1969
As drivers like Dick Landy and Mr. Norm beat up the NHRA competition the NASCAR guys were working out the bugs. In 1968 a big problem with the new body design was found. I can give you the technical jumbo: drag coefficients, down force, vertical lift, blah, blah, blah or my simple math definition [Recessed grille + tunnel back x high speed = AIRPLANE! That’s right the car was so dirty in the race configuration Wilbur Pig claimed it as his brother. What is dirty you ask? Well you must be a speed boat guy but maybe its amnesia - temporary amnesia, so it means the car did not run through the air efficiently. It was to slow and unstable for high speed racing. The solution was to flush mount the Coronet 500 grille and fill in the sail panel with a lead plug. WORKED GREAT BUT THE PROBLEM NOW HAD A NEW NAME – PHERD, FARD, FORD something like that anyway. The release of the Talladega Torino and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II meant that Dodge had a very good car on the intermediate tracks but a very fast second place car on the super speedways.
The war for supremacy in Grand National was escalating, the win on Sunday sell on Monday mantra demanded action. Bob McCurry head of Chrysler’s race program at the time was feeling the pressure to roll out a big gun. The old saying (the more things change the more they stay the same) was just as true in 1969 as it is today. America is all about the sound bite. The major media only showed up at the big tracks and even though the 500 was winning it was not winning Daytona so it must be a loser. When showed the designs for the Daytona his comment was “if it will win build it” THE NUKE HAD JUST BEEN GIVEN THE GREEN LIGHT. The bomb fell SEPT 14th 1969 during the inaugural running of the Talladega 500. Daytona’s finished 1-2-3 as Richard Brickhouse won driving the Dow Chemicals #99 car. The media went nuts! The AERO WARS were on! History had taken the stage and Dodge would prove once and for all who would be the king of NASCAR.
The problem is that the TRUE CHARGER history of the 1969 and 1970 NASCAR seasons has never been addressed until now. The revisionist history that has been parrot quoted by the masses and spouted by every blah, blah car magazine or blah, blah TV show like it’s the bible was never so. Any body who was there will tell you all you have to do is open your eyes and see. Think I don’t know NUTH-IN well the ole record book doesn’t lie so to quote the man “let’s go to the video tape” and then tell the world TDC set the record straight. THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE.
54 races were run in 1969. Dodge would win 22, Plymouth would win 2 and Ford/Mercury won all the rest. For those counting Bow Tie 0 – Eggo! Bobby Isaac would lead the way for Dodge with 17 wins: 1-68, 1-Daytona, 15-500! Bobby Allison 4 wins all in a 500. Richard Brickhouse 1 win in a Daytona. Isaac got the first 500 win in the 5th race that year. Plymouth started the year winning the first two but the beasts had arrived and they were gone until 1970. So let me take my shoes off. That’s 19-500 wins and 2 Daytona wins plus one lonely 68 win so where is the supposed Daytona romp of history? 500 owners the world over should be protesting in the street, they have been ROBBED! It gets worse over in 1970 too but let us close 1969 with a final thought. Richard Petty would win 10 times in 1969 with 9 in a Fard. That’s 9 wins FOR THE BAD GUYS. At one point in 1969 he combined with Pearson to win 10/11 and the lone break was Donny Allison’s win in a Furd. Plymouth lets him drive the 500; maybe we celebrate a Dodge championship in 1969. Instead David Pearson won his third and final Grand National title. Thanks Ply-mouth.