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FHnnIOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY is not Vreally Richard Petty's kind of track. Certainly, it has many things in common with every other superspeedway on the circuit and Richard Petty has had more experience than most in running races on superspeedways. CMS has always had a certain place in the Petty consciousness because, at least until 1975, a very good year for Petty from start to finish in the competition department, victory at the Harrisburg, Nofth Carolina track had managed to keep a phantom lap in front of him. In 1975, however, Richard Petty ended quite a few jinx-type obstacles in his career, although it was everyone else who called things like never having won at CMS a jinx. "There is no such thing

as a jinx in racing," Petty had contended.

Charlotte. lt could just as easily be any track on

"There's just bad luck. we were unlucky at

the circuit. lt just happens to be Charlotte

often." Jinx or bad luck, Petty had finished off that obstacle in his career in 1975 by winning
both races at the track, the Memorial Day World 600 and the fall National 500. Between 1975 and 1977,however, there had been some changes made at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The track had come under the influence of O. Bruton Smith again and Richard Howard was no longer involved. Richard Howard had brought new life to the troubled track by various innovations, such as awarding an inordinately large amount of money to the driver winning the pole for the World 600. The large amount of money, Howard felt, would drawfans to the track on Thursday and Friday, because it would put a certain element of excitement into

,ffi

,M
A STRANGE PLACE TO CELEBRATE- During his career, Richard Petty has seldom visited the Charlotte Motor Speedway victory lane; when he does, however, he finds himself welcomed warmly Mike Slade Photo.

Daytona 500 as fhe stock car event on the calendar. And, in order to provide some action up front instead of allowing the driver to lay back through the mid-point of the race, a program of offering $5000 bonus dollars for the driver who would lead the most laps in each 50-lap segment was formulated. No more of
wanted his races the fastest, most competitive

ment for simple racing. Money for racing is

what the game is all about, according to Petty; money should not be awarded for standing on your head. In a sense, it is a philosophy that

protects Petty Enterprises by protecting

everyone else who races. The more money available, the more money filters down to the
middle and back of the pack so that the little guy can continue to race the entire circuit. Richard Petty is the first to realize that although the highlight of the show is the competition up front, without the rest of the field it would be a version of the International Race of Champions, and that can very easily be overdone. Richard Petty's protests, however, have gone unheeded, as one track after another has come up with little twists and gadgets to hype interest in a race that is already interesting. Perhaps tiring of fighting a losing battle, Petty decided to take another tact and, learning from brother Maurice and cousin Dale Inman that the engine Maurice had built for the race was turning out almost as much horsepower on the dynomometer as the qualification engine, Petty decided to try to prove in the laboratory of the race track what he has argued theoretically can happen to a race that is hyped to death with "incentive" money being sprinkled everywhere at once. "We decided that if the motor and the rest of the car felt good, we were goin' for it," he said after qualifying the STP Dodge at 161.112 mph,

the run-for-the-pole that was not normally this saving-the-car-&-driver-until{he-end nonthere. The ploy worked. There were suddenly sense. No more strategy. O. Bruton Smith
crowds at CMS during the week to watch the run for the pole and the money, now being donated by the Sun-Drop soft drink company, was buying important newspaper and radio and TV attention which helped assure even bigger crowds forthe actual race. lt didn't much matter that Glen Wo.od, knowing David PearTommy Turner build a special qualifying engine

races on the circuit, and O. Bruton Smith believes in the admonition that "money talks, nobody walks." With $5000 up for grabs in each
50-lap segment, there was every indication that

the drivers would sprint for the lead. Additionally, should the same charger lead the whole son's penchant for doing important racing when race, or at least a good portion of it, it was money is involved in favorable quantities, had possible for him to go home with more money
than he could have won at the Daytona

500-a

for the Purolator Mercury so that the prize definite plus for the CMS publicity mill. The plans, however, put O. Bruton Smith's money was becoming an annual Wood brothers/Pearson benefit party. The money plans on a collision course with the foremost meant prestige for the qualifying, and CMS critic of such practices to artificially (as in 'with

W M

money') hype the field. likes all the prestige it can get. Richard Petty has always been an exponent With O. Bruton Smith at the helm of the operation, Richard Howard's plans became huge of putting any extra money into the race purse hybrid things that even Richard Howard would so that everyone who qualifies has an opportunot recognize, because Bruton Smith likes to nity to go for it. He has been steadfastly against spend money more than the relatively lap-leader bonus money, money for qualificaconservative Howard. Bruton Smith okayed a tion prowess, prizes of boats and trips and in short, bigger prize money pot, because he wants the whatever for leading certain laps world 600 to rival and eventually surpass the anything that did not go into the simple pay-

SEPTEMBER 1977

37

which put him outside arch-rival David pearson on the front row of the starting field. Cale Yarborough and DarrellWaltrip had qualified in the second row. Pearson had once again taken the Sun-Drop trophy for qualifying fastest, a mere .323 mph over Petty's speed. (As though the already-posted hype money weren't enough, CMS saw a chance for more of the same by posting a special $1000 award for the driver

but which was probably more realistically it looked very much as though any one of
95,000, and when the field lined up on pit road,
a

dozen cars was capable of winning the world's longest-and sometimes most boring-stock car race. Pearson and Buddy Baker had won at

who led the pack at the end of the first lap,

hoping for some excitement between Pearson and Petty at the onset of racing.) As the weekend progressed, with Bruce Jacobiand Rich Newsom coming together in a frightening crash coming out of the fourth turn in a morning practice session which left both of them bruised and hurting but able to walk away from the horrendous impact, Petty contended that maybe it wasn't so much that he was trying to prove anything to the promoters. Maybe he and his crew were working extra hard to bank some extra bucks in the Petty Enterprises ac-

Charlotte Motor Speedway and they were in the field; so had the Allison brothers; and so had defending NASCAR Grand National champion Cale Yarborough, although it had been back in 1973 at the fall race with the controversial finish which Bobby Allison had protested. Besides Pearson and Petty, Yarborough and Waltrip, Donnie Allison, rookie Sam Sommers, Skip Manning, USACeT Ron Hutcherson, BobbyAllison, G. C. Spencet Coo
Coo Marlin, Neil Bonnett and Lennie Pond had also qualified in the top ten. "l'm not much of a veteran of these things," Hutcherson said before the race, "but in a race this long, I guess that just about anything can happen and anybody can win on a given Sunday, I'd suppose."

count if those bucks were being offered for

race. "That's not how I usually race," Petty said.

something so silly as leading segments of the "l usually like to lay back a little, especially in a long race like this, and see what's happenin'
before I do anything. But we're ready here. That engine's runnin'sweet and the crew's worked hard and the car feels good. And paying the bills is the name of this game anyway, right?"

The only winner on Sunday was Richard

Petty.

He smiled around his long, thin, Clint Eastwood-like cigar. "lf they put the money

there we're gonna git it if we kin. lf it proves anything else-" He shrugged his shoulders. "Well," Lennie Pond, who was at Charlotte with a completely unsponsored car that had been assisted to the track by some tow and appearance money from the CMS management, "this isn't usually Richard Petty's track, but if he's runnin' good, any track's his track. And he's runnin'good. Real good." When race day came, though, with actual
sunshine, which hadn't been seen in the Charlotte area for many a day, and with a full house that CMS officials claimed was 115,000 people,

plugging away during the midpoint of the race, said. "That Allison did a really great job of relieving and losing a fraction of a second per lap, it became very clear that the last set of pitstops me when I had to get out," Benny Parsons said would tell the story. They did. Richard Petty following the race. "He's a really great driver. pitted under the green. Nine seconds behind We couldn't have been happier with the kind of job he was doing for us. him David Pearson pitted. Richard Petty got out first and was never threatened again Allison brought the red, white and blue so much so, in fact, that David Pearson took one Chevy home one lap in front of Lennie Pond, more pitstop toward the end just to make sure who had spent the entire afternoon running up that there was enough gasoline to keep him in front among the leaders, despite the fact that second place, a position that has been becom- he was running totally as an independent. "We ing increasingly common to the Purolator Mer- ran as hard for as long as we could," Pond said

The entire story was a two-sided one: 1.) Richard Petty was running exceptionally well, and 2.) no one was able to threaten him. When he actually got back to racing, there It has long been an axiom in Grand National wasn't enough of him left, so he had his crew racing that when certain people are running call upon Bobby Allison, whose First National right, everyone else might just as well stay at City Travelers Checks Matador had gone out home. Richard Petty was running right. David after 63 laps with a broken valve. "lt was runPearson was running well, but after persistent ning real good while it was running," Allison

therefore functioning perfecfly. Benny parsons, knowing from experience what the grind at Charlotte is like, spent the several thbusand dollars for the "cool head" apparatus-unfortunately, the temperature was turned down too low, and the constant chill on his head was worse than having no protection against the heat at all, especially since the headaches that the "cool head" caused were finding a perfect nest in which to hatch. Parsons had been keeping a hectic pace for a week before the race, and Parsons'problems are something of a testimonial against a racer allowing himself to get involved in too much non-racing activity. A week before the race Parsons was submitting to a "Benny Parsons Day" in Ellerbe, his adopted hometown. Sunday he was practicing at CMS. From there he found himself in Charleston, W. Va., then on to Montreal. He attended press breakfast affairs, TV appearances, dinners, some short track racing. Practice in his Chevrolet during the latter part of the week must have seemed like a vacation to him.

humid, but certainly not overpowering. Petty kept cool by using the "cool head" driving helmet which pumps ice water through a netting inside the helmet to keep the brain cool and

lhe heat uas ovcr?poucrlng and In a strangc paradorr Benny Parsons found hlmsclf asklng for rellef becauJe tre uas too GooI.
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cury team and that is becoming just as uncomit is common. Despite the final topping-off-the-fuel-cell pitstop, Pearson did finish in the same lap with Petty. Benny Parsons finished third, two laps off the winning pace, having called upon Bobby Allison for relief in driving the First National City Travelers Check Chevy. Parsons' need for relief is understandable. The day was hot and very

fortable as

afterwards. "We sort of had somethin'to prove, and I think we did prove somethin'. When we come to a track we come to race, sponsor or no." Pond had been passed over for two firstclass rides at the end of the 1975 season. The Roger Penske/CAM2 ride had gone to Dave Marcis, while the K&K Insurance ride had gone to Neil Bonnett. Both racing programs were in

STOCK CAR RACING

trouble by the World 600 weekend. Both had

missed several races and were off the Winner's Circle program, worth $80,000 over the length of the season. Both were showing the ragged edge of being away from the hectic pace of the circuit for even one race. Marcis finished 36th, out after 168 laps with engine failure; Bonnett finished seventh, six laps behind the winner, the car never competitive. Roger Penske had made an announcement that the CAM2 stock car effort would be cut back to only major events;there was very serious talk in Charlotte that the K&K Insurance team would be dissolved by owner Nord Krauskopf . . . or perhaps sold if Harry Hyde could find a buyer. Pond's situation, on the other hand, hopeless from the beginning of the 1977 season, was looking better with every race. He had been showing consistency, good speed and fine endurance. He had talked of approaching Roger Penske with a pitch to allow him to run one of the Penske cars at Michigan in June. For the World 600 Pond won the annual Curtis TUrner Achievement Award in a landslide for his determined run to fourth place. Fifth-place Buddy Baker, a f requent winner at Charlotte, claimed the problem that Darrell Waltrip, who finished in sixth place, cited: Petty

'!i;*t:.,;#

was just too fast and lhey were just too slow.
Plain and simple.

Neil Bonnett stayed with the Harry Hydeprepared Dodge all day, but it was never a threat to the leaders. Dick Brooks finished in eighth place, eight laps behind the winner.
Rookie Sam Sommers finished ninth, taking

the bonus for top-placing rookie, and adding

more points to his bid to be rookie-of-the-year. Skip Manning was tenth and Ron Hutcherson was eleventh, having suffered two spin-outs during the race, accounting for two of only six caution periods, none of them serious, seemingly a trend at the World 600 in recent years. Twenty-six of the 40 starters were still running at the end, again in keeping with current trends at the World 600, where attrition is seemingly not a major problem considering the length of

:it,',r:,.11:.i'r/,ft1;|::l

TOP-Dean Dalton
Photos.

lost a wheel in the fourth turn and tried to slow his car down, only to have it proceed to catch

away as fire, which was quickly extinguished. BOTTOM - Cale Yarborough's points lead seems to erode mechanical problems frequently beset his car during the mid-portion of the 1977 season. Howard O'Reilly

FRIDAY AT THE

RACES-On Friday
before the World 600, during a practice session, Rick Newsom and Bruce Jacobi (#78) came together violently coming out of the fourth turn. Hugh Lewis Photos.

the race and the weather. Besides Bobby Allison driving in relief for
Benny Parsons, Ramo Stott, who dropped out

after only three laps, drove in relief for Ron

Hutcherson and Connie Saylor, in his debut in a Grand National car, drove for the S1-year-old G. C. Spencer, who has been fielding surprisingly fast cars in 1977.

Petty's prize money for the day's work

amounted to $62,300, easily the most money ever won at a stock car event. The previous high had been $51,850 at the 1971 Ontario 500, won by {.J. Foyt. The high first-place prize at Daytona's famous February 500-miler was $45,450 in 1971. Petty's response to the huge prize, $35,000 of which came in the lap-leader segments, was pretty simple: "That'll pay a lot-a

bills." B

SEPTEMBER 1977

39