will complete my trio of weekend offerings to Tim Leeming's Racing Minute. Hopefully, I'll return you to your regular contributor beginning Monday, June 3.

First - a happy birthday to my dad. 78 years old today. And a happy birthday to Kyle Petty - 53 years old today. Here is a photo I took of Kyle at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway on June 3, 1978 - one day after he turned 18.

Today's history minute returns us to the Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds in Spartanburg, SC for the 25th race of a 52-race season in 1961. The Spartanburg Herald Journal gave a lot of columnar inches to promote the race.

Source: Spartanburg Herald Journal

A Who's Who of NASCAR legends made up most of the top 10 starters. Joe Weatherly in Bud Moore's Pontiac won the pole - however, he led zero laps, wrecked around lap 70, and finished 14th in the 21-car field.

Cotton Owens started alongside Little Joe. The rest of the top 10 starters were NASCAR Hall of Famer Buck Baker and Jack Smith on row 2, NASCAR Hall of Famers Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson in row 3, Rex White and the future King - Richard Petty - in row 4, and Doug Cox and Darel Dieringer rounding out the top 10.

Hometown hotshoe Cotton dominated the 100-mile race. He led 180 of the 200 laps. About a third of the way through the race, Cotton moved Weatherly out of the way as he made a pass. Weatherly spun, and he wiped out R. Petty as he attempted to get going back in the right direction. Both were done for the night.

With the checkers in sight, Owens broke a wheel - perhaps related somehow to the earlier incident with Weatherly. Maybe, maybe not. But Jim Paschal took the lead from Cotton and nabbed his first victory in three years. Paschal would later drive a number of races for Petty Enterprises. But on June 2, 1961, he raced a Pontiac fielded by Lee's brother - Julian Petty. Prior to Spartanburg, Paschal's last GN win was in July 1958 in a Chevrolet at McCormick Field in Asheville, NC - coincidentally fielded by Julian.

Cotton settled for second - two laps down to Paschal. Maurice Petty finished third for his best career finish as a driver. Chief started deep in the field - 19th, and his 3rd place finish came with an assist from his older brother. Richard took over Maurice's #41 Plymouth in relief after his own Plymouth was sidelined after being in the wreck with Weatherly.

The top 5 finishers were:

1. Jim Paschal

2. Cotton Owens

3. Maurice Petty (career best)

4. Herman Beam (career best)

5. Ned Jarrett

Source: Spartanburg Herald Journal

Happy Birthday to your dad! Cool that he shares the same birth"day" as Kyle.

And how about that...Maurice and Herman share the same career best race date?! I didn't know.

Thanks, Chase. Hope your Dad has celebrated a teriffic day.

Ah, yes... Kyle's birthday. I can hardly believe today is the 28th anniversary of the little risque 25th birthday celebration we had for the Petty boy at Riverside on June 2, 1985, as I recounted last summer in answer to one of your posts, Chase.

http://racersreunion.com/community/forum/stock-car-racing-history/16077/happy-7-eleven-day-tribute-to-dave-fulton-day#r16079

Sigh...I used to have hair like that. And the mustache too. It doesn't look as good after an hour under a helmet.

What happened to Julian Petty after he closed down his team? Did he remain with Petty Enterprises in some capacity?

Its a good question, and one for which I don't have an answer. To my knowledge, Julian "J.H." / "Julie" Petty's team was always a Greensboro NC operation separate from Petty Enterprises. Several weeks ago, I stumbled across this 1958 article noting he sold his convertible operation to Roy Tyner - with the idea Bob Welborn would continue driving it.

But we know he was still around in the late 50s and early 60s fielding GN cars for drivers such as Paschal and Rex White. After that, the trail has gone cold for me. Its interesting that I don't think I've ever heard Richard refer to his uncle any time he is interviewed about racing in the ol' days. I've heard Kyle refer to "Uncle Julie" a time or two over the years. But Julian's racing ventures clearly aren't considered part of the history of Petty Enterprises.

I'll have to dig back into the archives to see what more I can stumble across. I'm not even sure what year he passed away.

Bump as my pop is still kicking. 82 this year.

A Schaefer birthday toast to TMC-Chase's Pop!