Racing History Minute - March 24, 1974

The 1974 NASCAR season was one in which NASCAR, in its infinite wisdom, decreed that if you ran a "big" engine in your race car, say 426 or 427, you had to use a smaller carburetor than those choosing to run366, you could run a bigger carb. The numbers, of course, refer to cubic inch displacement. The larger the carb, or course, the more gas you use, right? WRONG. The smaller carbs were fast with the smaller cubic inch engines, but the the smaller carbs gulped gasoline much faster than the big blocks.

This morning we go to Atlanta International Raceway for the "Atlanta 500". David Pearson, driving a 351 c.i.d. engine in the Wood Brothers Mercury, won the pole with a speed of 159.242 mph. Gary Bettenhausen, who recently passed away, put a Matador in second starting slot with a 366 c.i.d. engine. Benny Parsons would start third in the L.G. DeWitt Chevrolet, Buddy Baker fourth in the K&K Insurance Dodge. It was Baker's first start of the year as Nord Krauskopf, the owner of Baker's ride, had withdrawn his car in a feud with NASCAR over the carburetor rules.

A crowd of 45,000 showed up for the actual 450 mile race. The race was shorten due to the gasoline crisis in the country. Those fans would see NO leader for the first 32 laps because those were the laps that were included in the race but not actuallyrun in order to meet the required 10% reduction in distance to appease the people in the country who believed stock car racing was using precious gasoline without ever giving thought to the amount of fuel required for those jets to fly the NFL teams across the country. So, for the record, there was NO leader for the first 32 laps of this race.

When the race became "officially contested on lap 33, it was David Pearson running out front until lap 82 when he pitted. Dan Daughtry took over for one lap, then Coo Coo Marlin for a lap. Grant Adcox would pace the field from lap 85 to 90 and then Pearson took over once more. Richard Petty would lead laps 110 - 126 before Grant Adcox took over again for 2 laps.

Next man to the front was Charlie Glotzbach who led 10 laps before Pearson once more went back to the front. Pearson would lead laps 137 to 190 and then it was Cale Yarborough in the big block, big carburetor Chevrolet taking over on lap 191 but only 3 laps later it was Charlie Glotzbach back out front. On lap 196, Pearson took over again and was pulling away lap after lap, building up a huge lead over second place Yarborough. On lap 244, Pearson hit the pits for four tires and a full tank of gasoline.

Just laps after Pearson pitted, Carl Adams looped his Richard Mummert Ford bringing out the caution flag. This caution flag put Cale in a lap by himself. When the green was displayed after Adams had righted his ride, Pearson was literally driving the wheels off the Mercury chasing Cale. Pearson was moving up, got back into the same lap with Cale but his only hope was for another caution. Unfortunately, there was no late race "debris" caution so Pearson was unable to run down Yarborough.

Cale said afterwards "I had given up winning on Friday. I knew there was no way to beat him and that small engine unless he broke. He didn't break but we sure had a lot of luck. I don't like these rules. The little engines have such a big advantage that it isn't fair".

Returning a second to Gary Bettenhausen, he finished 9th in the race, which is remarkable as he made twice the number of pit stops as those 8 guys in front of him. He was experiencing tire issues with the Matador that required those unscheduled stops.

The race was slowed by three caution flags for a total of 24 laps which kept the average speed to 136.910 mph. With the odd point system in play during the 1974 season, Petty left Atlanta leading Yarborough by 5.91 points. Third place Bobby Allison was 166.41 points behind Petty.

Finishing order:

1. Cale Yarborough, Richard Howard Chevrolet, $18,650.00

2. David Pearson, Wood Brothers Mercury, $9,950.00 (21.7 seconds behind)

3. Buddy Baker, K&K Insurance Dodge, $8,650.00 (1 lap down)

4.George Follmer, Bud Moore Ford, $7,300.00 (1 lap down)

5. Donnie Allison, DiGard Chevrolet, $4,150.00 (2 laps down)

6. Richard Petty

7. Darrell Waltrip

8. Bob Burcham

9. Gary Bettenhausen

10. Lennie Pond

11. Charlie Glotzbach

12. James Hylton

13.Earl Ross

14. David Sisco

15.J. D. McDuffie

16. Jackie Rogers

17.Frank Warren

18. Carl Adams

19. Joe Frasson

20. Dave Marcis

21. Roy Mayne

22. Ed Negre

23. Jim Hurtubise

24. Dick Brooks

25. Grant Adcox

26. Bobby Allison

27. Richard Childress

28.Coo Coo Marlin

29. Benny Parsons

30. G. C. Spencer

31. John Martin

32. Dan Daughtry

33. Jody Ridley

34. Cecil Gordon

35. Travis Tiller

36. Richie Panch

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

Race program

Earl Ross getting pit service

Cale enjoying the perks of Victory Lane

As was the case with so many wins by Junior Johnson's teams, Herb Nab was right there with him.

Race report from Florence AL's Times-TriCities Daily

The race was featured in the August 1974 issue of Stock Car Racing magazine. If someone still has that issue, perhaps it has some additional pics that could be scanned and shared here.

King Richard does a bit of work as he tries to find more speed in his big block Dodge.

I can bore you with lots of photos from this race. Although we were in the stands this was the first Cup race where I had a good camera, and I put it to use!

One significant statistical note - when Gary B. qualified the Matador in second position it would be the first front row start in a Cup race for Roger Penske as a team owner.

My ticket stub:

Gary B and the Silver Fox during the pre-race parade

The front row rolls off

This would be rows five and six

They didn't roll off in order - Bobby started 13th, RC 16th

Then we have the 15th, 17th, and 20th place starters (Brooks, Waltrip, and Frasson)

The first five rows follow the Matador pace car

The pace car is almost at start / finish while the field is almost perfectly aligned in three and four

DW pits

Coo Coo pits

Frank Warren and George Follmer

Donnie and Richard pit in tandem

Pearson and Baker get service

Gary B in for a stop. Penske and Donohue can both be seen behind the wall along with inspector Stan Starr at the LF corner

Dude, great pics! We never missed a race at (Atlanta International Raceway) in those days and there is nothing boring about reliving those memories. I miss those days, when race cars looked like real cars...and the 43 was a threat every Sunday.

Ditto.

Russ, those are some awesome photos!!!!! Thanks for adding those to this post. I am looking over all those infield shots because somewhere out there would be me and the boys. I'll keep looking because these old eyes, even with my magnifying glass aren't doing such a good job. Whether or not I can find my crew, those pictures are just incredible.

Bump - especially for those folks who didn't see Russ Thompson's great pics the first time around

I'm kinda embarrassed with those photos. They are from negs that were scanned years ago. I have actually rescanned them since I posted those. All the ones above and more that I shot that day can be seen in better quality at this link

Thanks for the new photo link, Russ. It always amazed me how much money track promoters wasted on loud speakers as evidenced in several of your shots. Track announcers gave a lap by lap running commentary during races that nobody could decipher unless the field was under caution.