Today in History (cont'd)

• March 31 -- 1998: Two-time champion Tim Flock dies at age 73. Flock won 39 times in 187 starts in 13 years (1949-61). His championships came in 1952 and 1955. In '55, he won 18 of 39 races and finished in the top five 33 times. He also won 18 poles that season.

• March 30 -- 1964: Marvin Panch starts from the pole and leads all 200 laps at quarter-mile Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. The only other driver on the lead lap, Ned Jarrett, finishes a distant second. Richard Petty is third a lap back in the field of 16.

• March 29 -- 1959: Driving a '57 Oldsmobile, Richard Petty finishes third in a 200-lap race on the half-mile dirt track of Wilson (N.C.) Speedway for his first top-five finish in NASCAR. It comes in his 12th race. He will finish his 35-year career with 555 top-five finishes in 1,184 starts.

• March 28 -- 1971: David Pearson wins the Southeastern 500 at Bristol for his 30th and final victory driving for Holman-Moody. Pearson wins two of his three championships with Holman-Moody, in 1968 and 1969. His first championship, in 1966, is with Cotton Owens.

• March 27 -- 1939: Happy 70th birthday, Cale Yarborough. One of NASCAR's all-time greats, Yarborough finishes his 31-year career in 1988 with 83 Cup wins and three championships.

• March 26 -- 2000: Rusty Wallace wins the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway for his 50th Cup victory. Johnny Benson finishes second, 2.622 seconds back, and Ward Burton is third.

• March 25 -- 1989: Jimmy Spencer wins the Mountain Dew 400 at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway for his first victory in the Nationwide Series. He leads 78 of 200 laps on the .363-mile track and wins under caution with Tommy Ellis second and Rob Moroso third.

• March 24 -- 2002: Mark Martin makes his 500th Cup start and finishes 11th in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. It's also a landmark day for Kurt Busch, who wins his first race in the Cup Series.

• March 23 -- 1997: Dale Jarrett wins the TranSouth Financial 400 Cup race at Darlington from the pole, beating Ted Musgrave to the line by .169 seconds. No driver has won a Cup race from the pole at Darlington since.

• March 22 -- 1959: Johnny Beauchamp, who came out on the losing end of the famous photo finish with Lee Petty in the inaugural Daytona 500, comes back a month later to win his first NASCAR race, a 100-lap event on the one-mile dirt track of Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta. No photo finish this time, Beauchamp leads every lap and wins by one lap on Buck Baker. Twenty-one cars start the race; nine are running at the finish.

• March 21 -- 1920: Fonty Flock, one of NASCAR's early stars, is born. Flock wins 19 of 153 races from 1949, NASCAR's first season, to 1957. His best season is 1951. Competing in 34 of 41 races, Flock wins eight times, finishes in the top five 20 times and wins 13 poles. He finishes second in the point standings to Herb Thomas.

• March 20 -- 1999: At Homestead-Miami Speedway, Mike Wallace wins the Florida Dodge Dealers 400k, the opening race of the Camping World Truck Series season. It is the latest the series has started in its 15 seasons. Mike Stefanik finishes second by .461 seconds.

• March 19 -- 1989: Darrell Waltrip wins his 75th Cup Series race, beating Dale Earnhardt by .65 seconds in the Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 at Atlanta. Dick Trickle finishes third, the only other car on the lead lap.

• March 18 -- 1984: Benny Parsons wins the Coca-Cola 500 at Atlanta for his 21st and final Cup Series victory. Parsons beats Dale Earnhardt to the line by .9 seconds. Cale Yarborough finishes third, the only other car on the lead lap.

• March 17 -- 1968: The No. 17, first used by Sara Christian in 1949 in NASCAR's second race, makes its first trip to Victory Lane when David Pearson wins the Southeastern 500 at Bristol in the number's 272nd race. It won't take that long for the 17 to win again. It happens the next week on the dirt of the Virginia State Fairgrounds in Richmond.

• March 16 -- 1980: Rusty Wallace finishes second in his first Cup Series race, the Atlanta 500. Dale Earnhardt gets the win by 9.55 seconds. Bobby Allison is third.

• March 15 -- 1987: Jack Ingram wins his 31st and final Nationwide Series race, winning the Mountain Dew 400 at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway by two car lengths in front of Mike Alexander.

• March 14 -- 1927: Bill Rexford, winner of the 1950 Cup Series championship, is born on this day. Rexford is 23 when he wins the championship and remains NASCAR's youngest champ. Rexford wins one race in 1950, the only race he wins in his 36-race career. He races twice in 1953 at 26 and retires from NASCAR.

• March 13 -- 1988: Jeff Burton, 20, makes his first NASCAR start, finishing last in the 200-lap Miller Classic Nationwide Series race at Martinsville. Twenty-eight cars start the race, and Burton's engine fails after two laps.

• March 12 -- 1972: Bobby Isaac wins the Carolina 500 at Rockingham for his 37th and final Cup Series victory. He leads 210 of 492 laps and finishes more than a lap ahead of Richard Petty. Jim Vandiver is third, also on the 491st lap. The fourth- and fifth-place drivers, LeeRoy Yarbrough and Dave Marcis, complete 477 laps.

• March 11 -- 1979: It's a two-man race, and Cale Yarborough emerges the winner of the Richmond 400. Yarborough leads 181 laps and second-place Bobby Allison the other 219. They are the only two to finish on the lead lap. Allison leads the first 156 laps, Yarborough the next five and Allison the next 63 before Yarborough grabs the lead for the final 176 laps.

• March 10 -- 1959: Happy 50th birthday, Mike Wallace. Mike, younger brother of 1989 Cup champion Rusty Wallace and older brother of Kenny Wallace, has eight NASCAR wins, four in the Nationwide Series and four in the Truck Series. He is winless in 188 Cup starts.

• March 9 -- 1969: David Pearson wins the final race at Rockingham before it is reconfigured from a flat 1-mile oval to a high-banked, D-shaped 1.017 track. Pearson's other four wins at Rockingham come on the reconfigured track.

• March 8 -- 1953: Herb Thomas wins the only Cup race run at Harnett Speedway in Spring Lake, N.C., leading all 200 laps on the half-mile dirt track. Dick Rathmann finishes second three laps back, and Lee Petty is third.

• March 7 -- 1999: The Burton brothers, Jeff and Ward, finish 1-2 in the Las Vegas 400, the first of three times they finish 1-2 in the 1999 Cup season. In 372 common Cup races, those are the only times they finish 1-2 and Jeff wins all three.

• March 6 -- 1956: Marshall Teague starts from the pole and leads all 200 laps on the half-mile dirt track of Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Fla. Defending champ Herb Thomas finishes second and Frankie Schneider third.

• March 5 -- 1983: Davey Allison finishes 25th in his first NASCAR start, the Coca-Cola 200 Nationwide Series race at Rockingham. Dale Earnhardt picks up the win with Davey's father, Bobby, second.

• March 4 -- 2001: In his 318th NASCAR start, Ted Musgrave, 45, picks up his first win, beating Travis Kvapil by 10.588 seconds in the Florida Dodge Dealers 400 Truck race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. To that point, Musgrave had been winless in 298 Cup, 15 Nationwide and four Truck starts.

• March 3 -- 1996: In his 96th Cup start, Jeff Gordon wins his 10th race, finishing .56 seconds ahead of Dale Jarrett in the Pontiac Excitement 400 at Richmond.

• March 2 -- 1997: Rusty Wallace wins the Pontiac Excitement 400 at Richmond in what turns out to be his only win of the Cup season. The victory gives Wallace wins in 12 consecutive seasons; he would run the streak to 16 before it ends in 2002.

• March 1 -- 1986: Dale Earnhardt becomes the first driver to win the first two races of a Nationwide season with his victory at Rockingham. His victory a week earlier at Daytona is his second of seven Nationwide Series wins at Daytona. (Continued)