SEASON IN REVIEW
Fewsburg, New York driver Lloyd Moore picked up his first LASTCAR Cup Championship in 1951. Moore competed in twenty-two of the season’s forty-one races.
Moore finished sixth in his first-ever NASCAR start at the Heidelberg (Pennsylvania) Raceway, the penultimate race of the “Strictly Stock” division’s inaugural 1949 season. He won his first race the following year, taking the checkers at the Winchester Speedway on October 15, 1950. In 1951, he would remain with team owner Julian Buesink, who the year before was the championship car owner for teammate Bill Rexford. All three of Moore’s last-place finishes would come in Buesink’s #59 Fords and Oldsmobiles.
The first came on May 30, during the Poor Man’s 500 at the Canfield (Ohio) Speedway, where his 1949 Oldsmobile dropped out early from the 38-car contest. The next came eight rounds later at the Asheville-Weaverville Speedway, where his run in the 200-lap race ended with issues for his 1950 Ford. The last occurred just two races later on August 1, when his Ford encountered mechanical issues in the 200-lap event at New York’s Altamont-Schenectady Fairgrounds.
In previous installments, Frank “Rebel” Mundy was credited with the 1951 LASTCAR Cup Championship, having forced Moore to a Bottom Ten tiebreaker of 10-8. However, on August 29, 2016, new information revealed that Mundy scored just two of his original three last-place finishes that year. Four drivers were now ranked behind Mundy in the September 23 race at the Charlotte Speedway, including last-place finisher Eddie Anderson in his Nash. Thus, Moore is credited with the championship without a tiebreaker.
Moore ran more races in 1951 than any other season, but finished just eleventh in the final standings. He ran ten more races, the last of which coming in the 1955 Southern 500 at Darlington, where his Julian Buesink-prepared #95 Ford finished 24th in a field of 69. Moore passed away on May 18, 2008.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
As the longest NASCAR season to that point, 1951 saw several future stars of NASCAR score their first last-place finishes. On April 29, Glenn “Fireball” Roberts finished last at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina when his #11 Sam Rice 1950 Oldsmobile 88 slipped a fuel line after three laps. Marshall Teague and his 1951 Fabulous Hudson Hornet #6 pulled out after eleven laps of the June 10 race at Columbus, Georgia when a rock broke through his windshield and injured his hand. Future series champion Tim Flock trailed the field in Macon, Georgia on September 8, falling from the outside-pole in his #91 Black Phantom 1951 Oldsmobile 88.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Lloyd Moore (3)
2nd) Frank Mundy (2)
3rd) Eddie Anderson, Len Brown, Woody Brown, Hal Cole, Leland Colvin, Jim Delaney, Ray Duhigg, Don Eggett, Bud Erb, Mike Ernest, Wimpy Ervin, Lou Figaro, Pat Flaherty, Tim Flock, Jimmy Florian, Curtis Hunt, Harold Kite, Mike Klapak, Dawsom Lechlider, Irv Leitch, Bill Majot, Dell Pearson, Andy Pierce, Ray Pruitt, Fireball Roberts, George Seeger, Jack Smith, John Soares, Bill Stickler, Marshall Teague, Donald Thomas, Curtis Turner, Jack Wade, J.C. White, Cliff Woodson (1)
