Update: Once I got home, I figured I may as well turn the following into a Bench Racing blog post.
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2013/10/october-15-some-nascar-firsts-and-lasts.html
Original post:
1950 - Herb Thomas leads more than half the race and claims his first career Grand National win in a 200-lap race at Martinsville.
1967 - Buddy Baker wins his first Grand National race by capturing the National 500 at Charlotte in Ray Fox's Dodge.
Baker's win was coupled with Richard Petty's early exit. Petty's engine problem relegated him to an 18th place finish and ended his consecutive winning streak at 10 races. (Interestingly, the highest finishing Petty Enterprises entry was G.C. Spencer who finished 5th in a #42 Petty Plymouth in the 2nd of his 3 starts for the team.)
1989 - The King lasts only 124 laps, crashes, and finishes 32nd and last in the Holly Farms 400 at North Wilkesboro. Painfully, Kyle develops faulty distributor / ignition problems, goes out the same lap, and finishes 31st - next to last . Ricky Rudd and Dale Earnhardt waged a classic battle in the waning laps to see who would finish first . Instead, they BOTH wrecked giving first place to Geoff Bodine.
Coincidentally, Bodine was in his last season with Hendrick Motorsports & would be replaced by Rudd. The race was also the first race for Winston Cup cars to run Goodyear radial tires.
2000 - Dale Earnhardt comes from deep in the field with just a few laps remaining to win the Winston 500 at Talladega. Though he finished first , it was his last Winston Cup victory.
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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 10/15/17 10:28:00AM
