October 26, 1952
“Wilkes 200”
Top 5 finishers…..
There were 2 sets of brothers in the race, and they finished 1-2-3-4. Fonty Flock and Tim Flock were strong, but they were outdone just a bit by Herb Thomas and Donald Thomas. Herb grabbed the victory and led 192 laps, while younger brother Donald finished third. Both drivers were in 1952 “Fabulous” Hudson Hornets owned by Herb. Herb started from the pole position. His qualifying speed was 76.013 mph. Herb Thomas led 192 of 200 laps in this race, all 200 laps in the spring race and in the fall of 1951, he fell out of the race after leading all 82 laps he competed in. That's 474 of 482 laps in the lead! Was is Thomas' driving skills? Was it because of the Hudson? Was Ray Evernham his crew chief?
Fonty won the battle of the Flock brothers with his second place finish. Tim finished 4th. Fonty was the only driver besides Herb Thomas to lead any laps that day. Flock started on the outside pole and led the first 8 laps. Thomas took over the lead on lap 9 and never lost the lead.
Dick Rathmann finished the race in 5th. Rathmann became known by many fans of the racing world in general. He grew up in California racing sprint cars and roadsters. He went on to race Indy cars for several years and was a member of the NASCAR ranks from 1951-1955. In 1954, Rathmann became a NWS winner. He made seven attempts at North Wilkesboro in his career and finished in the top five on five different occasions.
A reported 11 cars of the 27 cars entered, finished the race. There were 3 cautions for a total of 12 laps. As with the spring race, there were 8 Hudsons entered in the field. They faired much better this race with 6 of them filling the top nine positions.
Just to add a bit to the Thomas brothers………the next race, 3 weeks later at Atlanta’s 1 mile Lakewood Speedway, the two brothers became the first starting driver/relief driver combo to win a NASCAR stock car race. Herb Thomas fell out of the race with 14 laps remaining. Instead of going to the pits where he could take over someone's car as a relief driver and earn points, Herb flagged his brother down at the site of his breakdown and took over Donald's ride there, just out of Turn Two. B.B. Blackburn, Tim Flock's chief mechanic, pointed out this violation and Thomas was ordered to take the restart from the back of the field. Lee Petty took over the lead, but Thomas stormed back and won the race. However, he was credited with a 13th place finish due to his mishap as a relief driver and his brother Donald was awarded the win as it was his car that took the checkered flag. He was the youngest driver to win a race at a little over 20 years of age. That record stood until September of 2005 when Kyle Busch scored his first victory. Busch was 4 days younger than Thomas when he won his first race.