April 20, 1969
“Gwyn Staley 400”
Top 5 finishers.....
Dodge made its first trip to victory lane in a Grand National race at North Wilkesboro. Bobby Allison won his first Grand National race at NWS. Allison started from the 11th spot and led 161 laps. It was Allison’s 15th career Grand National win. One of the founding members of the Alabama Gang, Bobby Allison's 25-year NASCAR Grand National/Winston Cup career was crowned by the series championship in 1983. He also was the series runner-up five different times.
LeeRoy Yarbrough recorded his fourth consecutive top five finish and career best finish at NWS with his 2nd place showing while driving Junior Johnson’s car. Yarbrough started 9th and finished on the lead lap, 8 seconds behind Allison.
The reigning NASCAR Grand National Champion, David Pearson, started 10th and finished the race in the third position. Pearson led 21 laps after starting tenth. Prior to Buddy Baker breaking the 200mph barrier, Pearson became the first man to break the 190 mph barrier at Daytona, qualifying his Ford at 190.029 mph, in 1969.
The man who would be first to break the 200mph barrier, in 1970, finished the race in the 4th spot, on the lead lap. Buddy Baker led 96 laps after starting on the outside pole. Recently Baker was asked if he felt he could still run the speeds they do at Talladega today. His response was, “I don’t know.........we never ran this slow when I raced there.”
He says 2006 is his last year running ARCA races—we’ll just have to see, but it’s 1969 and the driver finishing 5th at NWS is James Hylton. Folks do not realize that even thought Hylton has just two career victories in 601 starts, had it not been for the likes of Petty and Pearson, who knows how many Championships Hylton might have won. From 1966 to 1975, Running full-time, Hylton finished second in the points standings three times and third in the standings four times—most of the time behind Petty and Pearson. If you ever get a chance to meet the man, give him the credit he deserves.
The spring race of 1969 took 2 hours, 37 minutes, 27 seconds to complete. 16 of the 30 cars entered were running at the finish. The pole sitter, Bobby Isaac (21.081seconds/106.731mph) led 123 laps before suffering ignition problems. He completed just 219 of the 400 laps and finished 23rd. There were 11 different lead changes among the four lap leaders. There were 4 cautions for 30 laps. For the first time at NWS, the race purse exceeded $25,000. The 1965 Rookie of the Year, Sam McQuagg, ran his last Grand National race at the track and finished 6th. Wendell Scott moved from the 30th starting position to a 15th place finish. The 15 spots gained were most of any driver in the race.
Some names new to Grand National racing at NWS included Dick Brooks, the 1969 ROTY. According to legend, when Brooks competed in Speedweeks activities leading up to the 1969 Daytona 500, it was the first time he had ever been present at a NASCAR event. Richard Brickhouse, the winner of the ’69 Talladega race when so many names boycotted the race because of the tires not being able to handle the high speeds. And Bill Champion—Ricky Rudd’s first 4 career races were in Champion’s car.
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