September 22, 1974
“Wilkes 400”
Top 5 finishers.....
Halfway thru the 1974 season, Junior Johnson hired Cale Yarborough as his driver. The two enjoyed success immediately—a third and two victories in their first three races together. In the 11th race as a pair, they came to North Wilkesboro where Cale Yarborough brought the Carling beer sponsored Chevrolet to victory lane. It was Yarborough’s first of five wins at NWS. All five wins came in Junior Johnson owned cars. Yarborough started from the outside pole and led 275 laps during the race. As an owner, Junior Johnson had 132 wins, 45 with Yarborough as the driver—the most of any of his drivers.
King came in second. A qualifying lap of 21.411sec/105.087mph landed Richard Petty on the pole. It was Petty’s 31st race at NWS. Petty had 11 victories at the track to this point, but this was his very first NWS pole. In 66 career starts at NWS, Petty had just 3 poles. Richard Petty led 116 laps in the race and finished on the lead lap.
Elzie (“Buddy”) Baker Jr finished 3rd. Baker started from the third spot. He finished the race one lap behind Yarborough. In 1974, Baker ran in just 19 of the 30 races, most coming under ownership of Bud Moore, and still managed a 7th place finish in the points standings.
Ontario native, Earl Ross, finished in 4th. He started from the fifth position and led 8 laps in the race. He finished 6 laps down. It was his only race at NWS. Ross was also driving for Junior Johnson, also in a Carling sponsored car. Ross was the 1974 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year. He became the first driver since Shorty Rollins in 1958 to win a Winston Cup race in his rookie season. It was his only career win. Earl Ross to this date is still the only non-American driver to have won a Winston Cup race.
The 5th place finisher was Dave Marcis. Marcis started 12th and led one lap and finished 7 laps behind the leader. It was Marcis’ 2nd top five finish at NWS. Dave Marcis is the only driver to have competed at Daytona in 5 different decades—60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 00’s. I wonder how many sets of wingtips he went thru in his career. Here’s a neat article from his website http://www.marcisracing.com/daves_story0703.htm
BRING BACK DAVE MARCIS!
The race was the longest race to date and would remain so until 1991. It lasted 3 hours, 5 minutes, 41 seconds. The race finished under caution—the 6th caution of the day. 71 laps were run under caution. In his only Cup race at NWS, Joey Arrington drove a car owned by his father Buddy and finished 12th. He gained 18 spots during the race, the most of any driver. Just 12 of the 30 cars entered in the race were running at the finish. The lap leaders were—Petty 1-26, Yarborough 27, Ross 28-35, Yarborough 36-58, Petty 59-61, Yarborough62-70, Marcis 71, Yarborough 72-92, Petty 93-154, Yarborough 155-299, Petty 300-324, Yarborough 325-400.
The race was also the last NWS race for the 1970 Grand National Champion, Bobby Isaac. In 12 starts at NWS, Isaac recorded 1 win, 8 top ten finishes and 6 poles—all of which were in 6 consecutive races Isaac entered at the speedway. Isaac’s racing career deteriorated rather quickly. In the middle of the Talladega fall race of 1973, Isaac was leading the race when he pulled his car off the track and into the pits and quit. He simply pulled in and got out of the car and quit. It was said that he had heard a voice telling him to get out of the car. He did not run anymore Winston Cup races that year. He ran a very limited schedule for the next few years and in 1977 at Hickory while racing in a Late Model Sportsman event, he once again pulled his car off the track without warning. He suffered a heart attack and died later at a local hospital.
More racing pics.....
Petty and Yarborough race side by side into turn 1
Pit road gets busy
Cale Yarborough’s crew goes to work
The Junie Dunlavey team works on Charlie Glotzbach’s car
The #24 car of Cecil Gordon scrapes the wall
Cale Yarborough celebrates in victory lane