Racing History Minute - December 8, 1968
Stock Car Racing History
About a year ago, I blogged about this race as a tie-in to a friend's birthday.
https://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/12/december-10-this-day-in-shof-history.html
The race was originally scheduled for November 24, 1968 - a week after Petty's win in the 1969 season-opener at Middle Georgia Raceway near Macon, Ga. But after back-to-back Sunday rainouts, the race was re-scheduled for what turned out to be a cold day on December 8.
Not only was the race thought to be the final one for Petty in a Plymouth, Montgomery coincidentally was also Allison's final race in a Plymouth. Largely a Chevy guy, Allison raced just about every car brand throughout his career. In late 1968, however, he signed on to drive Tom Friedken's Plymouths. In a limited time as a car owner, Friedken's Plymouths were raced by some great drivers including Jim Paschal (also a former Petty Enterprises driver) and Curtis Turner.
As I understand it, Friedken's #14 cars were generally painted somewhat of a slate-blue such as the one shown here from 1968.
From what I've gleaned, however, the colors were changed when Allison joined the team for a handful of races in late '68. While I was unable to find an actual photo from the race, I learned this very nice model build is an indication of how great the car looked.
The paint scheme foreshadowed Allison's future a bit. From 1970 through 1974, Bobby drove a Dodge, Ford, and Chevrolet for different car owners but with common sponsorship by Coca-Cola. The scheme Friedken ran on Bobby's Montgomery-winning Plymouth turned out to be very similar to the one used during the early 70s.
RR and fellow Petty fan, Jerry Bushmire, provided me this NSSN headline and article.
I did have to laugh at the thought of the expression the Allisons and their family and friends may have had when they turned to the sports page of the Tuscaloosa News , the paper near Hueytown, to see this headline:
Russ Thompson provided me this full page scan of the NSSN published after the race.
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/08/19 03:11:05PM
