July 29th - Paschal and Petty Victories

Bristol wasn't particularly a good track for Richard Petty. He won there only 3x despite the thousands of laps he logged on the East Tennessee half-mile. But on July 29, 1962, Petty Enterprises teammate Jim Paschal put one in the PE win column with a victory in Bristol's 2nd annual Southeastern 500. Good chicken money for the Pettys that day too as Richard was 3rd and Bunkie Blackburn 8th.

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2013/07/july-29-1962-jim-paschal-banks-bristol.html

One year before NASCAR brought its Winston Cup series to Pocono, The King free-lanced on an open weekend and won the Acme Super Saver 500 USAC stock car race there on July 29, 1973.

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2013/07/july-29-1973-petty-poaches-pocono.html

Outstanding posts Chase!!!! I had almost forgotten that USAC win for The King. I must really be older than I think.

I just KNOW there must a non-watermarked version of the victory lane photo out there somewhere. The one with RP and Linda Vaughn. I pulled the post together pretty quickly over the weekend and didn't do an extensive search. But I'm sure its out there and would like to find a copy.

Thanks, Chase. I really enjoyed reading about the Petty Pocono USAC win.

I always thought very highly of the late Dr. Mattiolli, but after reading your post documenting his confrontation with USAC officials over not having Richard in the garage area because he was an outsider, I think even more highly of the late Pocono founder.

The mentality of some USAC officials was amazing. In the early to mid-90s we ran some USAC Silver Crown and Midget races on the Richmond 3/4-mile track. The dumbo USAC guys went over to the backstretch concrete wall separating the track from the infield where the wreckers entered the backstretch when the first green flag fell and stood on the concrete wall adjacent to the backstretch. When we pointed it out to USAC officials, they said it was ok. Richmond promoter Paul Sawyer quickly "explained" to the USAC officials that it was not ok. Really made you wonder.

You can see the inside backstretch wall I'm talking about in this clip from the 1996 USAC Midget race at Richmond. And you can also see why nobody should be standing on it during a race.

Today, I found a pretty cool 1 minute video of the 1972 Pennsylvania 500 USAC stock car race on Flickr. This is the race the year BEFORE Richard won the Acme 500 USAC race at Pocono. He didn't fare so well in the '72 edition. The 43 lost an engine. The car was loaded and the truck was gone before Roger McCluskey took the checkers.

Unfortunately, the video doesn't allow embedding. So you'll have to go to Flickr to watch it. But its worth the trip!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27666849@N04/4360408923/