April 6, 1975
“Gwyn Staley 400”
Top 5 finishers.....
In 1975 a new award was given out at select tracks in Virginia and North Carolina. The SUN-DROP Pole Award was given to the pole winners at Martinsville, Charlotte, Rockingham and North Wilkesboro. Buddy Baker won the first SUN-DROP Pole Award at Rockingham and Darrell Waltrip became the first SUN-DROP Pole Award winner at North Wilkesboro. Waltrip circled the track in 21.323 seconds on his fastest lap for a speed of 105.520mph. It was his first of a record nine career poles at NWS. Waltrip led 13 laps in the race and finished 7th, eleven laps down.
Richard Petty collected win number 12 at North Wilkesboro. As he did so often, “King” crushed the field and won by better than 3 laps. Petty started from the outside pole with a fast lap of 21.939sec/105.174mph in qualifying. Petty led 311 of the 400 laps. It was Richard Petty’s 168th career win. He’s got a few more NWS wins left in him yet.
William Caleb Yarborough started sixth with a qualifying lap of 21.690sec/103.734mph. Cale Yarborough finished 2nd in the Johnson Racing car owned by Junior Johnson. He led 16 laps in the race. To date, Johnson had four wins as a car owner at NWS—himself twice and Yarborough once. Look for that number to change soon.
The 3rd place finisher led three laps in route to his 8th top five finish at NWS. Buddy Baker started from the third position. His fast qualifying lap was 21.473sec/104.782mph. Baker finished the race 6 laps behind Petty. Baker finished in the top 5 eight times in his career at NWS, but he never saw victory lane there.
Dave Marcis finished 4th, also six laps down, and led two laps in the race in the K&K Insurance Dodge owned by Nord Krauskopf, Bobby Isaac’s former car owner. Together, Marcis and Krauskopf went on to score one victory and 16 top fives in the 1975 season and finish second in points at the end of the year.
BRING BACK DAVE MARCIS
A qualifying lap of 21.530sec/104.505mph on day two of qualifying, put Lennie Pond in the 9th starting position. The first eight spots were determined on day one of qualifying. Pond was the fastest on day two. Pond led 7 laps in the race and finished 7 laps down. To this date, Lennie Pond holds the record for the fastest ARCA 200 race at Daytona. In 1976, he took the checkered flag just over 1 hour, 18 minutes after the start with an average race speed of 153.224 mph.
The race lasted 2 hours, 46 minutes, 39 seconds. The lead changed hands 15 times among 7 different drivers. Six have been mentioned—the seventh was 6th place finisher, Benny Parsons who led 48 circuits. There were only 28 cars entered in the race. It was the smallest field at NWS since the fall race of 1963. Some new faces in Winston Cup racing at NWS included 1975 Rookie of the Year, Bruce Hill (16th place finish) and Ricky Rudd (28th). The most positions gained from the start of the race was 9, by Frank Warren. Warren started 21st and matched his career best finish at NWS by coming in 12th. Warren often carried a saying on the trunk of his car that went like this....... “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”.......in not so many words though. You know it simply as “John 3:16”.
The SUN-DROP Pole Award went out to pole winners at Wilkesboro, Charlotte, Rockingham and Martinsville
Darrell Waltirp leads Richard Petty into turn one at the start of the 1975 Gwyn Staley 400
A wrinkled fender doesn’t slow Petty down as he races inside Cale Yarborough