J. D. McDuffie
John Delphus McDuffie Jr. was an American racing driver. He competed in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series from 1963 to 1991, collecting 106 top-10 finishes during his career and holding the record for most starts in NASCAR's top level without a win with 653. He died in a racing accident during the Budweiser at The Glen at Watkins Glen International in 1991.
Career
After attending his first race in Bowman Gray Stadium at the age of ten, McDuffie was inspired by racers Curtis Turner, Glen Wood, Billy Myers, and others to become a race car driver.His racing career started in karting and then dirt track racing. He picked the No. 70 early on because it was easy to paint and easy to remember.
McDuffie won several small races throughout the Carolinas including a track championship at a small dirt track near Rockingham, North Carolina. McDuffie made his NASCAR Grand National debut in 1963 at the Racing Association of Myrtle Beach, Inc. Speedway near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina driving Curtis Turner’s old 1961 Ford. Though McDuffie was an expert dirt track racer, he never had similar success in NASCAR's premiership. His best NASCAR finish came at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway, in 1971, where he managed to finish third. Meanwhile, his first last-place finish came at the 1963 Pickens 200. In 1978, McDuffie won the pole position for the Delaware 500, his only pole position in Winston Cup competition. Normally a low-budget independent, McDuffie entered into a partnership with Donald Magnum and purchased a chassis from Richard Childress Racing. McDuffie in 1982 also made a start in the final race of the season at Riverside in Junior Johnson's second car that was an insurance policy to protect Darrell Waltrip should he have had an incident in practice or qualifying, which he would have relinquished his seat.
In the 1988 Daytona 500 qualifying race, McDuffie received second- and third-degree burns in an accident after he raced without fireproof gloves because they were stolen before the race.
Later in his driving career, McDuffie took Marty Burke, owner of sponsor Classic Trophies, under his wing as a protege to run ARCA Racing Series and Winston Cup races. Unfortunately, the pairing never worked out, as Burke's ARCA debut was tentatively scheduled for late August or early September of 1991.
One day before his fatal accident at Watkins Glen International Speedway, McDuffie won a celebrity race in Owego, New York, at the Shangri-La Speedway, not far from Watkins Glen.
McDuffie is still the record holder for the most starts in NASCAR's top touring series without recording a win. His 653 starts rank him 22nd all-time through the end of 2018. McDuffie held the series record for the most last-place finishes with 32 until Joe Nemechek surpassed him in 2014.
In 2016, Front Row Motorsports and Landon Cassill honored McDuffie with a tribute paint scheme during the throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway complete with sponsors that sponsored McDuffie's racing effort.
Death
McDuffie was involved in an accident on the fifth lap of the 1991 Budweiser at The Glen race at Watkins Glen International. On the straight between the esses and the Loop-Chute, at 170 mph, McDuffie collided with Jimmy Means after suffering a mechanical failure. McDuffie's left front wheel spindle broke off the car, causing him to lose brakes and hit Means in the right front. This left him no way of stopping the car or steering it, and to further complicate matters, there was no gravel trap in the corner that McDuffie was headed toward. As a result, McDuffie skidded across the grass and hit the Armco outside retaining wall and tire barrier with such force that the car shot into the air, rotated, and then came to rest upside-down. Means also crashed into the same corner but was able to slow his vehicle down before the impact; his car went under McDuffie's as it was in mid-air. Means, a fellow independent racer, suffered only minor cuts and bruises in the accident, and got out of his car to check on McDuffie. After peering into McDuffie's car, Means began frantically signaling for assistance, later saying, "It was so bad that I just had to close my eyes." A host of medical personnel and track workers rushed to the scene. The race was delayed for one hour and forty-eight minutes as McDuffie was removed from his car and his Pontiac was removed from the infield. Also, the wall that McDuffie and Means struck had to be repaired. As the cars got back on the track and cruised under yellow flag conditions, the media attention turned to Chip Williams, NASCAR's PR director, who disclosed that McDuffie had died instantly from head and brain injuries. The direct cause of death was a basilar skull fracture caused by rapid head movement to the right. Williams, in the live interview where McDuffie's death was confirmed, erroneously reported that McDuffie was 53; he would not have been 53 until December 5 of that year. NASCAR also erroneously reported that McDuffie was 53.McDuffie's death led to changes at Watkins Glen and also influenced motorsport safety changes that would come to full fruition at the end of the decade. Six weeks earlier, Camel GT prototype driver Tommy Kendall had a hard crash in the same section during the Camel Continental VIII, when a wheel failed on his Pratt & Miller Intrepid RM-1-Chevrolet prototype, sliding into the barrier, breaking both his legs and sidelining him for the rest of the 1991 season, including the Winston Cup race, where he was set to substitute for Kyle Petty, injured at Talladega in May. The track was then given a bus stop chicane placed slightly before the entrance of turn five, the section of track in question, and a gravel trap, for the 1992 season.
Also, at the time, basilar skull fractures were the subject of developing research by Jim Downing and Bob Hubbard into a head and neck restraint for motorsport. Downing, a champion sports car racer, and his brother-in-law Hubbard, were in the process of developing the HANS device, which had just begun production. McDuffie's death was among the catalysts that led to increased funding by the automakers to continue research into basilar skull fractures as part of motorsport safety improvements, as adoption by sports car drivers of HANS had increased. By the end of the decade, following two CART fatalities in one season and three NASCAR fatalities in a span of five months, and then the start of the next decade with two more fatalities, and research into the head and neck restraints that had quickly been adopted, most motorsport sanctioning bodies mandated head and neck restraints worldwide.
McDuffie's widow, Ima Jean, unsuccessfully sued Watkins Glen for $4.25 million, claiming the barrier McDuffie hit was unsafe. The judge in that case ruled that McDuffie was familiar enough with the track to be aware of the dangers and that mechanical failure caused the accident. The cause of the mechanical failure was never explained as NASCAR did a very brief investigation and the wheel that broke off disappeared before it could be returned to the McDuffie family. After McDuffie, Dale Earnhardt, Sr., and Kenny Irwin, Jr. died, and research into the head and neck restraints that had quickly been adopted, most motorsport sanctioning bodies worldwide, mandated head and neck restraints. Today, NASCAR requires all drivers to wear this special HANS device.
McDuffie is buried at Buffalo Cemetery, Sanford, North Carolina.