The REAL story of the Cotton Owens/Buddy Baker 1969 Dodge Charger

[therealmoparman]

There seems to be a lot of confusion over the 1969 Dodge Daytona built by Cotton Owens. The confusion comes from you folks who are actually the ones who are "slowly rewriting the history of this car." Allow me to clarify this once and for all.

Who am I? I am Cotton's grandson. I know the history of this car because I heard it directly from the horse's mouth. You can find a picture of me sitting in this car on the cottonowens.com website.

Firstly, this car was indeed the Southern 500 winner. The car later raced at Charlotte, where it was wrecked. The car was rebuilt by Cotton and made into a show car. It was later parked at the Darlington museum, where it remained for almost 40 years. It was then retrieved by Cotton, and I listed the car for him on ebay, where it sold for $801k. Of course they did not race it with carpets! Lots of modifications were made to make it a car suitable for the show circuit and the museum.

Secondly, this same car was the first car to exceed 200mph in a NASCAR sanctioned race - at Talladega. However, for it to be an "official" record, it has to be done with timing equipment, run both directions, etc. Therefore, Chrysler engineers built the #88 car and set out to "officially" claim the 200mph record for the recordbooks. This is all well documented on the cottonowens.com website. They used Buddy Baker as the driver because he was Cotton's driver and therefore a "factory" driver. Chrysler promoted the 200mph record with the #6 car, because it was an actual race car, and indeed because it did break the 200mph barrier. This is also well documented by Chrysler and you can even find an ad from that era on the website - http://cottonowens.com/photos3.html

Anyone suggesting anything to the contrary is simply incorrect and spreading half-truths. This is the real story. Period. Enough already! All you have to do is visit the website.

[Aero426]

Firstly, this car was indeed the Southern 500 winner. The car later raced at Charlotte, where it was wrecked. The car was rebuilt by Cotton and made into a show car. It was later parked at the Darlington museum, where it remained for almost 40 years. It was then retrieved by Cotton, and I listed the car for him on ebay, where it sold for $801k. Of course they did not race it with carpets! Lots of modifications were made to make it a car suitable for the show circuit and the museum.

It has been stated that the car for sale raced in the 1970 Daytona 500.    Is this true?

At the fall Charlotte race in 1970, the car had repeated tire trouble.  They lept losing the beads and the air went out and the car eventually got into the wall.  Recent for sale listings say the car sustained "only light sheet metal damage" in the Charlotte crash.    The published reports would support this.   Do you agree?

[therealmoparman]

Here is the race history of the car:

http://www.canepacollection.com/detail-1969-dodge-charger-daytona-5111490.html

Race History
Cotton Owens Dodge Charger Daytona driven by Buddy Baker
Daytona, qualified 2nd, — DNF
Rockingham — DNF
Atlanta — DNF
Alabama 500, led for 101 laps, first race lap at over 200 MPH — DNF
Firecracker 400 — 2nd
Atlanta — 4th
Michigan — 5th
Darlington Southern 500 — 1st
Charlotte — DNF

[BigBlockSam]

 

[RD]

is that the car in question?  i thought the car in question was the one in mecum's auction?

[Ghoste]

No, that one was a poorly done clone of Bobby Allisons car.

[Mike DC]

   
There's something I've always wondered about that car.  Why would Cotton send a perfectly current and race-able Daytona to the show circuit? 

There was so much customized work that went into a real GN car by 1970, it just seems unnecessary.  It justs seems like Cotton could have done a quick n' dirty job on another car for so much less work.  I'm sure the show promoters would never have known or cared the difference if he had just sent them something similar to a real current GN car.  (Reskin an obsolete mid-60s chassis to look like a current daytona charger, or slap a rollcage and lowered suspension onto a street unibody, etc.) 



I'm not trying to challenge the stories about the car.  I don't know enough to have an opinion about that.  My question in this post would apply the same whether it was actually a real NASCAR or not.

       

[hemigeno]

I'm locking this thread - not because of the subject matter, but because it makes more sense to contain the discussion in one thread (and the Buddy Bakers Daytona thread seems to be the best place).