1968 Grand Touring Trivia

The inaugural season for the Grand Touring division was 1968. In a year full of first Tiny Lund had by far the most. First place in the first race held at Rockingham N.C in the Sandhill 250 from the pole. Tiny had the most wins for the season at 9 which included the last 3 in a row that started at Darlington, then Augusta and North Wilkesboro. When they left North Wilkesboro Tiny had the point lead with one race remaining and was in a tight battle with Buck Baker and Jack Ryan. Tiny was later declared the winnner of the points title by 30 points over Baker without the last scheduled event ever taking place.

What was that event and why was it not held?

October 12, 1968 scheduled 250 miles at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Squinting to read a news archive I'm guessing a rainout cancelled the event.

From what I can read, the entire weekend was rained out and the Tarheel 250 rescheduled for the following weekend with more rain predicted. Paul Goldsmith in a Smokey Yunick Camaro had qualified on the pole, but cars were to requalify.

Yes, the scheduled October 1968 Charlotte Tarheel 250 was rained out the 2nd time and then cancelled by Richard Howard.

Here's a story link:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=h3ZJAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SAsNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2478,5671066&dq=tarheel+250+nascar+charlotte+cancelled&hl=en

That is right Dave. The Tarheel 250 originally scheduled for Oct. 12th was postponed because of rain and was then rianed out the next weekend as well. As no suitable date for staging the event remained on the NASCAR calendar, the race was cancelled and Lund declared the winner of the points title. The one thing I do not agree with as stated in the article is that Tiny backed into the title. He missed one of the 19 races, I think because of a Grand National race, and won 9 of the 18 events he entered in Bud Moores' Mercury Cougar. If that is backing into a title I would hate to see what domination looked like.

I have to agree with you, Dennis - Tiny had a pretty stout reverse gear!

If you notice the source of the (backing into a championship ) was the (AP) they was not that sharp in those days and are not much better today.Just my opinion.