1974 NASCAR Winston Cup Series

The 1974 NASCAR Winston Cup Season began on Sunday January 20 and ended on Sunday November 24. The first 15 races were shortened 10 percent due to the 1973 oil crisis. Richard Petty was Winston Cup champion at the end of the season finishing 567.45 points ahead of Cale Yarborough. Earl Ross was named NASCAR Rookie of the Year.

Carolina 500
Cale Yarborough led most of the first half but his handling went away and Richard Petty dominated the second half en route to the win.

Atlanta 500
NASCAR mandated smaller carburators for big-block engines. David Pearson led the most laps in a small block but had to pit late for fuel, giving Cale Yarborough the win.

Gwyn Staley Memorial
Richard Petty debuted a hand-built small-block Chrysler engine and won going away.

Winston 500
The lead changed 52 times among 14 drivers as David Pearson edged Benny Parsons. During pitstops at Lap 105 crewman Don Miller lost a leg when he was hit by the spinning car of rookie Grant Adcox.

Music City 420
Neil Bonnett's first Winston Cup start.

World 600
David Pearson edged Richard Petty as the lead changed 37 times, the most for the race to that point of its history.

Motor State 400
This was the last race of the season shortened by NASCAR due to the energy crunch. The lead changed 50 times among eight drivers, a new record for the track to that point. Petty edged rookie Earl Ross after Pearson pitted under a late yellow for tires and the green never flew again.

Firecracker 400
Pearson pulled an audacious fake as he slammed his brakes to put Petty into the lead on the final lap, then drafted past at the stripe. Some ten seconds behind them Cale Yarborough and Buddy Baker hit the stripe nose to nose for an official tie for third. Bobby Allison led 50 laps but broke an intake valve late in the race and finished fifth. The lead changed 45 times, a race record that stood until 2010.

Northern 300/Purolator 500
Originally published in NASCAR's schedule, the annual 300-miler at Trenton Speedway was cancelled and replaced by Pocono's Purolator 500. Richard Petty won the race.

Talladega 500
25 of the event's 50 entries were found sabotaged in the garage area on race morning. NASCAR institutes several competition cautions to allow teams to find previously-undetected sabotage. Petty sideswiped past Pearson at the stripe.

Southern 500
Cale Yarborough took his third win in the race after melees eliminated half the field; Richard Petty, Bobby Allison and Buddy Baker were notable crash victims, and rookie Richie Panch was singled out for criticism after being involved in three wrecks. Sophomore Darrell Waltrip took second. NASCAR's 1974 point system, which took purse winnings multiplied by number of starts divided by 1,000, came under fire when Petty wrecked early yet outpointed every car that finished ahead of him except race-winner Yarborough.

Old Dominion 500
Earl Ross pulled off the upset win, the first for a rookie since 1965 and first for a Canadian driver ever. The win came after teammate Cale Yarborough crashed.

National 500
David Pearson made up a lap lost in the first 100 laps of the race and edged Richard Petty, who erased a two-lap deficit despite a pit fire three-quarters into the race; it was the fifth time in the season Pearson and Petty finished together in the top two and Pearson's fourth win in that rivalry. The race was chaotic as a ten-car melee erupted on the third lap and a vicious two-car crash in Turn Four eliminated Grant Adcox and Ramo Stott. The lead changed 47 times, a track record that lasted five years, among 11 drivers; it was the sixth race of the season to break 40 official lead changes.

Los Angeles Times 500
Originally left off of NASCAR's schedule, the race was added late in the season. Richard Petty led the most laps but fell out late and finished 15th. Bobby Allison took the win in Roger Penske's AMC Matador but was fined $9,100 for unapproved valve lifters in postrace inspection.