1974 NASCAR Winston Cup Series

The 1974 Winston Cup Series was the 26th season of the NASCAR Cup Series, The season began with the Winston Western 500 at Riverside International Raceway on January 20 and ended with the Los Angeles Times 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway on November 24, The first 15 races were shortened 10 percent due to the 1973 oil crisis. Following criticism of the 1972 and 1973 points systems that placed emphasis on completed miles, NASCAR implemented a new points system, that took basic purse winnings, multiplied by number of stars, and divided by 1,000; it was designed to more directly reward winning races, a response to Benny Parsons' championship the previous year with just one win. Richard Petty was Winston Cup champion at the end of the season finishing 567.45 points ahead of Cale Yarborough, while David Pearson finished a strong third in points despite only nineteen starts. Earl Ross was named NASCAR Rookie of the Year.

1974 was the final season before Ricky Rudd, Bill Elliott and Dale Earnhardt joined the Winston Cup Grand National tour.

Western 500
Begun on January 20, the Western 500 at Riverside International Raceway was stopped by rain and resumed on January 26. Cale Yarborough led 144 laps but was closely contested by Bobby Allison, who led 33 laps. Allison faltered and finished a distant fifth, while Cale took the win with Richard Petty second. David Pearson finished third in the final eligible race for the Wood Brothers 1971 Mercury Cyclone; the car had won 19 times with Pearson and A. J. Foyt the previous two seasons.

Richmond 500
Bobby Allison grabbed the win, his third with his own team since the start of 1973.

Carolina 500
Cale Yarborough led most of the first half but his car's handling deteriorated throughout the race and Richard Petty dominated the second half en route to the win.

Southeastern 500
Amid periodic snow flurries, a crowd of 18,000 witnessed Cale Yarborough win for the second straight spring Bristol race. Richard Petty was hit in the driver side door in a four-car crash.

Atlanta 500
NASCAR mandated smaller carburators for big-block engines. David Pearson led the most laps in a small block but had to pit late for fuel, giving Cale Yarborough the win.

Rebel 450
Darlington's spring race shaved 10 percent off its race distance as other races did, but did not lop off the opening 36 laps, it simply scheduled the race as a 450-miler. David Pearson took his third straight Rebel race win (and fifth in all). The race was stopped for half an hour when Lennie Pond smashed a guardrail and several posts were pushed off. Cale Yarborough took the point lead.

Gwyn Staley Memorial
Richard Petty debuted a hand-built (by his brother, the team's chief engine builder Maurice) small-block Chrysler engine and won going away. The win put him back into the point lead. Petty stated the small block cost $50,000; “so we’re still in the red right now.”

Virginia 500
Cale Yarborough lead almost wire to wire and the win gave him back the point lead. Richard Petty finished second despite multiple pitstops.

Winston 500
The lead changed 52 times among 14 drivers as David Pearson edged Benny Parsons. During pitstops at Lap 105 crewman Don Miller lost a leg when he was hit by the spinning car of rookie Grant Adcox.

Music City 420
Rain pushed the second half of the race from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon. Richard Petty took his fourth win of the season and retook the point lead over Yarborough. It was Neil Bonnett's first Winston Cup start.

Mason-Dixon 500
Petty, Pearson, and Yarborough were the only leaders in a race interrupted only three times for yellows. Petty, running the small-block Chrysler engine, led 210 laps but fell out with engine failure while leading with three laps to go. Cale took the win having led 220 laps, while Pearson was second with only 20 laps led.

World 600
David Pearson edged Richard Petty as the lead changed 37 times, the most for the race to that point of its history. Buddy Baker left Harry Hyde's Dodge team to drive Bud Moore's Ford after Moore released driver George Follmer. Baker led 94 laps before falling out with engine failure; he was signed to drive the rest of the season in Moore's Ford.

Tuborg 400
George Follmer was fired from Bud Moore's team before the 600 and jumped into Roger Penske's AMC Matador; he won the pole but blew his engine after just seven laps. Cale Yarborough edged Bobby Allison for the win, his sixth of the season.

Motor State 400
This was the last race of the season shortened by NASCAR due to the energy crunch. The lead changed 50 times among eight drivers, a new record for the track to that point. Petty edged rookie Earl Ross after Pearson pitted under a late yellow for tires and the green never flew again.

Firecracker 400
David Pearson, the winner of the previous two 400s, pulled an audacious fake as he slammed his brakes to put Petty into the lead on the final lap, then drafted past at the stripe; Pearson's maneuver was such that an angered Petty confronted Pearson in the pressbox after the race; the ensuing dialogue was transcribed by the Charlotte Observer and published the next day (July 5, 1974, edition). Some seven seconds behind them Cale Yarborough and Buddy Baker hit the stripe nose to nose for an official tie for third. Bobby Allison took over Roger Penske's Matador; he led 50 laps but broke an intake valve late in the race and finished fifth. The lead changed 45 times, a race record that stood until 2010.

Volunteer 500
Junior Johnson had purchased his race team from Richard Howard when Carling Breweries joined the #52 of Earl Ross along with Cale Yarborough's #11. In the second race as owner of the team Junior saw Cale dominate but Buddy Baker surged to the lead late. A caution set up a two lap sprint and Cale sideslammed Baker on the final lap for the win. The race saw Neil Bonnett strike the inside pit guardrail, tearing up numerous support posts and requiring a 40-lap caution for repairs.

Nashville 420
Controversy marred Nashville's mid-summer event. Following Richard Petty's crash a scoring controversy ensued involving Cale Yarborough and Charlie Glotzbach; Glotzbach was placed a lap down based on scoring, but Cale stayed on the lead lap. Allison finished just behind Yarborough and drove into victory lane ahead of Yarborough, insisting Cale was a lap down. NASCAR later said a scoring mistake had been made but that the Yarborough win would stand.

Purolator 500
Originally published in NASCAR's schedule, the annual 300-miler at Trenton Speedway was cancelled and replaced by Pocono's Purolator 500. Richard Petty won the race as rain shortened the race by eight laps. Buddy Baker won the pole; he'd also won the pole in late April in Pocono's USAC stock car 500-miler. It was the inaugural race for NASCAR at Pocono, which has become part of the annual schedule since then.

Talladega 500
25 of the event's 50 entries were found sabotaged in the garage area on race morning. NASCAR instituted several competition cautions to allow teams to find previously-undetected sabotage. Buddy Baker fell out after leading 98 laps with rearend failure with three laps to go. Petty sideswiped past Pearson at the stripe ("Pearson tried to cut me off," Petty said; "I'd rather rub fenders with Richard than compete clean with some of the other cats, who are crazy at times," Pearson added); it was Petty's third straight win. Three days before the race A. J. Foyt brought his Coyote Indycar for a speed test; he hit 217 MPH, a closed-course record for the time.

Yankee 400
Pearson won for the first time since Daytona in July, beating Petty by some five seconds. The lead changed 45 times as Cale Yarborough led 60 laps but lost contact with the leaders after a late tire change backfired with mismatched tires.

Southern 500
Cale Yarborough took his third win in the race after melees eliminated half the field; Richard Petty, Bobby Allison and Buddy Baker were notable crash victims, and rookie Richie Panch was singled out for criticism after being involved in three wrecks. Sophomore Darrell Waltrip took second. NASCAR's 1974 point system, which took purse winnings multiplied by number of starts divided by 1,000, came under fire when Petty wrecked early yet outpointed every car that finished ahead of him except race-winner Yarborough.

Capital City 500
Cale Yarborough led 98 of the first 120 laps but the pavement was grinding up and Cale slipped in loose asphalt and crashed. The wreck put Richard Petty into the lead for the remaining 380 laps. Bobby Allison, originally entered in the race, did not race.

Delaware 500
Petty led 491 laps and put the entire field three laps down while Yarborough fell out with engine failure.

Wilkes 400
Petty and Yarborough swept the front row and led 391 laps. Cale led for 275 laps. Petty lost a lap on late pitstops but unlapped himself; he had to settle for second when a late yellow ended the race under caution.

Old Dominion 500
Earl Ross pulled off the upset win, the first for a rookie since 1965 and first for a Canadian driver ever. The win came after teammate Cale Yarborough crashed.

National 500
David Pearson made up a lap lost in the first 100 laps of the race and edged Richard Petty, who erased a two-lap deficit despite a pit fire three-quarters into the race; it was the fifth time in the season Pearson and Petty finished together in the top two and Pearson's fourth win in that rivalry. The race was chaotic as a ten-car melee erupted on the third lap and a vicious two-car crash in Turn Four eliminated Grant Adcox and Ramo Stott. The lead changed 47 times, a race record that was tied in 2000, and a track record that lasted until the 1979 World 600, among 11 drivers; it was the sixth race of the season to break 40 official lead changes.

American 500
Pearson grabbed his seventh win of 1974, edging Cale by two seconds. The surface at North Carolina Motor Speedway proved hard on tires and pitstops became frequent. Buddy Baker led twelve laps but fell out after only eighteen laps with brake failure.

Los Angeles Times 500
Originally left off of NASCAR's schedule, the race was added late in the season. Richard Petty led the most laps but fell out late and finished 15th. Bobby Allison took the win in Roger Penske's AMC Matador but was fined $9,100 for unapproved valve lifters in postrace inspection. The race lead changed 38 times officially (a track record for stock cars) while several laps saw up to four lead changes in one circuit.