May 18, 1958
“Wilkes County 160”
Top 5 finishers…..
Robert Glenn Johnson Jr. (Junior Johnson) finished first. Johnson led the final 82 laps. Johnson has been credited with being a great driver and owner and the driver to discover the “draft.” But when it comes to the argument over which driver had the greatest impact on the sport, it very could be Junior Johnson. When the cigarette companies were no longer to advertise on TV, it was Johnson who approached RJ Reynolds concerning sponsorship money. Johnson later put Bill France Sr. in touch with RJR. Shortly thereafter the “Winston Cup Series” was born.
2nd place went to Jack Smith. Smith led the first 40 laps in the race. In five of Smith’s first 6 races at NWS, he finished with a victory, 3 seconds and a fifth place finish. His career stats were also impressive. So impressive that it is a mystery as to why he is not listed among NASCAR’s top 50 drivers.
Finishing third was Rex White in a Chevrolet owned by Julian Petty (Lee’s brother/Richard’s uncle). From 1959 to 1963, White went to victory lane more than any other driver in NASCAR. White was NASCAR’s Grand National Champion in 1960 and had it not been for a certain driver “giving information (squealing) to NASCAR” the following year, he would have repeated as champion. When he wasn’t behind the wheel of his race car, White enjoyed taking a “dip” in a certain lake in Georgia.
The fourth place finisher was coming of back to back season championships in 1956 and ’57. His name was Elzie Wylie (Buck) Baker Sr. Only a handful of times has the season champion won the final race of the season. Baker did it both years he won the title.
Eddie Pagan was the fifth place finisher. It was Pagan’s only appearance at NWS. Pagan spent the early part of his career racing out West. In 62 career races, he notched 4 wins. Several years after his racing career was over, Pagan went into business with Dick Hutcherson and formed Hutcherson-Pagan, a business that built and repaired race cars. The two were very successful as they built cars for several well known drivers.
24 cars started the race, 21 finished. Normally run anywhere from late March to mid April, the 1958 spring race wasn’t run until mid May. Three different drivers led laps in the race and there were three lead changes throughout the day. Jack Smith started from the pole with a qualifying speed of 82.056 mph. The “hard charger” award went to Doug Cox for improving the most positions during the race—7. Lee Petty was the third driver to lead laps--38 that day. Three cars finished on the lead lap.
Johnson won in classic style. He had a half-lap lead over Jack Smith in the closing laps but went into turn 3 too hard, ran up and over the embankment, drove through some weeds and emerged back on the track just ahead of Smith. He pulled away to win by six seconds. I recently found that little tid-bit of information, and it refreshed my memory to a story that Paul told me some time ago that matches that story exactly.