|| *Comments on the 1973 Volunteer 500:* View the most recent comment <#22> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Shawn Peters posted: 08.30.2004 - 4:57 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Am I mistaken, or was John A. Utsman behind the wheel when the checkered flag fell on this race? I know that he got in the car to replace Benny, but I don't think that Benny got back into the car. If John A. Utsman was behind the wheel when the race was finished, then I feel that there should be a special notation. 2. Stephen Owens posted: 08.27.2005 - 2:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Utsman was in the car for about half the race but Benny got back in the car at the end (the last 50 laps or so) to drive to victory lane 7 laps ahead of the second place car 3. brandon posted: 02.28.2006 - 5:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) the only victory of benny's championship season 4. Steve posted: 05.12.2006 - 8:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The only Winston Cup Top 5 for Busch Series pioneer L.D. Ottinger. And in his 2nd start! 5. DTroppens posted: 11.20.2006 - 7:51 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) There have been plenty of winners in NASCAR history that used sub drivers. Some have won without the actual winner driving the car past the checkered flag. This was much more common in the early years. 6. Bill Marx posted: 04.17.2007 - 10:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) According to NASCAR, Benny drove the first 250 laps, Utsman the next 170 and Benny the final 80. 7. WillG_46 posted: 03.31.2008 - 12:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the only Lead Lap finish of Benny Parson's championship season. 8. SK posted: 12.19.2008 - 3:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Lennie Pond's first career top-5. 9. Terry Maynard posted: 01.09.2012 - 8:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Only five of the drivers who started the race and drove to the finish did so without using a relief driver at some point during the race. 10. rateus posted: 05.18.2013 - 12:21 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Not strictly a comment on this race but... the following weekend the GN teams were at Trenton for the next championship race. Qualifying was run, with Bobby Allison securing pole from Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, Buddy Baker, Cecil Gordon, Benny Parsons, Richard Childress, Henley Gray, JD McDuffie, Lennie Pond and the rest - a 30-car grid in total. Then the rain came and washed out race day completely. The race was rescheduled for a fortnight later (following Atlanta), but that fell through for some reason and NASCAR's top series has never returned to New Jersey... 11. Bill P posted: 01.16.2014 - 1:06 am Rate this comment: (1) (1) Brutally hot day. Cecil Gordon had to come out of the car midways. Richard Petty drove the 24 car and proceed to lap the field. The heat and/or the confines of the 24 car had Richard calling for relief so Cecil finished the last portion of the race. Yes, Benny Parsons got back into his car after John Utsman drove 170 laps. 12. DozierTheGreat posted: 01.26.2014 - 2:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsors: #45-Thunder Craft #25-McCaig Motel 13. Walleyewhacker posted: 02.16.2014 - 7:55 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) David Pearson would have easily won the Championship in 1973 had the Wood Brothers ran all the events. They were so much better than the rest of the field that year. 14. Ivan Balakhonov posted: 01.17.2017 - 11:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) For the first time since 1963 Daytona 500 top-5 was occupied by a single car make. The first driver who finished without relief was Ed Negre. Also he was the highest non-Chevy finisher. Other four drivers who completed the race without relief were James Hylton, Walter Ballard, Ronnie Daniels and Charlie Roberts. Interestingly, Richard Petty agreed to drive a stint in the Cecil Gordon's Chevy. He returned the wheel to Cecil with 80 laps to go. Bud Moore and Harry Hyde left the track on Friday, their cars (a Ford driven by Bobby Isaac and a Dodge driven by Buddy Baker) failed the technical inspection. NASCAR said that the wheelbase lengths were below the minimum, but both Moore and Hyde objected, saying that there was always an interpretation regarding tolerance. It turned out that overnight officials changed their minds and called both teams back. Moore agreed to return, Baker decided he had enough and ignored the event. 15. zuel660 posted: 02.04.2018 - 4:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Is there a list somewhere of all races won when a relief driver was used? 16. Rob posted: 06.07.2018 - 9:38 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) What was the story on the Cale and Bobby crash ? 17. rateus posted: 05.30.2020 - 1:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) First 14 rows of the starting line-up can be seen on a current ebay listing and show Paul Lewis starting 20th in a '73 Dodge. My guess is this is the car raced by Frank Warren - home towns for the last 4 drivers are visible (but not the names) and none of them match Warren. 18. rateus posted: 06.17.2020 - 5:13 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Webmaster, not sure if you want to split this off onto a new page. Following on from post 10, I now have the full starting lineup for the Northern 300 scheduled for Trenton on July 15th (courtesy of that day's Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper): 1. Bobby Allison #12 Chevrolet 131.707 2. Richard Petty #43 Dodge 131.157 3. Cale Yarborough #11 Chevrolet 131.058 4. Buddy Baker #71 Dodge 130.545 5. Cecil Gordon #24 Chevrolet 130.120 6. Benny Parsons #72 Chevrolet 129.742 7. Richard Childress #96 Chevrolet 127.567 8. Henley Gray #19 Mercury 126.466 9. J.D. McDuffie #70 Chevrolet 126.451 10. Lennie Pond #54 Chevrolet 125.938 11. James Hylton #48 Ford 125.695 12. Bill Champion #10 Mercury 123.445 13. Raymond Williams #47 Ford 123.397 14. Elmo Langley #64 Ford 123.391 15. Walter Ballard #30 Mercury 123.389 16. Buddy Arrington #67 Dodge 123.377 17. Gene Bergin #90 Mercury 123.349 18. Ed Negre #8 Dodge 123.060 19. John Sears #4 Mercury 121.879 20. D.K. Ulrich #40 Chevrolet 121.386 21. Dean Dalton #7 Mercury 121.361 22. Charlie Roberts #77 Ford 118.785 23. Dick May #6 Ford 118.408 24. Vic Parsons #45 Ford 118.167 25. Earl Brooks #26 Ford 117.734 26. Frank Warren #79 Dodge 117.332 27. Ed Hessert #23 Dodge 116.74 28. Jabe Thomas #25 Dodge 116.771 29. Rick Newsom #20 Ford 114.727 30. Mel Larson #98 Chevrolet No time Only these 30 cars turned up when 40 spots were available - maybe the $46,000 purse wasn't enough to entice anyone else. There were 2 minor accidents during practice, Lennie Pond was fixed in time to qualify and local boy Ed Hessert wrecked after qualifying but was confident all would be good to go on race day. Then it rained. The race was rescheduled for 5th August but the promoter pulled the plug on July 27th. 19. ScottB posted: 11.24.2020 - 12:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Odd stat: The drivers credited with finishing positions 2nd through 18th have a grand total of only 5 career Cup victories. 2 each for Hylton and Langley, one for Pond. Of course, due to the relief driver situation, the drivers officially credited with those finishes may not have actually been in the seat at the checkers. Regardless, a good day for underdogs. 20. Jason posted: 02.04.2021 - 7:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Does anyone know why Buddy Baker wasn't in this race. This was the only one he missed this year. 21. rateus posted: 02.20.2021 - 2:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The two alternates for this race were #29 Bill Hollar ('71 Mercury) and #26 Earl Brooks ('71 Ford). 22. Rob posted: 04.18.2021 - 4:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @20. See comment 14. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: