Ron Hutcherson

Ronald "Ron" Hutcherson is a retired NASCAR Winston Cup Series and ARCA driver whose career spanned from 1972 to 1979. He is the brother of Dick Hutcherson, one of NASCAR's Rookies of Year and a national champion of the IMCA.

Career

NASCAR

Hutcherson has participated in 1,521 laps of NASCAR racing - equal to driving 2,974.7 miles or 4,787.3 kilometres on a vehicle going full throttle. His average start is 16th place while his finishes average around 25th place. Hutcherson has earned a grand total of $52,645 in his entire professional stock car career ($169,328.14 when inflation is taken into effect).^[1] Engine builder Parker Nall would end up building most of the engines that Hutcherson would use to win his races.^[2]

While performing the best on restrictor plate tracks with an average finish of 21st place, Hutcherson did his most terrible performances on certain intermediate tracks where he finished an average of 40th place. His preferred track was Talladega Superspeedway while Rockingham Speedway was like his "Kryptonite.^[3]" Driving the #57 Ford McClure Motors vehicle for Alfred McClure was his primary ride during his career.^[4] The other teams that Ron Hutcherson has competed for includes Donlavey Racing and A.J. Foyt Enterprises.

ARCA

Hutcherson would also share some of his success in the ARCA racing series based in the Midwestern United States.

One of his most triumphant years would be 1977 where he would defeat Jim Sauter by half a car length in a 200-mile race after his Winston Cup Series car was declared ineligible to compete in a nearby NASCAR race that day. During this era, his ARCA vehicle was perfectly legal for NASCAR but his NASCAR vehicle didn't fill the valid template. Many of the top-level NASCAR teams, like those employing Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough at the time, were fined $250 ($963.07 in today's money) for having fuel tanks that did not meet the specifications for NASCAR during that time.^[5]

References