SEASON IN REVIEW
Marion, Virginia driver Gayle Warren picked up his first LASTCAR Cup Championship in 1950. Warren competed in ten of the season’s nineteen races and prevailed on a bottom-five tiebreaker with Joe Merola, the only other repeat last-place finisher, by a margin of 4-2.
Warren, competing in his first season on the tour, scored his first last-place finish in NASCAR’s return to the Charlotte Speedway on July 23, scene of Dunaway’s disqualification the year before. The second took place two races later at Dayton, Ohio on August 20. Both finishes occurred because of unlisted causes when Warren was driving a 1949 Olds 88 whose car number is not listed in either race’s results.
Warren competed in two more seasons through 1953, scoring 15 starts and a career-best finish of 5th at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina in 1950 behind the wheel of a #44 1950 Plymouth. He died on September 10, 1968.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
The aforementioned Joe Merola made three starts in 1950, including the only two NASCAR starts for the 1948 Tucker Torpedo. Both times – on May 30 in Canfield, Ohio and on July 2 in Rochester, New York – Joe Merola’s #12 Tucker failed to complete the opening lap, eliminated with an axle issue in the former and the ball joint in the latter.
Louise Smith, the “First Lady of Racing,” also became NASCAR’s first female driver to finish last. She scored her first last-place finish after her #94 Smith Auto Parts ‘49 Ford was taken out in an opening-lap crash at the season opener on the Daytona Beach-Road Course on February 5.
On September 4, Roscoe Thompson finished last in the inaugural Southern 500 at the Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina when his 1949 Oldsmobile fell out after 24 laps. Although race winner Johnny Mantz did become NASCAR’s only driver to win from the 43rd starting position, contrary to popular perception, that was not the last starting spot - 75 cars started the race.
On October 15 at Winchester, Indiana, Dick Linder became the first NASCAR driver to finish last after leading a lap. Linder’s #25 1950 Oldsmobile led the opening three laps before he fell out of the event.
On October 29, future NASCAR legend Curtis Turner picked up his first last-place finish, losing the engine on his #41 Eanes Motor Co. 1950 Oldsmobile after the opening lap of the season finale at the Occoneechee Speedway in Hillsboro, North Carolina.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Joe Merola [2 B5s], Gayle Warren [4 B5s] (2)
2nd) Bob Apperson, Bill Blair, Dick Burns, Hugh Darragh, Buddy Helms, Harland Holmes, Tex Keene, Dick Linder, Joe Merola, Frank Mundy, Charles Muscatel, Leon Sales, Louise Smith, Roscoe Thompson, Curtis Turner, Felix Wilkes (1)
