NASCAR

By Zane Miller First round (8) #64 Elmo Langley v. (1) #43 Richard Petty (7) #88 Darrell Waltrip v. (2) #71 Dave Marcis (6) #24 Cecil Gordon v. (3) #48 James Hylton (5) #72 Benny Parsons v. (4) #96 Richard Childress With the 1975 postseason starting at Dover, Richard Petty captured the race win to give himself an early lead over Elmo Langley. Meanwhile, Dave Marcis fell out with engine failure before the halfway mark, allowing Darrell Waltrip to draw first blood in the series, as James Hylton took a solid seventh-place finish to go ahead of Cecil Gordon, who also suffered an early engine failure. The most competitive battle of the opening race came down between Benny Parsons and Richard Childress, with Parsons eventually winning with a third-place finish to Childress’ sixth. In North Wilkesboro for the second race, Petty disposed of Langley with back-to-back race wins, as did Waltrip with Marcis blowing his engine less than 100 laps in. Hylton outpaced Gordon by five laps to complete the sweep as well, while the most competitive clash again coming down to Parsons and Childress, as Parsons finished just two spots ahead to move onto the second round. With all four series ending in sweeps, next week’s race at Martinsville would be rendered irrelevant, bringing us to the: Semifinal (7) #88 Darrell Waltrip v. (1) #43 Richard Petty (5) #72 Benny Parsons v. (3) #48 James Hylton Richard Petty continued his dominance at Charlotte with yet another race win, as Waltrip dealt with electrical issues which forced his early exit from the event, with Parsons finishing fourth to Hylton’s sixth, putting Hylton in a precarious position coming into Richmond. In a surprising turn of events, Petty would finish last with a blown engine after just 34 laps, while Waltrip went on to take the race win. In the other series, Hylton claimed a sixth-place finish, while Parsons struggled to an 18th-place result despite leading the opening laps. With both series still undecided, the round’s final race at Rockingham would prove to be crucial. The first domino to fall would be Petty, as he suffered a heartbreaking engine failure for the second week in a row to end his championship hopes. Waltrip’s race came to an end not long after as he also blew his engine, but this was still good enough to move on to the championship round. All eyes turned to the battle between Parsons and Hylton, with those eyes seeing Parsons pull into the garage with just over 100 laps to go, as his day was done due to a failed water pump. Hylton crossed the line 37 laps down in 15th, but, most importantly, was on to the next round to face Waltrip for the title. Final (7) #88 Darrell Waltrip v. (3) #48 James Hylton The championship round got underway at Bristol, as Waltrip took advantage of racing in his home state to grab the early lead in the series with a third-place finish, leading 73 laps to boot. Although Hylton grabbed a top-10 finish, he was still well off the pace as he was 31 laps down as the checkered flag fell. Hylton would catch a lucky break the next week at Atlanta, as Waltrip barely even had the chance to warm his tires before a loose oil line ended his day on lap six, forcing him to finish dead last. Hylton had a far from spectacular race himself, but his 22nd-place result would be enough to show up to the season finale at Ontario Motor Speedway with a chance. In fact, “showing up” was all Hylton needed to do at Ontario, as neither Waltrip nor his team made the trip to California, much to the chagrin of the fans in attendance who were undoubtedly expecting a more exciting duel for the title. However, one man who did not care about any of that was James Hylton, who promptly locked up the championship after taking the green flag to become the most recent owner-driver to win a title at the Cup Series level to this day. James Hylton’s stats for 1975 were two top-fives and 16 top-10s for a third-place points finish, as Richard Petty claimed the real-life title. 1975 Cup Series standings in real life: https://scorum.com/en-us/nascar/@zmiller82/1975-nascar-cup-series-season-recap