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Racing History Minute - September 10, 1978

Stock Car Racing History

The late Richmond restaurateur and part time driver Sonny Hutchins was one tough hombre in both a NASCAR Modified and NASCAR Late Model Sportsman.

After setting a new NASCAR LMS track record and winning the Harvest 150 pole in Richmond car builder Emanuel Zervakis ' always pristine baby blue #01 against NASCAR's best weekly racers at half-mile Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway on Friday afternoon, September 9, 1978, Sonny Hutchins ventured south across the James River to Richmond's other NASCAR venue, the third-mile Southside Speedway.

At Southside Speedway, on the same Friday night he'd set the afternoon Richmond Fairgrounds LMS qualifying record, Sonny proceeded to give NASCAR's youngsters another driving lesson around "The Toughest Track in the South" - winning the Tobaccoland 200 NASCAR LMS go.

At the time of his twin Richmond LMS successes, Sonny was already 49 years old!

I have two questions for those who might know:

1) Has NASCAR ever scheduled activities in the same division on the same day at two different tracks in the same city besides Richmond like they did on September 9, 1978?

2) Maybe former NASCAR inspector Mike Sykes can answer this one. Were the Late Model Sportsman cars that qualified at the Fairgrounds on Friday at Richmond impounded, or did the very same cars race Friday night at Southside Speedway and then return to the Fairgrounds?

Racing History Minute - September 10, 1978

Stock Car Racing History

The Harvest 150 LMS race was originally scheduled for Saturday, September 9, 1978 - the day the story below ran in the Fredericksburg paper:

Racing History Minute - September 10, 1978

Stock Car Racing History

This program cover and the bulk of the program was produced by "NASCAR Programs" in Daytona, with a wrap of local info and ads inside. Note the Daytona experts misspelled the race name. Should be CapitAl City 300 as in the Capital City of Virginia, not CapitOl, as in the Capitol Building. That was an oft made NASCAR error. Also, the word Speedway was never in the venue's title. It was always Raceway. A double whammy from the folks in Daytona. At least NASCAR Programs got the Winston pack right on the cover and didn't have a photo of the Richmond produced Marlboros which shared Winston's red & white livery!

Racing History Minute - September 10, 1978

Stock Car Racing History

It was just two months after the Richmond race that the car bomb was found wired to Jim Stacy's personal auto, as reported by the Spartanburg paper:

Racing History Minute - September 10, 1978

Stock Car Racing History

I am sad to say that I did not drive up from Wilson, NC to Richmond for the 1978 Capital City 400. My loss. I sure missed a barn burner. Hope Ray Lamm, Dennis Garrett or Woody Delbridge may have photos they can post.

Darrell Waltrip has always been loathed in Richmond. It all dated back to 1973 when he and local favorite Lennie Pond campaigned for Rookie of the Year and DW ran into the big Baxter Price fire at Richmond, then had ugly things to say when NASCAR named Lennie Rookie of the Year over him.

The only thing I ever heard at Richmond louder than the crowd booing Darrell Waltrip was the same crowd cheering Richard Petty.

The late Kenneth Campbell at Richmond told me they were literally seriously in fear of Darrell's physical safety trying to get out of the track. Although escorted by Henrico County Police officers, Darrell and wife Stevie were surrounded in their rental vehicle by angry race fans as they drove out of the Richmond infield and around the campground. Henrico County Police provided an escort all the way to the airport for DW and Stevie.

They experienced the ultimate in Richmond hospitality... being "escorted" out of town!

I had completely forgotten that Neil Bonnett took a 14 race ride in the Rod Osterlund entry the second half of 1978 that would soon be made famous by Dale Earnhardt.

Hope TMC-Chase can do better than me, but here are some Associated Press and United Press International stories in varying forms from newspapers in Fredericksburg, St. Petersburg, Toledo, Sarasota and Tuscaloosa.

I think the best line in any of the stories tells of "friends encouraging " Neil to retire to his trailer rather than continue toward victory lane after DW.

Of, course, we all know who would soon become teammates in Budweiser cars at Junior Johnson's and each have an extremely violent encounter with the Richmond backstretch guardrail.

From 1985:

A year later, in 1986, after getting his cage rattled by Dale Earnhardt, DW would hit the Richmond rail in the same spot, leading to Kyle Pettyy's first Cup win.

and the winner for the spinner is Ryan Newman

Current NASCAR

Abbott & Costello "explain" Brian France's "Chase."

and the winner for the spinner is Ryan Newman

Current NASCAR

"You do the Hokey Pokey and YOU SPIN YOURSELF AROUND ... That's what it's all about!!"

and the winner for the spinner is Ryan Newman

Current NASCAR

NAPA Know How

and the winner for the spinner is Ryan Newman

Current NASCAR

I'm speculating Clint's crew mistakenly added several bottles of that 5-Hour Energy goop to his fuel supply, causing such a surge of power that poor Clint lost traction coming off #4 resulting in him losing it. Or maybe Clint drank so much of that 5-Hour stuff that he had brain freeze in the closing laps. Just an inadvertent error, I'm sure.

and the winner for the spinner is Ryan Newman

Current NASCAR

Now, we need for Brian France and Lesa Kennedy to call up Fox Sports and suggest that two Waltrips in the race telecast booth are two too many.