Thomas Pope, a longtime motorsports writer and sports editor for the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer, occasionally covered McDuffie’s racing efforts.
“I think the older Cup guys, such as Richard Petty and Junior Johnson and Richard Childress, had a lot of respect for J.D. because he was able to hang in there and run the Cup Series as long as he did,” Pope said. “There were times when he would scuff in tires for Junior at places like Dover and tracks like that. J.D. could pit and they would run so many laps on them and come back in and take them off and Junior’s guys would go down and get their tires back. Then they’d put them back on the cars driven by Cale Yarborough, Neil Bonnett or Darrell Waltrip or whoever was driving for him.
“They probably gave him stuff to run that he couldn’t have afforded even if it was used. They were more than willing to help him out just to keep him out there. They appreciated what he had to do to be there every week.”
Jeff Hammond, a crew chief for Waltrip while with Johnson, remembers McDuffie searching for used parts.
“J.D. did the most with some of the least of any of the independents that I remember,” Hammond said. “He wasn’t bashful about saying, ‘If you have something you’re getting rid of call me and I’ll let you know if I can possibly use it.’ As far as his passion was concerned, it was equal to anyone I knew in the garage area at the time. He always managed to make it to the next race. If he didn’t have an engine ready, he would work day and night to have one ready to race. He was just very, very persistent.”
McDuffie did find mild doses of success during his NASCAR career. Some came at Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tenn., where he finished fifth four times. In 1971, McDuffie finished third in a 100-mile race in Malta, N.Y.
In 1978, McDuffie won the pole for the Delaware 500 at Dover (Del.) Int’l Speedway, using McCreary tires. When the media couldn’t find him to interview him, a crew member told them, “He’s probably looking for a place to faint.” After they finally located him, he bashfully said, “It’s a nice feeling to be running faster than the best in the world.” He finished 33rd after breaking an engine valve.
Then in 1982, McDuffie carried his biggest sponsor from Mountain Dew as part of an effort to help Darrell Waltrip and Johnson win the 1982 Cup Series championship in the final race of the season at California’s Riverside Int’l Raceway. McDuffie started 14th and finished 18th.
According to Means, there two sides to McDuffie.
“J.D. was a totally different person on the race track than what he was in the garage area,” Means said. “On the track, he was fiercely competitive and he took pride in running the very best that he could and tried to outrun all of the other independent drivers out there. He was a very competitive individual and it was hard to race him because he was a good racer and a very good mechanic.
“In the garage, he was just a humble, friendly happy guy. I’ve seen times when he would miss a race and I could see the disappointment on his face but at the same time he had the attitude of ‘we’ll get ’em next time.’ I hardly ever saw him down. He was always upbeat, even when things didn’t go well for him.”
Jeffrey Baker, facilities manager for Team Penske, was new to Cup Series racing in the late 1980s while working with driver Derrike Cope. That’s when he first met McDuffie and his son, Jeff.
“What I remember most about J.D. and his team was how hard they worked and how much they were able to do with so little to work with,” Baker said. “You go back and look at his stats, especially with the budget he had to work with and it was incredible. He had 653 starts and finished in the top 10 106 times. You’re looking at 16 percent of his starts finishing in the top 10.
“I don’t think there’s anyone in the garage area who thought he actually performed that well,” Baker continued. “Maybe not even those loyal people that backed him with sponsorships, such as the Rumple Furniture folks or Baily Excavating. To have accomplished what he did in NASCAR’s Cup Series was pretty phenomenal.”