AMS' last September race cause for late celebration

No matter the final laps play out in Sunday night's Pep Boys 500, it's hard to imagine a wackier scenario than what occurred the last time Atlanta Motor Speedway hosted a Cup race in September.

In the 1961 Dixie 400, no less than five drivers had a potential victory snatched away by a variety of misfortune -- including three in the final five laps -- and the eventual winner never had a chance to kiss beauty queen Linda Vaughn in a Victory Lane celebration, as he found out more than an hour after the race that NASCAR officials had bungled the scoring.

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Atlanta Constitution sports editor Jesse Outlar labeled it the "Daffy Derby." And by any stretch of the imagination, the 30,000 or so in attendance that September afternoon had to be stunned at the amazing twists and turns of fortune. And most were probably shocked to read who really won the race in the newspaper the following day.

According to the newspaper's account, Fred Lorenzen quickly worked his way to the front of the pack from his fourth starting position. But on Lap 51, the engine in his Holman-Moody Ford let go and Lorenzen hit the wall on the mainstretch. Pole-sitter Fireball Roberts, following closely behind, narrowly managed to avoid Lorenzen's spinning car with an impressive piece of driving. Roberts flung his Pontiac into a controlled skid, then turned the wheel hard in the opposite direction and was able to fish-tail out of harm's way.

Nelson Stacy then promptly ran away from the rest of the field, leaving Roberts to fight for second place with Banjo Matthews. But again, being first wasn't all it's cracked up to be; Stacy's engine erupted in a ball of fire on Lap 242. Matthews had pulled away from Roberts and assumed control of the race with the laps winding down, but with just five laps remaining, misfortune intervened as tell-tale smoke began to spew from the tailpipes of his Ford.

As Matthews slowed and headed for the garage, suddenly it was Roberts' race to win. With Stacy and Matthews sidelined, Roberts had a huge lead over the rest of the field and his crew signaled to the driver of the No. 22 to ease off the throttle. But the luck that had been with Roberts earlier in the day suddenly went from good to bad, as the car sputtered and coughed with two laps to go. Fireball was out of gas, having pitted five laps earlier than expected on his final stop.

What happened next apparently confused nearly everyone at the track, including NASCAR's scorers. While Roberts' crew was frantically trying to refuel his car in the pits, Bunkie Blackburn -- driving in relief of Junior Johnson -- took the white flag as the leader. But he, too, was low on fuel and slowing on the backstretch. That left David Pearson, driving one of John Masoni's Daytona Kennel Club-sponsored Pontiacs, as the only contender actually under power.

Blackburn coasted into the pits as Pearson stormed around the final turn. And that's where the controversy arose. Blackburn pulled to a stop in his pit stall and celebrated what he -- and NASCAR officials -- initially thought was the win, as he had crossed the finish line on pit road as the only car on the lead lap. But Pearson protested, saying he had passed Blackburn before the stripe, and believed he had also completed the 267-lap distance.

"I don't know whether I'm in the same lap or not," Pearson said while awaiting NASCAR's review of the scoring sheets. "But I do know I was in front of Blackburn."

At some point during their analysis of the tallies, NASCAR officials realized they had somehow failed to count one of Pearson's laps. And well after most of the crowd had already headed for the parking lots, Pearson -- who scored victories earlier in the season at Charlotte and Daytona -- was declared the winner and handed a check for $9,330.

In the gathering dusk, someone asked chief mechanic Ray Fox if he was disappointed to not get a post-race kiss from the race queen.

"I don't want to kiss nobody," he replied. "We just want the loot."