1975 NASCAR Race 5 of 16- Southeastern 500 (Bristol)

Here we go with the pivotal fifth race of the NASCAR season, the Southeastern 500 at Bristol.

It was a crazy race as usual, with 14 cars running at the end. A couple big name contenders were knocked out early and in the end it was part-time short track driver Alton Jones who won his first career Winston Cup race, besting another short track specialist, Jimmy Hensley.

The pole sitter for the race with Darrell Waltrip, but he lost his lead on the first segment to Benny Parsons. Parsons held the lead for the first five segments, but trailed off from their and never regained the lead. Waltrip too the lead for segments 6 and 7, but lost it on segment 8 to Alton Jones. Jones held the lead the entire remainder of the race, holding off challenges from Hensley, Waltrip, and Bobby Allison. Final results are below.


Bonus Total
POS DRIVER Points Points Points
1 Alton Jones 175 10 185 Running
2 Jimmy Hensley 170 170 Running
3 Bobby Allison 165 165 Running
4 Darrell Waltrip 160 5 165 Running
5 James Hylton 155 155 Running
6 Jim Vandiver 150 150 Running
7 Benny Parsons 146 5 151 Running
8 Buddy Baker 142 142 Running
9 Richard Childress138 138 Running
10 Richie Panch 134 134 Running
11 Elmo Langley 130 130 Running
12 Walter Ballard 127 127 Running
13 Buddy Arrington 124 124 Running
14 Richard Petty 121 121 Running
15 David Sisco 118 118 Engine
16 Bill Champion 115 115 Engine
17 Paul Dean Holt 112 112 Engine
18 Lennie Pond 109 109 Engine
19 Jabe Thomas 106 106 Engine
20 Dick Brooks 103 103 Transmission
21 Cale Yarborough 100 100 Engine
22 Donnie Allison 97 97 Engine
23 Coo Coo Marlin 94 94 Engine
24 Henley Gray 91 91 Engine
25 Earl Canavan 88 88 Ignition
26 Bruce Jacobi 85 85 Engine
27 Cecil Gordon 82 82 Engine
28 D. K. Ulrich 79 79 Engine
29 Charlie Griffin 76 76 Engine
30 Travis Tiller 73 73 Steering/Handling/Vibrat.
31 Charley Griffith70 70 Rear End
32 Joe Mihalic 67 67 Engine
33 Baxter Price 64 64 Engine
34 Rick Newsom 61 61 Ignition
35 Carl Adams 58 58 Engine
36 Bobby Isaac 55 55 Engine
37 David Pearson 52 52 Steering/Handling/Vibrat.
38 Chuck Bown 49 49 Rear End
39 Dave Marcis 46 46 Rear End
40 Dick May 43 43 Engine
41 Rick Rudd 40 40 Engine
42 Joe Frasson 37 37 Engine
43 Frank Warren 34 34 Engine


Also, this week was the cut off week for drivers automatically getting into races. The top 20 in points after Bristol are locked into spots for the next race at Atlanta. Those top 20 are below. The entire top 20 is scheduled to run at Atlanta next week.


Total
Points DRIVER POS
729 Richard Petty 1
638 Bobby Allison 2
575 Elmo Langley 3
569 Richard Childress4
565 David Pearson 5
552 Darrell Waltrip 6
552 James Hylton 7
551 Dave Marcis 8
537 Buddy Baker 9
532 Benny Parsons 10
515 Cecil Gordon 11
460 Dick Brooks 12
416 Richie Panch 13
406 Harry Jefferson 14
383 Jim Vandiver 15
366 Ed Negre 16
349 Dick May 17
349 Frank Warren 18
348 Cale Yarborough 19
322 Joe Mihalic 20
----------------------------
320 Carl Adams 21
319 Alton Jones 22
283 Lennie Pond 23
279 Donnie Allison 24
268 Joe Frasson 25


As you can see, Petty, despite a bad run, finished the race and it got him a 14th place spot and allowed him to extend his lead. With David Pearson and Dave Marcis earning DNFs, they dropped in the points standings and Bobby Allison, Elmo Langley, and Richard Childress moved ahead.

Next Week is the Atlanta 500, tomorrow I will have a double dose of MLB and NFL action.