Inaugural Talladega runner-up Jim Vandiver remembered - NBCSports.com
Former NASCAR driver Jim Vandiver is being remembered after passing away Thursday in Charlotte, N. C. Vandiver, of suburban Huntersville, died Thursday in a local hospital, where he had been since Monday after complaining of chest pains. Vandiver raced part-time on the NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup circuits from 1968 through 1983. In 85 career starts, he had 19 top 10 finishes, including five top-five showings. Several of NASCAR’s top drivers elected to bypass that race out of safety concerns that tires on the race cars could not sustain speeds closing on 200 mph, according to a story Friday by veteran motorsports writer Tom Higgins in the Charlotte... But Vandiver and a number of replacement drivers agreed to compete and the race went on as scheduled, with Vandiver, in a Dodge owned by legendary Raymond Fox, finishing second to race winner Richard Brickhouse. Brickhouse took the lead with 10 laps to go and rolled to a seven-second advantage at the checkered flag, something that Vandiver never accepted, believing there was a scoring error due to the number of cautions in that race. “I won that race,” Vandiver said, according to Higgins’ story. “If Jim was alive right now, he’d insist he won that Talladega race,” Tommy Vandiver told Higgins. Source: nascartalk.nbcsports.com
