Pace lap with Junior Johnson and Dick Hutcherson on the 2nd row, Ned Jarrett & Darel Dieringer on the 3rd row, and Earl Balmer & Larry Frank on the 3rd row.
Bub Strickler's flip and slide - with Chris Economaki's cool delivery
Victory lane (from Richard Guido photos)
Fun question. If you already saw on Twitter, give others a shot at answering.
Four drivers have more than one career Cup victory but their multiple victories were only at Daytona or Talladega. Name them. Go.
Wait - I thought it was ME who was too much. Too Much Country at least. HA!
My first experience at seeing Cup cars live was one year earlier at Friday qualifying for the 1976 Music City 420. I remember my eyes popping out of my head when I saw the day-glo red of STP on my 43 for the first time. Sterling Marlin was a local late model sportsman rookie, and I'd already latched onto him as my local favorite over other rookie such as Mike Alexander and Chubby Crowell and veterans such as Alton Jones, Walter Wallace, James Climer, Doris Vaughn and others. Sterling, as a Nashville rookie, also became a Cup rookie in 1976. He made his first Cup start in the 76 Music City 420 in his dad's familiar #14 red-and-gold Cunningham-Kelly Chevy. He got a huge cheer from the crowd as he began his Q run. Unfortunately, his and the fans' expectations were too high. He qualified dead last, exited the race early and finished 29th in the 30 car field.
The next year I guess Coo Coo said "Umm yeah boy. Why don't you let me drive again this year. Grab that air gun and get me a chaw of 'bacca."
To Tim's credit, he did share that photo and story here 3 years ago:
http://racersreunion.com/tim-leeming/gallery/35970/tim-leeming-gatorade-car-88
As the Nashville's race weekend was getting underway, NASCAR still had some clean-up to do from the previous week at Talladega. Seems rookie Janet Guthrie and her team owner tried to pull a bit of a fast one on NASCAR, and they were none too pleased. (They never are.)
Source: Spartanburg Herald Journal
