1968 Peach State 200

1968 Peach State 200
Race details
Race 49 of 49 in the 1968 NASCAR Grand National Series season

Jefco Speedway (Now Gresham Motorsports Park)
Date November 3, 1968
Location Jefco Speedway (Jefferson, Georgia)
Course Permanent racing facility
0.500 mi (0.800 km)
Distance 200 laps, 100 mi (150 km)
WeatherTemperatures reaching a high of 75 °F (24 °C); wind speeds of up to 6 miles per hour (9.7 km/h)[1]
Average speed 77.737 miles per hour (125.106 km/h)
Pole position
Driver David Pearson Holman Moody
Most laps led
Driver Bobby Isaac K&K Insurance Racing
Laps 144
Winner
No. 21
 Cale Yarborough
 Wood Brothers Racing
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1968 Peach State 200 is a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Sprint Cup Series, also formerly known as the Winston Cup Series and the Winston Cup Grand National Series)) race that took place on November 3, 1968, at Jefco Speedway in the American community of Jefferson, Georgia.[2]

The race car drivers still had to commute to the races using the same stock cars that competed in a typical weekend's race through a policy of homologation (and under their own power). This policy was in effect until roughly 1975. By 1980, NASCAR had completely stopped tracking the year model of all the vehicles and most teams did not take stock cars to the track under their own power any more.

Summary

Two hundred laps were completed on an oval track spanning 0.500 miles (0.805 km).[2] The race took one hour, seventeen minutes, and eleven seconds to completely finish.[2] Notable speeds were: 77.737 miles per hour (125.106 km/h) for the average speed and 90.694 miles per hour (145.958 km/h) for the pole position speed.[2] Five thousand and two hundred fans attended this race live.

Cale Yarborough defeated Richard Petty by half a lap in his 1968 Mercury Cyclone.[2] Bobby Isaac had a crash that made him commit a DNF in 9th place while Stan Meserve was the lowest finishing driver to actually complete the entire race (in 22nd place out of 29 competitors).[2] All the competitors involved in this race were American citizens with no foreign-born participants.[2] Crashes and problems with the stock car racing engine helped to play a part in knocking unwary drivers out of the race.[3] The winner of the race would enjoy his race winnings of $1,000 ($6,781.82 when considering inflation) USD while the bottom seven finishers were unpaid for racing up to 142 laps.[2][3] Bobby Isaac would lead the most number of laps in the entire race (144 out of 200) in his 1968 Dodge Charger vehicle.[2]

NASCAR's family-oriented heritage would shine at this race with the vast number of vehicles that were either owned by the driver himself or by a close relative of the driver. Ford vehicles would make up the majority of the racing grid while Chevrolet and Dodge made up a sizeable amount of the field.[4] Legendary racing team Holman Moody would enjoy a level of success at this event that would eventually be equalled at the other events throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.[5] Bill Ervin would be black flagged on the fourth lap of this race due to his vehicle being unable to comply with the minimum racing speeds necessary for NASCAR racing.[4] Don Tomberlin made his NASCAR debut here while Dexter Gainey and Stan Meserve would end their respective NASCAR careers after this event.[6]

Finishing order

  1. 21-Cale Yarborough
  2. 43-Richard Petty
  3. 17-David Pearson
  4. 48-James Hylton
  5. 56-LeeRoy Yarbrough†
  6. 4-John Sears†
  7. 39-Friday Hassler†
  8. 64-Elmo Langley†
  9. 71-Bobby Isaac*†
  10. 06-Neil Castles
  11. 20-Clyde Lynn†
  12. 25-Jabe Thomas
  13. 70-J.D. McDuffie†
  14. 34-Wendell Scott†
  15. 96-Don Tomberlin
  16. 19-Henley Grey
  17. 80-E.J. Trivette
  18. 47-Bill Seifert
  19. 45-Cecil Gordon†
  20. 8-Ed Negre
  21. 57-Ervin Pruitt
  22. 09-Stan Meserve
  23. 01-Paul Dean Holt*
  24. 52-Dexter Gainey*
  25. 5-Earl Brooks*†
  26. 9-Roy Tyner*†
  27. 14-Bobby Allison*
  28. 84-G.C. Spencer*†
  29. 31-Bill Ervin*

† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased
* Driver failed to finish race

References

  1. ↑ "1968 Peach State 200 weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2012-08-02.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 "1968 Peach State 200 information". Racing-Reference. Retrieved 2010-10-17.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "1968 Peach State 200 information". Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "1968 Peach State 200 information". Driver Averages. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
  5. ↑ Holman Moody: The Legendary Race Team. Google Books. Retrieved 2012-09-05.
  6. ↑ "1968 Peach State 200 information". Race Database. Retrieved 2012-09-15.
Preceded by
1968 American 500		 NASCAR Grand National Season
1968-69 		Succeeded by
1969 Georgia 500
Preceded by
1967 Western North Carolina 500		 NASCAR season-ending races
1949-present 		Succeeded by
1969 Texas 500