We've often related here the story of rival teams coming together to patch up the L.G. DeWitt ride of Benny Parsons after a crash at Rockingham in the final NASCAR Winston Cup race in 1973, assuring the two of the Winston Cup points championship.
Racers have a long history of helping each other.
The story below ran in June 1957 up in member, Wally Bell's neck of the woods in the Fredericksburg (VA) Free Lance Star .
A lot of folks aren't familiar with the old Fredericksburg track, but look at just a few names in that 1957 field:
* JOHNNY ROBERTS - Would go on to win NASCAR's National Championship in the Modified Division in 1960 and 1961, before being killed at Lincoln Speedway in 1965.
Johnny Roberts in a Baltimore Sun file photo.
* RAY HENDRICK - Would gain the nickname "Mr. Modified" and be named to multiple auto racing and sports halls of fame, winning an estimated 750 NASCAR sanctioned races.
* AL GRINNAN - In 1968, he'd be voted NASCAR's "Most Popular Driver" in the Modified Division and later NASCAR's Virginia Late Model Sportsman Champion. 20 years after this 1957 story, Grinnan was still racing for fun and winning at North Carolina's "Gem of the East" - the Wilson County Speedway dirt half-mile.
* ELMO LANGLEY - Would graduate to NASCAR's top series as a driver and car owner and later be named by NASCAR to drive the pace car for Winston Cup events. He suffered a fatal heart attack at the wheel of the NASCAR pace car during an exhibition race in Japan.
* LIONEL JOHNSON - Would try his hand in 13 Grand National races between 1965-1966.
* CLAY EASTRIDGE - In addition to fielding the Grand National rides for Lionel Johnson, Eastridge in a one race deal furnished a 1964 Ford for Danville, Virginia's Wendell Scott to run in Darlington's 1965 Southern 500. The car was running after 500 miles and Scott brought it home in 10th place!
In Fredericksburg, 56 years ago, racers were helping racers and what drivers that almost forgotten track was drawing. Wish I could turn back the clock and take a peek at those boys kicking up a little dust down the road from where Gen. Stonewall Jackson was killed and where Gen. Robert E. Lee kept superior Yankee forces lost in "The Wilderness."
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM