Racing History Minute - December 7, 1969

As a first thought this morning, the words "a date that will live in infamy" comes to mind. It was 72 years ago today that Japan launched the surprise attack that "awoke the sleeping giant" at Pearl Harbor. Many of the early pioneers of NASCAR racing fought in that war and remain heroes from the war, although thinking of themselves as such is not the usual thing. Let us all remember what those men and women did for us and what the greatest armed forces the world has ever known continue to do for us today.

Now on to the racing history minute for today. It was the final race of the 1969 season and was staged on the 2 mile paved track known as Texas International Speedway located in College Station, Texas. It was the 54th race of the long season. Buddy Baker qualified his Cotton Owens winged Dodge Daytona at 172.284 mph to start from the pole. David Pearson in a Holman-Moody Ford would start second, LeeRoy Yarbrough in a Junior Johnson Ford third, Cale Yarborough in the Wood Brothers Mercury fourth and Richard Brickhouse in the Ray Nichels Dodge Daytona 5th.

There were 33 official lead changes in the 250 laps around the two mile track. Drivers swapping the lead included Baker, Pearson, Yarbrough, Donnie Allison, Yarborough and Bobby Isaac. There were 38 cars racing for the win but the action was dominated by those six drivers although, in actuality, Bobby Isaac did not become a serious contenter until lap 230 of the 250. Bobby has never won on a superspeedway and although he had won 16 times during the 1969 season, not many of the 23,000 fans on hand were giving him much of a chance in this first race ever at the Texas facility.

Buddy Baker had been the dominate driver throughout the race, fending off challenge after challenge, and leading 13 different times for a total of 150 laps before becoming a little over confident. Under caution, on lap 228, Buddy looked over to his pits and flashed the Cotton Owens crew the "V" sign. That momentary distraction caused Baker to smash into the rear of James Hylton which brust the radiator in the Baker car causing him to fall out of the race on the next lap. There is no record in my source of any remarks Baker may have made when he exited the car. Suffice it to say, the lesson was learned not to count your pistons until they are stopped in Victory Lane.

When the green flag was displayed again on lap 233, Donnie Allison slipped by the new leader, Bobby Isaac and would stay out front for on lap before Isaac, not about to let his first superspeedway win slip from his hands, stormed around Allison and walked away. Allison had a late stop which would drop him two laps off the pace so it was all Isaac at the end.

David Pearson, who would lead on occassion, would lose a clutch on lap 142 and park his ride but maintained his points lead over Richard Petty and would win the title. Petty, who had started 24th in his last ride in the Ford, lost the clutch on lap 192 and was out. Richard announced after the race that he was returning to Plymouth of the 1970 season as he felt the Superbird could win on the superspeedways.

Cale Yarborough blew a tire in his Mercury on lap 143 and slammed the concrete wall, shattering his shoulder blade so severely doctors stated it would be at least 9 months before Cale could return to driving. Cale actually returned to the track on March 8, 1970, finishing second to Richard Petty at a grueling 500 mile race at "The Rock". Doctors missed the mark by six months but it would be a good bet that the doctors didn't realize with whom they were dealing when they said nine months.

Finishing order:

1. Bobby Issaac, K&K Insurance Dodge, winning $15,640.00
2. Donnie Allison, Banjo Matthews Ford, winning $8,200.00 (2 laps down)

3. Benny Parson, Russ Dawson Ford, winning $4,000.00 (3 laps down)

4. James Hylton, Hylton Engineering Dodge, winning $3,700.00 (11 laps down)

5. Dick Brooks, Brooks Plymouth, winning $3,350.00 (13 laps down)

6. Ray Elder

7. Jack McCoy

8. Buddy Baker

9. Dave Marcis

10. LeeRoy Yarbrough

11. Cecil Gordon

12. Jabe Thomas

13. E. J. Trivette

14. Johnny Halford

15. Friday Hassler

16. Neil Castles

17. Henley Gray

18. Wendell Scott

19. Don Biederman

20. H. B. Bailey

21. Richard Petty

22. Donnie Alonzo

23. Bobby Allison

24. Earl Brooks

25. Cale Yarborough

26. David Pearson

27. Elmo Langley

28. Bill Shirey

29 Ben Arnold

30. Frank Warren

31. Bill Champion

32. John Sears

33.Richard Brickhouse

34. Joe Hines

35. Ed Negre

36.Bill Siefert

37. Larry Baumel

38.Roy Tyner

The top five finishers for the championship were:

1. David Pearson, starting 51, winning 11, total winnings $229,760.00

2.Richard Petty, starting 51, winning 10, total winnings $129,906.00

3. James Hylton, starting 52, winning 0, total winnings $114,416.00

4. Neil Castles, starting 52, winning 0, total winnings $54,367.00

5.Elmo Langley, starting 53, winning 0, total winnings $73,092.00

Bobby Isaac, who finished 6th in the standings had won 17 times with his Texas win.

PERSONAL NOTE: When we (the Petty fans here) got the news, I believe on November 26, 1968, that Richard was going to drive Fords, it was a black day. We were so adamant for so many years that nothing was better than a Plymouth and that a Ford was the lowest form of automobile on the planet. We were very brand loyal in those days (something NASCAR can't seem to grasp in 2013). I have to admit that Richard seemed almost sympathetic to us when we approached him about his abandonment, but he told us he want to win and the 1968 Plymouth had not been a great car for superspeedways and the 1969 was the same. I was driving a 1969 Plymouth Road Runner at the time, an electric blue one.

The issue with The King and I (sounds musical huh?) came to a head at the September race at Columbia Speedway. I had run my first race just three weeks earlier on the same track. I was at the speedway when the Petty rig arrived hauling that hated Ford. Richard got down out of his Grand Torino or Talladega or whatever they called those Fords, and came over to congratulate me on my first race and the following race there where I had also run second. I have no idea how he knew about those races but he did. I mentioned to him that I was driving a PLYMOUTH. He smiled but that was it. Richard and his Ford finished second that night to Bobby Isaac in a DODGE.

On the way home that night, I was on I-26 and looked in my mirror to see the head lights of a Ford coming up fast. The car passed me quickly and I saw Richard was driving. What happened after that remains with me while my grandsons are teenagers but let's just say the blue Plymouth blew around that Ford. He passed me back, and we were at it. It was well after midnight and there was no traffic to speak of on I-26 at the time. I finally backed off and let him have it (the lead) since he could well afford a ticket while I could not.

It was at Rockingham in late October, right around my birthday, when Richard called me over to the fence at the pit area on Saturday. He asked me if I had seen the new Superbird. I told him I certainly had. All he said was "how do you think it would look in Petty blue with 43s on it". I told him awesome. He smiled and walked away. That was his way of tipping me off that he would be back in the Plymouth in 1970. Made me happy.

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

To tie into a fellow SHOFer's birthday, I blogged about this race about a year ago as the closest one with relevance.

https://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/12/december-3-birthday-and-buddys-bobble.html

I'll excerpt some of it here:

As you noted Tim, it was the first race at the track originally known as Texas International Speedway. It was only after the race went through bankruptcy, reorganization, a skipped year in 1970, etc. that it was renamed as Texas World Speedway.

Long-time NASCAR writer and friend of Baker, Tom Higgins, writing at the time for ThatsRacin.com recalled in a 2010 column :

While running at Texas World Speedway, where NASCAR staged seven races at the Cup Series level from 1969-81, Big Buddy once seemed to have Victory Lane awaiting him. But a crash while under caution took him out of contention. He ran into James Hylton on the frontstretch. "We didn't have radio communication between the cars and the pits in those days," recalls Baker. "I momentarily took my eyes off the track to try and read a message the crew was giving me on a big chalk board. Hylton was going a bit slower than me, and I hit him." The chalked message? "You've Got It Made!"

James Hylton's winged Dodge Daytona before he got plowed:

For the other side of the story, Hylton - who soldiered on to finish 4th - remembers:

Buddy Baker ran into me under a caution. Bent the hell out of my car but tore his up completely and he couldn't finish the race.

On a website documenting the history of Cotton Owens, a separate page for Buddy's uh-oh moment recaps this bizarre but funny way to lose a race. An excerpt from it reads:

We find our hero leading the 500 mile Grand National race, which is running under caution. Pit stops have been made , and the cars are lined up behind the pace car leisurely circling the track with Buddy, leading the race but following closely behind James Hylton behind the pace car. Cotton is busy flashing Buddy a pit board every time by. But the message was too big for one pit board so Cotton wrote on two boards and showed both to Buddy at the same time. This was to much for poor Buddy, he had to do a double take ... while leading the race, which was under caution, Buddy Baker CRASHED into the back of James Hylton and busted the radiator in Cotton's wonderful Dodge. Oh, Cotton's message? P1 take it easy.

The site also includes a couple of photos originally published in Motor Trend magazine.

In his book Forty Years of Stock Car Racing - Volume 3 , Greg Fielden writes:

Dodge officials were visibly upset when Baker crashed out under the yellow flag. The only race Dodge had won on the big tracks (TMC: in 1969) was a tainted 500-miler at Talladega. Crew chief and car owner Owens slu n g the pit board like a frisbee as he watched Baker take himself out of the race. ~ p. 263

Let us hope and pray that the significance of the date DECEMBER 7 will always be remembered and that our nation will always recognize the sacrifice and bravery embodied in the remembrance of the "date that will live in infamy" and how our freedom was preserved by many who gave their all.

A couple of racing periodicals featured Isaac's win.

April 1970 Stock Car Racing

Next 2 from Russ Thompson.

December 10, 1969 National Speed Sport News

March 1970 Auto Racing magazine

Ok, RR members.... having read Tim Leemings recollections above of his conversations with Richard Petty, do you clearly understand which of the items below NOT to purchase as a Christmas gift for The Legend ?!

When that '69 Ford #43 that ruffled Legend's feathers showed up at Richmond in April 1969 for the Richmond 500, it left with a 2nd place finish rather than a first at a track where Richard scored 13 career wins. The car took a number of "shots" that day as evidenced by the bodywork. The "talk" was that the Pettys were having difficulty adjusting to rear coil springs from leaf with the switch from Plymouth to Ford.

Don Wootton photo - Stock Car Racing Magazine

As Tim Leeming recalled... the November 26, 1968 "Switch" announcement as carried on November 27 in the Daytona paper:

Baker's odd wreck typified much of Cotton Owens' season. Even after a couple of days to think about it, Cotton was still as bent about the situation as the nose of Baker's wrecked Dodge Daytona. From Spartanburg Herald .

Thanks, Dave, for thinking of me at Christmas.