How about Monroe,NC.'s Baxter Price ? Per one of the Nascar officials last season, Baxter is and has been one of the big wigs for the Charlotte Pipe CO. (they make most of the PVC pipe used everywhere )
egspeedway. The Capp’s boys like I said are some of the nicest guys in the business. They make great power too. We won many many many state, divisional, and national WKA karting events flying under the Capps banner and are very proud of it.
WOW Dave. I didn’t realize that Buddy was in that '69 500. That was the first year I went to the 500. I was 10. I didn’t get to know the Arrington relatives until I moved to West Palm. The big thing I remember in '69 was a guy named Friday something that my uncle Bill knew. I can remember going up to his car and hanging around for a while. I though it was funny to be named Friday when I was 10 I guess. Don’t remember his last name.
Must have been Friday Hassler, who was killed at Daytona in 1972. I didn’t know that Buddy Arrington was from South Florida. He was one of my favorites, because he campaigned a Chrysler product like my hero, The King.
Joe. He had relatives that lived here that I was friends with. Buddy would come down a couple times a year. And you could be right about Friday. I was thinking Hester all these years but I never really could remember. My uncle Bill told me when I was little that he went to school with him in Tenn when they were boys.
Buddy was from, or very near, Martinsville Va. My folks took me to the races there in 1970, and Buddy ran a gas station not far from the track. It was pretty cool as an about-to-be 10 year old seeing a “Grand National” car at a little 2-bay garage, then out on the track the next day. This was when he still ran a #5 car, prior to the 67 he was more famous for.
During that “Old Dominon 500”, I turned 10 years old and got to see ALL the big names of the day.
My memory isn’t what it should be but I believe JD McDuffie was an independent with Rumple Furniture, or something like that, as his sponsor. He was an also ran in most races but there was something about him that I liked. Never could tell you what. He was killed at Watkins Glen in 1991, I believe.
Alan Kulwicki is probably the most well known independent to more recent Nascar fans. He was the last independent owner driver to win the championship in Cup racing. Many think he was the last independent but that’s not true. I’m not sure who the last true independent was that ran a full Cup season. The Bodines come to mind, as they both (Geoff and Brett) owned and drove their own cars late in their careers. Has any independent run a full season since they did?
I first met Friday Hassler at Bristol in 1968… He was quite a guy… Got a win at Bristol in '71 driving relief for Charlie Glotzbach in Jr. Johnson’s Chevy… This picture is from Daytona in 1971…
Here’s Bunkie Blackburn at the Firecracker 400 in 1965 with a '65 Chevy that was built and owned by Ray Fox… Absolutely gorgeous car… Bunkie was from Fayetteville, NC but moved later to Daytona Beach… Won one of the Permatex races at Daytona in a Ray Fox Dodge… He also drove a short time for Petty Enterprises in the early '60s…
Jay Friday Hassler jr also used to race latemodels, was at Lanier once .let us not forget the most downtrodden of them all: Wendell Scott , anyone have a photo of his Ford Talledega?
Here’s another: Gene Black of Arden, NC… ran just 37 races over three years but did pretty good especially on the short tracks… Best career finish at Daytona was ninth in the '65 Firecracker, a race where all the “factory” teams had trouble with the exception of winner A. J. Foyt. Black finished ninth, 11 laps behind Foyt…
