Ross carries flag alone as Cup winner from Canada

Earl Ross holds a special place in NASCAR history as the only Canadian-born driver to win a Cup race. But his NASCAR career, all of 26 races during a four-year span, still has a feeling of "what if?" surrounding it, more than three decades later.

In the early 1970s, Canadian-based Carling Beer had ventured heavily into the American southeast, opening a brewery in Atlanta and focusing its marketing efforts on NASCAR's Cup Series. In 1972, they sponsored Larry Smith, who won rookie-of-the-year honors. But the following season, Smith was killed at Talladega, and Carling officials were forced to look elsewhere for a driver.

Enter Earl Ross.

"I had been racing in Canada and was winning quite a bit," Ross said from his welding and fabrication shop in his hometown of Ailsa Craig, Ontario. "Carling O'Keefe Breweries wanted to race a couple of races in 1973. So they decided in 1974, they wanted to race a few more races. Halfway through the season, they decided to run the rest of the season, so I ended up running 21 races that year."

Before the 1973 Daytona 500, Carling brought Ross down to test their car at Daytona. Unfortunately, things went poorly right from the start.

"Carling owned the car and Junior [Johnson] provided it," Ross said. "When we first started, we were going to try to make the Daytona 500 in 1973, so we bought two cars and three engines off Bobby Allison. We rented the track for three days and Donnie Allison was going to tell me a few things about racing at Daytona. We ended up blowing all three engines, so then we went to Junior Johnson for engines, because obviously we needed engines that would hold together."

Ross eventually made the race, finishing 39th in his NASCAR debut. He also ran Talladega and Michigan later that year. But with increased interest from his sponsor -- and a NASCAR rules change on the size of the engine blocks -- Ross found himself with a full-time ride halfway through the 1974 season.

"At that time, everybody was running big blocks," Ross said. "But they were restricted. In 1974, they came out with the small blocks, but you could still run the big blocks. They were trying to get everybody switched over to the small blocks, but the small blocks kept blowing up. So you'd find big blocks out there, and you'd have less horsepower but you'd finish the race."

"At any rate, in 1974, Junior built us some big-block engines to start with. Once we got started, Carling cut another deal with Junior to supply us with a place to work on our cars down there. Three or four guys from my crew went down there to work on my cars."

With better equipment, Ross' finishes improved. He was fifth in the World 600 at Charlotte and followed that with a second at Michigan. At that point, Johnson took over ownership of the operation, making Ross a teammate of Cale Yarborough. And when the series showed up at Martinsville in September of 1974, Ross was coming off back-to-back top-five finishes.

Starting 11th in a field of 30, Ross patiently worked his way through the field as Yarborough began to dominate the race. The future three-time Cup champion had led 288 laps and seemed well on his way to victory when the engine in his Chevrolet gave out.

"I remember that I had a big-block engine in there and Cale had the small block," Ross said. "The field was maybe 10, 15 small blocks. I remember Cale leading the race ... I wasn't quite as fast but Cale blew up."

Ross suddenly found himself on a lap by himself with 80 laps to go, and he went on to beat Buddy Baker and Donnie Allison to the checkered flag for his first, and only, Cup win and a first-place check worth $14,550.

"When Cale blew up, he had already lapped me but at that time, you could race back to the flag," Ross said. "When he blew up, he slowed down and I got by him and got my lap back. That put me in the lead of the race. The car was working real good and we ended up winning the race."

With 10 top-10 finishes, Ross was named rookie of the year in 1974, but fate intervened in a bad way during the offseason when Carling pulled its sponsorship and ultimately shut down the Atlanta facility. That left Ross with a difficult decision.

"Carling decided not to race the Cup Series in 1975," Ross said. "I could have stayed down there and raced for some other people. Because of the fact that I had won a race -- they had different [purse money guarantees] -- that put me in the 'A Plan' for the following year. Because I had won a race, they would give me so much money to show up. But at the time, the teams tended to stick together and my own guys came back to Canada. And I still raced for Carling in 1975 but just across Canada.

"I could have stayed down there and went with another team. I had four or five offers, but I felt like I should stay with my own team."

Ross would make just two more Cup starts, finishing 13th in Junie Donlavey's Ford at Charlotte in 1975 and winding up 39th in the 1976 Daytona 500 after his engine let go 28 laps in.

So is he surprised no other Canadians have joined him on the list of winners in NASCAR's premier series?

"I sure have been, because there's some damn good drivers up here," Ross said. "They just don't tend to get the sponsorship or the chance to do it, you know? I was so lucky, personally, to have a good sponsor and during that season, I had quite a few good finishes. I was second at Michigan, third at Dover, fourth at North Wilkesboro and fifth at Charlotte."

"I wish I could have stayed down there the following year, because once I had been to the tracks once, I felt like the next time around, I'd be better."