In 1976, the fall NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway wasn’t run on the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. And it’s a safe bet no one even thought of the event being conducted on anything else than the 1.5-mile oval that was the mainstay at CMS.
The National 500 on Oct. 10 is significant for a couple of reasons. It was the first victory for Donnie Allison and Wilmington, N.C.-based team owner Hoss Ellington, who were in their second season together.
It was also the race in which Cale Yarborough, in his fourth season with Junior Johnson, came away with a second-place finish that almost guaranteed him his first Cup Series championship.
Allison’s career had been spotty. The younger brother of NASCAR great Bobby Allison started on the Cup circuit in 1966. He raced for 21 years, but not once did he compete on the full schedule.
His most successful stretch came over four seasons, 1968-1971 during which he won six races with team owners Banjo Matthews and the Wood Brothers.
He became associated with Ellington in 1976 as part of a two-car operation that included AJ Foyt.
Meanwhile, Yarborough became a force in NASCAR during his tenure with Johnson, which began in 1973 when he replaced the departed Bobby Allison.
Incidentally, Allison’s split with Johnson came as something of a surprise, given that their one season together in 1972 produced 10 victories and a strong challenge for the championship, won by rival Richard Petty.
Suffice it to say that during the course of the campaign, Allison and Johnson began to have serious differences. Johnson was aware that Yarborough was anxious to revive his Cup career, which he had put aside to spend a couple of years in open-wheel cars and pursuit of the Indianapolis 500.
The story goes that Johnson placed a phone call to Allison during the early morning hours late in the ’72 season.
“Listen, we want to know what you want to do next year because right now we have a chance to sign the best stock car driver out there,” Johnson said.
Irritated and probably half-asleep, Allison said, “Then get him!” and hung up the phone.
If not the best, Yarborough certainly drove like one in his first three years with Johnson, during which he won 17 races and finished in second place in the final point standings twice.
The same year Yarborough joined Johnson, Donnie Allison signed on with the fledgling DiGard Racing Co. of Florida. The union produced some good runs, but it came to a close after the 1975 season.
At the time, no one could have predicted the future success DiGard would enjoy with a young Darrell Waltrip behind the wheel.
When the National 500 rolled around, Yarborough was easily the season’s most dominant driver. He came to Charlotte on the heels of four consecutive victories, at Richmond Raceway, Dover Motor Speedway, Martinsville Speedway and North Wilkesboro Speedway.
He was 99 points ahead of Richard Petty for the championship with only four races remaining in the season.
Allison opened eyes as he won the Charlotte event easily, leading the final 27 laps to beat Yarborough by a whopping 12.2 seconds.
But something was amiss. Allison had been able to accomplish something no other driver could match. He completed 150 laps – 225 miles – on a single set of tires.
Now, it must be understood that at the time, Ellington was known for his creativity in-car preparation. At Charlotte, if he had indeed enhanced Allison’s car, or anything related to it, no one would have been surprised.
NASCAR’s director of competition and rules enforcer Bill Gazaway wasn’t. He openly declared that Ellington had cheated and he was going to find out how.
That sparked a confrontation in the garage area. Perhaps a dozen security officers encircled Gazaway, Allison and Ellington as they stood face-to-face in a heated argument.
A group of media members stood nearby, straining to peek around the guards and hear what they could.
They descended on an angry Allison as he broke away.
“Gazaway is trying to take this win away from us,” Allison huffed. “I don’t know who he thinks he is, but I will tell you this. If does take the win away, I’ll see to it that he never inspects another race again.”
“We are legal here,” a calmer Ellington said. “Hell, we left all that other stuff at Darlington.”
It evolved that Allison was allowed the victory without any penalty from NASCAR.
Which infuriated Yarborough’s crew chief Herb Nab, who demanded an independent inspection take place immediately. Of course, that was not going to happen.
“We don’t do that,” Gazaway said.
Nab wasn’t placated. He said he could not understand how Gazaway could have declared Ellington’s car illegal and then quietly dropped the accusation with no more than the cursory post-race inspection.
Ellington was involved in another confrontation, but this one did not involve rules. Foyt, Ellington’s primary driver – on a limited basis – pulled off the track and declared he quit after just 59 laps.
“That’s it,” he fumed. “It’s the same old story. We go to a race and the car is under-prepared. I couldn’t keep that car in a 10-acre briar patch. I would rather build my own cars than drive that hogwash.”
Which, thereafter, is exactly what Foyt did. It was said he was never pleased with Ellington’s two-car arrangement with Allison, who became the primary driver.
Yarborough left the race with a 127-point lead over Petty with three races remaining for the season.
A week later, Petty won at Rockingham Speedway for only his third win of the season. Yarborough was fifth, four laps down, and lost 30 points to his rival.
But even Petty knew that 97 points was too much to overcome with only a couple of races remaining.
“I can’t win it, but may be can lose it,” Petty said.
Which Yarborough didn’t and he cruised to his first career championship and, additionally, the first for Johnson.
They weren’t finished.
About the author
Steve Waid has been in journalism since 1972, when he began his newspaper career at the Martinsville (Va.) Bulletin. He has spent over 40 years in motorsports journalism, first with the Roanoke Times-World News and later as publisher and vice president for NASCAR Scene and NASCAR Illustrated.
Steve has won numerous state sports writing awards and several more from the National Motorsports Press Association for his motorsports coverage, feature and column writing. For several years, Steve was a regular on “NASCAR This Morning” on FOX Sports Net and he is the co-author, with Tom Higgins, of the biography “Junior Johnson: Brave In Life.”
In January 2014, Steve was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame. And in 2019 he was presented the Squier-Hall Award by the NASCAR Hall of Fame for lifetime excellence in motorsports journalism. In addition to writing for Frontstretch, Steve is also the co-host of The Scene Vault Podcast.
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