That Lee Petty was one ornery son-of-a-gun. It seems he's got a bone to pick with someone in almost every race. I'm beginning to wonder if he's really Richard's daddy. I can believe that Kyle's related, but Richard is always smiling.
I dunno. No Chevrolet ever had a grille like that. Definitely a '48 Ford.
Sure does seem like they had better camera angles back in the Seventies. You can actually see more than two cars at the same time. I wonder why they don't still do that? Oh that's right, you can't read the sponsors decals. Wouldn't want to miss out on any of that payola surrounding free product placement.
I'm not sure that you could build a functioning 1983 race car on a stock frame or get it through inspection. But Cale was a star and Bill France wouldn't let one of his big attractions miss a race. Rules can be bent if NASCAR's pocketbook is involved. There may not be such a thing as "The Call", but I think that not all of the restrictor plates that NASCAR hands out are equal.
Having compared the photo to your racing reference link, I'll concede that everything matches up. Either Fieden made a mistake in saying Baker qualified 5th, or Tim made a mistake in transcribing the event. Everyone agrees that Baker finished in that position.
I see your point about the dash and seats in the Bill France photo, but there definitely appear to be window braces on that car. I also think that I see the c-pillar sticking out beyond the windshield header. It's possible that the team bolted the top back on after qualifying and the sun was in the right position to light up the interior in that way. So it's a mystery and I'm content to let it remain so.
I don't understand what your point was.
Your results match the pace lap photo for positions 1,2 and 5 (and maybe 7th and 9th), but the wrong car in position 3 (and probably 4). Tim's story has the correct cars in position 1 and 2 but the wrong car starting 5th.
Either the Getty photo is an early lap but not the pace lap, or it's not from either of the Spring Martinsville races.
