CASEY 200 October 18, 1969
Stock Car Racing History
Excerpted from Danville Register , Oct 19, 1969
Baker Wins Casey 200 Race RALEIGH (AP) -- Forty-six year-old Buck Baker of Charlotte, the oldest active NASCAR driver, wheeled his 1969 Pontiac Firebird to a victory here in the first annual Casey 200 Grand Touring Race at the North Carolina state fairgrounds.
Baker grabbed the lead from veteran Jim Paschal, also of Charlotte, in a 1969 Rambler Javelin, on the 121st of 200 laps and was not headed in picking up his first GT win of the current season and a winner's cut of $1,320 in the $9,000 event.
Paschal's Javelin sustained fatal engine problems and opened way for Wayne Andrews of Staley to finish second in a 1968 Mercury Cougar for $800. Third place went to current point leader Ken Rush of High Point in his 1968 Chevrolet Camaro. T. C. Hunt of Atlanta, Ga., was fourth in another Camaro and A] Straub of Louisville, Ky., rounded the top five finishing positions in the wild, and wooly 100-mile romp over a tricky half-mile dirt track.
''I've been a pretty long time between wins. It was mighty dusty, but I can see great now." Baker said. Paschal's famed Javelin set a blistering pace for the first half of the race. Opening leads of almost 800 yards, Paschal roared away from the pole position to average almost 70 miles per hour before a caution flag slowed the race on the 91st lap.
Paschal and Baker closed together under that caution flag and swapped the lead on several occasions until the American' Motors-maintained Rambler dropped an oil filter on the 2lst lap.
