Racing History Minute - September 10, 1978

Yes, I know we just did a race at Richmond for yesterday's minute, but I really thought I should use this one for today for two reasons:

1. Dave Fulton was probably in attendance at this race and can add significant insight to what went on.

2. Two names, Richmond and Waltrip, play big in his"Minute" and as those two names are all the talk today in NASCAR, how much more appropriate!

The "Capital City 400" was run at the then .542 mile paved Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway on this date in 1978. Darrell Waltrip captured the pole in his DiGard Chevrolet with Bobby Allison in a Bud Moore Ford taking second. Third qualifier was Neil Bonnett ina Rod Osterlund Chevrolet, fourth was Dave Dion in his OWN Ford and fifth was Richard Petty in the Petty Enterprises Chevrolet.

D.W. led the first 51 laps before Dave Marcis took over in another Osterlund Chevy. Dave led on lap then Lennie Pond took the lead for one lap before Neil Bonnett moved out front on lap 54 where he would stay until lap 181. It was D.W. on lap 182, Bobby Allison on lap 183, and then D.W. back out front for six laps. Neil Bonnett took over first place again on lap 191 and would stay there until lap 264. Richard Petty led 274 to 285 then Bonnett went back in front until lap 342 when Bobby Allison took over on Bonnett's pit stop. Bobby Allison led laps 343 to 384 before Neil again regained the lead. Bonnett was leading with 6 laps to go when the "Waltrip" move was made to take the lead and win the race.

On lap 392, Bonnett, Waltrip and Bobby Allison were running bumper to bumper when D.W. bumped Bonnett going into turn one. Once was not enough to Waltrip as he continued to slam into the Bonnett machine until D.W. literally forced Neil into the guard rail, ending Neil's chances for the win. But in his haste to dispose of Bonnett, D.W. allowed Bobby Allison to slip under both those cars and into the lead. Waltrip caught Allison and anticipating the likelihood that Allison was more into retaliation for such actions, D.W. passed him without incident to win the race by a 1 second margin.

As the cars pulled into the pits after the checkers, Neil Bonnett headed down pit road and slammed into D.W.'s Chevy. NASCAR official Dick Beaty was forced to jump the guard rail to get out of the way and suffered "minor" injuries.

The microphone was in front of D.W. in Victory Lane when he said "When I passed Neil, I was on the inside and he was on the outside. It think it's pretty poor strategy when he doesn't move up. He actually cut into me". The crowd of some 18,000 seemed to see it differently and booed Waltrip loudly and kept it up for quite sometime completely drowning out the rest of the D.W. Victory Lane interview.

An hour later, the press was interviewing Bonnett and he said, speaking of D.W., "he got into me at the start-finish line and carried me all the way tothe first turn barrier. I don't drive dirty like that. I don't like it when it's done to me". D. W., in typical Waltrip Wisdom responded "I suppose Neil has a right to be upset, I guess I would be too. But I try to win the race any way I can. I don't like to be booted but I'm not going to let it bother me and it won't change the way I drive".

It was apparent that the crowd of 18,000 was peeved (putting it lightly) and D.W. had to have a police escort to the press box for continued post race interviews.

Bill France, Jr. immediately placed both Waltrip and Bonnett of "probation" and stated there was the possibility of fines and/or loss of points and that "strong action" would be taken if anything happened between the drivers in the future.

Top five finishers:

1. Darrell Waltrip, DiGard Chevrolet, winning $13,800.00

2. Bobby Allison, Bud Moore Ford, winning $8,800.00

3. Neil Bonnett,Rod Osterlund Chevrolet, winning $6,575.00

4. Cale Yarborough, Junior Johnson Oldsmobile, winning $6,450.00(1 lap down)

5. Dick Brooks, Junie Donlevey Ford, winning $3,300.00 (3 laps down)

Sixth through tenth were Benny Parsons, Terry Labonte, J.D. McDuffie, Dave Marcis and Roger Hamby. Richard Childress came home 11th, Lennie Pond 12th, Jimmy Means 13th, Ronnie Thomas 14th, Dick May 15th, Buddy Arrington 16th, Cecil Gordon 17th, James Hylton 18th, Joey Arrington 18th and Richard Petty 20th.

Gary Myers finished 21st, Frank Warren 23rd, Dave Dion 26th, and Ed Negre finished 30th and last as only 30 cars started the race.

Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future

Coincidentally, David Allio's  picture of the day was from this race. He shared this shot of Cale Yarborough's battle scarred Oldsmobile on pit road.

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.

Seems like multiple times each season in recent years one or more drivers are put on "probation" for some event. Based on this news clipping, DW's and Bonnett's probation were the first instances of it since 1966. How in the world the writer (or NASCAR) would even know that info is beyond me.

DW boastfully told about his rough and tumble days at Nashville - and made no apologies for doing what it took to when the race.

September 10, 1978 was also the date of the tragic accident that claimed the life of F1 driver Ronnie Peterson. He was caught in a wreck at the start of the Italian Grand Prix and caught fire. He was dragged from the car with minimal burns but with multiple fractures of his legs. However, he remained conscious throughout the ordeal. But some questionable calls by race stewards and attending physicians delayed the right treatment he needed. Overnight, his systems shut down and he passed away the next day.

Neat shot of front few cars on the starting grid. Bobby Allison starting 2nd, Neil 3rd, Dion 4th and King 5th.

Photo credit with permission: John Evanich

Interesting that Neil Bonnett was racing a #5 Osterlund Chevy. Jim Stacy and Harry Hyde parted ways before that summer's Firecracker 400 race. Stacy had the doors to his shop padlocked. And he had to rent a ride for Bonnett for all but one of the remaining races. Included in this string of races was the Dixie 500 at Atlanta when Osterlund fielded three cars for Dave Marcis, Dale Earnhardt and Bonnett. How ironic then that Stacy somehow got more money within a couple of years and bought that same Osterlund team in 1981.

Source: Spartanburg Herald Journal

I was just discussing this very race with my good friend Dave Dion a few days ago. Great timing on the story.

Wish I had been there to see Neil "protect" his turf with the rear slam.....have at it boys, even if in the pits. lol

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:

Program cover from Mike Ettinger

A view through the fence of the starting grid. Waltrip and Bobby Allison on the front row. Bonnett starting 3rd behind Waltrip. Petty starting 5th behind Bonnett. - Brian Yezierski

Dave Dion racing Tommy Gale - Craig Bontrager

Butch Lindley won the Harvest 150 late model sportsman companion race. Based on this news blurb from the Free Lance Star , the race was held on Sunday - the same day as the Cup event. I'm not sure if the LMS race was originally scheduled that way - or if it was perhaps postponed from Saturday because of rain.

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!

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

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?

Sonny Hutchins had already won the February 1978 Eastern 150 NASCAR Late Model Sportsman race at Richmond Fairgrounds in which he wrecked Dale Earnhardt enroute to the checkers.

Following his big March 1978 win in Martinsville's Dogwood 500 in which Sonny wrecked and rattled Earnhardt's cage a second time ( Bill McPeek will note Dave Dion also involved) , the then 48 year old about to turn 49 Hutchins granted an interview with Roy Dunn of the Free Lance Star in which he credited his car owner Emanuel Zervakis and his team for his extended success at such an advanced age for a race car driver:

Dave, Great report. Sonny must have been one heck of a man and a driver to sweep the weekend against that level of competition. Next time I see Dave Dion I'll ask him about E sr. getting a nudge from the senior section...old guys rule.....lol

The two back-to-back 1978 Hutchins, Earnhardt dustups made the auto racing book Imagine That by former UNOCAL official, Don Finke as excerpted below: