A blog re-run of sorts. Will update it a bit, but I originally posted it in 2011 here:
https://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/11/november-2-this-day-in-petty-history.html
Bristol International Raceway was not one of Richard Petty's better tracks. Coming into 1975, he'd only won once at the track - the 1967 Volunteer 500 .
But in 1975, he had another double-digit win season. In the Winston Cup era, his 13 wins were comparable to his 27-win 1967 season in my opinion. One of his 13 victories was at Bristol for a second time - the Southeastern 500 .
For the track's 2nd event in 1975, the Volunteer was held in the steamy Tennessee summer. Instead, it was slotted for November 2nd. Cale Yarborough won the pole and led sizable chunks of the early parts of the race. But his Junior Johnson engine failed (a rarity for Johnson's cars at Bristol), and Cale exited after 283 laps. Darrell Waltrip qualified alongside Cale and led 73 laps en route to a third place finish. Virginian - and 1973 Rookie of the Year - Lennie Pond started 5th, led 27 laps, and notched a proud 2nd place finish in the race.
But once Cale exited, the rest of the day belonged to the 43. He led 216 of the 229 final laps - interrupted only by a 13-lap segment led by Pond (probably during pit stops). Ol' Blue won again. The win was Petty's 177th career victory, the 13th and final win of the 1975 season, and the icing on the cake for the year as The King earned his sixth NASCAR Grand National / Winston Cup championship.
Photo from Bristol Motor Speedway Twitter feed.
For many years, Bristol's second event of the year was scheduled for July - a brutally hot time in Tennessee. Track owner and promoter Larry Carrier requested another date from NASCAR to ease the heat effects on his fans, and the 1975 race was scheduled for November. I'm guessing this may have been a message from Bill France Jr. to Carrier. In 1976, the race was moved back to August where it now remains.
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| Article courtesy of Jerry Bushmire |
Today, we think of Bristol as one of the crown jewels of the NASCAR circuit. A modern day coliseum. Its kind of hard to remember how run down the place had become by the mid 70s - just 15 years or so after it opened.
The track became Bristol 2.0 when Gary Baker and Lanny Hester took it over from Larry Carrier in 1978. They had big plans for Bristol - including moving the summer race to Saturday night under the lights. At that time, the only 2 Cup tracks running night races were in Tennessee - Nashville and Bristol. I found this April 1978 Spartanburg Herald article about Hester & some of the plans for modernizing Bristol.
| Fin | Driver | Car |
| 1 | Richard Petty | '74 Dodge |
| 2 | Lennie Pond | '75 Chevrolet |
| 3 | Darrell Waltrip | '75 Chevrolet |
| 4 | Dave Marcis | '74 Dodge |
| 5 | Benny Parsons | '75 Chevrolet |
| 6 | Dick Brooks | '73 Ford |
| 7 | Coo Coo Marlin | '75 Chevrolet |
| 8 | Cecil Gordon | '75 Chevrolet |
| 9 | James Hylton | '74 Chevrolet |
| 10 | Bruce Hill | '75 Chevrolet |
| 11 | Ed Negre | '74 Dodge |
| 12 | Walter Ballard | '75 Chevrolet |
| 13 | Richard Childress | '75 Chevrolet |
| 14 | Carl Adams | '73 Ford |
| 15 | Buddy Arrington | '73 Plymouth |
| 16 | David Sisco | '75 Chevrolet |
| 17 | Bill Champion | '73 Ford |
| 18 | Jabe Thomas | '74 Chevrolet |
| 19 | Elmo Langley | '73 Ford |
| 20 | Cale Yarborough | '75 Chevrolet |
| 21 | Dick May | '75 Chevrolet |
| 22 | Frank Warren | '74 Dodge |
| 23 | Bobby Isaac | '75 Chevrolet |
| 24 | Buddy Baker | '75 Ford |
| 25 | Grant Adcox | '75 Chevrolet |
| 26 | Joe Frasson | '75 Chevrolet |
| 27 | D.K. Ulrich | '75 Chevrolet |
| 28 | Travis Tiller | '74 Dodge |
| 29 | Dean Dalton | '73 Ford |
| 30 | J.D. McDuffie | '75 Chevrolet |
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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 11/02/20 08:18:01AM