SEASON IN REVIEW
Kernersville, North Carolina driver John Linville picked up his first LASTCAR Busch Grand National Series Championship in 1982, scoring two last-place finishes in eight starts during a twenty-nine race season. Jimmy Lawson, who started eighteen races in 1982, was the only other repeat last-placer that season, but he lost the bottom-five tiebreaker to Linville 4-3.
Linville, the late father of DeLana Harvick, wife of NASCAR Cup driver Kevin Harvick, was an owner-driver. During this first season of what was then the Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series, he competed in his #62 Pontiac for all eight of his starts that season and scored a season-best finish of 11th at the Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, North Carolina. He finished 36th in the point standings.
Earlier that season at the Caraway track, Linville scored his first last-place finish, falling out three laps into the 200-lap Budweiser 200 on April 23. Eleven races later on July 24, he also became the series’ first repeat last-placer when he exited the Lowes 200 at South Boston Speedway after two laps. Results during these first few seasons are incomplete, so the reason for both finishes is unknown.
The next year, Linville would become the first back-to-back LASTCAR Busch Grand National Series champion, a mark no driver would equal for eighteen years.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
The 1982 season began February 13 in the Goody’s 300 at Daytona, where Dale Earnhardt scored the first of seven wins in the Busch Grand National Series opener. Finishing last that day was Bob Park, father of future two-time Sprint Cup race winner Steve Park. Park’s #79 Walther’s Auto Wrecking Pontiac lost the engine after two laps, securing the first last-place finish in Busch Grand National Series history. It was to be the only last-place finish of Park’s six-race career. Earnhardt himself would score his first last-place finish in the series at Bristol on August 27, where his #15 Wrangler Ford crashed after two laps of the Pet Dairy 150.
Also scoring his first last-place finish in 1982 was a 37-year-old Tommy Houston, who scored the first two of his twenty-four career wins that season. Houston finished fourth in points in 1982, but trailed the 33-car field at Rockingham on June 27 when his #27 Chevrolet fell out six laps into the Coca-Cola 200. Linville finished next-to-last that day, leaving the race after 23 laps. Houston went on to compete in 417 races through the 1996 season. He held - or shared with Ed Berrier - the all-time Busch Grand National Series last-place record from 1994 through 2000.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Jimmy Lawson [3 B5s], John Linville [4 B5s] (2)
2nd) Billy Adkins, Dick Boswell, Terry Cannon, John Cleek, James Cogdill, Dale Earnhardt, Bud Elliott, Bob Park, Bob Freeze, Bob Hatley, Tator Grady, Tommy Houston, Steve Lawrence, Butch Lindley, John Livingston, Joey Michaels, Ralph Morris, Billy Myers, Clarence Ogle, Bob Pressley, Orvil Reedy, Mike Riley, Bob Shreeves, Ronnie Silver, Danny Weese (1)
