October 28, 1962: Rex White Wins For Final Time

As was the case for much of the 1990s, the 1962 Grand National season concluded at Atlanta International Raceway - later known as Atlanta Motor Speedway. Joe Weatherly claimed the first of his two consecutive Grand National titles in 1962. The GN teams rolled into Atlanta for the Dixie 400.

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

Perennial speedsters Fireball Roberts and Fred Lorenzen captured the front row. Marvin Panch and Junior Johnson qualified 3rd and 4th. Source: Spartanburg Herald

Between qualifying and race day, all kinds of switcheroos took place with engines, drivers and cars such as Fireball, Banjo, Buck and Buddy, and Jack Smith. Today, fans might call it collusion amongst the big teams. In 1962, I suppose it was one guy just helping another - and one team owner trying to maximize the scarce few dollars being paid by the tracks. Source: Spartanburg Herald

After replacing his blown engine with the one from Banjo's car, Fireball picked up where he left off on Saturday. He won a 6-lap "Race of Champions" event. Source: Spartanburg Herald

Junior Johnson led a bit more than 2 dozen laps in the first quarter of the race. But he lost a tire, went into the fence, and was done for the day. The 4th place starter finished 36th in the 44-car field. Source: News And Courier

When the green flag fell, Fireball caught fire. He led 144 of the race's 267 laps. But with about 30 laps to go, he had to pit because of a miss under the hood. Sure enough, his torrid pace resulted in his burning 3 pistons. Roberts was able to return the track, and he limped home to a 10th place finish and 5 laps down to the winner.

With Fireball all but out it as well as Bobby Johns who had crashed about 2/3 of the way through the event, Marvin Panch found himself back out front and presumably cruising to the win. But, its not over until its over...

Rex White - who had drafted the 21 car most of the day - inherited the lead from Panch with 3 laps to go as Panch's Wood Brothers Ford gasped for gas. He swept across the finish line to claim his final career Grand National victory. Source: Spartanburg Herald

A feature column on Rex's win in the Spartanburg Herald

The victory lane photo published by the Associated Press.

I'm guessing this one may have been an outtake as Rex seems to be pre-occupied. Country singer Faron Young looks on. From  Curtis Pierce's collection.

As mentioned at the beginning, Joe Weatherly won the championship. But as has so often been the case with NASCAR over the years, a bit of controversy was involved. A scheduled race at Hampton, VA South Boston was rained out, and NASCAR elected not to reschedule it. As a result, Richard Petty had one less race in which to overcome the points deficit between himself and Weatherly. Source: Spartanburg Herald

Fin	Driver	Car
1	Rex White	'62 Chevrolet
2	Joe Weatherly	'62 Pontiac
3	Marvin Panch	'62 Ford
4	Richard Petty	'62 Plymouth
5	Fred Lorenzen	'62 Ford
6	Larry Frank	'62 Ford
7	Stick Elliott	'62 Pontiac
8	Buck Baker	'62 Pontiac
9	Jack Smith	'62 Pontiac
10	Fireball Roberts	'62 Pontiac
11	David Pearson	'62 Pontiac
12	Bob Welborn	'62 Pontiac
13	Elmo Langley	'62 Ford
14	Ralph Earnhardt	'62 Dodge
15	Buddy Baker	'62 Chrysler
16	G.C. Spencer	'62 Chevrolet
17	Jim Paschal	'62 Plymouth
18	Bunkie Blackburn	'62 Pontiac
19	Tiny Lund	'62 Pontiac
20	Johnny Allen	'62 Pontiac
21	Herman Beam	'62 Ford
22	Jimmy Thompson	'62 Dodge
23	Darel Dieringer	'62 Ford
24	Bobby Johns	'62 Pontiac
25	Jimmy Pardue	'62 Pontiac
26	Sherman Utsman	'62 Ford
27	Emanuel Zervakis	'62 Mercury
28	Tommy Irwin	'62 Chevrolet
29	Larry Thomas	'62 Dodge
30	H.B. Bailey	'61 Pontiac
31	H.G. Rosier	'61 Pontiac
32	Johnny Sudderth	'62 Chevrolet
33	Cale Yarborough	'62 Ford
34	Doug Yates	'62 Chevrolet
35	Nelson Stacy	'62 Ford
36	Junior Johnson	'62 Pontiac
37	LeeRoy Yarbrough	'62 Mercury
38	Red Foote	'61 Ford
39	Paul Lewis	'62 Chevrolet
40	Ned Jarrett	'62 Chevrolet
41	Woodie Wilson	'61 Ford
42	Tom Cox	'62 Chrysler
43	Curtis Crider	'62 Mercury
44	George Green	'61 Chevrolet

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 06/10/17 06:47:36PM

My wife used to hang out some with Faron Young and friends back in the day. Says you can't repeat much of what he had to say!

A quick side note... you'll have Virginia race fans up in arms talking about the non-rescheduled race at Hampton. Hampton is home of Langley Field Speedway, but the South Boston Speedway is in.... South Boston, Virginia!

I know you know that and I am just jerking your chain over the minor mishap!

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

From the Faron Young Story Newsletter in 2006, here's why Faron was in victory lane with Rex White at Atlanta:

Faron headlined Atlanta Raceway's first Grand Ole Opry All-Star Jamboree on October 27, 1962. The 3-hour package show saluted the next day's Dixie 400 national championship stockcar race. Earlier in the same racing season, Faron played a show at the Bristol Raceway in Tennessee, with Patsy Cline as one of the performers and Ralph Emery as the announcer. Faron wanted to drive around the track to experience its high bank. Ralph later reminded Faron of the incident, saying "You jumped in a car and ran it around the track, and they got really upset with you, because they were afraid their insurance wouldn't cover you." Faron responded, "I was doin' a hundred miles an hour in a Hertz rent-a-car around and round that track. They was chasin' me with a jeep. Hell, they'd a never caught me." He had invited Cootie Hunley to go with him. "I had the seat in one hand and the ceiling in the other," Cootie told me in a telephone interview. "And he went around that damn thing, and they chased him in the company jeep. And I want to tell you, those banked curves are steep. When he pulled up in front of the grandstand, he jumped out and put his hand up like, yaaay, I won."

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Argh! Once again I violated the carpenter's adage of measure twice, cut once. I tried to hammer this one out before I left the office today. Didn't take time to proofread as closely as I should have. I glanced at article before I cut-cropped-pasted - then forgot and typed the wrong city.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.