From 1966 until the track lost its Cup dates, North Carolina Motor Speedway's 'spring' race was held in late February or early March. Only two times was the Carolina 500 run another time of the year. The first time was in ... the first one. Richard Petty won the inaugural Carolina 500 in June 1967. (The first 'spring' race was called the Peach Blossom 500 and was held in March.)
The second and final time was a year later in 1968. The Carolina 500 was scheduled for March 10th. The GN cars qualified, and the preliminary Sandhill 250 was run on Saturday. But rains moved in and cancelled Sunday's 500-miler. The race was rescheduled for June 16th.
Tiny Lund won the Sandhill 250 Grand Touring race as [ Dennis Andrews posted ] about back in March 2014. - DBMJ
Over the last coupe of decades, NASCAR has adopted a 'next clear day' policy to address rain delays. Though not without some controversy, at least teams, tracks, fans and media know what to expect. In the past, however, races were seemingly rescheduled on the fly. Such seems the case with moving Rockingham's race from March to June. - Spartanburg Herald
Many debated a best practice for dealing with rainouts. One visionary who worked at the time for Firestone predicted tracks would one day have domes over them. While we're still waiting for that 1st domed NASCAR track, the idea wouldn't be the first crazy - and sometimes legit - one from the future promoter at Charlotte Motor Speedway: Humpy Wheeler. - Times News
When the race was cancelled in March, NASCAR threw out the qualifying results as well. The teams started fresh when they came back on a hot day in June. The track even printed new programs. Wonder how many folks bought both of 'em...
Lee Roy Yarbrough and David Pearson took the front row. Pearson had been the quickest in March but had to settle for 2nd when the teams did a take-two. King Richard timed third with Paul Goldsmith lined up to his outside. Despite winning 27 races and 10-in-a-row on a variety of tracks in 1967, the King was still looking for his first win in 1968 on a superspeedway. He wouldn't get it as a repeat winner at Rockingham. Matter of fact, he needed until the next race at Rockingham - the American 500 in October - before he'd get another big track win.
The rest of the top 10 was:
- 5 - Cale Yarborough
- 6 - Charlie Glotzbach
- 7 - Donnie Allison
- 8 - Bobby Isaac
- 9 - Buddy Baker
- 10 - Swede Savage in the first of his 2 starts for owner Bondy Long
From Ray Lamm collection
The start! - OurHamlet.org
When the green flag dropped, Lee Roy took off in Junior Johnson's Ford and led the first 86 laps. He surrendered the lead to a few other drivers for a limited number of laps - presumably as pit stops cycled the field. But Yarbrough kept returning to the front to lead a sizable number of laps. But after leading 120 laps of the first 172, things began to go wrong for the #98 team. After losing a clutch, he was done at lap 217 and finished 28th.
Savage was a talented driver and showed promise his limited number of starts. But he really had his hands full earning a decent finish at Rockingham. He spun and lost a clutch but still managed to finish 13th (mainly because of the heavy number of DNFs). - DBMJ
Darel Dieringer took over in the mid-stages of the race driving Mario Rossi's Plymouth and led 157 laps - including 106 in a row. After the long stretch of laps led, he eventually surrendered the car to King Richard as a relief driver. Petty's 43 had already exited with a bad engine after 236 laps. But with about 120 laps to go, Petty went 0-2 was the engine in Rossi's Plymouth ALSO broke.
Petty, Dieringer, and Lee Roy weren't the only ones with problems. With the brutal temps and bad fortunes, THIRTY of the 44 starters didn't finish the race.
With Yarbrough and Dieringer gone along with many others, Donnie Allison eased the seat back, cranked some tunes, fired up a cig, donned some shades, and led the final 129 laps to finish a comfortable 2 laps ahead of second place finisher, his brother Bobby.
Well that last part about leading was true. The rest of it - probably not so much.After enduring a Carolina summer afternoon, Donnie was worn slapout after winning the race and needed some time to catch his breath in victory lane.
After resting a spell, Donnie was ready for his well-deserved victory lane ceremonies. - OurHamlet.org
I didn't grow up as an Allison fan. As someone who pulled for Ol' Blue, it simply wasn't possible. But I'll give Donnie credit. He drove from really notable car owners - the Woods, Hoss and Banjo. Though before my time, I've always thought that red 27 Banjo Matthews Ford with the plain red scheme was one of the slickest looking cars of the late 60s era. - Ray Lamm
Coincidentally, Bobby had won the previous race at Rockingham, [ the 1967 American 500 ]. Then 20 years later in 1988, Bobby Allison would come out on the winning end of another 1-2 Allison finish when he beat son Davey to the line in the Daytona 500.
Race report from Spartanburg Herald
And with the postponement of the race from March to June, Donnie was able to enjoy the 1st of his 10 career Cup wins in victory lane on Father's Day. - Spartanburg Herald
| Fin | Driver | Car |
| 1 | Donnie Allison | '68 Ford |
| 2 | Bobby Allison | '66 Chevrolet |
| 3 | James Hylton | '67 Dodge |
| 4 | Richard Brickhouse | '67 Plymouth |
| 5 | Roy Tyner | '66 Ford |
| 6 | Jabe Thomas | '67 Ford |
| 7 | J.D. McDuffie | '67 Buick |
| 8 | John Sears | '67 Ford |
| 9 | Clyde Lynn | '66 Ford |
| 10 | Dave Marcis | '66 Chevrolet |
| 11 | Neil Castles | '67 Plymouth |
| 12 | Henley Gray | '66 Ford |
| 13 | Swede Savage | '68 Ford |
| 14 | Eddie Yarboro | '66 Plymouth |
| 15 | Walson Gardner | '67 Ford |
| 16 | Stan Meserve | '67 Dodge |
| 17 | Buck Baker | '68 Chevrolet |
| 18 | Wendell Scott | '67 Ford |
| 19 | Darel Dieringer | '68 Plymouth |
| 20 | Charlie Glotzbach | '68 Dodge |
| 21 | Bill Champion | '66 Ford |
| 22 | Frank Warren | '66 Chevrolet |
| 23 | Elmo Langley | '66 Ford |
| 24 | Bobby Isaac | '67 Dodge |
| 25 | Pete Hamilton | '68 Ford |
| 26 | Richard Petty | '68 Plymouth |
| 27 | Tiny Lund | '68 Mercury |
| 28 | LeeRoy Yarbrough | '68 Ford |
| 29 | Paul Goldsmith | '68 Dodge |
| 30 | David Pearson | '68 Ford |
| 31 | E.J. Trivette | '66 Chevrolet |
| 32 | Cale Yarborough | '68 Mercury |
| 33 | G.C. Spencer | '67 Plymouth |
| 34 | Larry Manning | '66 Chevrolet |
| 35 | George Davis | '66 Chevrolet |
| 36 | Wayne Smith | '68 Chevrolet |
| 37 | Ed Negre | '67 Ford |
| 38 | Buddy Baker | '68 Dodge |
| 39 | Bill Seifert | '68 Ford |
| 40 | Paul Dean Holt | '67 Ford |
| 41 | Bud Moore | '68 Dodge |
| 42 | Earl Brooks | '66 Ford |
| 43 | Friday Hassler | '66 Chevrolet |
| 44 | Bobby Mausgrover | '67 Oldsmobile |
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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 04/10/19 07:57:08AM