October 3, 1982
Holly Farms 400
And the crowd yelled “DEW”, or so that’s what “D-dubya” kept saying. It was more like “BOO.” Darrell Waltrip won his third consecutive North Wilkesboro race. By doing so, he joined such great names as Herb Thomas, Lee Petty, Rex White, Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough as the only drivers to win 3 straight NWS races. Waltrip also won his third straight pole. Herb Thomas was the only other driver to win three straight NWS races while starting from the pole. Waltrip’s qualifying time was 19.761sec/113.860mph. DW led 329 laps in the race.
Starting fifth and finishing 2nd was Harry Gant. He finished 14 seconds behind Waltrip—roughly two-thirds of a lap. It was Gant’s best Winston Cup finish to date at NWS. He would find victory lane in Late Model Sportsman and Modified races at the track before doing so in a Winston Cup car.
The outside pole sitter, and 3rd place finisher, was Terry Labonte in a Billy Hagan owned Texas Jeans Chevrolet. He was the first car to finish one lap down. In 1982, Labonte won the Winston Cup first half championship, by being the points leader midway thru the season. It was worth $25,000. He finished the season third in points. In 1980, car owner Billy Hagan made the statement that in five years, his team with Terry Labonte as the driver would win the championship. In the years to come, major sponsorship and a key crew member acquisition would make that possible.
Richard Petty saw yet another top five finish at NWS. He started 16th and finished fourth. It was his 32nd career top five finish at NWS. Richard Petty was rapidly approaching his 900th career start in NASCAR’s top series. North Wilkesboro was start number 893. Petty finished the 1982 season fifth in the points standings.
The 1982 Rookie of the Year, Geoff Bodine, finished 5th. Bodine started from the sixth spot and was also running one lap down at the finish. Before joining the Cup ranks, “Mr. Versability” took the checkered flag 510 times during his Modified and Late Model Sportsman career. Bodine’s short track success would enable him to put up some impressive career numbers at NWS in the years to come.
The race took 2 hours, 32 minutes, 57 seconds to complete. Outside of Darrell Waltrip, the only other driver to lead laps was Bobby Allison. The two exchanged the lead 4 times. Allison experienced engine problems and fell out of the race after 141 laps—he led 71 of those. It might have made for an interesting battle had he been able to finish. 20 of the 30 cars entered were running at the finish. There were 4 cautions for a total of 26 laps. JD McDuffie started 30th and finished 16th—gaining 14 spots, the most of all drivers. Waltrip made tremendous gains on Bobby Allison in the points standings. Allison was still the leader after the NWS race, but by just 15 points. Another late charge by Waltrip would give him his second straight Winston Cup Championship. Another close season battle ended with Waltrip finishing just 72 points ahead of Allison—no playoff/chase format needed either.
Two legendary drivers ran their last race at NWS. Long time independent, Cecil Gordon ran the last of his 27 races at NWS. We saw his picture in the spring race of 1973 with his only top five finish at the track. He recorded seven top 10 finishes at the famed speedway. Cecil Gordon......the “1st Gordon to drive the number 24 Chevrolet.” And James Hylton ran in his last of 33 races at NWS. He earned 5 top fives and 12 top tens at the track. At 70+ years of age, he’s been racing in ARCA events in 2006, along with a Busch Series race. 