NASCAR Cup Series was once Strictly Stock and these Fayetteville drivers were part of it

NASCAR’s Cup Series began as the Strictly Stock division on June 19, 1949, on a three-quarter-mile Charlotte Speedway, not to be confused with the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway located in Concord that, coincidentally, opened on June 19, 1960.

The smaller circular dirt track has been gone for 68 years but the memory of being there is still vivid to those that saw races there. That includes seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty, now 87, when he was only 19 years old.

Four drivers in the sport’s 76-history hailed from Fayetteville. They are James Raymond, “Bunkie” Blackburn, Spook Crawford, John Jennings and Bill Joslin. Their tenures in NASCAR’s top series lasted collectively from 1949 through 1970.

Blackburn’s introduction to auto racing came through his father Eugene Graham Blackburn and Myrtle Greene Blackburn, owners of a local short track in the Fayetteville area. That’s where James Ronald’s passion for racing began.

After serving in the North Carolina National Guard, “Bunkie,” as he was known, became a professional stock car driver in the late 1950s and was quite successful.

In 1967, he was part of a three-driver team that set a world speed record of 174 mph in a Smokey Yunick Z-28 Camaro at the Bonneville Salt Flats in a USAC/FIA event.

Blackburn won the 1968 Permatex 300 Sportsman race from the pole. He drove in what is known today as The NASCAR Cup Series from 1960 to 1970. Blackburn entered 71 NASCAR Grand National races, logging four top-fives and 14 top-10s. Two of the team owners that called on his services were Yunick, master at building cars and engines, and Petty Enterprises, founded by three-time champion Lee Petty.

Blackburn came close to winning the 1961 Dixie 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in relief of driver Junior Johnson. He took Johnson’s car to the lead with five laps to go after race leader Fireball Roberts ran out of gas. However, Blackburn also ran out of gas on the final lap, giving the win to David Pearson.

Blackburn retired from driving after suffering an accident in a race during the 1970 season.

Crawford is a former NASCAR driver from Fayetteville who competed in six NASCAR events during his NASCAR Grand National career, earning one top-10 finish.

Crawford’s debut in NASCAR’s top tier of events came in 1956 at Myrtle Beach. Driving for his own team, he struggled through a tough start to his career. While running 17th, Crawford crashed just thirteen laps after taking the green flag and as a result, finished in the final 20^th-place position in the race.

Crawford attempted a run on the road course at Watkins Glen, New York. He started and completed all but ten laps to earn a solid 12th place finish. His next start came in 1958 at Greenville (S.C.) Pickens Speedway where he started 13th. Crawford stayed in the race throughout the entire race and finished 14^th while driving a 1957 Plymouth.

Crawford took a year off and returned to NASCAR in 1960. He made three starts that year, broke an axle that dropped him to 16th at Hillsboro, N.C. on May 29. Crawford’s only top-10 came with an eighth-place finish at Pittsburgh and he ended his driving career with a 12th-place showing at Birmingham, Alabama, on Aug. 3.

Jennings ran six NASCAR races in 1970 for team owner Mack Sellers.

Fayetteville native Bill Joslin also made six starts in NASCAR competition. Then called the Strictly Stock division, Joslin raced at the Charlotte Speedway and drove a 1949 Ford that he owned himself. He most likely drove the car from Fayetteville and entered the race and finished 17^th among the field of 26 cars in the 200-lap event. The race was held on July 23, 1950, and was won by Curtis Turner, the leader of all 200 laps.

Joslin entered his second NASCAR event on Aug. 23, 1950, at Occoneechee Speedway in Hillsboro Speedway. He finished 18^th among 27 cars with Glenn “Fireball” Roberts coming out the winner. Joslin once again wheeled his No. 50 Ford that day. The full finishing order was incomplete as far as mechanical issues or crashes.

Joshlin made four more starts in 1951. His best finish was 11th at Columbia on June 11, his last start as a NASCAR driver.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: NASCAR drivers from NC Fayetteville strictly stock bunkie blackburn