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JANUARY 23

1889
Will Jones... Born ... AAA driver , ran the 1911 Indy 500 and finished 28th.
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1935
Jerry Grant... Born ... USAC Indy car driver from the 1960's & 70's. Raced in 10 Indy 500's with a beat finish of 7th in 1970. Grant was the first USAC driver to break 200 miles per hour. He accomplished the feat in qualifying at the Ontario Motor Speedway on September 3, 1972, completing a 2.5 mile lap in 44.7 seconds. Later in his career, Grant was the racing representative for Champion Spark Plugs followed by Prolong oil conditioner.
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1946
Don Whittington... Born ... Road racing driver who ran also raced in five Indianapolis 500's, with a best finish of sixth. He also made 10 NASCAR Winston Cup starts. In 1987, Don Whittington plead guilty to money laundering charges in association with his brother Bill's 1986 guilty plea to income tax evasion and conspiracy to smuggle marijuana into the United States from Colombia. Don Whittington received an 18 month prison sentence. In addition to Bill and Don Whittington, Randy Lanier and John Paul Sr. and Jr. were part of the IMSA drug smuggling scandal of the 1980s, where a number of drivers financed their racing activities with the proceeds from drug smuggling.
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1954
James McElreath... Born ... USAC Sprint Car driver, son of Jim McElreath.
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1955
Cal Niday won the AAA Midget race at the Gardena Stadium, Gardena, CA .
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1960
Dee Hileman won the 30 lap Midget race at the Oakland Exposition Building, Oakland, CA. ( Click here for the race report. )
Zeke Ingland won the TQ Midget race at the Fairgrounds Coliseum, Columbus, OH. ( Click here for the race report. )
Len Duncan won the TQ Midget race at the Teaneck Armory, Teaneck, NJ. ( Click here for the race report. )
Emil Reutimann won the Modified Stock Car race at the Sunshine Speedway, St. Petersburg, FL. ( Click here for the race report. )
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1965
Dick De Young wins the TQ Midget feature at the indoor Atlantic City Convention Hall. Reds Hallowell wins in Lanco Flatheads and Jim Herr wins the Lanco Open.
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1966
Dan Gurney continued his mastery of Riverside International Raceway, driving a Wood Brothers Ford to his 4th straight win in the NASCAR Grand National "Motor Trend 500". David Pearson finished 2nd in the Cotton Owens Dodge, over a minute behind. Total pit time for the Wood Brothers crew was 1 minute, 51 seconds better than the Owens crew. Paul Goldsmith finished 3rd. Curtis Turner thrilled the 73,331 spectators, leading on three occasions and taking off-course excursions over the rough terrain. Contact while battling Pearson for 2nd sent Turner sailing into a fence, but after pitting to pry a fender from a tire, he was back. Later, Turner backed into a concrete wall. Black flagged twice for leaking fuel, Turner returned after pitwork to finish 4th, only two laps down. Gurney averaged a record 97.95 mph in a race that took 5 hours and 5 minutes.
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1971
Jack Duffy wins the TQ Midget feature at the indoor Atlantic City Convention Hall. ( Click here for the race report. )
Chuck Gurney won the Midget feature at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa, CA. ( Click here for the race report. )
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1972
Richard Petty won a fog shortened NASCAR GN "Western 500" at Riverside International Raceway. The race began in foggy conditions which worsened, forcing the race to be flagged after 149 of a scheduled 191 laps. Just days earlier, STP had signed a multi-year sponsorship of Petty. The trio of A.J. Foyt, Bobby Allison and Petty dominated the race. Foyt was in 2nd when his transmission broke on lap 107 and Allison was slowed late by a faulty valve spring. Allison's Chevy was over a minute behind Petty's Dodge when the red and checkered flags fell. Bobby Isaac, Ray Elder and Hershel McGriff rounded out the top five. Mark Donohue debuted Roger Penske's AMC Matador. The Bown family had a promising day go sour. GNW star Dick qualified 5th only to have the hood fly up on the pace lap!. He returned to finish 13th while young son Chuck, making his GN debut, crashed.
Wayne Shugart won the 40-lap NASCAR Late Model Sportsman race over David Ezell at the Jacksonville Speedway, Jacksonville, FL.
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1983
Dana Carter, driving the Rollie Helmling # 54, won the 100-lap USAC Midget race at the Hara Arena, Dayton, OH.
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1988
Roy Caruthers, driving the Gene Crucean # 1c, won the 100-lap USAC Midget race at the Hoosier Dome, Indianapolis, IN.
Dave McKnight Jr. won the TQ Midget race over Lenny Boyd Jr., at the Niagara Falls Convention Center, Niagara Falls, NY ( Click here for the race report. )
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1996
Cliff Griffith... Died ... AAA and USAC driver from the 1950's & 60's. He drove in four Indy races, '51, '52, '56 and '61 with his best result, a 9th place finish in 1952.
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1999
Mike Bliss, driving the Snider / Foyt Racing # 111, won the 50-lap USAC Silver Crown race at the Walt Disney World Speedway, Orlando, FL.
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2020
Lucas Lee won the 30-lap third night of Florida Speedweeks UMP Modified feature over Devin Dixon and Tyler Nicely at the East Bay Raceway, Gibsonton, FL.
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2021
Buddy Kofoid won the 35-lap 410 feature second night of the Wild Wing Shootout at the Arizona Speedway, San Tan Valley, AZ. Cory Eliason finished second followed by Carson Mecedo, Giovanni Scelzi, Rico Abreu, Dominic Scelzi, Aaron Reutzel, Corey Day, Mitchell Faccinto and Donny Schatz.
Kyle Larson won the 50-lap Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at the All-Tech Raceway, Lake City, FL. Devin Moran was second followed by Mike Marlar, Jimmy Owens, Brandon Sheppard and Tyler Erb.
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