On May 18, 1958, NASCAR featured two of its series on two legendary tracks in two southern states. Fireball Roberts won the convertible division race at Lakewood Speedway, and Junior Johnson won the GN race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
The same, another big stock car race was held up north. USAC and MARC (later ARCA) joined forces to co-sanction a 250-lap stock car race at the famed, one-mile dirt, Langhorne Speedway.
NASCAR has featured sets of brothers over the years. The Allisons, Waltrips, Labontes, Burtons, Buschs, etc. The Langhorne race was expected to include three sets of brothers: Jerry and Bobby Unser, Jim and Dick Rathman, and Nelson and Dudley Stacy. Of those six, I'd never heard of Dudley Stacy until finding these articles.
Qualifying on Saturday May 17 presented a challenge for several drivers. Many needed to be in Indianapolis for practice and time trials for the 500. I don't know the pole winner or the rest of the starting line-up yet. But the race report include the following among the "top qualifiers": Harvey Henderson, Bob James, Wimpy Mays, George Henderson, and Darel Dieringer.
Of the three sets of brothers promoted to participate, only the Stacys names are included in the limited rundown of the race I've found. Dick Rathman won the pole for the Indy 500, so it makes perfect sense why he may not have traveled overnight to Langhorne. I'm not sure if the others fared poorly - or didn't show in Langhorne as had been expected.
Nelson Stacy had an eventful, competitive but eventually disappointing day. First, his windshield broke on his Chevy convertible.He then lost part of his hood. As it dangled, it pulled to the right and took the right front fender with it.
As the race progressed, his instrument panel started to come undone. And THEN as the race neared its end, Stacy's LEFT side fender and door started separating from the car. Yet remarkably, he was able to continue and lead much of the race.
Stacy hit the pits to have his crew scurry over the car and remove the flapping sheet metal.
Stacy not only got back on track, but he built a one-lap lead over second place Mike Klapak. He was walking the dog on the field and headed for victory. Until...
With six laps to go, Stacy's #2 Chevy stumbled. He was out of gas. He coasted around with a push assist from Dick Linder. By the time he returned to action, however, Klapak had unlapped himself and taken the lead. He led the remaining laps to capture the win. Even with all he endured, Stacy still managed to finish second.
I found a series of remarkable pictures showing the progressive damage Stacy's car went through. How in the world that thing continued is beyond me.
Based on the race report, 42 drivers started the race with 23 finishing it. UltimateRacingHistory.com only includes the top 20 finishers.
| Fin | Driver |
| 1 | Mike Klapak |
| 2 | Nelson Stacy |
| 3 | Gordon Gorman |
| 4 | Les Scott |
| 5 | Virgil Barbe |
| 6 | Iggy Katona |
| 7 | Walt Boslough |
| 8 | Bob Pronger |
| 9 | Dudley Stacy |
| 10 | Wimpy May |
| 11 | Jim Findley |
| 12 | Dick Linder |
| 13 | Pappy Hough |
| 14 | Paul Wensink |
| 15 | Bill Cornwall |
| 16 | Lou Fegers |
| 17 | Jack Lawrence |
| 18 | Norm Whitmeyer |
| 19 | Russ Hepler |
| 20 | Mario Rossi |
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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 05/18/17 12:43:57PM