SEASON IN REVIEW
Sanford, North Carolina driver J.D. McDuffie scored his fifth LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 1987, scoring three last-place finishes in seventeen starts during a twenty-nine-race season. It was McDuffie’s third title in four years. It was also his final LASTCAR Cup Series title, setting an all-time record that stands to this day.
McDuffie was competing in his twenty-third season on the Cup Series tour, the final year that he would run more than eight starts. At the start of the 1987 season, McDuffie sold an interest in his team to Tom Winkle, resulting in three finishes of 25th or better in the first three races of the season. However, a falling-out between McDuffie and Winkle resulted in McDuffie losing most of his equipment, severely compromising his season.
Back as the listed owner of his team, McDuffie suffered three last-place finishes in the first five races after Winkle’s departure during a string of six consecutive engine failures. His first last-place finish occurred in Darlington, South Carolina on March 29, when McDuffie’s #70 Rumple Furniture Pontiac lost its engine after the opening lap of the TranSouth 500. The second finish came one week later on April 5, when McDuffie’s car lost the engine 29 laps into the First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The third finish was two races after that in an unsponsored #70 Pontiac, the engine blowing smoke 21 laps into the Sovran Bank 500 on April 26.
Overall, McDuffie had DNFs in nine starts and failed to qualify for another nine races in the mid-to-late portion of the season, dropping him to 30th in the final point standings. After suffering severe burns to his hands during his Second Qualifying Race at Daytona on February 11, 1988, McDuffie competed in just twenty-two more Cup races, finishing no better than 22nd in that span. That finish came in the Budweiser at the Glen at Watkins Glen, New York on August 12, 1990.
On August 11, 1991, McDuffie returned to Watkins Glen, New York to race in his 653rd NASCAR Cup Series race. Just five laps into the race came tragedy. Entering Turn Five at the end of one of the circuit’s longest straightaways, McDuffie’s #70 L.C. Whitford Racing Pontiac suffered a catastrophic suspension failure and flipped after a collision with the outside wall, killing him instantly. He was 52 years old.
McDuffie was credited with the 40th and final finishing position that day. His record of 32 Cup Series last-place finishes stood until 2014.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Alan Kulwicki, the 1986 Rookie of the Year, scored the only last-place finish of his brief career in 1987. The finish came in the Southern 500 on September 6, where Kulwicki’s #7 Zerex Ford lost the engine after 77 laps. Kulwicki, in his first year as an owner-driver, struggled to find consistency that season, scoring three poles, three Top Fives, and nine Top Tens, but eleven DNFs. Nevertheless, just five years later, Kulwicki won the 1992 NASCAR Cup Series Championship. Less than five months later, on April 1, 1993, Kulwicki was killed in a private plane crash outside Blountville, Tennessee.
Tim Richmond’s gutsy comeback while suffering from AIDS was one of the biggest storylines of the 1987 season. Curiously, in both of his remarkable wins at Long Pond, Pennsylvania and Riverside, California that June, Rusty Wallace finished last in his #27 Kodiak Pontiac, both due to engine failure after fourteen and five laps, respectively. Richmond passed away on August 13, 1989, having scored thirteen victories in just 185 starts.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) J.D. McDuffie (3)
2nd) Ronnie Thomas, Rusty Wallace (2)
3rd) Davey Allison, H.B. Bailey, Buddy Baker, Eddie Bierschwale, Chet Fillip, A.J. Foyt, Bobby Hillin, Jr., Jerry Holden, Slick Johnson, Alan Kulwicki, Hershel McGriff, Ed Pimm, Greg Sacks, Chuck Schroedel, Ron Shephard, Morgan Shepherd, Brad Teague, Bobby Wawak, Rick Wilson, Cale Yarborough (1)
