Racing History Minute - September 25, 1966

I don't put titles on these Racing Minutes, but if I did, today's would have to be something like "The more things change, the more they stay the same". When you read the details of this Minute the reference should easily be understood as applied to NASCAR rules and interpretation of same.

Forty drivers qualified to run the "Old Dominion 500" at the half mile paved track in Martinsville, VA. Junior Johnson put his Ford on the pole with Fred Lorenzen to his outside. Third place qualifier was Richard Petty in his Plymouth, fourth was Ned Jarrett in the Bondy Long Ford and fifth place starter was Paul Goldsmith in the Ray Nichels Plymouth.

Junior, as expected, blasted away at the start and led the first 50 laps. Fearless Freddie then took over on lap 51 and would stay there until lap 109. Bobby Allison hustled the J.D. Bracken Chevy into the first spot on lap110 and he held on until lap 182. It was then Ned Jarrett's turn to lead and he did so until lap 209 before Bobby Allison once more took over first place. On lap 355 it was Junior again but on lap 388 Lorenzen took over and continued to build up a tremendous lead, taking the checkers a full five laps ahead of second place Darel Dieringer in Bud Moore's Mercury.

In post race inspection, it was determined that Lorenzen had a gas tank which held more fuel than allowed by NASCAR rules. The Lorenzen car was disqualified. While Lorenzen was in the press box for the post race interview, a note, written in PENCIL by Norris Friel, NASCAR's head rule checker. The note said, in part "We checked and found an illegal tank. We had a request to check the tank." The pencil writing continued with Johnny Bruner's handwriting stating "The car automatically disqualified itself according to the rules. Darel Dieringer is the winner. Lorenzen finished 40th". Please note the reference to "penciled notes"/

To say that Lorenzen was upset is a mild understatement. His response, quoting now "It isn't fair that they disqualify me. I drove hard out there today. The tank was sealed in the car at Darlington by NASCAR officials and if my tank holds too much the other cars do too".

Ralph Moody, of the Holman-Moody team which owned the Lorenzen Ford, demanded that NASCAR check the tanks of the top five finishers but NASCAR stated there wasn't enough fuel available to do so. Moody went on to say "This will turn out to be another typical NASCAR operation. I'm getting fed up with it all". Strong language for those days, huh?

Lorenzen's fuel cell measured 1.1 gallons MORE than allowed by NASCAR rules. Holman-Moody claimed it was because the Firestone engineered fuel cells expanded with use and it had nothing to do with "cheating". THREE FULL DAYS AFTER THE RACE, Lin Kuchler, Executive Manage of NASCAR, issued a statement that began with "After a complete and thorough examination of all the evidence" and ended with "Therefore, it is the decision of NASCAR to overrule the disqualification of Fred Lorenzen and declare him the winner of the race".

The other story of the race was the tremendous performance of Bobby Allison in his lightweight Chevrolet. Even Freddie said Allison "had a bomb out there" as Bobby actually made up more than six laps lost on long pit stops with an inexperienced crew. Allison actually blew the engine in the Chevy with six laps to go but he was credited with third place AFTER NASCAR "corrected" their previous ruling on Freddie's Fuel tank.

The win was Lorenzen's 24th career Grand National Victory.

Top five finishers were:

1. Fred Lorenzen, Holman-Moody Ford, winning $4,350.00

2. Darel Dieringer, Bud Moore Mercury, winning $2,100.00 (5 laps down)

3. Bobby Allison, J.D. Bracken Chevrolet, winning $1,425.00 (6 laps down)

4. Dick Hutcherson, Holman-Moody Ford, winning $775.00 (8 laps down)

5. James Hylton, Bud Harje Dodge, winning $725.00 (10 laps down)

Sixth through tenth were PAUL LEWIS, John Sears, J.T. Putney, Roy Mayne and Neil Castles. Eleventh was Buck Baker with Cale Yarborough 12th. Wayne Smith finished 13th, Junior Johnson 14th, Henley Gray 15th, and Bill Siefert 16th.

Sam McQuagg took 18th, Friday Hassler 19th, Buddy Baker 20th, Ned Jarrett 21st, J.D. McDuffie 22nd, and Richard Petty 23rd. Jabe Thomas was 25th, Paul Goldsmith 27th, Hank Thomas 30th, Curtis Turner 31st, Buddy Arrington 32nd, and Elmo Langley 33rd. Jim Paschal was credited with 34th, David Pearson 35th, Earl Brooks 37th, Wendell Scott 38th, Earnest Eury 39th and G.C. Spencer got 40th position after falling out of the race on lap 4 with radiator problems.

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

Lin Kuchler was one of the most capable and admired officials I ever met in motorsports.

The late Lin Kuchler

He was in great demand by both NASCAR and the American Motorcyclist Association, where he served two stints as their top official, bookending his service with NASCAR as Bill France Senior's personal selection to bring some professionalism to NASCAR. I had the extraordinary pleasure of being seated next to Mr. Kuchler at the November 1983 AMA Awards Banquet at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California the same evening as the November Riverside stock car race I had to work. It was my great good fortune to get to know Mr. Kuchler. He had a cool head and was able to calm others.

Many folks say it was Lin Kuchler who kept the Petty / Allison feud from escalating totally out of control as pointed out by Bobby Allison in the clip below:

Below are several clips reporting the Martinsville reversal from The Robesonian and the Charleston News & Courie r , with an ad for Cooper River Speedway from the Charleston paper on the same page thrown in for good measure!

Two years later, Cooper River Speedway was out of business, as reported in the July 25, 1968 edition of the Charleston paper:

Ironically, in May 1965 it was a lack of water that kept Crider from opening Cooper River Speedway as scheduled as reported in the Charleston paper. Then too much water killed the track according to Crider.

Lorenzen would win only two more GN races after this one - at Rockingham 3 races later and a Daytona 500 qualifying race in February 1967.

Race program

Junior Johnson and Richard Petty

And Fast Freddy at high speed from  Ray Lamm collection

I intended no disrespect at all toward Lin Kuchler. Just wanted to clear up any questions in that regard. From all I ever knew about the man and his job performance, he is rated A+ with me all the way down the line.

Tim, I sure didn't take your comments as disrespectful to Lin Kuchler. My observation is he was probably the one with the clear head who thought NASCAR had done something really stupid by disqualifying Lorenzen and worked behind the scenes to correct that call.

Thanks, Dave.

From the archives of Roanoke, Virginia television station WSLS stored at the University of Virginia Library, here is footage of Fred at Martinsville.

Link below to clip of sports footage:

http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:2218456