SEASON IN REVIEW
Imperial, Pennsylvania driver Davey Johnson picked up his first LASTCAR Busch Grand National Series Championship in 1990, scoring four last-place finishes in nineteen starts during a thirty-one race season, setting a new single-season last-place record.
Johnson was competing in just his second season in the Busch Grand National Series. In 1989, he drove a promising two-race stint for NASCAR legend David Pearson, finishing 17th and 10th in races at the New River Valley Speedway in Dublin, Virginia and the Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, North Carolina. In 1990, the twenty-eight-year-old Johnson was set to run several more races in the #26 Daily’s Fruit Juices Buick.
Johnson qualified for nineteen races, started in the Top Ten in six of them, and scored a career-best finish of 6th in the May 12 running of the Pontiac 300 at Nazareth. However, he also scored six DNFs with four of them resulting in last-place finishes.
Johnson’s first finish of the season came at Darlington on March 31 during the running of the Pontiac 200 with handling woes the listed cause of his Lap 4 exit. The next occurred at South Boston three races later, this time due to a crash after 19 laps of the Roses Store 200 on May 5. The third finish came at the Orange County Speedway on June 9, where the brakes let go on his Buick after 116 laps of the Roses Stores 200. The record-setting fourth finish came four races after that on July 15. Johnson qualified 6th for the inaugural NASCAR race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but fell to the rear of the 46-car field following an engine failure after 10 laps of the Budweiser 300.
Johnson finished 27th in the 1990 point standings and made just six more starts in 1991, but finished no better than 16th. His 27th and final career start came at Darlington, where handling woes left him 34th in the 40-car field.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Ward Burton scored his first Busch Grand National Series last-place finish at Dover on September 15 when his #65 Playcraft Pontiac lost the engine after two laps. Two years later, Burton won the first of four series victories at Rockingham, paving the way to his entry into Cup in 1994.
Three-time NASCAR Truck Series Champion Jack Sprague scored his first last-place finish in his second Busch Grand National Series season during the NE Chevy 250 at New Hampshire on October 14. Sprague’s #34 Blanton’s College Buick lost the engine after the opening lap of the race. He won the first of his Truck Series titles in 1997.
On October 6, Ed Berrier scored his second-straight last-place finish in the fall Charlotte race, driving a #33 Oldsmobile sponsored by Richard Petty’s Barbecue Sauce. It was the 10th last-place finish of Berrier’s career, tying him with John Linville for the most in Busch Grand National Series history.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Davey Johnson (4)
2nd) Tommy Houston (3)
2nd) Ed Berrier, Elton Sawyer (2)
1st) Randy Baker, Jeff Berry, Ward Burton, Dave Davis, Ronald Cooper, Ed Ferree, Jack Ingram, Dave Mader III, Rick Mast, Patty Moise, Gary Niece, Randy Porter, Robert Powell, Jeff Purvis, Dale Shaw, Tommy Sigmon, Jack Sprague, Jeff Spraker, Billy Standridge, Darrell Waltrip (1)
