Forum Activity for @tmc-chase

Newman Still Does Not Have to Win

Current NASCAR

I leave for Homestead Friday AM - plan to take in all 3 races. For Sunday, it would seem Harvick would be the favorite. However, he has been plenty fast this season only to have something unexpected go awry. Of the other 3, I'll give the edge to Newman for one simple reason.

He legitimately chugs his Coca-Cola post-race. Hamlin and Logano just unscrew the cap and fake sips when the cameras are on. As one who has all but abandoned drinking soft drinks, I get how downing a big ol' Coke - full of salt and sugar - may not be the first thing I want to do after crawling out of a hot race car. But Newman does - and does it genuinely. Having said that, I'll take his honesty as the deciding factor over the two fakes. Ha.

My ticket collection

Stock Car Racing History

Your 'present' is tomorrow's history.

My ticket collection

Stock Car Racing History

How about scanning and uploading each of them to the photo gallery here? I've tagged several photos of programs and ticket stubs to make them easier to find. You could add to the collection

"Programs"

http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/photo/photo/listTagged?tag=programs

"Tickets"

http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/photo/photo/listTagged?tag=tickets

Well Chase Did it

General

Oh. THAT Chase. I was wondering what I was going to be blamed for this time.

Carry on.

November 7, 1976 – Dave Marcis Wins Dixie 500

Stock Car Racing History

Thx for noticing. I read over the articles a few times as I was cropping and embedding them. Looked right over the obvious answer. Case of missing forest for the trees as I composed my post last night.

November 7, 1976 – Dave Marcis Wins Dixie 500

Stock Car Racing History

Hendersonville NC's Times-News ran a nice feature on Bill Ponder Jr., a young, aspiring crewman - and one aspiring to Pharmacy degree. Ponder picked up some part-time pit work with drivers including Janet Guthrie, Johnny Rutherford (in Johnny Ray's car), and Dave Marcis. He crewed for Cecil Gordon at the 1976 Dixie 500. - Times-News

November 7, 1976 – Dave Marcis Wins Dixie 500

Stock Car Racing History

In the next to last race of the 1976 season, the Winston Cup teams rolled into Hampton GA for the running of the Dixie 500 at Atlanta International Raceway.

Buddy Baker won the pole in Bud Moore's #15 Ford. Dave Marcis qualified second in the #71 K&K Insurance Dodge previously piloted a couple of years earlier by Baker. Two giants of the sport David Pearson and Richard Petty - lined up in the second row, and Donnie Allison qualified 5th in Hoss Ellington's #1 Chevy. - Spartanburg Herald Journal

A carrot dangled before the teams was a Ski Nautique speedboat. The boat was to be awarded to the driver with the biggest improvement from qualifying to race results. Some MAY have thought of sand bagging in qualifying to nab the boat on Sunday. If so, they didn't follow through as most of the expected front runners for the race did the same during time trials. At the same time, some of the independents were unabashedly honest about their intent to nab the boat. - Lakeland Ledger

Rookie Dale Earnhardt was attempting to qualify for only his third career Cup start. Driving a Chevy fielded by owner and former driver Johnny Ray, Earnhardt struggled in the first round of qualifying. But after listening to the counsel of the King, Earnhardt nailed down the quickest lap in round two of qualifying.

Also making the show was Richie Panch, son of Marvin Panch. Richie raced the #99 Ford owned by Delbert and Diane Puro. The restoration of the car raced by Richie, Dick Trickle and Hershel McGriff was featured on Ray Evernham's show AmeriCARna.

Missing the show were Marty Robbins and Joe Frasson. I can only imagine the party those two may have led on Saturday night with nothing to do on Sunday. - From  Spartanburg Herald Journal

Georgia late model driver, Bill Elliott, started the first eight Cup races of his career in 1976. He did not enter the Atlanta race. Instead, he helped service fellow Georgian Gene Feltons car. Driving a Ford fielded by Junie Donlavey, Felton made his only career Winston Cup start in this race.

Gene Felton

Cody Dinsmore

Baker was the early rabbit leading the first 11 laps. From there a number of drivers took their turn up front including David Pearson, Marcis, Cale Yarborough and Benny Parsons. Each time Marcis took the lead though, he led a more sizable chunk of laps than the others.

Earnhardt kept his nose clean for much of the race and was poised for the accomplishment of simply finishing the race as a rookie. He accumulated several spectacular finishes in his career. But after started 16th in this race, he had a spectacular wreck with about 50 laps to go. Dick Brooks in Donlavey's primary car hit the wall, almost leapt it, hooked left back down the track and hooked Earnhardt who was hoping to just pass on by. A wild series of flips ended the day for Ralph's son.

JC Hayes

Or as the Tuscaloosa News noted about its future favorite adopted son outside of the Alabama Gang: Dale BARNHART.

Earnhardt and car builder Robert Gee re-built the car, and Ray entered it again with USAC driver Johnny Rutherford behind the wheel in February 1977 in the Daytona 500.

As the race entered its second half, the two primary combatants were Pearson and Marcis. With about 30 laps to go, Marcis was leading. A few laps later, however, Pearson in his #21 Wood Brothers Purolator Mercury slipped by Marcis 71 and led the next 14 laps. But Marcis then hammered down, passed Pearson for the final time and held the lead until he saw the checkered flag. Pearson kept Wingtip Dave honest though as Marcis won by only 2 car lengths. When the dust settled, Marcis had led 224 of the race's 328 laps - a pretty commanding performance even with several lead changes.

Marcis was obviously delighted to be in victory lane. Though he had no idea at the time, he would not visit victory lane again and for the final time - until 1982 at Richmond. - Spartanburg Herald Journal

Another driver perhaps even happier than Marcis was Yarborough. With this fourth place finish and a rotten P28 by the King, Cale locked up his first of three consecutive Winston Cup titles. - Spartanburg Herald Journal

(Click to open larger version of article in new tab.)

And who won the ski boat? I haven't found an article that mentioned who claimed it. But JD McDuffie and Bobby Wawak both improved 22 spots from their starting spot. I'm not sure the tiebreaker used, but Wawak did finish P10 to JD's 13th place finish. Felton improved 20 spots - and it would've certainly made for interesting trivia if he had towed home a boat in his only Cup start.

Finishing order

Fin	Driver	Sponsor / Owner	Car
1	Dave Marcis	K & K Insurance (Nord Krauskopf)	Dodge
2	David Pearson	Purolator (Wood Brothers)	Mercury
3	Donnie Allison	Hoss Ellington	Chevrolet
4	Cale Yarborough	Holly Farms (Junior Johnson)	Chevrolet
5	Buddy Baker	Norris Industries (Bud Moore)	Ford
6	Benny Parsons	1st National City Travelers Checks (L.G. DeWitt)	Chevrolet
7	Darrell Waltrip	Gatorade (DiGard)	Chevrolet
8	Neil Bonnett	Hawaiian Tropic (Neil Bonnett)	Chevrolet
9	Sam Sommers	M.C. Anderson	Chevrolet
10	Bobby Wawak	Gwinn-Wawak (John Gwinn)	Chevrolet
11	Bruce Hill	Howson Algraphy (Bruce Hill)	Chevrolet
12	James Hylton	Hylton Engineering (James Hylton)	Chevrolet
13	J.D. McDuffie	J.D. McDuffie	Chevrolet
14	Skip Manning	Stratagraph (Billy Hagan)	Chevrolet
15	Sonny Easley	Haddick's Towing (Jerry Lankford)	Ford
16	Gene Felton	Truxmore (Junie Donlavey)	Ford
17	Jimmy Means	WIXC (Bill Gray)	Chevrolet
18	D.K. Ulrich	Howard Johnson's (J.R. DeLotto)	Chevrolet
19	Dale Earnhardt	Hy Gain (Johnny Ray)	Chevrolet
20	Grant Adcox	Adcox-Kirby (Herb Adcox)	Chevrolet
21	Richie Panch	Delbert Puro	Ford
22	Terry Bivins	Ballard Racing (Walter Ballard)	Chevrolet
23	Cecil Gordon	Cannon Farms (Cecil Gordon)	Chevrolet
24	Lennie Pond	Pepsi-Cola (Ronnie Elder)	Chevrolet
25	Richard Childress	Kansas Jack (Richard Childress)	Chevrolet
26	Bobby Allison	CAM 2 (Roger Penske)	Mercury
27	Frank Warren	Native Tan (Frank Warren)	Dodge
28	Richard Petty	STP (Petty Enterprises)	Dodge
29	Dick Brooks	Truxmore (Junie Donlavey)	Ford
30	Coo Coo Marlin	Cunningham-Kelley (H.B. Cunningham)	Chevrolet
31	Chuck Bown	Lake's Drywall (Gerald Craker)	Chevrolet
32	Dick May	Harold Miller	Chevrolet
33	David Sisco	Red Dog's (Lou Viglione)	Chevrolet
34	Billy McGinnis	David Sisco	Chevrolet
35	G.C. Spencer	Lady & Son Auction (G.C. Spencer)	Dodge
36	Jack Donohue	Thundercraft Boat (Dean Dalton)	Chevrolet

updated by @tmc-chase: 10/25/17 12:29:13PM

A BIRTHDAY FOR RAY LAMM ? ?

Stock Car Racing History

Make it a good one Ray! Having seen prior photos of you - and having recently met you face to face, you strike me as someone who enjoys a good day every day - including your birthday.

Wonder Boy (with busted lip) Calls Bad Boy Brad a Little Dip....

Current NASCAR

The most bothersome quote from Gordon was the one he spoke of his entitlement. He spoke of his running for the win and a championship. Well, what do you think BRAD was doing Jeff? This wasn't a backmarker doing someone else's dirty work. This wasn't Ernie Irvan racing the leader hard at Darlington - even though he was laps down. The 2 had every bit as much right and responsibility to win that race as the 24 - and he TOO is running for a title. I saw nothing but hard racing on the track.

Afterwards, Jeff made a controlled exit from his car AFTER he parked it by the 2. Pit road officials knew right then the situation could get out of hand. Instead, they let Gordon head towards Brad.

Brad handled the situation well I think. He took Jeff's chirp, shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'that's racing', got his cap and was prepared to walk away for a shower and media responsibilities.

Harvick did pull the Sneaky Pete move and back shoved Brad forward to stir the pot. While there is no question he did so - and no question I laughed when I saw it - the whole situation was avoidable. NASCAR officials are the biggest liars since anyone running for political office (keeping this within ROE). They act as if punches being thrown are over the line - yet aren't willing to own the reality that this scenario could've been avoided from the time the 24 stopped on pit road. Ratings are down, interest is not where the beach suits expected it to me, and they're willing to allow a bit of fake drama to be injected. But again, if they truly wanted to prevent it they could have as Gordon came down pit road following the cool down lap.

In the end, Gordon, his entitlement beliefs and the hugging con should just move on down the line.

November 1, 1987 Winston Classic at Martinsville

Stock Car Racing History

Martinsville's fall pair of races for late models and modifieds was once known as the Cardinal 500. By 1987, the event was renamed the Winston Classic and expanded to 3 events - a 100-lap race for late models, a200 lap race for NASCAR's modifieds and a 200-lapper as the Busch Grand National series season-ending race. - Motor Racing Programme Covers

NASCAR, the Martinsville staff and the teams hoped to avoid a tragedy like the one suffered in the spring Miller 500 classic trio of races. In the modified portion of that event, Charlie Jarzombek was killed in a multi-car accident after hitting the wall with a hung throttle.

Virginian Jimmy Hensley set a track record for the Busch race by breaking the previous record set seven years earlier. Brian Ross (not the NBC news correspondent) won the pole for the Modified race, and Mark Martin won the top spot for the late model opener. - Rome News Tribune

Dennis Beck has shared several photos from the late model race on RacersReunion. Some of the starters included...

Barry Beggarly - started 2nd, finished 3rd - Dennis Beck

Phil Warren -started 4th, finished 28th - Dennis Beck

Some future stars of Cup racing participated in the late model race including...

Ward Burton - started 6th, finished 4th - Dennis Beck

Jeff Burton - started 5th, finished 2nd - Dennis Beck

Mark Martin - future teammate of Jeff Burton - ended the race where he began it: P1 - Dennis Beck

Promoters often book some odd and unique grand marshals for their races. Such was the case at the Winston Classic when McGruff the "take a bite outta crime" dog rode about in the pre-race ceremonies. - Dennis Beck

During the late model race, Ricky Dennis in car number 3 spun and nearly collected Wayne Patterson in the Pabst Blue Ribbon sponsored #14. - Dennis Beck

Coincidentally, Dale Earnhardt in his #3 Cup car also created a bit of white tire smoke about a month earlier when he got the chrome horn from a beer-sponsored Terry Labonte on the final lap of the Goodys' 500.

Martin started from the pole but didn't lead the early laps. He finally went to the point on lap 23 and stayed there for the duration of the race.

In the modified race, George Kent did things the hard way. He started 31st in the 32-car field. He managed through traffic during the race, eased into the lead with about 40 to go and led the rest of the way to win the Classic's second feature.

In the Busch race, Hensley dominated to claim the win. Starting from his record-setting pole spot, he led 192 of the race's 200 laps. The victory was also worth more than the purse winnings. Hensley moved to 2nd place in the points standings behind Larry Pearson who had already clinched the championship.

Harry Gant scarfed up the 8 laps on point that Hensley didn't lead - yet he finished 31st in the 32-car field. Mike Alexander, who seemed to really know how to hustle a car around Martinsville, finished second to Hensley.

Race report - Spartanburg Herald-Journal

Late Model Results (top 16 is all I have)

Fin	Driver	Car
1	Mark Martin	Chevrolet
2	Jeff Burton	Pontiac
3	Barry Beggarly	Chevrolet
4	Ward Burton	Chevrolet
5	Maurice Hill	Ford
6	David Blankenship	Pontiac
7	Roy Hendrick	Pontiac
8	Wayne Patterson	Pontiac
9	Ray Kirby	Chevrolet
10	Eddie Johnson	Ford
11	Bugs Hairfield	Chevrolet
12	Butch Zervakis	Pontiac
13	Danny Edwards	Pontiac
14	Jerry Sheppard	Chevrolet
15	Jim Dottellis	Pontiac
16	Roger Sawyer	Pontiac

Modified Results

Fin	Driver	Car
1	George Kent	Pontiac
2	Jamie Tomaino	Pontiac
3	Mike McLaughlin	Pontiac
4	Satch Worley	Pontiac
5	Brian Ross	Chevrolet
6	Mike Stefanik	Chevrolet
7	Tony Hirschman	Chevrolet
8	Jan Leaty	Chevrolet
9	Jimmy Spencer	Oldsmobile
10	Reggie Ruggiero	Pontiac
11	Jeff Fuller	Chevrolet
12	Bugs Stevens	Buick
13	Carl Pasteryak	Pontiac
14	Bob Park	Pontiac
15	Charlie Pasteryak	Pontiac
16	Rod Spalding	Chevrolet
17	Wayne Dion	Oldsmobile
18	Bruce D'Alessandro	Pontiac
19	Doug Heveron	Chevrolet
20	Dave Rezendes	Chevrolet
21	Tom Baldwin	Pontiac
22	Barney Truex	Chevrolet
23	Jay Hedgecock	Pontiac
24	Jerry Cranmer	Chevrolet
25	Joe Mammolito	Chevrolet
26	Tim Arre	Chevrolet
27	Ken Bouchard	Chevrolet
28	Don Pratt	Oldsmobile
29	Wayne Edwards	Chevrolet
30	Johnny Bryant	Chevrolet
31	Jeff Spraker	Oldsmobile
32	Sege Fidanza	Chevrolet

Busch Grand National results

Fin	Driver	Car
1	Jimmy Hensley	Buick
2	Mike Alexander	Buick
3	Brett Bodine	Oldsmobile
4	Larry Pollard	Chevrolet
5	Larry Pearson	Chevrolet
6	Dale Jarrett	Chevrolet
7	Rusty Wallace	Chevrolet
8	Elton Sawyer	Chevrolet
9	Brad Teague	Pontiac
10	Pete Silva	Pontiac
11	Rick Mast	Pontiac
12	Max Prestwood	Oldsmobile
13	Joe Harrison	Pontiac
14	Tommy Sigmon	Pontiac
15	Joe Thurman	Pontiac
16	Billy Hicks	Oldsmobile
17	Robert Ingram	Buick
18	Kenny Burks	Chevrolet
19	Geoffrey Bodine	Chevrolet
20	Jack Ingram	Chevrolet
21	Mike Porter	Pontiac
22	L.D. Ottinger	Buick
23	Tommy Houston	Buick
24	Rob Moroso	Oldsmobile
25	Tommy Ellis	Pontiac
26	Mark Martin	Ford
27	Ed Berrier	Oldsmobile
28	Bob Shreeves	Pontiac
29	Ronnie Silver	Pontiac
30	Patty Moise	Buick
31	Harry Gant	Buick
32	Paul Radford	Chevrolet

updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM