50 Years of nascar racing ~ David Slays Goliath (Post 97)
By Matt McLaughlin
Post 97span>
Editor's note:
This article is part of a special reprise of Matt McLaughlin's "50 Years
of NASCAR Racing", written and published in 1998 in commemoration of
NASCAR's 50th Anniversary celebration that year. Matt has kindly granted me
permission to run the entire series. Please, sit back and enjoy as you take a
journey back through the pages of history and perhaps relive a memory or two. Many thanks to Matt for his generosity in sharing. God bless
you, my friend.
The date was October 21, 1973, and the Winston Cup teams
were in Rockingham, North Carolina for the final event of the season, the
American 500. Going into the race Benny Parsons had what most people thought
was a comfortable lead in the Winston Cup title chase, though owing to a
bizarre points system, one of several fumbled attempts
by NASCAR in the 70's, no one was quite sure what he needed to do to take the
title. One thing everyone knew was that Parsons needed to keep his Chevy off
the wall. But there on the unlucky 13th lap sat Benny Parsons in a thoroughly
mangled racecar, his hopes for a championship seemingly strewn along the length
of the first and second corners, right along with major pieces of his car.
A little background on the events leading up to that day may help explain things. There were only 28 events on the 1973 schedule, the second year of a downsized schedule that had once averaged about 48 races a year. Winston, which had become the title sponsor of NASCAR's senior division in 1971 had insisted in 1972 any race of less than 250 miles be dropped from the schedule. It had been those rough and tumble short track races that had once given the smaller teams a chance to compete with the big dogs of the day, Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, and David Pearson. Many teams were no longer attending every event and in fact only six teams had gone to every race in 1972. In an effort to lure more teams into running the full circuit, rather than "cherry picking" (running only the events with large purses) a points system was devised where the winner received 100 points, and every team got a half point for every lap they completed. Thus, a team hoping to take the title had to go to every race and run every lap possible. A driver finishing 12th, but on the lead lap, received just as many points as the driver who finished second if they were on the same lap. The system was not quite a bizarre as it seems because in those days it was not unusual for the winner to be on a lap by himself, and a car that finished fifth to be 10 or 20 laps down.
Benny Parsons drove a pumpkin-orange with Petty blue wheels, 73 Chevelle. (Let's keep in mind the 70s were an aesthetic disaster). The car was owned by L.G. DeWitt, and ran without a primary sponsor at most races, though UNOCAL 76 was on the car's quarter panels occasionally as was Dewitt Trucking, or any other sponsor interested in a one race deal. The team was lightly funded and lightly regarded, though Parsons and Dewitt had won a hundred-mile event at the tiny South Boston track in 71. Parsons was a well liked driver with an infectious sense of humor, but was considered a journeyman driver who had come up through the ARCA ranks. The team's ability to continue operating depended on winning enough money at each event without tearing up the car, to get to the next race.
Going into the 1973 season, the odds-on favorite to take the title was Richard Petty in his heavily funded STP Dodge. Petty had won the title in 1971 and 1972, scoring 21 victories in the 71 season alone. His primary competition was Bobby Allison in a Coca-Cola sponsored Chevrolet. Allison had been the runner up in 72. Cale Yarborough was returning to NASCAR, after a brief stint in the Indy Car ranks, and driving for the Junior Johnson- Ron Howard team was also considered a threat. Though they would only compete in 18 events, the combination of David Pearson and the Woods Brothers Mercury would be a contender at the big tracks. The rest of the drivers would have to settle for the crumbs.
1973 was a turbulent season, and almost from the outset the big teams were complaining that the points system rewarded consistency rather than running hard. Meanwhile, the smaller teams were complaining only the big dogs got appearance money and that the purses were ridiculously small. Everyone was pointing fingers at everyone else and complaining they were cheating. Midway through the season, NASCAR made a highly controversial rules change trying to achieve "parity" (yes that dreaded word has been around all these years). The big 426 Hemis and Ford Boss 429 engines were saddled with smaller restrictor plates to try to give the production based Chevy 427 Rat a chance with its conventional cylinder heads. The Ford based teams were particularly vocal because to that point, (and indeed throughout the entire season) only Pearson and his Wood Brothers' Mercury had won races for the blue oval folks. Sounds rather like NASCAR's giving the Fords a break last year, though only Jeff Gordon has won in a Chevy, does it not?
And throughout it all, Benny Parsons was quietly out there running, careful to avoid wrecks, or hurting an engine, even while the big name drivers were blowing up or wrecking fighting over the lead. The season was not without its incidents for Parsons. He lost an engine at Daytona and wound up 30th, a poor way to start things. The team only had a couple of the new Chevelles and often had to run year-old Monte Carlos, which were about as aerodynamic as a brick outhouse, and in one case a 71 Mercury because that was what they had left that was running.
Benny did have his one shining day in the sun, July 8th at Bristol. The day was so brutally hot, only six drivers made the entire race without needing a relief driver. Even Benny was forced to put John Utsman in the car after Parsons built up a comfortable lead. How comfortable? He was credited with finishing seven laps ahead of the second place driver L.D. Ottinger. Most of the big name drivers were felled by mechanical problems or wrecks that blistering day in Tennessee. For the win, Parsons was awarded the princely sum of $6,800. Quietly, Parsons continued marching towards his championship, finishing in the top ten in 21 out of 27 starts that year, and in the top 5 fifteen times.
The pundits were stunned when Parsons arrived at the track in Rockingham for the last race of the year with a 194.3 point lead. Not only were Parsons and the Dewitt team in the lead, two other lightly regarded drivers, James Hylton in a family team Mercury, and Cecil Gordon, in the number 24 Monte Carlo (just a coincidence. Cecil is no relation to the current Gordon who drives the 24 Monte) were also in the top six in the points, right along with Richard Petty, Buddy Baker and Cale Yarborough.
Benny knew what he needed to do... finish the race and run as many laps as possible without taking any risks. He was honest about the fact he was not gunning for a win that day, telling reporters "My very livelihood is at stake. Richard or Cale's isn't. The championship would assure us of continuing racing. Everyone needs a sponsor and winning would give us a selling point for additional backing next year. Nothing less than winning the championship affords us that opportunity." Well as the saying goes, " the best laid plans of mice and men..." On that fateful 13th lap, Johnny Barnes got sideways in the first corner. Parsons tried to duck low to avoid him and ran out of room. The resultant impact sounded like a bomb going off. When the smoke cleared there sat Benny's Chevy with its right side torn away, its roll cage can-openered open, the right front tire gone and the entire rear axle assembly laying separate from the car. The car looked hopeless, and a dejected Benny Parsons told the press, "There just went fifty thousand dollars down the drain." It may seem hard to believe to anyone of you who was still getting ready to duke it out in the Fallopian Tube 500 back in the seventies, but $50,000 was the points champion's take in those days. But Parson's crew chief, Travis Carter, (current owner of the 23 team) wasn't ready to throw in the towel. The wreck was towed back to the garage area and something remarkable happened. Members of other independent teams came hurrying over to give the DeWitt crew a hand trying to piece back together the shattered Chevy. Another Chevelle that had failed to qualify was pressed into service as a parts car, and the right side portion of the roll cage was cut off and welded into place on Parson's car. The damaged sheetmetal was removed with a torch and the suspension was rebuilt. The miracle that occurred that day is right up there with the ending of the Charlie Brown Christmas special, where the Peanuts gang brings the ugly little tree back to life. Only that Christmas tree looked great. What was left of Parsons' car was so ugly you'd have had to tie a steak to the roll cage to get a dog to relieve itself on one of the tires. There was no right front fender, door panel or quarter panel. The windshield, deck-lid and hood were held on with duct tape. The color of the roll cage section grafted in didn't match and the welds looked like they were squeezed out of a toothpaste tube.