|| *Comments on the 1975 Winston 500:* View the most recent comment <#26> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. SPENCER posted: 12.12.2005 - 1:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) WOW 5O CARS! NICE JOB BUDDY 2. Bufford posted: 10.11.2006 - 12:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Richard Petty had a pit crew man die as a result of a accident on pit road. A piece of equipment exploded, and he died of his injuries. 3. Anonymous posted: 02.22.2007 - 8:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) TALLADEGA, AL (May 4) -- Buddy Baker blocked David Pearson's last lap rally and won the Winston 500 at Alabama International Motor Speedway. The victory ended a drought for the 34 year-old Charlotte driver, car owner Bud Moore and the Ford nameplate. Baker led the final 18 laps after 12 drivers swapped the lead 51 times. Pearson mustered a last lap slingshot to the high side, but Baker moved up and left his rival no room to run. Pearson had to back off to avoid going into the wall and settled for second place. It was Baker's first win since 1973, car owner Bud Moore's first win since 1966, and the first time a Ford had won a Winston Cup Grand National race since 1971. Baker's $28,725 triumph was marred by a freak mishap in the pits which killed Randy Garland Owens, 20, of Randleman, NC. Owens, Richard Petty's brother-in-law, was killed instantly when a pressurized water tank exploded in the 141st lap. Petty had pitted with a left front wheel-bearing on fire. Owens was attempting to put out the fire when the tank blew up, sending Owens some 30 feet into the air. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the track hospital. "I had just gotten out of the car and stepped cross the pit wall," said a tearful Petty. "Randy reached over to turn the pressure on and the thing blew up. That's close to home. He was just a kid and had those two little, bitty boys. The bad part about it is somewhere along the line it could have been prevented." Gary Rodgers, crewman for Benny Parsons, suffered head lacerations when he was struck by a jagged piece of the tank. The 144.948 mph victory was Baker's ninth in a career which has spanned 17 years. "David made his move to the upper side of the last lap," Baker said. "I moved up that way too. He really had no way to get around me." Pearson, still winless in the 1975 campaign, remarked, "I could have taken him by slingshoting him on the high side. But he shut me off by forcing me too high. I don't know whether he saw me or not, but I had to back out of it or hit the wall." Dick Brooks' sparkling run netted him third place money. Darrell Waltrip was fourth and Coo Coo Marlin fifth. Ramo Stott blew his engine in the 62nd lap -- and the car was immediately engulfed in flames. Marty Robbins put his car into a slide to avoid hitting Stott, but it blocked the path of James Hylton, who plowed into the Robbins' drivers side door. Miraculously, all drivers escaped injury. After the race, Robbins contemplated quitting racing. "That's about three bad wrecks in a row," said the Country & Western singer. "Maybe I should find another hobby." Donnie Allison's foul luck continued. His engine blew on lap 11. Benny Parsons, Carl Adams and Ferrel Harris, running close behind, hit the oil slick and crashed. 4. Destiny posted: 04.10.2007 - 10:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I see that, Richard Petty's wife Lynda's younger brother Randy got killed because of Buddy Baker's first triple Talladega win until a year. 5. JR posted: 02.16.2008 - 11:57 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This race is featured on Bud Lindeman's old show they run on Speed once in a while. In describing the Petty pit mishap he implies it was no big deal. TV shows of that time usually downplayed any negatives if they mentioned them at all 6. Nuck Chorris posted: 03.24.2008 - 7:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Darrell DNFed and still had a top 5 finish.. how often does that happen today? 7. Scott posted: 05.03.2008 - 7:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) First race I went to. I was 23. I was deprived. 8. RaceFanX posted: 01.02.2009 - 1:45 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Best career finish for Bruce Jacobi, 8th. 9. jp posted: 02.22.2009 - 3:10 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) man. randy owens body thrown 30 something feet in the air. that's just sad. :( 10. 18fan posted: 03.10.2009 - 6:00 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Baker dominated in terms of laps led, but I don't think he had the best car. Cale Yarborough rocketed through the field from 24th starting spot until his windshield kept breaking. Petty was one of the best cars along with Pearson. It would've been interesting what Donnie Allison could have done with Baker if he didn't blow his engine so early while leading and also took out Benny Parsons, Carl Adams, and Ferrel Harris. 11. rob posted: 10.02.2012 - 7:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) motorracingnetwork.com will have this race sdded to its classic race broadcast archives this friday. 12. v2v1v5 posted: 02.16.2013 - 1:02 am Rate this comment: (3) (0) Buddy Baker's winning Bud Moore Ford Torino was a "fastback" 1973 model,if you watch this race on the net.1973 was the last year that roofline was made.Very exciting race.The gap Pearson made up on that last lap was unbelievable.He had the Wood Bros.Mercury "perculating",just came up a little short on this one.This would be Buddy Baker's best year of his career,winning 4 races,Winston "500",Talladega"500",Dixie"500"and the LA Times"500" at Ontario,CA. 13. RaceFanX posted: 12.16.2014 - 7:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Cale Yarborough ran with the leaders early only to have his windshield break and be forced back into the car during the early laps. Cale's team tried to fix the issue by removing it and installing a spare but the issue wasn't completely fixed and eventually put the #11 out of the race. Richard Petty also cracked his windshield early on but his team repaired the broken glass by taping the entire damaged right side in place. The King led on the restart but was quickly passed by the trio of Baker, Pearson, and Waltrip. Petty's pit crew kept Richard in contention and got him back in the lead a couple times despite his aerodynamic issues. The King's race eventually ended with a wheel bearing failure with the fatal pit accident occurring on the stop where Richard retired and got out of the #43. As noted above remarkably the TV coverage of this race on "Car and Track" iced over Owens' death just saying "two were injured." At least they didn't actually show the explosion. 14. RaceFanX posted: 12.16.2014 - 8:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Buddy Baker won the pole and led the first half lap only to have his #15 Bud Moore Ford passed when the Allison brothers double-teamed him and drafted right past. Donnie Allison put the DiGard #88 Chevrolet out front for 6 of the race's first 11 laps only to detonate the motor in Turn 2 and retire. When Donnie's motor blew Benny Parsons spun into the outside wall on the backstretch because of the oil on the track, ending his day in a long slide against the wall while Carl Adams and Ferrel Harris spun and crashed in the infield behind him. After Donnie's retirement things didn't go much better for Bobby Allison. Shortly thereafter he spun out and took Roger Penske's #16 AMC Matador for an impromptu trek through the Turn 1 grass. Eventually a blown engine put the American Motors entry on the sidelines. Cecil "Flash" Gordon led a couple laps early in this race when he stayed out and the leaders pitted. The #24 Chevrolet wasn't upfront for long as Dick Brooks and Darrell Waltrip passed him not long after the restart. Gordon's good run eventually ended in a blown engine that saw him spun in his own oil and slide into the infield off Turn 4. Marty Robbins led a Winston Cup race for the second and final time here but would get a good finish. A blown engine by Ramo Stott caused a three-car wreck that ended the day for Robbins, Stott, and James Hylton (who had also led the race). In the end this race came down to a battle between Buddy Baker's #15 Ford and David Pearson's #21 Mercury after Dick Brooks' #90 Ford remained on the same lap but far behind and Waltrip's #17 Chevrolet blew an engine late in the race. Baker eventually pulled ahead but Pearson got in the draft, pulled him right in, and attempted an unsuccessful slingshot coming down to the line. The win was the first of four for Baker in 1975. The "Car and Track" episode featuring this race was edited into the first season finale of Dale Jr's "Back in the Day" show on SPEED Channel. The show added bits of trivia and sound effects to the broadcast. Junebug pointed out at the end of the program this was the first of three straight victories for Baker at Talladega and that record would stand until he broke it with four straight wins in the early 2000s. 15. mkl62 posted: 12.19.2014 - 7:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Hard luck for Darrell. Definitely a candidate for the Goody's Headache Award. 16. GARY WILLIAMS posted: 11.29.2016 - 1:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I went to that race with with my dad.I was 15 at that time just remembered being awed at the speed of the cars been hooked ever since!I vividly remember the tank exploding in the 43 pits and dad saying he thought someone was hurt.Did not find out about his death several months later. 17. RaceFanX posted: 03.30.2017 - 8:43 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Buddy Baker's win here was amazingly the first for Ford in NASCAR's "Modern Era." It snapped a long losing streak for brand dating back to Bobby Allison's win at Middle Georgia Raceway back in November 1971. Of course Ford's corporate sibling Mercury won many times in the interim so it wasn't like FoMoCo was completely shut out of victory lane. There's a Ford in victory lane and a Ford in the White House. Baker's triumph was the first victory for the Blue Oval brand since Gerald R. Ford began the President of the United States...ironically just two days before the series' prior trip to Talladega in August 1974. 18. KW posted: 07.27.2017 - 10:19 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) ARCA returned to Talladega as the support series for this race. 1969 ARCA winner Jim Vandiver repeated in a Dodge, followed by USAC champion Butch Hartman, Gene Taylor, Johnny Halford and Coo Coo Marlin. 19. Tide1732 posted: 10.16.2017 - 1:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Best finish of Harry Jefferson (6th) 20. BadBooking posted: 04.18.2019 - 10:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Unless the engine failure caused the wreck, Bobby Allison should be listed as 'Crash' in the Status column. That's per the Car and Track footage available on YouTube. 21. TW75 posted: 08.18.2019 - 8:11 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Five-time Formula One World Driver Champion Juan Manuel Fangio (Argentina, 1951, 1954-57) was the honorary starter for the event. 22. Ryan posted: 08.18.2019 - 8:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "You must always strive to be the best, but you must never believe that you are." Juan Manuel Fangio 23. possum posted: 12.07.2019 - 9:03 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) I wonder why Ed Negre drove Dean Dalton's car, and Dean Dalton drove Ed Negre's car. They did the same thing at Martinsville... 24. Anonymous posted: 07.11.2020 - 10:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dan Walters Forever was the sponsor on the #82 car. Also the #64 was a '73 Ford, definitely not a Dodge. 25. RaceFanX posted: 11.29.2020 - 4:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Joe Mihalic comes home ninth to claim his second and final Cup series top-10 finish. 26. rateus posted: 02.19.2021 - 8:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) AJ Reno qualified 39th in a Ford but withdrew. Earl Brooks was the final qualifier in 50th in a Dodge, he either withdrew or was a driver change - neither Earle Canavan nor Jabe Thomas made the field on time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: