Browse > Home / NASCAR, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio / NASCAR History: Car Number 40 and Pete Hamilton

NASCAR History: Car Number 40 and Pete Hamilton

User Avatar

by JamesJ, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2011 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

Sundays of my youth consisted of NASCAR racing and cold bottles of Mountain Dew. Thirty years later not much has changed for me. However, nearly everything has changed in NASCAR.

January 5, 2010 10:13 am EST 2 Comments

Over the next several weeks we’ll be featuring car numbers in NASCAR history. We started with #50 and are working our way down the line. With each car number we’ll take a brief look at a couple stats related to the featured car number, but we’ll primarily spotlight either a driver, sponsor, car owner, manufacturer or other significant subject closely tied to the car number of the day.

NASCAR driver Pete Hamilton car number 40I had some plans for today’s post on the the car numbers in NASCAR history. In an earlier post of this series I mentioned my uncle’s role in introducing me to NASCAR racing. What I didn’t mention is that he also influenced me with a car that he owned. The car was a 1970 Plymouth Road Runner SuperBird done up in Richard Petty blue, complete with #43 and related decals. Unfortunately, I don’t have any images of that car. I know some images exist of me as a child beside the car, and one of my favorites, sitting on the wing. Unfortunately, for the time being I’ll just have to go with what I’ve got as I spotlight #40 and Pete Hamilton’s Plymouth SuperBird.

Stats for all cars running the #40:

NASCAR Driver Pete Hamilton

  • Number of Races: 862
  • Number of Wins: 9
  • Number of Top 5s: 45
  • Number of Top 10s: 141
  • Number of Poles: 4

Check out current NASCAR race statistics here at On Pit Row!

 

Spotlight: Driver Pete Hamilton & the SuperBird

Pete Hamilton only had 15 starts in the #40 for Richard Petty, but he certainly made the most of his time behind the wheel. In those starts he led a total of 338 laps, collected 3 wins, 9 top fives and 11 top tens. As a matter of fact, the four times that he didn’t finish in the top ten were due to mechanical issues or accidents. All three of Pete’s wins came at the fast tracks of Daytona or Talladega. The Daytona win came at the 1970 Daytona 500 which he followed up three weeks later with the first win at Talladega. I say “first win at Talladega” because Pete would go on to become the first driver to win both Talladega races in the same year. An accomplishment that would not be duplicated until none other than Dale Earnhardt did it in 1999! Pete won nearly $95,000 in 1970 for those three wins alone (which was the majority of his total of $131,406 for his sixteen Cup series starts in 1970).

Pete Hamilton and Petty Enterprises #40 SuperBirdIf you don’t like the Car of Tomorrow’s wing, then you likely will hate the SuperBird’s wing! :D The Plymouth SuperBird in which he drove to victory was a Petty Enterprises car. The SuperBirds (along with the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona) were Chrysler’s entries into the “Aero Wars” between the car manufacturers in NASCAR mostly during the 1969 and 1970 seasons. These two cars had one purpose in their creation, to dominate stock car racing. An excellent site featuring these cars is AeroWarriors.com where they summed up these “Aero Warriors” presence in NASCAR pretty good. “The Dodge Daytona and Plymouth SuperBird demonstrated the extremes to which the factories would go to earn victories on the nation’s race tracks. The winged Aero Warriors graced the nation’s speedways from September, 1969 until September, 1972, when major sanctioning body rule changes ended their reign. Their legacy is one of success, having won over 45 percent of the NASCAR races they competed in, as well as scoring a total of eleven victories in ARCA and USAC.” The site has many articles on the history, statistics, and clubs for Chrysler’s “Aero Warriors.” There’s also a “Best and Worst” list related to the cars, such as the “Best Moment For a Winged Car: When Buddy Baker officially broke the 200 MPH barrier for a stock car.”

Cartoon character MutleyI really wish I could have gotten in touch with my uncle for the history and details on the SuperBird that he owned. I’ll keep trying and if I can I’ll update the post with the personal photos. I had a blast riding around Ocala, FL in that car. The windows down, a cold glass bottle of Mt. Dew and the occasional stinging of my upper lip after my uncle would blip the throttle right as I was pursing my lips to the bottle for a drink. I’d then look over to see my uncle’s eyes squinted shut as he let out his Mutley-like wheezy laugh and say something like, “Ohhhh, looks like that hurt, Shrimp!” [Yeah, he called me "Shrimp" all the time.]

Filed under: Daytona 500, James Jones, NASCAR, NASCAR History, Talladega Superspeedway 

Tagged with: , , , , ,

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

Comments

2 Responses to “NASCAR History: Car Number 40 and Pete Hamilton”

  1. Darrell on January 8th, 2010 9:14 am

    Pete’s Daytona win over David Pearson was one of the best Daytona 500’s ever. I don’t think folks remember how exciting it was. Several lead changes all day and those winged cars were beautiful going around the track. This was before the Winston Towers were built and we were in the Campbell Grandstand. All you could see of the back stretch were those wings. A late caution happened and Pearson took 2 tires and Pete took 4. Pearson couldn’t keep his car on the bottom of the track and Pete just ate him up. It was a great race! I miss some of the characters of the day and appreciate you taking a lot of us down memory lane!

  2. User Avatar Charlie Turner on January 10th, 2010 11:58 am

    Darrell - that was a great race.

    James, the thing about the COT is that the manufacturers can’t try wild stuff like those high wings anymore. That’s what I miss. But in these days of whining about a 5 hp edge in one make’s engine, can you imagine what it would sound like if one of them found a REAL edge?

    I’d like to see that pic of you sitting on the wing of that Superbird someday.

Got something to say?

Did you know you can log in with your Thunder Lounge account, and have your personal avatar and site link available when you comment at On Pit Row?

Don't have an account yet? Sign-up for free.





Powered by WP Hashcash

March Madness

Play the Rattles from the Catch Can contest

Blogroll

Fantasy Sports Partners

Racing Websites

ON PIT ROW at RaceTalkRadio
Backstretch Boys: 30% Off New CD!
Jayski's: See what the buzz is about.

We've got your game.

Advertisement