By Anthony W. Hager, December 2009

• Introduction
• Dale Earnhardt’s helping hand
• As NASCAR changed
• The crash at Turn 5
• Sanford’s hometown hero
• Download the full article as a

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A stock car race in Winston-Salem in 1949 is far removed from the bright lights of the modern NASCAR circuit. Doesn’t it follow that a driving career launched at that race would be just as different from today’s celebrity drivers?

A 10-year-old John Delphus McDuffie attended that event with his Uncle Reuben and his brother Glenn. They watched the iconic legends of racing’s by-gone era compete for supremacy: Curtis Turner, Glenn Wood and Billy Myers. Glenn McDuffie remembers Myers winning the race, but J.D. wasn’t there to see it. He had become sick from the exhaust fumes and was long gone when the checkered flag waved.

Nausea notwithstanding, the experience had lit a fuse within the boy from North Carolina’s sandhills. Beginning that night, J.D. McDuffie knew what he wanted to do with his life. When he attained the age and the means, he and his father-in-law built a racecar from junkyard parts, and he began racing on the local dirt tracks. He won races at small speedways throughout the eastern portions of both Carolinas, eventually winning the 1962 championship at a small dirt track near Rockingham, N.C. His success spawned a desire to hunt the big game: NASCAR’s Grand National circuit.

McDuffie took his first crack at the big time on July 7, 1963, at Rambi Raceway in Myrtle Beach, S.C. His racecar was a 1961 Ford, which once belonged to Curtis Turner, with a refurbished roll cage and a big “X” painted on the door. Ned Jarrett won the race. J.D. started 14th and finished an uneventful 12th, earning the handsome total of $120 for his efforts. However, that event launched a career that saw J.D. McDuffie start 653 Grand National and Winston Cup races over a 27-year span.

J.D.’s successes on the dusty local tracks never materialized on NASCAR’s top circuit. His best career finish was a third place run at Albany-Sarasota Speedway in upstate New York in July of 1971, a race won by Richard Petty.

Yet, the fact that McDuffie never visited victory lane in a Winston Cup car doesn’t mean he enjoyed no success in racing. J.D twice finished in the top 10 in driver points and won the pole for the 1978 Delaware 500, which earned him a spot in the inaugural Busch Clash at Daytona the following February. His best overall showing was the 1979 Music City 420 in Nashville. A ninth place qualifying effort turned into a fifth place finish during which he led 111 laps, the most of any single race in his career. But, and perhaps fittingly, his performance was a mere afterthought in the media.

That was typical for the dinosaur known as the independent driver, for whom McDuffie could’ve been poster boy. Seldom did such men attract the wealthy sponsors or the fame and notoriety that racing held. But the lack of media attention was no indicator of the owner-driver’s talent, knowledge and determination. J.D. possessed all three qualities, and they brought opportunities to drive better and faster equipment for other car owners.

One of those offers eventually carried Benny Parsons to the 1973 Winston Cup championship. According to Glenn McDuffie, J.D. had twice declined the driver’s seat. When Glenn asked his brother why he didn’t take the ride, J.D. responded simply, “I don’t want anybody telling me what to do.”

Such a reply was indicative of J.D.’s dogged resolve, and his determined attitude brought him respect in the garage area.