Lorenzen dominated M'ville for several years in 28 car

The news that cash-strapped Yates Racing is shutting down Travis Kvapil's No. 28 Ford team for the foreseeable future brings to mind the driver who first had success driving that car number and make. Fred Lorenzen, NASCAR's original Golden Boy, and Martinsville Speedway are inextricably connected.

From 1961 until his final NASCAR start in 1972, Lorenzen never started worse than sixth at Martinsville, and led at least one lap in 12 of those 14 races. During his stretch of four consecutive victories starting in 1963, Lorenzen was absolutely dominant on the half-mile, leading 1,739 of a possible 2,000 laps.

Fred Lorenzen

Martinsville Results

Year	Start	Finish	Status
1956*	14	24	running
1960	9	18	engine
	11	12	running
1961	2	1	running
	2	11	running
	1	18	rear end
1962	1	4	running
	4	28	crash
1963	5	5	running
	2	1	running
1964	1	1	running
	1	1	running
1965	2	1	running
	5	21	fuel pump
1966	2	1	running
1971*	6	20	overheating
1972	5	27	engine

* Did not drive car No. 28

Lorenzen never raced full time, making more than 20 starts in a season only once in a 12-year career. But in his 158 career starts, he won 26 times, amassed 32 poles and 75 top-five finishes. And in 1963, Lorenzen became the first NASCAR driver to earn more than $100,000 in a single season.

Lorenzen, who hailed from Elmhurst, Ill., began racing at an early age on Midwest bullrings. He made his NASCAR debut in 1956, running a limited schedule as an owner/driver, with little success. But after winning consecutive USAC Stock Car championships in 1958 and 1959, Lorenzen decided to try again in 1960 -- coincidentally with a change to Fords and the No. 28 -- and the results were almost immediate.

He finished eighth in the Daytona 500, third when the circuit returned to Daytona in July and fifth at Atlanta. But it was in April of the following year, now driving under the Holman-Moody flag, when Fearless Freddie first made his mark at Martinsville.

Starting on the outside of pole-sitter Rex White, Lorenzen grabbed the lead for the first time on Lap 119. And when rain halted proceedings 30 laps later, Lorenzen had his first Cup victory. The series returned three weeks later for the Virginia 500, and Lorenzen seemed well on his way to victory -- having led 334 laps -- when mechanical issues forced him into the pits for extensive repairs. He wound up 11th.

Lorenzen started from the pole in the September Old Dominion 500 and led the first 57 laps before being sidelined with rear-end problems. He started 1962 at Martinsville the same way, winning the pole and leading 18 laps before settling for fourth. And in the fall race, Lorenzen had worked his way from fourth into the lead when he crashed after 106 laps.

For his next five visits to Martinsville, Lorenzen had the kind of success that few drivers ever attain. He seemingly had the 1963 Virginia 500 in hand after leading 282 laps, but he faded to fifth in the closing laps as Richard Petty went on to take the checkered flag.

But Lorenzen returned in the fall with a vengeance. He stalked pole-sitter Junior Johnson from the drop of the green flag, finally taking the lead for good on Lap 81 and never looked back. Lorenzen led the final 420 circuits, lapping the field on his way to the win.

Unbelievably, Lorenzen was even more dominant in 1964. He won a pair of pole positions and led all but 13 laps of the spring race and all but seven laps in the fall event, leaving the NASCAR regulars in his dust.

And he became the first and only driver to win four consecutive races at Martinsville the next spring, in another battle with Johnson and Bobby Johns. The three traded the top spot for the first 100 laps before Johnson assumed control. But Lorenzen got around Johnson on Lap 179 and was able to hold off hard-charging Marvin Panch in the closing laps to win by two car-lengths.

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Lorenzen's Martinsville magic would come to an end later that year when he fought fuel-pump problems and finished 21st. But he returned to Victory Lane once more in the 1966 Old Dominion 500, coming from two laps down to win after a late-race duel with Bobby Allison ended when Allison's engine expired with six laps to go.

Lorenzen won at Rockingham later that season and his 1967 Daytona qualifier, but he publicly admitted that the loss of his friend Fireball Roberts in a fiery accident at Charlotte, coupled with the stresses of traveling, led to his decision to retire from racing at the age of 32. He returned three years later -- and had some success in 1971, scoring seven top-five finishes in 14 tries -- but after the engine expired in his Hoss Ellington Chevrolet after 216 laps at Martinsville, Lorenzen hung up his helmet for good.

Lorenzen wasn't the only driver to pilot the No. 28 into Martinsville's Victory Lane. Buddy Baker won in a Chevrolet in 1979, and Ernie Irvan showed flashes of Lorenzen's dominance when he led 402 laps on his way to victory in the 1993 fall race.