SEASON IN REVIEW
Henderson, North Carolina driver George Parrish picked up his first LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 1955, setting a new single-season last-place record of four finishes out of his twelve starts in the forty-five-race season.
Parrish was competing in his second season on the Cup circuit, driving his own #11 1953 Studebaker. Parrish’s run at the LASTCAR title came in the second half of the season - his first last-place finish occurred in the 23rd race of the season on June 24 at the Southern States Fairgrounds in Charlotte, North Carolina, where his Studebaker’s oil line failed after 38 laps. The second finish came nine races later at the Forsyth County Fairgrounds in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on August 7, a right-rear hub was to blame after 26 laps.
The final two finishes came in the next six races, which marked his final two starts of the season. Once again, the Southern 500 at the Darlington Raceway was on the champion’s list. In the September 5 race, Parrish’s W.H. Pontress-backed machine overheated after 11 laps and came home 69th. The final finish, which broke a tie with Jimmie Lewallen for the LASTCAR lead, came in Raleigh, North Carolina on September 30, where a dropped piton took him out after 9 laps.
The 1955 season also marked Parrish’s best career finish, a 10th-place run in the Richmond 200 at the Richmond Fairgrounds in Richmond, Virginia on May 22. He came home twenty-four laps behind race winner and eventual series champion Tim Flock. Parrish left the sport briefly in 1956 to run a handful of starts in 1957 and 1958 before he retired following a next-to-last-place finish in his 21st and final start in the ‘58 opener at Champion Speedway in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Late in the season, Jimmy Pardue scored his first career last-place finish at Martinsville, Virginia. The future two-time race winner made his Cup debut in the October 16 race, but fell out when his #24 1955 Chevrolet broke a hub after ten laps. Six years later, it would be Pardue who would best Parrish’s single-season record of four last-place finishes.
On October 6 and October 9, during the races at Greenville-Pickens Speedway and Memphis-Arkansas Speedway, Jim Reed was disqualified in both races for running non-stock cylinder heads on his #7 1955 Chevrolet. He would go on to be disqualified a third time the following season in the December 11 race at Palm Beach, this time for illegal valves.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) George Parrish (4)
2nd) Jimmy Lewallen, Jim Reed (3)
3rd) Gober Sosebee, Gwyn Staley (2)
4th) Woody Arrington, Buck Baker, Ted Cannady, Crash Carson, Ed Cole, Charlie Creger, Pepper Cunningham, Lloyd Dane, C.H. Dingler, Fred Dove, Erik Erickson, Ken Fischer, Boyce Hildreth, Elton Hildreth, Morris Hill, Fred Johnson, Britton Jones, Owen Loggins, Bunk Moore, Ken Pace, Jimmy Pardue, Jim Paschal, Ed Paskovich, Julian Petty, Fireball Roberts, Eddie Skinner, Gene Simpson, Gordon Smith, Bill Tanner, Dink Widenhouse (1)
