Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 27, 1994 TAG: 9408180026
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
And many of the old legends did, despite the demands of the NASCAR schedule.
Nineteen NASCAR race-winners also have competed in the Indy 500. Only A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti have won the Indy 500 and Daytona 500.
Crossing over from stock cars to Indy cars is rare today because NASCAR's emphasis is on the Winston Cup championship, which can be attained only by entering every race. Crossovers were more common in the 1960s and 1970s.
Three-time Winston Cup champion Cale Yarborough has four Indy 500s on his resume. Bobby Allison raced there twice. Lee Roy Yarbrough was in three 500s. Junior Johnson and Curtis Turner went to Indy in 1963, although neither made the race.
But of all the regular stock car boys, the most successful at Indy was Donnie Allison, whose remarkable performance in May 1970 is one of the great little-known racing feats of the era.
On May 24, Allison was behind the wheel of his Banjo Matthews 1969 Ford in the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He won the race, with relief help from Lee Roy Yarbrough. Six days later, Allison started 23rd in the Indy 500 and motored to a fourth-place finish. He was named the race's rookie of the year.
``It was really great for me to go there and run fourth, and then race at Charlotte and win the World 600,'' Allison said last week. ``I was running a full schedule in NASCAR, but the biggest difference from today, I think, was the fact that I wanted to run Indy cars.
``At that time in 1970, I drove a car for A.J. Foyt. I didn't get any salary, only a portion of the purse. But it wasn't a money thing. I did it because I wanted to do it. They don't do that anymore.''
John Andretti would dispute that, of course. This year, he became the first driver to run in the races at Indianapolis and Charlotte on the same day. He received a ton of publicity for the feat.
Allison's performance is largely forgotten today.
``It wasn't that big a deal then,'' he said. ``I never tooted my own horn. But you know, there's one interesting note: Last year, Nigel Mansell became the first rookie driver to complete the full 500 miles since I did it in 1970.''
Donnie's brother, Bobby, who will be at the Brickyard 400 as a car owner, finished 32nd in 1973 and 25th in 1975, driving both years for Roger Penske.
He led the 24th lap in 1975, ``which was a tremendous accomplishment.''
``I would have definitely loved to run a stock car around Indy any time,'' Allison said. His chance to do that is gone, but it ``definitely is something that would have been high on my list of wants.''
``I went there in 1963 for a fellow named John Chalik,'' said Junior Johnson, who will have a pair of Fords in the 400. ``He had two cars. I had one and Bobby Unser was driving the other. But neither one of us could get up to speed. So I decided, `Well, I've probably got the best car there are at Charlotte and I've got the worst car there are at Indy, so I probably ought to go back to Charlotte.''
Johnson did, and he won the pole for the 600 with his Ray Fox 1963 Chevy. He finished second to Fred Lorenzen after blowing a tire while leading with four laps to go.
``I would have liked to run at Indy if I had a good car,'' Johnson said.
Yarborough, who also will have a car in the 400, raced in four Indy 500s. In his rookie race in 1966, Yarborough was involved in the infamous frontstretch pileup at the green flag and never completed a lap. He was 17th in 1967, 16th in 1971 and 10th in 1972.
``In the beginning - the first two years - I wasn't running the whole NASCAR circuit, so I had time to do it,'' Yarborough said recently. ``Then, when Ford pulled out of racing in 1970, I felt like I didn't have a ride [in NASCAR], really. So Gene White gave me the opportunity to sign a two-year contract to run the Indy cars.
``It was something different, and I enjoyed it,'' said Yarborough, who also has raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. ``I always liked the open-cockpit cars. I liked the wind in my face. But after the two-year contract with Gene White was up, I felt like the future was in NASCAR.''
Drivers who have competed in the Indianapolis 500 and have won at least one NASCAR race, ranked according to number of NASCAR victories (x-Indy 500 winner; y-Indy 500 rookie of the year; NASCAR victories in parentheses):
Bobby Allison (84)
Cale Yarborough (83)
Lee Roy Yarbrough (14)
Dick Rathmann (13)
y-Tim Richmond (13)
y-Donnie Allison (10)
Paul Goldsmith (9)
x-A.J. Foyt (7)
Marshall Teague (7)
Dan Gurney (5)
x,y-Parnelli Jones (4)
Bobby Johns (2)
Al Keller (2)
x,y-Mario Andretti (1)
x,y-Mark Donohue (1)
y-Jim Hurtubise (1)
Johnny Mantz (1)
x-Johnny Rutherford (1)
Chuck Stevenson (1)
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
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