Baxter Price (born November 29, 1938) is an American racing driver from

Monroe Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

who competed in the

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

Winston Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and fro ...

. He made 90 Winston Cup starts from

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

, never recording a top ten.

Racing career

Price ran nearly the full

NASCAR Grand National East Series The NASCAR Grand National East Series was a short-lived racing series created by NASCAR in 1972 to provide a second-tier series, below the Winston Cup Series, to provide races at tracks that had been removed from the former Grand National Series ...

schedule in 1972, recording eleven top tens and finishing fourth in points. Coupled with a partial schedule in that series, Price ran his first

Winston Cup The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...

race in 1973, and fell victim to an early crash at

Richmond International Raceway Richmond Raceway (RR) is a , ''D''-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in unincorporated Henrico County. It currently hosts one NASCAR Cup Series race weekend and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. It formerly h ...

. The ensuing pileup with

Darrell Waltrip Darrell Lee Waltrip (born February 5, 1947) is an American motorsports Color analyst, analyst, author as well as a former national television broadcaster and stock car driver. He raced from 1972 to 2000 in the NASCAR Cup Series (known as the NAS ...

left Price with severe burns. He ran with limited success the next two years of his career, then hit double digits in the start category in 1976. Price attempted 26 of the 30 races in 1978, and finished 23rd in points even though he never hit the top ten. One race, he subbed for

Dale Earnhardt Ralph Dale Earnhardt (; April 29, 1951February 18, 2001) was an American professional Stock car racing, stock car driver and racing team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Serie ...

. He found backing from Iron Peddlers in 1979 and continued to run races by the Eastern seaboard, near his hometown. Price scaled back his schedule in 1980, still with sponsors, but NASCAR had downsized its wheelbases, mandating new cars. The final year of his career was in 1981, failing to qualify for the

Daytona 500 The Daytona 500 is a NASCAR Cup Series motor race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is the first of two Cup races held every year at Daytona, the second being the Coke Zero Sugar 400, and one of three ...

, retiring with mechanical issues at Richmond and running the final race of his career for

Jimmy Means James Means (born May 29, 1950) is an American former racing driver and owner, who competed in the Winston Cup Series as an owner-driver. He is currently an adviser for Front Row Motorsports and a former owner of NASCAR Xfinity Series team Jim ...

and his Means Racing team, starting and parking at

Texas World Speedway Texas World Speedway (TWS) was a motorsport venue located in College Station, Texas. The track was one of only eight superspeedways of or greater in the United States used for racing, the others being Indianapolis, Daytona, Pocono, Talladega ...

. Price has the dubious distinction of being the driver with the most NASCAR cup starts to have never recorded a top-ten finish. His 90 starts is seven more than

Rick Newsom Rick Newsom (March 19, 1950 – August 16, 1988), was an American NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Winston Cup driver from Fort Mill, South Carolina. Newsom competed in 82 Winston Cup races from 1972 to 1986. He was killed in a private plane cras ...

's 83. His best finish was eleventh in the 1978 running of the

Virginia 500 The Cook Out 400 is an annual NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at the Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia. It is the first of two Cup Series races at the track, the other one being the Xfinity 500 in the NASCAR playoffs. The race ...

(now Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500) at

Martinsville Speedway Martinsville Speedway is a oval Oval track racing#Short track, short track in Ridgeway, Virginia, United States, a community of Martinsville, Virginia. The track has held a variety of events since its opening in 1947, primarily events sanctione ...

. It has since been surpassed by

Cole Whitt Cole Daniel Whitt (born June 22, 1991) is an American former professional stock car racing driver. After advancing his way through Kart racing, Whitt moved up to sprint cars and became a development driver for Team Red Bull (NASCAR team), Team Red ...

after the 2016 STP 500 at the same track Price achieved his best finish.

References

External links

* * 1938 births NASCAR drivers NASCAR team owners Living people Sportspeople from Monroe, North Carolina Racing drivers from North Carolina {{NASCAR-bio-stub