SEASON IN REVIEW
High Point, North Carolina driver Jim Paschal picked up his first LASTCAR Cup Championship in 1957, scoring a record-tying four last-place finishes that season in his thirty-five starts during the fifty-three-race season. In doing so, Paschal upped his career total to seven last-place finishes, taking the all-time lead in last-place finishes from Jimmie Lewallen and Frank Mundy. Paschal would hold this record for two seasons.
Paschal came into the 1957 season, his ninth on the tour, with six Cup Series wins, including three in 1955 while driving Oldsmobiles for Ernest Wood, and a streak of four consecutive seasons finishing in the Top 10 in points. The 1957 season began with a move from Frank Hayworth’s Mercury team to Bill Stroppe’s, a move which resulted in a season with 15 DNFs.
Paschal’s first two last-place finishes of 1957 came in Stroppe’s #17 1957 Mercurys. The first finish came at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina on April 7, where a burnt piston took him out after 34 laps. The other came three races later at the Hub City Speedway in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he lost oil pressure after 26 laps.
The other two finishes came when Paschal became an owner-driver, still running a #17 Mercury. The first of those finishes came twenty races after Spartanburg at Hickory, North Carolina on July 20, an oil leak the listed cause after 31 laps. Finally, he finished last at Shelby, North Carolina on September 21, following a distributor failure after 58 laps. With no other driver scoring more than two last-place finishes in 1957, Paschal locked-up the LASTCAR title with a comfortable two-finish margin.
Despite these finishes during a winless season, Paschal continued his streak of Top 10 points finishes with a 10th-place spot in the rankings. Paschal would go on to win a total of 25 Cup races in 421 starts and compete in the Cup Series through the 1972 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, North Carolina, where he came home 16th in the 40-car field. He only finished last two more times after the 1957 season. He passed away on July 5, 2004.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Several more familiar names finished last for the first time in 1957:
Joe Weatherly, just six years away from becoming a two-time NASCAR Cup Champion, finished last on December 30, 1956 at Titusville, Florida when his #J12 DePaolo Engineering 1956 Ford lost the clutch after 17 laps.
DeWayne “Tiny” Lund, six years before his breakthrough win in the Daytona 500, lost the engine on his #188 Petty Engineering-prepared 1957 Oldsmobile six laps into March 3 race at Concord, North Carolina.
Marvin Panch, who won six races in 1957 and finished a career-best second in points, was involved in a crash in his #98 DePaolo 1957 Ford after 25 laps in the Greensboro, North Carolina race on April 28.
Bob Welborn, who would go on to claim his own LASTCAR Cup title two years later, finished last for the first time on June 20 when his #49 1957 Chevrolet didn’t start the 200-lap race at Columbia, South Carolina.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Jim Paschal (4)
2nd) Johnny Allen, Bill Amick, Brownie King, Tiny Lund, Speedy Thompson, T.A. Toomes (2)
3rd) L.D. Austin, Dick Beaty, Bill Benson, Max Berrier, Art Binkley, Scotty Cain, Pete Cardenas, Jim Cook, Russ Dohlen, Bob Duell, Danny Graves, George Green, Bill Hall, Reds Kagle, Bill Jarlick, Bobby Keck, John Kieper, Jimmy Lewallen, Johnny Mackinson, Bill Massey, Norman McGriff, Ralph Moody, Tony Moretti, Bill Myers, Keith Olson, Cotton Owens, Marvin Panch, Peck Peckham, Lee Petty, Marvin Porter, Billy Rafter, Jim Russell, Dave Terrell, Roy Tyner, Joe Weatherly, Bob Welborn, Emanuel Zervakis (1)
