Editor’s Note: In a nod to our 90 years of history, each week SPEED SPORT will look back at the top stories from 15, 30 and 60 years ago as told in the pages of National Speed Sport News.
15 Years Ago — 2009
News: North Carolina’s North Wilkesboro Speedway bas sat vacant and quiet since the final NASCAR Cup Series race at the track in 1996, slowly collecting dust and fading into racing history.
A select group of people, however, has decided that they just can’t let that happen.
A new ownership group, consisting of Terri Parsons, the widow of Benny Parsons, Alton McBride Sr., Alton McBride Jr., Dave Ehret, John Burwell and Bosco Lowe, are bringing racing back to the .62S-mile oval, starting with a USARacing Pro Cup Series event slated for Oct. 3.
Winners: Jamie McMurray’s victory in Sunday’s wild NASCAR Sprint Cup AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for the driver who is
about to be out of a ride at Roush Fenway Racing at the end of this season.
The victory snapped an 86-race winless streak for McMurray.
But it was Jimmie Johnson who left Talladega Superspeedway with the most to celebrate after finishing sixth while his closest championship pursuers Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon were both involved in a massive 13-car crash heading toward the white flag.
Because of that, NASCAR can make plans on engraving Johnson’s name on his fourth straight Sprint Cup championship.
30 Years Ago — 1994
News: To commemorate its two decades as principal sponsor of the NHRA drag racing series, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. announced at the season-ending Winston Select Finals that it will double its level of support beginning with the initiation of the Winston Select 10 program in 1995.
The Winston Select 10 program will pay out $1 million in bonuses to the top point producers in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle on a race-to-race basis during 1995. Each of the top 10 drivers in the NHRA point standings at the beginning of each national event (and the Winston Invitational at Rockingham, N.C.) will share in the bounty.
Winners: Dave Blaney warmed a chilled crowd sitting in 30-degree weather by winning
the 40-lap The Club All-Star Circuit of Champions sprint car feature Friday night at Crossville Raceway.
Blaney was behind the wheel of Charlie Fisher’s Summit Racing Equipment Fisher/Gaerte for the weekend.
60 Years Ago— 1964
News: The latest development in the rules ruckus between NASCAR, who triggered the fuss when it announced controversial rules for 1965, and the Chrysler Corp. who saw its winning hemi-head cars eliminated from further competition, was their withdrawal from NASCAR racing in 1965 if the rules stand.
Ronnie Householder, Chrysler’s Director of Competitive Products, issued a statment Thursday stating that unless NASCAR’s rules are modified or suspended for a minimum of 12 months, they have no alternative but to withdraw from NASCAR events and support other circuits.
The trouble began Oct. 19 when NASCAR’s new rules were announced. They outlawed Chrysler’s Hemi and Ford’s Hi-Rise engines and placed a 119″ wheelbase minimum on cars competing on NASCAR’s four major tracks — Atlanta, Charlotte, Darlington and Daytona — while allowing the 116″ wheelbase cars permission to run all other tracks.
In addition, internal engine changes (modifying) are to be permitted and all cars will have to conform to an average weight. Displacement remains at 4.27 cubic inches (seven liters.)
Winners: Roger McCluskey, of Indianapolis, the 1963 USAC national sprint car champion, found a fast groove Halloween night at Ascot Park when he raced his Kenny Worth Chevy Special to victory in the 30-lap event of the national championship sprint car races on the half-mile dirt oval.
McCluskey wasted no time in getting to the front of the 13-car field as he took the lead in the third tum on the first lap after waging a wheel-to-wheel battle with Bobby Hogle down the back straightaway. In their duel Hogle spun out in the turn, sending McCluskey into the lead. From then on, he led all the way without a single challenge.