1975 Nascar Race 4 of 16- Carolina 500 (Rockingham)

The Winston Cup Series makes a stop at Rockingham, for the Carolina 500.

For the first time this season, the pole sitter wins a race as David Pearson took the checkered flag. It was Pearson's secodn straight pole, but he recovered from a blown engine at Richmond.

Only 10 drivers ran another mechanical debacle similar to Daytona. Pearson led the first two segments before losing the lead to Benny Parsons, who started on the front row next to Pearson. Unofrtunatly, Parsons car overheated on segment 5 and he settled for a 27th place finish. Pearson took the segment 5 lead, before lsoing it on segmnt 6 to Bobby Isaac. Segment 7 saw Buddy Baker take over the race as he would lead segments 7 through 14, enough to get the 10 bonus points. From here, it was a two car race between Baker and Pearson. Pearson led segment 15, but Baker retook the lead until segment 18. Finally, on segment 19, Pearson made a hard charge and took the lead for good over Baker, who took 2nd.

The remaining top 5 were all surprise drivers in their first starts of the year: Kenneth Brightbill, Earl Ross, and Bruce Jacobi. Harry Jefferson continued hsi surprise fats start with a 6th place finish, followed by Salt Walther and Chcuk Bown. Despite losing his transmission on segment 19, Bobby Allison took 9th and Charlie Glotzbach rounded otu the top 10.

Bonus Total
POS DRIVER Points Points Points
1 David Pearson 175 5 180 Running
2 Buddy Baker 170 10 180 Running
3 Kenneth Brightbill165 165 Running
4 Earl Ross 160 160 Running
5 Bruce Jacobi 155 155 Running
6 Harry Jefferson 150 150 Running
7 Salt Walther 146 146 Running
8 Chuck Bown 142 142 Running
9 Bobby Allison 138 138 Transmission
10 Charlie Glotzbach134 134 Running
11 Don Hoffman 130 130 Running
12 Darrell Waltrip 127 127 Engine
13 Richie Panch 124 124 Running
14 Bruce Hill 121 121 Clutch
15 John Kieper 118 118 Engine
16 Darel Dieringer 115 115 Engine
17 Ed Negre 112 112 Clutch
18 Bobby Isaac 109 5 114 Engine
19 Dick Brooks 106 106 Engine
20 Cecil Gordon 103 103 Clutch
21 Coo Coo Marlin 100 100 Engine
22 Chuck Wahl 97 97 Engine
23 A. J. Foyt 94 94 Engine
24 Harry Gant 91 91 Engine
25 Richard Petty 88 88 Engine
26 Jimmy Insolo 85 85 Engine
27 Benny Parsons 82 5 87 Overheating
28 Tom Williams 79 79 Engine
29 Bob Burcham 76 76 Engine
30 Joe Mihalic 73 73 Engine
31 Bill Schmitt 70 70 Engine
32 Neil Castles 67 67 Engine
33 Ray Elder 64 64 Overheating
34 Jody Ridley 61 61 Engine
35 John Ray 58 58 Ignition
36 Carl Adams 55 55 Engine
37 Lennie Pond 52 52 Engine
38 R. K. Smith 49 49 Rear End
39 Cale Yarborough 46 46 Transmission
40 Carl Van Horn 43 43 Engine
41 Dave Marcis 40 40 Engine
42 Jim Thirkettle 37 37 Engine
43 Doc Faustina 34 34 Engine


Despite a 25th place finish due to engine failure, Petty's point lead grew thanks to a 1st segment engine problem that resulted in a 40th place finish for Dave MArcis. Pearson's win edged him jsut ahead of Marcis for 2nd in the standings, 95 points behind Petty. Bobby Allison is in 4th and Elmo Langley, who did not qualify for Rockingham after winnign at Richmond, is now 5th.

After next week's race, the top 20 drivers will get locked into the races, so next week is the last chance for drivers to climb into the top 20. The top 25 are below.


Total
Points DRIVER POS
608 Richard Petty 1
513 David Pearson 2
505 Dave Marcis 3
473 Bobby Allison 4
445 Elmo Langley 5
433 Cecil Gordon 6
431 Richard Childress 7
406 Harry Jefferson 8
397 James Hylton 9
395 Buddy Baker 10
387 Darrell Waltrip 11
381 Benny Parsons 12
366 Ed Negre 13
357 Dick Brooks 14
315 Frank Warren 15
306 Dick May 16
282 Richie Panch 17
266 J. D. McDuffie 18
262 Carl Adams 19
255 Joe Mihalic 20
--------------------------
248 Cale Yarborough 21
244 Tom Williams 22
234 Ray Elder 23
233 Jim Vandiver 24
231 Joe Frasson 25

Next week the Series goes to Bristol for the Southeastern 500.