SEASON IN REVIEW
Rocky Mount, Virginia driver Joe Thurman picked up his first LASTCAR Busch Grand National Series Championship in 1985, scoring two last-place finishes in twenty-seven starts during a twenty-seven race season. He won a bottom-five tiebreaker over Ed Berrier, 6-4, and became the first LASTCAR Busch Champion to run all that season’s races.
The 46-year-old Thurman, the 1968 NASCAR Sportsman Series Champion, was competing in his fourth season on the tour, coming off a career-best 1984. That year, he collected two Top Fives and eight op Tens on his way to a 6th-place finish in the point standings. Twice in 1984, Thurman equaled his career-best finish of 4th at Martinsville in 1983. An owner-driver, Thurman returned to his #4 Thurman Enterprises Pontiac for all but one of his starts in 1985, hoping to build on his success. Unfortunately, he finished no better than 6th and scored 12 DNFs, dropping him to 11th in points. He also failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 in his only Cup Series attempt, finishing 17th in his qualifying race and 6th in the final “consolation race” held at Daytona.
The first of Thurman’s last-place finishes in 1985 came at Bristol on August 23, where his #4 Holland Heat & Air Pontiac was taken out in a crash after the opening lap. His other finish came six races later on October 12, where his #4 Thurman Enterprises Pontiac broke the rear end in the Southern Biscuit Flower 200 at Hickory, North Carolina. Thurman, the only retiree from the Hickory event, completed the most laps of any Busch Grand National Series driver to that point - 124 laps.
Thurman’s best finish of 1985 came in the season finale at Martinsville, where he finished 6th. He scored two top-five finishes in 1986 and finished 12th in points, but continued to struggle. He ran all but fourteen races from 1986 through 1989 before making his 184th and final series start at Martinsville in 1991. Thurman scored his eighth and final last-place finish that day in his #14 Thurman Enterprises Buick.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
NASCAR veteran Morgan Shepherd scored his first last-place finish in 1985 when his #1 Advance Auto Parts Buick lost the engine after three laps of the Winn-Dixie 300 at Charlotte. It was Shepherd’s only winless season in the Busch Grand National Series from 1982 through 1988, during which he collected all fifteen of his series victories.
Phil Parsons, brother of 1973 Cup Champion Benny Parsons and current owner of Phil Parsons Racing, scored his first last-place finish in the season-opening Goody’s 300 at Daytona when his #28 Eckerd / Skoal Bandit Pontiac lost the engine after four laps. Parsons would go on to score five last-place finishes with the most recent coming at Phoenix in the fall of 1999.
Brad Teague, who would go on to win two consecutive LASTCAR Busch Grand National Series Championships, scored his first last-place finish in 1985 when his #75 Food Country USA Pontiac lost oil pressure after 26 laps of the June 22 running of the Kroger 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Future NASCAR Cup driver Rick Mast enjoyed his best season to date in 1985, finishing 7th in points thanks to five Top Fives and fifteen Top Tens, but scored his own first last-place finish that season. Mast’s came in the season finale at Martinsville, where his #22 A.G. Dillard Pontiac started 4th in the Winn-Dixie 500 only to crash after three laps.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Ed Berrier [4 B5s], Charlie Luck [3 B5s], Joe Thurman [6 B5s] (2)
2nd) Tony Anderson, Kirk Bryant, Ronnie Davidson, Bennie Davis, Eddie Falk, Al Hylton, Robert Ingram, Joe Kelly, Jeff Hensley, Haywood Jacobs, Dickie Linville, Bosco Lowe, Rick Mast, Billy Myers, Phil Parsons, Morgan Shepherd, Brad Teague, Ronnie Thomas, Merv Treichler, Larry Utsman, Danny Weese (1)
