SEASON IN REVIEW
Sanford, North Carolina driver J.D. McDuffie picked up his second LASTCAR Cup Series title in 1971, finishing last three times in forty-three starts in a forty-eight-race season. McDuffie became the first repeat LASTCAR champion in history. It was also one of the closest LASTCAR Cup Championships ever run, determined by a single Bottom Ten over Ron Keselowski, uncle of 2012 NASCAR Cup Champion Brad Keselowski, 8-7. The deciding bottom-ten finish came in McDuffie’s third last-place finish at Martinsville on September 26, three starts after Keselowski’s last race of 1971.
Unlike 1968, McDuffie made just one start in a Buick in 1971, driving a 1969 Mercury in nearly all of his starts that year and a few in Chevrolets. He also drove one race each for owners Roger Lubinski, Junior Fields, and Raymond Williams, scoring one of his three last-place finishes in the Fields car.
His first last-place run of 1971 came at Bristol, Tennessee on March 28, when his 1971 Chevrolet broke an oil line after 18 laps. The other two finishes came in consecutive races in September. The second finish came September 6 in the Southern 500 in Darlington, South Carolina, where McDuffie’s lone start in Junior Fields’ #91 1971 Chevrolet ended after two laps due to steering problems. The final finish came twenty days later in Martinsville, Virginia on September 26, when McDuffie, back in his #70 1969 Mercury, broke the rear end after 58 laps.
Ironically, 1971 was also McDuffie’s best overall season. He finished 9th in points, scoring two Top Fives and eight Top Tens, including a career-best 3rd at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, New York on July 14, 1971. That day, McDuffie followed Richard Petty and Dave Marcis across the finish line in his #70 1969 Mercury, and led the first five laps of his Cup Series career.
From 1972 through 1983, McDuffie competed in all but seventeen races, scoring eight more Top Fives and fifty-five Top Tens. He scored his only career pole at Dover, Delaware on September 17, 1978, leading ten laps before engine trouble knocked him out after 80 laps, resulting in a 33rd-place run. His best career race took place during that span, the Sun-Drop Music City USA 420 in Nashville, Tennessee, where he led 111 of 420 laps and finished 5th in his #70 Bailey Excavating Chevrolet. But a win in the Cup Series still eluded him.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
James Hylton, an owner-driver whose Cup Series career rivaled the lengths of McDuffie’s, Arrington’s, and Gordon’s, scored his first last-place finish in 1971. The finish, which came in Hylton’s 248th start, came in a controversial race in Asheville, North Carolina where Hylton and a number of other independents quit the race in protest when the track promoter refused to grant anybody appearance money other than race winner Richard Petty. Hylton parked his #48 1971 Ford after the opening lap, following Neil Castles to the garage. Hylton, Castles, and five other independents also pulled out of the race. McDuffie came home 7th in that 17-car race, having run his Mercury until the engine blew.
On April 10, Raymond Williams finished last in the Greenville 200 at the Greenville-Pickens Speedway when his #47 1970 Ford fell out after 4 laps. The official listed reason was “fender,” the only time as of this writing that a Cup driver fell out with that issue. According to an interview with Perry Allen Wood, Williams said he actually crashed in the early laps, causing the fender damage, and that NASCAR chose to list “fender” as the reason.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Ron Keselowski [5 B5s, 7 B10s], J.D. McDuffie [5 B5s, 8 B10s] (3)
2nd) Walter Ballard, Neil Castles, Jerry Churchill, James Cox, Dean Dalton, Bill Dennis, Dick May, Ken Meisenhelder, Bill Shirey, Raymond Williams (2)
3rd) Pete Arnold, Larry Baumel, Gordon Birkett, Dick Brooks, Jimmy Crawford, Ernest Eury, Pat Fay, Friday Hassler, Joe Hines, Bill Hollar, Bobby Isaac, Markey James, James Hylton, Elmo Langley, Ed Negre, Dick Poling, Dub Simpson, Bub Strickler, Don Tarr, Maynard Troyer, Jim Vandiver, Frank Warren (1)
