SEASON IN REVIEW
Olivia, North Carolina driver Donald Thomas picked up his first LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 1953. Thomas finished last in three of his seventeen starts that thirty-seven-race season and edged Dick Rathman in the tiebreaker based on Bottom Fives, 6-4.
Thomas, just twenty years old, was already competing in his fourth season on the NASCAR tour. He scored his only career victory the year before at the Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, Georgia on November 16, 1952 driving a #9 Fabulous Hudson Hornet that was both owned and, for the final few laps, driven by his brother Herb Thomas. This set a record for youngest winner of a Cup Series race that held until September 4, 2005, when Kyle Busch beat his mark by just four days.
Thomas made a handful more starts in his brother’s equipment, but ran the balance of the year driving 1950 Fords owned by Doug Meeks. And, unfortunately, it was while driving Meeks’ #72 cars that Thomas earned two of his three last-place finishes.
For the third time in four years, one of the LASTCAR Cup Champion’s last-place finishes came at the Charlotte Speedway. Thomas’ came on April 5 when a broken mount took his Ford out of the Charlotte event. The second finish took place five races later at the Hickory Speedway in Hickory, North Carolina on May 16. His third finish came eight races later in big brother Herb’s #9 at Wilson, North Carolina on June 28.
Thomas competed for three more seasons through 1956, leaving the sport at age twenty-three after 79 career starts. The three last-place finishes of the 1953 season were the final of his career. He passed away December 16, 1977.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Dick Rathman, an experienced dirt tracker who lost the LASTCAR tiebreaker to Thomas, won five races in the 1953 season to offset his first three last-place finishes, earning him the third spot in the final point standings.
Donald’s big brother Herb finished last for the first time in 1953. On October 13, he broke a fuel pump on his #92 1953 Hudson after 28 laps at Martinsville, Virginia. Nevertheless, Herb held on and won his second NASCAR Cup Championship in three years.
Also among the notable first-time last-placers in 1953 was “Gentleman” Ned Jarrett, whose #79 1950 Oldsmobile lost the oil line eight laps into the Southern 500 at Darlington, South Carolina on September 7. Jarrett would go on to win that event by a record margin twelve years later.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Dick Rathman [4 B5s], Donald Thomas [6 B5s] (3)
2nd) Jimmy Ayers, Arden Mounts, Ermon Rush, Slick Smith (2)
3rd) Frank Arford, Johnny Beauchamp, Leo Bergeron, Wally Campbell, George Clark, June Cleveland, Fred Dove, Ralph Dutton, Lou Faver, Fonty Flock, Matt Gowan, Ned Jarrett, J.L. Justice, Coleman Lawrence, Ted Lee, Virgil Livengood, Billy Rafter, Lucky Sawyer, Eddie Skinner, Gwyn Staley, Victor Strassburg, Herb Thomas, Red Untiedt (1)
