December 29, 1963: Petty squeezes in win before year's end

In the fourth race of the 1964 season, Richard Petty notched his 28th career victory by winning the Sunshine 200 at Savannah Speedway in Georgia on December 29, 1963. Richard's brother and Petty Enterprises teammate, Maurice Petty, finished 4th.

I originally blogged about this race in 2011 here:

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/12/december-29-this-day-in-petty-history.html
As noted in the article below, the race was originally scheduled for November 28th. The race was rained out on its originally scheduled date plus two make-up dates before finally being run on December 29. Only a December 30, 1956 race at Titusville, FL has eclipsed the 1963 Sunshine 200 for a NASCAR GN/Cup race run latest in a calendar year.

Ned Jarrett won the pole in his #11 Ford with Jack Smith starting alongside him on the front row. Maurice made his best qualifying effort of his limited GN driving career with the third quickest start. LeeRoy Yarbrough and Richard rounded out the top 5.

Fans who came to the track looking for drivers to dice for the lead may have gone home disappointed. Jarrett led the first 67 laps from his pole start. But while leading, he lost an engine and was doomed to a 19th place finish. With Ned's exit, Richard took over and never looked back. The 43 led the final 133 laps en route to a 1 lap victory over Smith. Tiny Lund finished third three more laps back, and Maurice took the checkers in fourth.

Rod Eulenfeld started six GN races between 1963 and 1971. The Savannah race was his debut - but it didn't go too well for him. He qualified 19th, lasted only 1 lap in the race, and finished 22nd - dead last.

Article courtesy of Jerry Bushmire

With mention of Lee Roy Yarbrough starting in the top 5 at Savannah, he also was in racing news on December 29th. He announced on December 29, 1966, that he planned to stay with Dodge in 1967 rather than change to Junior Johnson's Ford team. From Spartanburg Herald .

From Matthew Krasz collection

From Matthew Krasz collection

After only a handful of starts, however, Yarbrough left the Dodge team. He made a few starts in Bud Moore's Mercury before reconsidering Junior Johnson's offer. He eventually joined the Ford team and had a great 2 year run in 1968-69.

Things may not have gone well for Rod Eulenfeld in his GN debut in this Savannah race, but the worst was yet to come. The crash Eulenfeld started at Daytona in a 1965 qualifier showed up in nearly every racing movie produced afterwards for several decades.

Thanks, Chase. I saw this race show up in my books but since it was a Petty win, I wouldn't touch it!! I just knew you would take care of it and you did. I was actually at that race and Uncle Bobby and I had a great time cheering on the Pettys that day. I really liked that 1963 Plymouth but little did I know what Plymouth was about to unleash at Daytona just 2 months later. Little did Ford know either!!! lol. Happy New Year.

Eulenfeld didn't have the most remarkable set of finishes in his limited GN career. But he had some of the most spectacular I suppose. In addition to his crash and burn in the 1965 Daytona qualifying twin, he also exited the 1970 Georgia 500 at Middle Georgia Raceway (coincidentally ALSO win by King Richard) because of "fire".

He also could have earned NASCAR's "most dapper" award if one existed - perhaps 2nd only to Fonty Flock.

Perhaps in an attempt to persuade Yarbrough to sign with Junior, FoMoCo told the media Lee Roy was soon to be theirs. They got him eventually - but not as soon as they'd hoped.