60 Years of Cup Races at Richmond - Petty's Red Ram Dodge Took First One

Richmond International Raceway celebrates 60 years of NASCAR

By: Billy Fellin

Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: January 13, 2012

From Lee Petty piloting his Dodge to victory in 1953 on a half-mile dirt track to Kevin Harvick's win in Sept. 2011 on the track's current three-quarter-mile paved configuration, Richmond International Raceway has seen it all and will remember it all with its 60th anniversary celebration this season.

"Sixty years of NASCAR at RIR is a big deal," RIR president Dennis Bickmeier said. "It's a milestone year. We can really engage our fans about their thoughts and memories about RIR, as well as the drivers and past performers here. I think that's going to be cool to learn more stories."

Martinsville Speedway (1949) and Darlington Raceway (1950) are the only two tracks that the Sprint Cup Series currently visits that have hosted Cup events longer than Richmond.

The list of past Richmond winners includes NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty (13 times), Dale Earnhardt (five), Bobby Allison (five), Darrell Waltrip (four) and Cale Yarborough (three).

Local Richmond racing history guru Joe Kelly, co-host of "Let's Talk Racing" on WARV, remembers the first race at Richmond and can't believe it has made it to 60 years.

"It's kind of amazing to me really," he said. "When it started, we thought it was the biggest thing in the world."

Richmond's short track beating-and-banging reputation was born that day, as Kelly said both Petty's Dodge and second-place Dick Rathman's Hudson Hornet were in less than pristine condition after the finish.

"They battled each other," Kelly said. "At the end of the day, the Dodge looked like a crushed Beetle and the Hudson looked like a turtle that had lost everything but a chance."

To celebrate the track's history, Bickmeier said there are various events being scheduled for the next few months.

"We're trying to have a big event in March, a rally at the Capitol in Richmond," he said. "Literally, rally a lot of fans and drivers and NASCAR officials to really celebrate the 60 years of RIR. Obviously, the next one would be the race (in April)."

While no official plans have been announced, Bickmeier is excited about the enthusiasm of the fans in Richmond.

"The energy and the enthusiasm of the race fans in the market keep this group (the RIR staff) motivated on the promise that you are going to come here and have a good time," he said.

Kelly said another 60 years for Richmond is not out of the question.

"Another 60 years, I just think it'll be bigger," he said. "I don't know if it'll be any bigger on the track, but it'll be bigger in the grandstand."

wfellin@timesdispatch.com (804) 649-6823

NOTE from Dave : The first NASCAR race of any type in the state of Virginia was held at the Richmond dirt track in 1948 - a NASCAR Modified event.

Richard Petty, Lees son, holds virtually every major NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career record at Richmond International Raceway, including most wins (13), most poles (8 [shares record with Bobby Allison]), most top-five finishes (34), most top-10s (41), most starts (63), most consecutive starts (46), most races led (34), most laps led (5,136).

Yeah... the State Fair vendors used to staff a lot of those places with "fair" food during the Richmond races. Little Eddie's "Pronto Pup" stand was always my favorite. Little Eddie was son-in-law of the late Joe Balducci, owner of Richmond Concessionaires and one-time Southside Speedway promoter.

PK, Back in the 50s & 60s, before they became the high fashion business they are today, one of my classmates' family ran Hoffman's Lunches - a lunch truck business with a huge fleet of Lunch Trucks that showed up all over Richmond at lunch time at manufacturing and warehouse facilities and any place with a loading dock. That Italian Sausage sandwich you and Jim describe was their specialty. I became familiar with the trucks during my summer jobs during high school at a wholesale automotive parts warehouse. Never thought one day they'd be on the Food Network and all over the newspapers. To us, they were convenient and had good food.

I truly enjoyed this Dave! Thanks so much for putting it up.

Why is my stomach rumbling?

You know me all too well!

Holy cow. This is great. The first few seconds show a still photo of the 1957 convertible race. If that is indeed the case, this is a home run for me as a Petty fan. In the 57 rag top race at Richmond, Johnny Dodson drove the white #88 Petty Engineering Oldsmobile. The race was the 1st of seven convertible races Dodson raced for PE - all in 1957 and represented all of his starts in the convertible series. He also made 15 career GN starts - one of which was for the Pettys. Very, very cool.

A season later, in the March 23, 1958 NASCAR Convertible race, Gwyn Staley would become the only fatality in the history of the Richmond track when he rolled his car going into turn 1.

NASCAR Convertible race
Richmond International Raceway, Richmond, VA
April 7, 1957
200 laps on 0.5 mile dirt oval; 100 miles

Fin St Driver # Owner Car Laps Money Status
1 4 Glen Wood 21 Wood Brothers 1956 Ford Convertible 200 500 running
2 5 Curtis Turner 26 Pete DePaolo 1957 Ford Convertible 199 425 blew tire
3 8 Bobby Myers 1A Whitey Norman 1956 Ford Convertible 199 350 running
4 15 Roger Baldwin 10 Roger Baldwin 1956 Ford Convertible 194 300 running
5 17 Larry Frank 76 Lonnie Fish 1956 Chevrolet Convertible 193 250 running
6 11 Jimmy Massey 33 Hubert Westmoreland 1957 Plymouth Convertible 185 225 running
7 10 Joe Weatherly 12 Pete DePaolo 1957 Ford Convertible 184 185 accident
8 14 Ewell Weddle 2 1956 Chevrolet Convertible 180 165 running
9 20 Bill Poor 711 Bill Poor 1956 Chevrolet Convertible 179 150 running
10 9 Johnny Dodson 88 Petty Engineering 1957 Oldsmobile Convertible 179 150 hub
11 1 Possum Jones 48 Hugh Babb 1957 Chevrolet Convertible 175 150 engine
12 23 Shep Langdon 78 Lonnie Fish 1956 Chevrolet Convertible 173 150 running
13 12 Billy Rafter 41 C.M. Julian 1956 Dodge Convertible 171 135 running
14 22 Neil Castles 55 Neil Castles 1956 Ford Convertible 171 125 running
15 21 Dave Terrell 9 Dave Terrell 1957 Chevrolet Convertible 168 100 running
16 2 Ken Rush 75 Frank Hayworth 1956 Mercury Convertible 154 100 engine
17 7 Al Tasnady 44 Al Tasnady 1957 Plymouth Convertible 136 100 axle
18 16 Charlie Cregar 505 Charlie Cregar 1957 Plymouth Convertible 124 100 overheating
19 18 James Jones 19 James Jones 1956 Ford Convertible 122 75 overheating
20 6 Bob Welborn 49 Hugh Babb 1957 Chevrolet Convertible 82 50 engine
21 19 Eddie Hughes 18 1956 Ford Convertible 79 50 engine
22 13 Gwyn Staley 34 Hubert Westmoreland 1957 Plymouth Convertible 52 50 wheel bearing
23 3 Darel Dieringer 35 John Whitford 1957 Ford Convertible 36 accident

And, lest we forget, Richmond remains the only NASCAR venue where 3 generations of the same family have posted Cup wins. Lee, Richard and Kyle Petty all won at Richmond. I don't see that feat being equaled in my lifetime.

Kyle was smart enough to slow down, unlike Geoff(rey) Bodine and Joe Ruttman who continued to drive into turn 3 full bore and spin out and wreck in the already litter strewn turn. One of them should have been the winner. I'll give Kyle the nod for having the sense to slow down when the track was blocked, unlike the other two blockheads ahead of him after Dale did the deed to Darrell. Kinda like Richard winning the Daytona 500 when Cale & Donnie decided to crash each other, except they didn't have two more cars that failed to slow behind them and also crash. I was in that Victory Lane and regardless of how the win came about, I can tell you the Wood Family was happy and so was Kyle.

You are zaccly right PK. We were the most surprised people in the world to win. In this little snippet below that's me in the red jacket and mustache in Victory Lane with Kyle when the video opens. Grand National Scene Newspaper actually printed a photo of Kyle kissing me in victory lane! I took a lot of flack over that!

Staley was also driving a Petty ragtop - albeit one owned by Julian Petty.