September 29, 1968
“Wilkes 400”
Top 5 finishers.....
It was career win number 90 for “The King.” Richard Petty completed the 400 lap race in 2 hours, 39 minutes, 24 seconds. “King’s” Plymouth started the race in the 3rd position, led 318 laps and he pocketed just under $6,000 for his efforts.
The Holman-Moody Ford driven by David Pearson started the race on the outside pole and finished 2nd. The Silver Fox went on to win the 1968 Championship—his second title. Pearson led 5 laps in this race and finished one lap behind Petty.
LeeRoy Yarbrough started sixth, led 8 laps and finished the race in the 3rd position also one lap down. The following year Yarbrough won the Daytona 500. What made it more impressive was that with 10 laps to go, he was 11 seconds behind the leader!
Bobby Allison was the pole sitter and led the 30 car field to the green flag at the start of the race. Allison’s qualifying time was 21.526seconds/104.525mph. Allison led 69 laps in the race and finished 4th, three laps down. In the years to come, Allison was voted Most Popular Driver for NASCAR's Winston Cup Division in 1971, 72, 73 and 1974.
Before racing, Cale Yarborough tried his hand at turkey farming. But this was North Wilkesboro—it’s about chickens and racing here (not to mention a certain special “clear liquid”). Forget the chicken and the liquid, Yarborough came here to race. His 5th place finish was his third top five finish at NWS. He started from the 4th position. In 1968, Yarborough raced in just 21 of the 49 races that season—yet he was the leading money winner at the end of the season. Cale disappeared from Grand National racing at NWS after this race until 1973.
Of the 30 cars entered in the race, 19 were running at the finish. There were 3 cautions for a total of 25 laps. Four different drivers exchanged the lead a total of eight times. Wendell Scott improved the most positions (13) in the race—29th to 16th. Some names new to Grand National racing at NWS were Dave Marcis, Charlie Glotzbach and Pete Hamilton. Running in his last NWS race and finishing 6th was Darel Dieringer. In 11 starts, Dieringer had one win, 5 top fives and 7 top tens at NWS. Dieringer is the only driver to have led every lap at NWS after all races were changed to 400 laps in length.