Since 1972, only two races held on Easter weekend
Both memorable for big names involved and not involved
http://www.nascar.com/2010/news/opinion/03/30/retro.racing.maumann.easter/index.html
Since the advent of the modern era schedule in 1972, NASCAR officials have taken great pains to avoid scheduling a Cup race on Easter weekend. But on two occasions, weather postponements forced NASCAR to change its plans, and in both instances, a seven-time champion was a major part of the storyline.
There were several instances of races taking place on Easter weekend before the Cup schedule was reduced to eliminate dirt tracks and those shorter than a half-mile in length following the 1971 campaign. The first of Buck Baker's 46 Cup victories came on Holy Saturday in 1952 at Columbia, S.C.
One year later, Dick Passwater scored his only Cup victory on Easter Sunday before a crowd of 8,500 at the old Charlotte Speedway. That also was the first time Tim Flock carried a Rhesus monkey nicknamed Jocko Flocko inside his car. That experiment came to an abrupt end eight races later when Jocko literally went ape inside the car at Raleigh, scratching and clawing at Flock before he managed to pull into the pits and have the crew pull Jocko off his neck.
The Thomas brothers -- Herb and Donald -- finished 1-2 in an Easter Sunday event at Hillsboro in 1954. The only Good Friday race in NASCAR's history books was run three years later at Charlotte's Southern States Fairgrounds, with Fireball Roberts taking the checkered flag.
In 1959 and '60, Wilson's fairgrounds track hosted a pair of Easter Sunday races, with Junior Johnson and Joe Weatherly winning. The following year, Emanuel Zervakis won at Greenville on Holy Saturday and Cotton Owens followed with an Easter Sunday victory at Hillsboro.
During the '60s, Greenville hosted a number of races on Easter weekend, usually on Saturdays with a companion race being run on the Monday after Easter. In 1965, Dick Hutcherson won at Greenville and Junior Johnson followed two days later with a victory at North Wilkesboro.
In 1966, David Pearson completed the Easter weekend sweep, winning at Greenville on Saturday and Winston-Salem on Monday. Pearson successfully defended his Greenville victory in '67, but Bobby Allison captured the flag at Winston-Salem that season.
In 1969, Bobby Isaac led the entire 250-lap distance at Hickory to win on Easter Sunday, with Dave Marcis scoring his first career top-five finish. One year later, Bobby Allison took the checkered first at Atlanta. And in '71, ABC's Wide World of Sports first showed a NASCAR event live in its entirety when it broadcast Isaac's win in a 200-lapper at Greenville on Holy Saturday.
NASCAR didn't race on Easter weekend again until 1985, when a rainout forced the Bristol race to be rescheduled for the day before Easter. Despite losing the power steering in his Chevrolet within the first 100 laps, Dale Earnhardt literally muscled his car past Ricky Rudd with 17 laps remaining to win.
After leading at least one lap in every Bristol race during a 10-race period, Darrell Waltrip's amazing streak was snapped that day, mainly because he and Bill Elliott were collected in an early race incident involving Terry Labonte and Lake Speed. Waltrip then retired with engine problems.
Weather also played a factor in the most recent Cup race run on Easter Sunday. In 1989, snow forced Richmond to reschedule, and a crowd estimated by The Associated Press at 50,000 turned out under sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s to see a race that didn't include Richard Petty.
Petty failed to qualify, snapping his Cup starting streak at 513 races. Because of that, NASCAR's rules for provisional starting spots later would be amended to include one for past champions.
Rusty Wallace wound up edging Alan Kulwicki for the win, taking advantage of a late-race caution to beat Kulwicki out of the pits and then maintain the lead for the final 20 laps following the restart.
"If it wasn't for that caution flag, he would have won the race," Wallace said. "There's no question about that."
But Wallace's win didn't come easily. He had to pit twice under green because of vibrations caused by loose lug nuts, and somehow was able to remain on the lead lap.
"We finally figured out it was a malfunction of the air gun and not the tires," Wallace said. "We kept going back out with loose lug nuts because the gun would only tighten the nuts about half of what they were supposed to be."
Kulwicki had his share of problems as well, spinning out after blowing a tire near the midway point, then being assessed with a pair of pit-road penalties for missing the stop sign at the end of pit road. Still, victory was within his grasp until Dick Trickle blew an engine late in the going.
"You're in a situation where you know your tires are better after they wear in a little, but you can't afford not to change them when you have the chance," Kulwicki said. ''It looked like we had the race won and then all those cautions came out. I used to be happy with second, but we had this race won. This time, to finish second is a little frustrating for us."
