SEASON IN REVIEW
Porterville, California driver Richard “Dick” Brooks took his first LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 1972, scoring two last-place finishes in fourteen starts during the truncated and reformatted thirty-one-race season. Brooks took the 1972 title by three Bottom Tens over Jim Vandiver, 10-7.
Brooks was competing in his fourth season in NASCAR Cup Series competition, having racked up twenty-seven Top Fives and forty-two Top Tens from 1969 through 1971. He began as an owner-driver in 1969, driving the new Plymouth Superbirds with his #32 on the sides, then drove for Mario Rossi and Ross Ferguson late in 1971. 1972, however, was a difficult year for Brooks as he drove for six different teams and three different manufacturers, resulting in twelve DNFs and just one Top Ten, an 8th at Talladega, Alabama while driving for Junie Donlavey.
Brooks’ first last-place finish of 1972 came in his first start of the season in Hampton, Georgia on March 26, where he was also driving for Donlavey. That day, Brooks’ #90 1972 Ford was involved in a single-car crash after 11 laps. The next finish came sixteen races later at Brooklyn, Michigan where, again in Donlavey’s #90 Ford, he lost the engine after just nine laps. Combined with his partial schedule, Brooks only managed a 49th-place finish in the final point standings.
However, things turned around quickly for Brooks the next season when he scored his first and only Cup Series win at Talladega on August 12, 1973, scoring the final Cup victory for Plymouth. It was one of only two starts for the struggling Crawford Brothers team, however, so Brooks continued to run part-time for Junie Donlavey, Cotton Owens, and in his own #32. His best season came in 1977, when he finished 6th in points while driving full-time for Donlavey. However, he struggled to stay competitive in the 1980s and retired after the 1985 season with 358 career starts. Interestingly, he finished 10th in his final career start in the Coca-Cola 600 in Concord, North Carolina, a one-off for rising car owner Rick Hendrick. Brooks passed away on February 1, 2006.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
One year before his NASCAR Cup Championship and three years before his win in the Daytona 500, Benny Parsons scored his first Cup last-place finish in the 1972 season opener at Riverside, California. On January 23, Parsons’ #72 L.G. DeWitt 1971 Ford was taken out in a crash after 13 laps, the same lap that Mark Donohue’s #16 Penske-prepared 1972 AMC Matador broke the rear end.
On February 20, during the Daytona 500, Raymond Williams parked his #47 1971 Ford after 4 laps with steering issues. According to an interview with Perry Allen Wood, Williams was involved in a tragic accident during his 125-mile qualifier. Moments after his #47 was involved in a multi-car wreck on the backstretch, sending his car sliding against the outside wall, Friday Hassler was killed in a collision with another driver. Williams’ team managed to rebuild the #47 for the 500, though without any interior panels, preventing the car from handling in the race. Williams declined to sell his starting spot to Larry Smith, who failed to qualify, and instead parked his car on race day.
On March 12, Jackie Oliver, one of the many drivers Donlavey tabbed to drive his #90 in 1972, became the first British driver to finish last in a NASCAR Cup Series race. His #90 1971 Ford fell out with engine failure after the first lap.
Country-western star Marty Robbins also scored the first of only two last-place finishes in his NASCAR Cup Series career in 1972. His finish came at Talladega, Alabama on May 7 when his #42 1972 Dodge was disqualified from the event. Robbins qualified 9th and finished 18th, having threatened to battle for the lead at one point in the race. However, as he recalled later, Robbins refused NASCAR’s award for “Rookie of the Race” when he revealed that the restrictor plate in his car was designed to fall out, allowing him to run faster than many cars in the field. Robbins was disqualified, sent to the back of the 50-car field, and fined $1,300. Robbins and his #42 Dodge finished last once more at Charlotte on October 6, 1974, following a multi-car crash on Lap 3. He passed away on December 8, 1982.
Thanks to another two last-place finishes in 1972, G.C. Spencer took sole possession of the record for the most last-place finishes in NASCAR Cup Series history with 18. However, Spencer was now just two finishes ahead of fellow owner-driver and defending LASTCAR Cup Series Champion J.D. McDuffie, who finished last in his 16th career race at Richmond, Virginia on September 10 while driving Doc Faustina’ #5 1970 Plymouth.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Dick Brooks [6 B5s, 10 B10s], Richard D. Brown [3 B5s], Ed Negre [3 B5s], Bill Shirey [4 B5s], G.C. Spencer [5 B5s], Jim Vandiver [6 B5s, 7 B10s] (2)
2nd) George Altheide, David Ray Boggs, Neil Castles, A.J. Cox, Bill Dennis, Joe Frasson, Ron Hutcherson, Bobby Isaac, Markey James, Clarence Lovell, Coo Coo Marlin, J.D. McDuffie, Jackie Oliver, Benny Parsons, Marty Robbins, Bill Seifert, Robert Wales, Raymond Williams, Lee Roy Yarbrough (1)
