PHOTO: Lee Johnson Collection
SEASON IN REVIEW
South Boston, Virginia driver Ward Burton scored his first LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 1994, scoring three last-place finishes in twenty-six races during a thirty-one-race season. Burton beat fellow rookie driver John Andretti in a bottom-five tiebreaker, 9-7. This marked the second consecutive season that a rookie driver picked up the LASTCAR Cup Series title.
Burton was competing in his first full season of Cup Series competition, driving the #31 Hardees Chevrolet fielded by Alan Dillard, Jr. Burton was part of one of the most competitive Rookie of the Year battles in NASCAR history, a field which included his brother Jeff, who landed a ride with the Stavola Brothers as driver of the #8 Raybestos Ford. Joining the Burton brothers were several new talents, many of whom, like them, were steady contenders in the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series, such as Joe Nemechek, Mike Wallace, and Steve Grissom.
With so many new drivers on the circuit in equally-competitive rides, Burton found himself in constant battles just to make the field in the first place. Burton missed five races in the first half of the season, including the Daytona 500, and finished just 35th in his Cup Series debut at Richmond, Virginia on March 6. Twelve DNFs saddled his effort further, though he did score a surprising runner-up finish to Geoffrey Bodine at Long Pond, Pennsylvania on July 17 after starting on the outside-pole.
However, that same Pocono Raceway proved treacherous earlier that year, when it was the scene of the first of Burton’s three last-place finishes. Sixteen laps into the June 12 running of the UAW-GM Teamwork 500, Burton’s #31 was involved in a two-car accident with Loy Allen, Jr.’s Ford, taking him out of the race. Finishing next-to-last that day was Bob Keselowski, father of 2012 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Brad Keselowski, who made his only Cup Series start that day in Jimmy Means’ #52 NAPA Ford.
Burton’s second finish of 1994 came at Loudon, New Hampshire on July 10 where electrical woes took him out of the Slick 50 300 after 100 laps. The third finish came at Bristol, Tennessee during the night race on August 27 where he started 8th only to lose the engine after 49 laps.
At the end of the 1994 season, Burton finished just 35th in the point standings, having scored one Top Five and two Top Tens along with a pole at Concord, North Carolina on October 9. That pole almost turned into a fourth last-place finish following a crash after 29 laps, but Bobby Labonte’s own crash after four laps gave him the spot.
Burton returned to the Dillard team in 1995, but after scoring just two more top-ten finishes, he moved to Bill Davis Racing at Bristol, Tennessee on August 26, 1995 to replace Randy LaJoie, another struggling Busch Series contender-turned-rookie. It was with this team that Burton would enjoy his biggest successes, including all five of his Cup Series wins to date. Burton’s first win came in just his ninth start with Davis at Rockingham, North Carolina on October 22. Just a matter of days after missing the field at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, Burton and the #22 MBNA Pontiac won a 1.9-second victory over Rusty Wallace in the AC-Delco 400.
Although Burton had to wait another five years to score his next Cup win at Darlington, South Carolina on March 19, 2000, Burton finished a career-high 9th in points in 1999 and followed it up with a 10th-place finish in 2000. Bill Davis’ team switched from Pontiac to Dodge in 2001 and Burton scored a landmark win in the Mountain Dew Southern 500 on September 2, the pinnacle of a year with six Top Fives and ten Top Tens.
Then came 2002---
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Three members of Burton’s rookie class also scored their first last-place finishes in 1994.
John Andretti made the move from open-wheel racing to race in NASCAR, where his famous uncle Mario won the Daytona 500 in 1967. He took over the #14 Billy Hagan-owned Chevrolet, a ride made available after Terry Labonte moved to Hendrick Motorsports. Andretti’s first last-place finish came in the 500 on February 20 when his #14 Financial World Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car accident coming off of Turn Four after 47 laps. His second last-place run came three races later in Hampton, Georgia on March 13, when he crashed after five laps of the Purolator 500. Andretti would move to Petty Enterprises by season’s end, taking over for a struggling Wally Dallenbach, Jr. He finished last once more for Petty at Avondale, Arizona on October 30 when his #43 STP Pontiac crashed after 31 laps. Andretti ceded the ride to Bobby Hamilton in 1995, then picked up Cale Yarborough’s only win as an owner at Daytona on July 5, 1997, but it was Andretti who scored the final Cup Series win for Petty Enterprises at Martinsville, Virginia on April 18, 1999.
Ward’s younger brother Jeff won Rookie of the Year in 1994, scoring two Top Fives and three Top Tens in thirty starts, among them two 4th-place finishes. Burton scored his first last-place finish as well, which came at Martinsville, Virginia on April 24 when his #8 Raybestos Ford blew the clutch after 286 laps of the Hanes 500. After a second season with the Stavola Brothers Team, Burton was tabbed to drive a third team for Jack Roush in 1996. This #99 Exide Ford would propel Burton to the first of his 21 victories one year later in Fort Worth, Texas.
On May 1, one week after Jeff Burton’s first last-place run, fellow rookie Joe Nemechek scored his first last-place finish in the Winston Select 500 at Talladega when his #41 Manheim Auctions Chevrolet blew the engine after 75 laps. Nemechek, the 1992 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series Champion, joined Jeff Burton in making his first Cup Series start in the inaugural Loudon, New Hampshire race in 1993, giving his NEMCO Motorsports team its first Cup Series start. In 1994, Nemechek joined the Larry Hedrick-owned team that propelled Larry Pearson to his 1991 LASTCAR Cup Series title. Nemechek finished the year with one Top Five and three Top Tens, then raced for ten different teams through 2008, including NEMCO, winning races for four of them. He scored thirteen last-place finishes in that span, culminating in his first LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 2008.
The inaugural Brickyard 400 at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway occurred on August 6, and Jimmy Spencer picked up the first last-place finish in the event and the second of his career. Coming into the event, Spencer was the hottest driver on the circuit, coming off his second win in three weeks, the first and only two Cup Series wins of his career. His #27 McDonald’s Ford struggled in qualifying, however, and Spencer crashed just nine laps into the race, slamming the turn three wall so hard that he injured his ribcage.
Another frightening wreck occurred at Sonoma, California on May 15 during the Save Mart Supermarkets 300. Eighteen laps into the race, Derrike Cope’s #98 Fingerhut Ford locked bumpers with the #9 Channelock Chevrolet of Winston West competitor John Krebs, sending both cars crashing over an embankment entering The Carousel. Krebs’ car tumbled wildly, but thankfully stopped short of a group of spectators. Both drivers were uninjured, and Cope was left with his eighth Cup Series last-place finish.
The Sonoma race was won by Ernie Irvan, who positioned himself for a championship in the #28 Havoline Ford, scoring three victories in twenty starts before a near-fatal wreck during practice at Brooklyn, Michigan ended his season. The GM Goodwrench Dealers 400 run at the track that weekend featured still another terrifying wreck on the opening lap where eight cars collided entering turn one, nearly sending the #44 Buss Fuses Ford of Bobby Hillin, Jr. over the wall. Last place that day went to Dick Trickle, whose #32 Active Trucking Chevrolet as involved in the wreck.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) John Andretti [7 B5s], Ward Burton [9 B5s] (3)
2nd) Jeff Burton, Derrike Cope, Harry Gant, Joe Nemechek, Billy Standridge, Dick Trickle (2)
3rd) Loy Allen, Jr., Wally Dallenbach, Jr., Jay Hedgecock, Jimmy Hensley, Bobby Hillin, Jr., Bobby Labonte, Phil Parsons, Kyle Petty, Bob Schacht, Jimmy Spencer, Tim Steele, Brad Teague, Rusty Wallace (1)
