September 12, 1976 - Cale Conquers Richmond

Yesterday, our nation celebrated the somber day of 9/11. It's kind of hard to remember when September 11th was just another day. In 1976, September 12th simply followed the 11th. Instead, the US was still basking in the glory of the nation's bicentennial.

On September 12, 1976, the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National Series rolled into the half-mile track at the Richmond Fairgrounds. The teams prepared to run the Capital City 400 - only the 2nd 400 lapper after 7 seasons of running 500 lap races at the track.

Benny Parsons won the pole on Friday, September 10th. Darrell Waltrip plunked his Gatorade Chevy on the front row with DW. Dave Marcis - winner of the 'spring' Richmond race - timed 3rd. Buddy Baker and Childress were mild surprises with their 4th and 5th fastest times, respectively.

Three future NASCAR HOFers started 6th, 7th and 8th - Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty and Bobby Allison. RR member Brian Yezierski nabbed several good pre-race photos.

[ Petty and Allison ] on the starting grid.

[ Allison's CAM2 Penske Mercury ]

10th place starter [ Lennie Pond ]

Cale and car owner Junior Johnson enjoyed a pre-race meal of their sponsor's product - [ Ray Lamm ]

Looking back, it's hard to believe Cale hadn't won at Richmond coming into the 1976 season. As prolific as he was throughout his career at places like Nashville, Bristol, Martinsville, and North Wilkesboro, he had not won at Richmond through the series' first trip there in March of 76. - Times Daily

At the drop of the green, Waltrip - the defending race winner - put folks on notice that he planned to repeat. He led the 1st 92 laps; however, he eventually faded and ended up finishing 4th - one lap down to the winner.

The track ended up being a tough one to negotiate. In today's racing, NASCAR will throw a phantom caution for mystery debris - generally in turn 3 where tracks often have no grandstands. In the 76 Richmond race, drivers complained afterwards about the volume of debris they had to dodge throughout the day. One Dodge that didn't dodge well enough was the 43 of Petty. He cut multiple tires during the day which resulting in his inability to challenge for the win as he'd grown accustomed to doing at Richmond over the years.

Once Waltrip was done with his time up front, the day pretty well belonged to Yarborough. Allison had his opportunity to lead a couple of sizable segments. But Cale put his butterscotch colored Monte Carlo in the wind for 109 laps during the mid-stages of the race, and he led the final 89 laps en route to his first win. He backed up the win with a follow-up victory the following season and notched a 3rd and final Richmond win in March 1979 - two races after his legendary last lap crash on the last lap of the Daytona 500. - Getty Images

A bit more than halfway through the race, overheated brakes in Ed Negre's Dodge led to it catching fire. The incident led to the first of only two caution flags during the day.

Car owner Don Robertson fielded two cars in the race. Dick May drove car #25 - most notably driven over the years by Jabe Thomas. And Larry LaMay started car #23 - the Schlitz Beer Chevrolet. LaMay's start was the 1st of a 4-race Cup career.

LaMay completed only 87 laps before exiting because of driver fatigue/illness. As a result, he finished dead last in the 30-car field. He returned 3 races later at Wilkesboro and finished a respectable 16th. A couple of weeks later, he won an ARCA race at Toledo Speedway - presumably in the same Robertson-owned Schlitz Chevy.

Today, LaMay is still involved with racing as a rep for a transmission company called G-Force South .

http://www.dailytribune.com/sports/20140613/more-mis-speed-means-more-stress-on-nascar-car-parts

Though Cale led almost the final quarter of the race, Allison kept him honest. At the checkers, Allison's #2 Mercury was only about a half car-length behind Yarborough. King Richard finished 3rd, one lap down - followed by Waltrip. - Schenectady Gazette

from Free Lance Star

Seeing Cale & Junior with their chicken bucket reminded me that my family made numerous trips to the Holly Farms Fried Chicken establishment back then located at the corner of West Broad St. and Libbie Ave. in Richmond's West End. They had awesome seasoned potato wedges.

This was the 2nd time a Junior Johnson-owned, Holly Farms-sponsored car had won at Richmond, but there were 11 seasons between wins, with Junior himself wheeling the first Holly Farms winner - a Ford - on the dirt, at the 1965 Richmond 250, as seen in the Ray Lamm photo below:

And six years before Junior's win, Cotton Owens won at Richmond on September 13, 1959 in his Thunder Chicken. Tim Leeming's post:

http://racersreunion.com/community/forum/stock-car-racing-history/27123/racing-history-minute-september-13-1959

Some places have "Throwback Thursday." RacersReunion has "Chicken Weekend!"