PHOTO: Wilbur Thomas Collection
SEASON IN REVIEW
Sanford, North Carolina driver John Delphus “J.D.” McDuffie picked up his first LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 1968, scoring four last-place finishes in thirty-two starts during a forty-nine-race season. McDuffie edged Wendell Scott for the LASTCAR title by a single bottom-five finish, 7-6. It was the third consecutive season the title had been decided by such a margin. After McDuffie’s last-place run at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina on September 29, McDuffie led Scott by two Bottom Fives, and Scott only scored one in his four remaining starts.
McDuffie was competing in his fourth season on the Cup Series tour and his third as driver of car #70, the number he would campaign for nearly all of his nearly three decades in NASCAR. Coming into 1968, he had scored one top-five finish, twelve top-tens, and two last-place finishes in forty-nine starts. 1968 would see him behind the wheel of a 1967 Buick that he built and worked on himself as an owner-driver. The car debuted at Martinsville, Virginia on April 28, where McDuffie came home 25th in the 40-car field.
The first of McDuffie’s four last-place finishes occurred on July 4, 1968 in the Firecracker 400 in Daytona Beach, Florida when his engine blew after the opening lap, dropping him to 37th. The second occurred eight races later on August 4 in the Dixie 500 at the Atlanta International Raceway in Hampton, Georgia, a vibration the listed cause after four laps. The third finish came on the short track in Richmond, Virginia on September 8, where he lost oil pressure after 12 laps. The fourth was later that month at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina on September 29, where another engine problem after the first lap left him in 30th spot.
Though McDuffie finished just 24th in points in 1968, he scored another nine Top Tens that year, then improved to 14th in points in 1969 and 16th in 1970, thanks to his first career top-five finish at the Nashville Fairgrounds on July 25, 1970. He would then become LASTCAR’s first two-time champion in 1971.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
David Pearson was disqualified from two races in 1968, accounting for his second and third career last-place finishes. The first occurred in Birmingham, Alabama on June 8, when his #17 Holman-Moody 1968 Ford finished 3rd, but was bumped back to 18th for running tires with an unapproved tread pattern. The second was at Beltsville, Maryland on September 13, when Pearson finished 2nd in a car borrowed from owner-driver Roy Trantham. In post-race inspection, it was revealed that the car, which Trantham wrecked at Darlington earlier that month, was 200 pounds underweight.
On May 26, during the World 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Cale Yarborough jumped from the 3rd starting spot to lead the opening 44 laps of the 400-lap event. Yarborough was leading by half a lap over the field when a tire blew, sending him into the wall and out of the race. He finished last that day, setting a new record for most laps led by a Cup Series last-place finisher that would stand for nearly forty years.
On October 27, Formula One driver Frank Gardner became the first Australian to finish last in a NASCAR race. Gardner qualified 21st for the America 500 at the North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, North Carolina, but his #11 Holman-Moody Ford was flagged off the track after the opening lap due to engine problems.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) J.D. McDuffie [7 B5s], Wendell Scott [6 B5s] (4)
2nd) Henley Gray (3)
3rd) Gene Black, Leonard Brock, Bud Moore, David Mote, David Pearson (2)
4th) Bobby Allison, Buck Baker, Richard Brickhouse, Earl Brooks, Neil Castles, Bill Champion, Joe Clark, Bob Cooper, George Davis, Bill Ervin, Rod Eulenfeld, Frank Gardner, Walson Gardner, Friday Hassler, Larry Hess, Ray Hill, Paul Dean Holt, Bobby Isaac, Bobby Johns, Bobby Mausgrover, Stan Meserve, Bill Seifert, Dub Simpson, G.C. Spencer, Don Tarr, Bill Vanderhoff, Jim Vandiver, Cale Yarborough (1)
