One of his greatest allies was a fellow North Carolinian, some guy known as “The Intimidator.” Dale Earnhardt assisted J.D.’s lonely struggle several times, even to the point of donating the winnings from pre-race poker games to McDuffie Racing. There was a time at Pocono when McDuffie’s only engine went sour prior to the race. He approached Earnhardt about borrowing an engine for the weekend. Dale readily obliged and J.D. made the field for the Sunday’s race. Whenever J.D. tried to return the engine, Dale would wave him off, promising to get it later. J.D.’s wife Jean recalled a similar situation at Daytona.

J.D. was on the edge of qualifying for the race, so Earnhardt passed the hat around the garage. He raised enough money to buy another engine for McDuffie Racing. Unfortunately, as Jean tells it, “That engine wasn’t any faster than the one J.D. had, so it wasn’t much help. But he appreciated the effort.”

The admiration for J.D.’s resilience went beyond the other NASCAR teams. Jean remembers seeing volunteers at every track who were ready to pitch in with anything the number 70 car might need. “He never had to ask,” she says.

The volunteers’ faces are too numerous to recall and their names are obscured by the passage of time. But there was one man, known as “Big John,” who stands out in Jean’s memory. He was “Big John” in both strength and stature, and he helped pit McDuffie’s car at the California races. “I can still see him,” Jean says, “walking through the garage with a mounted tire and wheel in each hand.”

"....J.D.'s.... knowledge of race cars might’ve made him another Richard Childress..."

For all the help received from willing fans and other race teams, J.D. himself was arguably his best and most dependable asset. McDuffie was an excellent mechanic and his knowledge of race cars might’ve made him another Richard Childress. Don Rumple—son of the late Tom Rumple, founder of McDuffie sponsor Rumple Furniture—saw J.D.’s expertise firsthand. “He was a great mechanic who would’ve made a good crew chief,” says Don. “But J.D. liked to do his thing and was happiest behind the wheel.”


Don remembers an incident in the garage at Daytona that highlights not only J.D.’s mechanical abilities but also the hardships he faced and the resourcefulness that kept him going. Maybe you remember how your grandpa taught you to straighten a bent nail. You roll it slowly and tap it with a hammer until the shank is again true. Don witnessed J.D. using that principle on a much larger scale.

McDuffie had bent his car’s rear axle during a practice session. The better financed teams would’ve tossed the damaged part in the scrap heap. But that wasn’t an option in the McDuffie Racing stable. When Don Rumple poked his head inside the garage stall there sat his driver gripping a borrowed torch. The bent axle lay over a couple of old tires and J.D. was heating the metal, rolling the axle and banging it with his hammer. Eventually, the axle was as straight as your grandfather’s nail and the McDuffie Pontiac raced on it that weekend.