Saw an exchange on Twitter today that cracked me up. A music magazine I follow tweeted something along lines of "Elvis died on Aug 16, 1977? Do you remember where you were?"
One reply was: "I mostly cried and wet myself - but I was only 4 months old."
FOX Sports is running a 3 part series this week on some of the master cheat... I mean master Innovators of the sport. Looks like 2 of the segments have already been made available on-line.
FOX's video embed code doesn't play well with RacersReunion platform so you'll have to view it at their site. But its well worth it, and I'll assure you that you'll be chuckling - especially at the comments by Junior Johnson and Buddy Parrott.
Part 1:
http://msn.foxsports.com/video?videoid=6681fe14-bad1-424f-bc91-664e2097cfc3
Part 2:
http://msn.foxsports.com/video?videoid=6b4f3517-cdc6-402f-ad85-4ff611d7ec39
I've been pleasantly surprised over the last few months how many articles I've been able to find on-line - some brief, some in-depth - about Lee Petty's wins in the 1950s. But for handful of them, I've simply struck out. Today's Petty moment is one of those races for which I've not been able to land any info other than in Greg Fielden's 40 Years book.
On August 16, 1957, Lee Petty starts 3rd and leads a handful of laps early in a 100-mile race at Old Bridge Stadium in Old Stadium, New Jersey. Then with nine laps to go, he went back to the point and claimed his 28th career NASCAR Grand National victory.
Rex White won the pole and dominated the race by leading 177 of the 200 laps on the paved half-mile. But as Greg Fielden notes about the race in his book, Forty Years of Stock Car Racing - Volume 1, Lee Petty used a late race caution to close in on the rear bumper of leader Rex White and then dashed to victory.
Rex would have to until November 1957 - the 1st race of the 1958 season - to nab his first GN win.
Read on for more:
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2013/08/august-16-1957-lee-petty-owns-old-bridge.html
Also - please post any articles or photos you may have from this race here. Would love to see them and edit my blog post to incorporate them. Thanks.
Top 10:
| Fin | Driver | Car |
| 1 | Lee Petty | Oldsmobile |
| 2 | Rex White | Chevrolet |
| 3 | Jim Reed | Ford |
| 4 | Marvin Panch | Ford |
| 5 | Jack Smith | Chevrolet |
| 6 | Fireball Roberts | Ford |
| 7 | Buck Baker | Chevrolet |
| 8 | Johnny Allen | Plymouth |
| 9 | Frankie Schneider | Chevrolet |
| 10 | John Dodd, Sr. | Ford |
Only took me 2 years to confirm your guess Dave. Two 25-lap heat races - won by Petty and G.C. Spencer - plus a 50 lap sports car-only race plus the 200 lap GN event = 300 advertised laps.
From Kingsport Times News
It's a shame Richard didn't win this race because it was the 43rd event of the 1963 schedule.
Thought this newspaper ad for the race was interesting. Not sure if bad copy was sent to the press, if someone keyed a typo, or if the distance was shortened by NASCAR after the type for the ad was set. Either way, the race was promoted as a 300-lap event vs. the 200-lap one they ran.
Race report from News And Courier .
Cool, thanks Dave. I need to post a 'retro-blog' entry to include it within my 200 wins series. Reading the AP wire story in the SHJ, it refers to "tonight". Guessing the race ended too late to make filing deadline for most papers which may explain why I can't find any other next-day race reports.
When I began my blog series of Richard Petty's 200 wins in the summer of 2011, my plan was (1) blog about each of his wins (2) include an article or photo in each one (3) include as many personal accounts as possible and (4) address other interesting aspects of the race beyond Ol' Blue getting the checkers.
One year later, I looked back at what I'd discovered and typed and thought "Dang son, ya did it. Well almost..."
Two races eluded me. One was his 10th career GN win at Starkey Speedway in Roanoke, VA. I couldn't find any photos, article, program, ticket stub, video, personal memories, etc.
But with the passing of another year, I'm now glad to say I can cross one of the two off my list. Today I found an article about the race in the archives of the Spartanburg Herald . I'm not sure if I overlooked it last time, if I didn't check that page, or what happened. But I have it now.
Eighteen cars started the race. Jack Smith won the pole with Petty to his right on the front row. The rest of the top 10 starters were:
Richard won driving a #42 Petty Plymouth. The win was his first of only two races racing his dad's number. (The second win was at Augusta in 1966.)
The finishing order:
| Finish | Driver | Car |
| 1 | Richard Petty | Plymouth |
| 2 | Joe Weatherly | Pontiac |
| 3 | Ned Jarrett | Chevrolet |
| 4 | Bob Welborn | Pontiac |
| 5 | Jack Smith | Pontiac |
| 6 | Tom Cox | Pontiac |
| 7 | Jimmy Pardue | Pontiac |
| 8 | Larry Thomas | Dodge |
| 9 | Ray Hughes | Plymouth |
| 10 | G.C. Spencer | Chevrolet |
| 11 | Curtis Crider | Mercury |
| 12 | Wendell Scott | Chevrolet |
| 13 | Herman Beam | Ford |
| 14 | Fred Harb | Ford |
| 15 | Harry Leake | Chevrolet |
| 16 | Worth McMillion | Pontiac |
| 17 | George Green | Chevrolet |
| 18 | Dick Getty | Chevrolet |
Once the GN circuit left town, the fairgrounds track staff moved on to their next promotion - the Joie Chitwood Thrill Show scheduled for a week later on August 22nd.
