SEASON IN REVIEW
Charlotte, North Carolina driver Brandon Baker scored his first LASTCAR Busch Grand National Series Championship in 1989, scoring three last-place finishes in fourteen starts during a twenty-nine race season. Baker won LASTCAR’s first bottom-five tiebreaker since 1985 by edging Max Prestwood 5-4.
Baker was competing in his first - and only - season on the Busch Grand National Series tour. He began the year driving give races for 1983 and 1984 series champion Sam Ard, but then raced for two other teams later in the season. The result was six DNFs in fourteen starts with only a pair of 16th-place finishes at South Boston and Martinsville to show for it.
All three of Baker’s last-place finishes came during his first five starts of the season driving the #5 Commercial Management Buick for Sam Ard. The first two were early-race crashes in both the March 4 running of the Goodwrench 200 at Rockingham (after 15 laps) and the March 25 event, the Mountain Dew 400 at Hickory (after 36 laps). His other finish came in his final start for Ard, the Big Star / Nestle 200 at Lanier Speedway on May 13, where he crashed yet again, this time after just two laps.
Baker started a career-best 4th at Myrtle Beach on July 4, but his only start in the #26 Southern Biscuit Flour Buick ended after just three laps with handling woes. He didn’t finish last that day, however, as 2000 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Bobby Labonte scored his own first last-place run with a Lap 3 crash in his #44 Winner’s Circle Auto Parts Buick. In his remaining eight starts in the #80 Days Inn Special Pontiac, he finished no better than 16th at Martinsville. He finished 31st in his 14th and final series start at Rockingham.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Three years before he became NASCAR’s “Mr. September,” Harry Gant won two Busch Grand National Series races in 1989, but started the year with his first last-place finish. At Bristol on April 10, Gant’s #7 Smith Oil Buick started 4th, but was taken out in a crash after 13 laps.
Rick Wilson, who won that Bristol race from the pole, scored his own first last-place finish at Charlotte, the May 27 running of the Champion 300. Wilson’s #75 Food Country USA Oldsmobile lost the engine after 16 laps. On June 3, he won his second and final Busch Grand National Series race, the Budweiser 200 at Dover, rounding out his best season in the series.
Chuck Bown ran his first full Busch Grand National Series season in 1989 and finished 9th in points with five Top Fives, twelve Top Tens, and two poles. He scored his first last-place finish at the Orange County Speedway on June 10 when his #63 Nescafe Classic Pontiac started 3rd, led ten of the first eleven laps, then blew an engine after 32 laps of the Roses Stores 200. The next season, Bown and the Nescafe team rebounded with a vengeance, storming to six wins and the 1990 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series Championship.
“Mr. Excitement,” Jimmy Spencer, dominated the night Bown finished last, his second of three victories earned that season. Spencer also earned his first last-place finish that year at the Volusia County Speedway on July 1 when his #34 Cicci Racing Buick crashed after 113 laps of the Firecracker 200. Spencer finished 15th in points that year and scored three top-ten finishes during his rookie season in Cup.
In the Cup Series, Texas native Bobby Hillin, Jr. remained with the Stavola Brothers team following his stunning first Cup Series win at Talladega in 1986. Though he remained winless since that race, he scored a pair of Busch Grand National Series wins in 1988 and 1989. During the August 5 running of the Kroger 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park, Hillin scored his first last-place finish in the series when his #81 Rose’s Stores Buick lost he engine after five laps.
During the Country Squire 200 at Darlington on April 1, Ed Berrier finished last at Darlington driving a #62 Lemon’s Auto Parts Oldsmobile that lost the engine after the first lap. Curiously, the car Berrier drove that day was owned by John Linville, who by season’s end led Berrier by just two finishes in the LASTCAR Busch Grand National Series standings. The next year, Berrier would tie Linville’s mark.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Brandon Baker [5 B5s], Max Prestwood [4 B5s] (3)
2nd) Ed Berrier, Steve Grissom, Tom Harrington, Jimmy Hensley, Jimmy Spencer (2)
3rd) Chuck Bown, Jeff Burton, Harry Gant, Bobby Hillin, Jr., Bobby Labonte, Johnny Ling, Jr., Mark Martin, Kelly Moore, Morgan Shepherd, Jeff Spraker, Ed St. Angelo, Jr., Eric Wilson, Rick Wilson (1)
