Racing History Minute - 1977 Winston-Western 500

The first race of the 1977 season was the annual event at the nine turn road course in Riverside, California. However, this would NOT be a 500 mile event lasting over 5 hours as the race had been reduced to 311.78 miles. A crowd of 60,000 would show up to make this one of the largest crowds to attend the January season starter.

Cale Yarborough would capture the pole in his Junior Johnson Chevrolet at a speed of 112.686 mph. David Pearson would line up in second place driving the Wood Brothers Mercury. Darrell Waltrip in the DiGard Chevrolet would start third, Jimmy Insolo in a Chevy fourth and Dave Marcis in a Roger Penske Chevrolet fifth.

Pearson led lap one but a very hard charging Cale Yarborough put the "chicken machine" in front on lap 2 and he was gone, leaving a trail of chicken feathers behind him. Cale would maintain the lead until lap 103 when he got into some sand on turn eight while holding a 5 second lead on Pearson. Cale looped the Chevrolet but quickly got back on course in hot pursuit of the Mercury driven by Pearson. Cale could not make up the distance in the laps remaining and would finish in second place, nine seconds behind Pearson.

Cale said afterwards that "I got into some sand and dirt of the track and that contributed to my spin". David said " Cale messed up and that helped, but I was catching him before he spun. I'm not saying I would have won if he hadn't spun, but it would have been close".

Before giving the finishing order, we should note that Richard Childress was driving his own Chevrolet and finished a strong sixth. Neil Bonnett made his first start in what was formerly the K&K Insurance Dodge but now known as the Nord Krauskopf Dodge but Neil did not adapt well to the road course and finished some 17 laps behind the winner. Bobby Allison was in his own independent Matador which had enjoyed success at Riverside but this time managed to blow the engine on the third lap leaving Bobby to finish dead last in the event.

Jimmy Insolo, a west coast driver of great repute, qualified fourth but managed on four laps before the engine blew in his independent Chevrolet and he finished 34th.

Leaving California and heading to Daytona, Cale and David were tied for the points lead and Cale actually won more money at Riverside finishing second than did David for winning.

Finishing order:

1. David Pearson, Wood Brothers Mercury, winning $15,400.00

2. Cale Yarborough, Junior Johnson Chevrolet, winning $16,220.00 (9 seconds back)

3. Richard Petty, Petty Enterprises Dodge, winning $11,095.00 (1 lap down)

4. Dave Marcis, Roger Penske Chevrolet, winning $8,645.00 (3 laps down)

5. Sonny Easley, Haddrick Ford, winning $6,290.00 (4 laps down)

6. Richard Childress

7. Hershel McGriff

8. Hugh Pearson

9. Darrell Waltrip

10. Eddie Bradshaw

11. Cecil Gordon

12. Buddy Baker

13. Chuck Bown

14. James Hylton

15. D. K. Ulrich

16. Jim Thirkettle

17. Neil Bonnett

18.Bobby Wawak

19. Bill Schmidt

20. Gary Johnson

21. Benny Parsons

22. Roy Smith

23. Norm Palmer

24. Gary Matthews

25. Frank Warren

26.Chuck Wahl

27.Ed Negre

28. Bill Baker

29.J. D. McDuffie

30. Don Puskarich

31. Carl Joiner

32. Henley Gray

33. Glen Francis

34. Jimmy Insolo

35. Bobby Allison

PERSONAL NOTE: The reduction in distance of this race at Riverside was, in my opinion, the first acknowledgement by NASCAR that fans weren't willing to sit more than 5 hours to watch a small portion of the road course they could see from the stands. As our previous History Minutes have stated, the 500 miles lasted five hours or more.This event lasted 2 hours 54 minutes and 46 seconds. The average speed was 107.038 which was NOT slowed by a single caution. Whether it was Winston or NASCAR that made the determination to shorten the event is not of importance. I think racing at Riverside was usually great and having the road course was good for the sport, but I can see it getting out of hand for some fans. But then I have to consider that football games are timed events to last ONE hour with the clock stopping and starting. So, go figure that the average football game exceeds three hours (something networks can't seem to grasp when setting scheduling).

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

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What a change! It's been awhile since I've checked in and I'm quite surprised. It may take me awhile to figure it our but first look it's really great.


updated by @tim-leeming: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM

I think the five hour length was a culturaql difference between the stiock car and sports car factions. I don't know if it's still true, but back in the day sports car events ran from about 9 am to 5pm. Frequent Riverside attendees probably expected all day entertainment.The difference is that sports car racing put on ten to twelve different races in those eight hours. I think the current four hour NASCAR events are too long and I'm usually watching on TV and can see the whole track and go make a sandwich when I'm hungry. There's no way I could tolerate watching a five hour race, especially with limited visibility.But that's another thing. You spend your whole day in your seat watching an oval race. Road race fans often wander around the infield to various spots on the track to see the action there. Having a long race gives you time to hit all of the hot spots.Whenever someone tells me that football players are athletes and race drivers are not, I just laugh. The average football player is active for fifteen minutes spread out over three hours. I think even I can manage that at my advanced age. Compare that to a driver who spends three hours in a hundred degree cabin with a fifteen second pause every 45 minutes. Who has a harder workout?

Race program from Motor Sports Programme Covers

Pearson' win over Cale was the lead story for the January 19th issue of National Speed Sport News (thx to Russ Thompson for the cover page)

And Pearson's win was featured in the May 1977 issue of Stock Car Racing - though coverage of the race took a back seat to that year's Speedweeks events. But if someone has the issue, would be good if they could scan and share any good pics or articles from it here.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 01/16/17 03:40:55PM

The Silver Fox in victory lane - from The Reading Eagle

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

Race report from Reading Eagle

Bobby Allison's day in the Matador ended early - and spectacularly. I'd like to find a better version of this image.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 01/16/17 03:41:14PM

The first race I ever attended at Rockingham (on the low banked, original Rockingham configuration) - the March 1966 Peach Blossom 500 - took 4 Hours, 59 Minutes, 55 Seconds to complete with an average speed of 100.027 mph. That was quite a change from the 2 1/2 hour 300 lap dirt track races I'd been going to at Richmond.

Worse though, was being caught in the Dover infield when your car crashed out or had mechanical failure early in one of the 500-mile Dover marathons. There was no infield tunnel to get out of the place and the races just went on and on and on.

3 hours is an excellent time length to shoot for when scheduling a major stock car race and a number the televesion networks can easily work with.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Ivan Baldwin won the preliminary Permatex 300 LMS race on Saturday, January 15. Race report from The Bakersfield Californian by long-time west coast writer Owen Kearns, who later became the communications director for NASCAR's truck series. Owen is still around. He is on Twitter at @1oldtrucker.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

Couple of photos and a feature on Petty's day from the January 17 edition of the The San Bernardino County Sun.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

Based on this June 13, 1977 Redlands Daily Facts article, sounds like the 1977 Riverside Cup race was the beginning of Gary Nelson's Cup career. Though I'm not 100% certain, it's likely he was the crew chief on Baldwin's winning LMS car as he'd been the past few years. But DiGard also hired him to help the 88 crew in the Cup race, and the effort earned him a full-time job with the team.

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

There's not a nicer or more knowledgeable guy around than Owen Kearns when it comes to publicizing racing. Owen worked out of the Scott's Valley, California headquarters of NASCAR West when I first met him... which was actually the old Bob Barkheimer & Assocs. west coast race promoting organization that had been taken over by Ken Clapp. Prior to the Truck series, Owen was doing all the leg work for Winston West and the Northwest and Southwest Tour.

The day I met Owen at Seattle International Raceway in 1984, he was capitalizing on Winston West rookie,Derrike Cope's former baseball background. Owen had posed Derrike with catcher's mitt, face mask, shin guardsand chest protector catching a pack of Winstons as David Allio shot publicity photos for RJ Reynolds. I used to have a copy of that photo, but it is long gone.

Owen was so well respected by the Associated Press that he filed his own copy and agate for AP - a pretty extraordinary feat. Owen's wife, Kathy would take care of everything in the press box at Bakersfield and other places. By the way, Bakersfield was in Kearn County, California.

Every SpeedWeeks, NASCAR would bring Owen east to Daytona where he was instrumental in getting really good stuff in the hands of the press corps and doing much of the unpopular behind the scenes media grunt work. I respect Owen Kearns as much as anyone I ever met in automobile racing. Nice to seeOwen's name on the Ivan the Terrible story. Ivan, of course, later came east, hired in 1987 by Bill Elliott as a chassis expert. He stayed less than a year, unable, as many others, to get along with Ernie Elliott.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

''The truth is, Bill's a sweetheart,'' Ivan Baldwin, Elliott's crew chief in 1987, told reporters last season. ''I can't tell you about the rest of that family. I feel sorry for Bill.

''Bill is stuck between a rock and a hard, hard place. He doesn't have anyone who he can talk to. No one understands him. The best thing he could do is get away from that team.''

Orlando Sentinel

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Bump

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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.