SEASON IN REVIEW
Pearisburg, Virginia driver Jack Anderson picked up his first LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 1964, scoring four last-place finishes in thirty-one starts during a sixty-two-race season.
In 1964, Anderson was competing in his second season on the Cup Series tour. He drove in his own equipment in twenty-two of his thirty-one starts that year, and while he scored a career-best 4th in a 12-car race at the Savannah Speedway in Savannah, Georgia on October 9, his statistics were weighed down by nineteen DNFs.
The first of Anderson’s four last-place finishes in 1964 occurred on April 11 when his #20 1963 Ford blew its engine after 24 laps around the Asheville-Weaverville Speedway in Weaverville, North Carolina. The second occurred thirty races later in another 12-car field at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on August 7, his #20 1964 Ford felled by radiator woes after the opening lap. The final two finishes occurred in consecutive races just before the end of the season. Finish number three took place at Harris, North Carolina on October 25, where his #0 1962 Ford lost the transmission after 33 laps. The other was a week later in Augusta, Georgia on November 1 where his #20 1964 Ford blew the engine after the opening lap.
Anderson would compete in just two more Cup Series races in 1965 before he retired from racing with 36 career starts.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Twice in 1964, more than one driver did not start the race, so last place went to the driver shown in the last position in the online and written versions of the race results. The first was at Martinsville, Virginia on September 27, where both Doug Yates in his #72 1963 Plymouth and Buddy Arrington in his #78 1963 Dodge did not start the race - Arrington was credited with the last spot, having also earned less prize money than Yates. The other was on July 4 in the Firecracker 400 at Daytona, where both Fred Lorenzen and Paul Goldsmith didn’t start after their cars were totaled in a wreck during a qualifying race. Lorenzen suffered a cut tendon in his wrist in the accident, but would return to win the Daytona 500 the next spring.
Also among the notable first-time last-placers was future team owner Bud Moore, whose #66 1963 Ford overheated three laps into the 400-lap race at Nashville, Tennessee on August 2.
Eight other times in 1964, the last-place finisher did not start the race. Among those drivers were two of the four competitors killed in a terrible twelve-month span. One month before his tragic crash at Charlotte, Fireball Roberts was unable to race in the April 19 race at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina after he wrecked his car in qualifying. One week later in Martinsville, Virginia on April 26, Billy Wade, who also lost his life in a crash in January 1965, lost second in points after owner Bud Moore refused to make NASCAR’s adjustments to his #1 1964 Mercury in inspection, leading to the team’s withdrawal from the event.
The other two drivers NASCAR lost in that span were Jimmy Pardue and two-time and defending Cup Series Champion Joe Weatherly. Pardue, whose #2 Cliff Stewart 1963 Pontiac finished last in the third race of the 1964 season - the December 1, 1963 race where Wendell Scott scored his upset victory at Jacksonville, Florida - was killed in a tire test at Charlotte on September 22. Al Brand’s #20W 1962 Chevrolet finished last at Riverside on January 19, 1964, the day Weatherly was killed in a mid-race accident.
In total, 47 different drivers finished last at least once in the 1964 season, setting a record that stands to this day. According to Perry Allen Wood’s interview with Curtis Crider, one of those 47 may have been a different driver. The official results for the July 10 race at Old Bridge Stadium show the first and only last-place finish for Bernard Alvarez in his #10 1964 Ford, out after 1 lap with rear end trouble. Crider, however, has a different story. Crider had purchased the #66 that Larry Frank drove to victory in the 1962 Southern 500 without an engine. With the field short by one car, Crider and teammate Buddy Baker entered the car with the crewman behind the wheel, instructed him to pretend the car broke down and needed a push, then pulled out with “engine failure.” As of this writing, there is no record of this entry in the event.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Jack Anderson (4)
2nd) Earl Brooks, Jimmy Helms (3)
3rd) Pete Boland, Rodney Bottinger, Neil Castles, Joe Cote, Bob Derrington, Ned Jarrett,
Roy Tyner, Cale Yarborough (2)
4th) Weldon Adams, Bernard Alvarez, Buddy Arrington, Buddy Baker, Buck Baker, Al Brand, Doug Branson, Jim Bray, Darrell Bryant, Jim Cook, Bob Cooper, Doug Cooper, Curtis Crider, Jim Dimeo, Stick Elliott, Rod Eulenfeld, Larry Frank, Frank Graham, Gene Hobby, Mark Hurley, Bubba Into, Fred Lorenzen, Jimmy Massey, Roy Mayne, Bud Moore, Doug Moore, Jimmy Pardue, Richard Petty, Fireball Roberts, Graham Shaw, G.C. Spencer, Pete Stewart, Frank Tanner, Billy Wade, Doug Yates, Steve Young (1)
