The 1965 National 400 was held at Charlotte on October 17th. One of the weekend's prelim events was a 250-mile modified-sportsman race on Saturday. Lee Roy Yarbrough was flagged as the winner but was then DQ'd. Ralph Earnhardt was awarded the win. This race recently got a lot of posts about it on RR here:
http://racersreunion.com/jack-walker/gallery/36009/charlotte-results-m-s-oct-161965
But another prelim race was held on Saturday following the modified-sportsman race. Ed Otto - ever the promoter - even after being booted from NASCAR by Big Bill - was still active in racing. He promoted a series of drag races down a 1/8 mile track at Charlotte. Though I'm unsure the exact location, my guess would be CMS's pit road was set up as the strip.
The marquis race of the slate was to be a best-of-3 match race between Richard Petty in his 43 Jr. Plymouth Barracuda and his stock car rival from the early 60s, Fred Lorenzen.
Though the King had returned to NASCAR GN racing, he wasn't entered in the big races. Chrysler and NASCAR had come to terms mid-season enough that the Plymouth and Dodge teams could resume racing. But they were basically limited to running in the remaining short track events. Superspeedways were off limits.
Lorenzen arrived for the match with some racing momentum. He had won the pole for the National 400, and the drag race was standing between him and Sunday's 400-miler. He raced a Ford Mustang prepared by Dick Brannan. I believe the car he raced was like this Stark Hickey Ford sponsored gold Mustang.
For the first race, 43 Jr. got a great jump on Lorenzen, and Petty won easily. In race two, Petty missed a shift. The little hiccup was just enough to let Fast Freddy slip by for the win. In the deciding 'rubber match' third race, Petty's crew realized the Barracuda's engine was losing oil pressure. 43 Jr. was withdrawn from the race. Lorenzen was given the match win via forfeit, but he made his run down the strip anyway. During his solo run, he too apparently damaged the engine in his Ford.
Was all of it on the up and up? Or was it all just a show with a pre-determined outcome arranged by Otto to entertain the fans? Dunno though I'd like to think both drivers and teams legitimatelyprepared and raced.
Though I haven't been able to find any news clippings about the race, the inaugural, May 1966 issue of Stock Car Racing magazine had a 2 page layout about it.
Lorenzen had a huge weekend. He won the pole for the GN race, inherited the drag match race, battled with A.J. Foyt during the 400, and took the checkers ahead of Dick Hutcherson and Curtis Turner.
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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 10/16/17 11:53:40AM
