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1978 Dixie 500: King, Donnie, King, Donnie - Confusion reigneth!

Stock Car Racing History

You may be right. Benny and Cale both had First National City Travelers Checks as a sponsor, and the cars looked similar. But I'd never studied them that closely until now.

Benny's car was painted blue along the bottom, and Cale's was yellow/gold - almost a carryover from Holly Farms color. And Elliott's car has the blue along the bottom of the sides of the car. L.G. DeWitt owned the car AND the track. A possible promoter's option to get the Dawsonville kid into the show?

Benny's 1978 colors ( John Betts ):

Cale's 1978 colors ( David Staten ):

1978 Dixie 500: King, Donnie, King, Donnie - Confusion reigneth!

Stock Car Racing History

With two races to go and a third consecutive championship in the hip pocket of Cale Yarborough and his #11 Junior Johnson team, the Cup fellas headed for Atlanta for the Dixie 500. Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

Headed into the race, fans continued to follow the story of Richard Petty's losing streak. Having gone winless since the Firecracker 400 on July 4, 1977, the King had only 2 more chances to avoid going 0'fer in 1978.

Cale Yarborough won the pole but the story seemed to take a back seat to many Silly Season stories, rumors and gossip. Involved in the mix were DW, Buddy Baker, Lennie Pond, Dave Marcis, and rookie Dale Earnhardt. What else is new these days? Source: Sumter Daily Item

King Richard kept a close eye on his competitors during qualifying. The Dispatch 's sports editor did not keep a close eye on photo captions and apparently overlooked the fact that the LA Times 500 at ONTARIO was the final race of the season - not Atlanta.

Several future stars raced in the 1978 Dixie 500.

• Dale Earnhardt - His 2nd start at Atlanta ended with far better results than his first race there two years earlier in Johnny Ray's car. It was also his first start with Rod Osterland's team as a teammate to Dave Marcis. The rest as they say is history as Earnhardt became Marcis' successor in the 2 car in 1979. ( JC Hayes )

• Terry Labonte who had taken over the Billy Hagan ride from Skip Manning races Dave Marcis in the primary Osterland car. Atlanta was the last of 5 races Terry raced in1978 so he could protect his rookie status for 1979 when he'd end up in a class of rookies including Earnhardt, Joe Millikan and Harry Gant. ( JC Hayes )

• Bill Elliott made the last of his 10 starts in 1978 in his familiar #9 ... but in an OLDSMOBILE. As a driver who'd driven Fords and Mercurys throughout the heyday of his career, its puzzling as to why he raced an Olds. I'm not enough of an Elliott historian to know if there is a back story. If so, I hope someone will add a comment about it. ( Craig Bontrager )

Starting 6th, Buddy Baker was the rabbit of the day. He led 151 of the race's 328 laps. But as seemed to happen so often in his career - enough to almost be cruel - his M.C. Anderson Chevy lost an engine. He was done with about 17 laps to go and finished 21st.

Petty was lively in his Monte Carlo and paced the field for 67 laps, and Cale led for 61 laps of his own. Dave Marcis got in the mix too as the laps wound down. One car the drivers up front really had no reason to pay attention to was Donnie Allison in the Hawaiian Tropic Chevy. Allison seemed to be a lap down and no threat for the win.

Donnie Allison being serviced by Hoss Ellington's Runt Pittman led crew ( Robert Turner )

With only a handful of laps to go, a late race, 5-car crash set the stage for a crazy finish.

The green flew again with 3 to go. Marcis and Petty were going door to door. As the checkers flew, all eyes were on the finish that would bring Petty's 1-1/2 season losing streak to an end. (From TMC Productions)

But as Petty pulled into victory lane as the crowd roared with approval, Donnie said "not so fast my friends". He argued he had made up his lap and was actually ahead of both Petty and Marcis. He claimed HE was the winner - not Petty.

The initial decision was then reversed - and Donnie was allowed to go to victory lane. But then the decision was made to review the scoring cards, and then no one was certain who the winner was.

Petty met with NASCAR's scoring officials. Its still amazing that as recently as 1978 fans went home not knowing who'd won the race. Source: Atlanta Motor Speedway

I'm not sure if King was thinking "this really can't be happening" or "why did I decide to wear THIS shirt today?" (TMC archives)

Ultimately, Donnie got the hardware and the King's streak continued to the next race - and then on to the 1979 season. (Although he did win the 1978 Phoenix Winston West race for a good team morale boost.) Petty was credited with 2nd, Marcis third, and Earnhardt 4th as he notched his 1st career top 5.

How about this jewel of "revisionist history" courtesy of AMS's website :

Young Brian France Determines 1978 Dixie 500 Winner

The 1978 Dixie 500 ended in controversy and fans were left to wonder who actually won the race until an unexpected player, 16-year-old Brian France , stepped forward to settle the matter.

Richard Petty appeared to edge Dave Marcis to the finish line by a fender in an Atlanta photo finish to claim the win in the 1978 Dixie 500. However, before Petty was able to pull into Victory Lane, the track's Public Address announcer proclaimed Donnie Allison the winner.

Allison had blown past Petty and Marcis with only seven laps remaining, but after being two circuits down earlier in the race, the race leaders and most fans assumed Allison was still one lap down. However, the NASCAR veteran had in fact previously reemerged on the lead lap and overtook Petty and Marcis to claim the race lead.

But just after Allison had conducted his winner's interview in Victory Lane, Atlanta International Raceway officials announced Petty was the winner, further confusing the matter.

When continued conversation between track officials, scorers and drivers failed to definitively confirm the winner, France emerged from the Scorer's Booth to confidently verify Allison was the winner. The victory marked Allison's 10th and final NASCAR win and his only victory in Atlanta. The win also completed an Allison brother sweep of Atlanta's 1978 races, as older brother Bobby won the 1978 Atlanta 500 in March.

Race reports.

From Sumter Daily Item

And from the Daytona Beach Morning Journal . And what's that? Cynicism and sarcasm from Donnie Allison?? WOW, that almost never happened during his career. Ha ha.

Fin	Driver	Car
1	Donnie Allison	Chevrolet
2	Richard Petty	Chevrolet
3	Dave Marcis	Chevrolet
4	Dale Earnhardt	Chevrolet
5	Benny Parsons	Oldsmobile
6	Bobby Allison	Ford
7	Harry Gant	Chevrolet
8	Cale Yarborough	Oldsmobile
9	Ricky Rudd	Chevrolet
10	Coo Coo Marlin	Chevrolet
11	Roger Hamby	Chevrolet
12	Dick Brooks	Mercury
13	Terry Labonte	Chevrolet
14	J.D. McDuffie	Chevrolet
15	Ronnie Thomas	Chevrolet
16	Buddy Arrington	Dodge
17	Dave Watson	Chevrolet
18	Cecil Gordon	Chevrolet
19	Dick May	Chevrolet
20	Ferrel Harris	Chevrolet
21	Buddy Baker	Chevrolet
22	Tighe Scott	Oldsmobile
23	Jimmy Means	Chevrolet
24	Butch Mock	Chevrolet
25	Skip Manning	Mercury
26	Ed Negre	Chrysler
27	Gary Myers	Chevrolet
28	Darrell Waltrip	Chevrolet
29	Ralph Jones	Ford
30	Richard Childress	Oldsmobile
31	Tommy Gale	Chevrolet
32	David Pearson	Mercury
33	Frank Warren	Dodge
34	Neil Bonnett	Chevrolet
35	Al Holbert	Chevrolet
36	Bruce Hill	Oldsmobile
37	Bill Elliott	Oldsmobile
38	Grant Adcox	Chevrolet
39	Lennie Pond	Chevrolet
40	John Kennedy	Ford

updated by @tmc-chase: 01/11/17 11:27:24AM

1st NASCAR Race Trivia

Stock Car Racing History

Y'all need to update those Dawsonville internet connection cans from 12 ouncers to tall boys. Better reception. Ha.

Racing History Minute - November 5, 1967

Stock Car Racing History

The photo of Wendell Scott's misfortune at the 67 A-W race was used for the cover of the book about Wendell, Hard Driving.

Racing History Minute - November 5, 1967

Stock Car Racing History

Bobby receiving his trophy. I was reluctant to post this because I wasn't certain at first if it was indeed from the 1967 A-W race. He only won 1 GN race there - but I still wanted to make sure I'd had the right year, track and race. The car in the background had me confused too. But with some help from Russ Thompson and other skunking around, I do believe this is Bobby collecting his hardware. I wonder if the trophy queen's plum-and-black, conservative, houndstooth outfit doubled as a firesuit like Miss Sprint Cup wears today?

Russ suggested the car in the background is that of G.C. Spencer who finished 13th. Based on his knowledge and my comparison to this Dave Fulton pic from 1967 Bristol, I think he is correct.

I also compared Bobby's trophy to the one I spotted at the Richard Petty Museum. His was from the Fireball 300

in the same season. The base of it looks identical to the one Bobby is holding.

updated by @tmc-chase: 09/06/17 10:21:46AM

Racing History Minute - November 5, 1967

Stock Car Racing History

Stand corrected. I now believe this one may be from May 5, 1968 Fireball 300 at A-W. Pearson was on the pole, King started 2nd, and Tom Pistone timed 3rd in the #12 Mercury. Sorry for mix-up - succumbed to tagging info included on Getty Images. But hey, one can never have too many 43 images, right?

Racing History Minute - November 5, 1967

Stock Car Racing History

More photos from the race.

The pace lap before the start.

Wendell Scott crashed out at lap 52.

Ol' Blue going high side on the high banks of A-W.

Petty battling his career rival, Pearson.

updated by @tmc-chase: 09/06/17 10:21:22AM

Racing History Minute - November 5, 1967

Stock Car Racing History

Here is a good thread about the race at Randy Ayers Modeling Forum started by Russ Thompson. Includes a couple of good photos and an article from Stock Car Racing magazine.

http://www.randyayersmodeling.com/modelingforum/viewtopic.php?p=387384&sid=d14a0583fc028f7ffb62659551f20825

And here is a pic of Allison racing Petty from Russ's Flickr collection.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56156044@N00/1715336932/

Racing History Minute - November 5, 1967

Stock Car Racing History

The race was originally scheduled for August 20th - right in the heart of The King's winning streak.

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

Race preview from August 10th Post Weekender

Qualifying was held, and the 43's hot streak continued with King Richard winning the pole. Source: News And Courier

But heavy rains postponed the race, and it was rescheduled for August 27th. Source: Spartanburg Herald

The teams were ready to roll on August 27, and the race was again previewed in the paper. Petty was clearly the race favorite with his growing winning streak. Source: Spartanburg Herald .

But again, rains dominated the weekend. The race was then moved to the end of the season. Source: Robesonian

When the teams returned about 2+ months later, NASCAR decided a "do-over" was necessary for qualifying. Petty's pole run and the rest of the qualifying results were tossed, and everyone tried again. This time, Bobby Allison nabbed the pole in his Fred Lorenzen-fielded Ford. Petty went from the top spot to 6th. Source: News and Courier .

Race report from News And Courier

updated by @tmc-chase: 09/06/17 10:20:45AM

1st time headed to Phoenix

Current NASCAR

Fantastic! I'll tweet one of these to PIR on Thursday when Twitter does its ThrowbackThursday thing. (Makes sense if you're on it.) Will give you shout-out for it plus you have your name on it.