SEASON IN REVIEW
Denton, North Carolina driver Bob Welborn picked up his first LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 1959, scoring two last-place finishes in his twenty-nine starts during the forty-four-race season. Welborn claimed the title in LASTCAR’s first tiebreaker since 1953, breaking an eight-way tie on Bottom Fives. Welborn racked up more Bottom Fives than anyone in 1959, edging his closest contenders Junior Johnson and L.D. Austin 10-7.
Welborn was competing in his eighth season in Cup Series competition, competing as an owner-driver in his #49 1959 Chevrolet in all but four of his starts that year. Ironically, 1959 was also one of Welborn’s best seasons, a year he would claim the final three of his nine career victories. He thus became the first LASTCAR champion to also win races in the same year.
Contrary to popular perception, it was Welborn who became the first points race winner at the new Daytona International Speedway when his #49 W.J. Ridgeway 1959 Chevrolet won the first-ever qualifying race at the 2.5-mile track on February 20. Two days later, Lee Petty would go on to win the first annual Daytona 500, and Ken Marriott became the 500's first last-place finisher when his #75 1958 Ford lost the engine after the opening lap, dropping him to 59th place. It was Marriott’s only last-place finish in his fifth and final Cup Series start. Welborn finished 41st due to engine trouble. Welborn’s other two victories came in the season opener at Fayetteville, North Carolina on November 9, 1958, while the third win came in Weaverville, North Carolina on August 16.
Welborn’s two last-place finishes occurred in the middle-to-late portions of the season. His first came in the 18th race of the season at Spartanburg, South Carolina on June 5. Welborn was running a 1957 Chevrolet that day that lost a bearing after just four laps. The other finish came twenty-four races later on October 11, when his 1959 Chevrolet broke a sway bar after 81 laps at the same Asheville-Weaverville Speedway where he won two months before. When all the points were tallied, Welborn finished 17th in the NASCAR point standings.
Welborn would compete for five more seasons and finish last in two more races before he retired after his 183rd start in 1964. He passed away on August 10, 1997.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Fresh off his rookie season, but still months before the first of his record 200 Cup Series wins, Richard Petty scored his first last-place finish on June 27, 1959 at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Petty’s #43 1957 Oldsmobile started 3rd, but fell out with transmission problems after 14 laps. Combined with a last-place run at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on August 1, Petty was one of the seven drivers tied for the LASTCAR lead, but he trailed Welborn by six bottom-five finishes. Petty also finished third-from-last the day his father won that February’s Daytona 500, engine problems knocking him out after eight laps.
Future superspeedway star Buddy Baker also scored his first last-place finish in 1959, his rookie season in NASCAR. The second-generation racer finished 30th at the Nashville Fairgrounds in Nashville, Tennessee on August 9 when his #89 1958 Chevrolet convertible lost the engine after 10 laps.
Jimmie Lewallen took back the all-time LASTCAR lead with two more finishes in 1959, giving him eight in total and a one-finish lead over 1957 LASTCAR Champion Jim Paschal.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) L.D. Austin [7 B5s], Joe Eubanks [4 B5s], Junior Johnson [7 B5s], Shep Langdon [4 B5s], Jimmie Lewallen [4 B5s], Richard Petty [4 B5s], Jack Smith [3 B5s], Bob Welborn [10 B5s] (2)
2nd) Buddy Baker, Jim Bickerstaff, Bob Burdick, Carl Burris, Dick Getty, Charley Griffith, Ned Jarrett, Bobby Keck, Brownie King, Elmo Langley, Dave Marburger, Ken Marriott, Bunk Moore, Whitey Norman, Cotton Owens, Gene Peltier, Bennie Rakestraw, Shorty Rollins, Bob Rose, Ken Rush, G.C. Spencer, Cliff Timberman, Jimmy Thompson, Tommy Thompson, Roy Tyner, Bobby Waddell, Rex White (1)
