Dick Brooks
| Dick Brooks | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | Richard Brooks April 14, 1942 Porterville, California |
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| Died | February 1, 2006 (aged 63) | ||||||
| Cause of death | Pneumonia | ||||||
| Awards | 1969 Rookie of the Year | ||||||
| Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career | |||||||
| 358 races run over 17 years | |||||||
| Best finish | 6th (1977) | ||||||
| First race | 1969 Daytona 500 qualifier No. 1 (Daytona) | ||||||
| Last race | 1985 Coca-Cola World 600 (Charlotte) | ||||||
| First win | 1973 Talladega 500 (Talladega) | ||||||
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Richard "Dick" Brooks (April 14, 1942 – February 1, 2006) was an American NASCAR driver. Born in Porterville, California, he was the 1969 NASCAR Rookie of the Year, and went on to win the 1973 Talladega 500. Brooks held off veteran Buddy Baker by 7.2 seconds for the Talladega win. After he retired, he served as a NASCAR sportscaster for a brief period of time. His Grand National statistics include the win at Talladega Superspeedway, 57 top fives, 150 top tens, 4 top ten point finishes (1975 through 1978), and 358 career races. Although Brooks only won one NASCAR race, he was a popular figure in that particular league of motorsports. Driving for the underfunded Junie Donlavey team throughout his racing career.
Brooks made his Grand National Series debut at the first Daytona 500 Qualifying Race in 1969, driving a self-owned Plymouth. Brooks had a solid year and with 12 top-ten he finished 21st in the final standings. This also meant Brooks became the Rookie of the year. He continued to drive his Plymouth in 1970 and scored 15 top-five finishes in 34 races, improving to 13th in the final points standings. Brooks came close to winning the 1970 Georgia 500, but eventually finished third to Richard Petty and Bobby Isaac after having led 133 laps. In 1971 Brooks moved to the team of Mario Rossi, driving the No. 22 Dodge. In 15 races with the team Books scored 12 top-ten finishes. His best run of the season came at Darlington were Brooks finished second to Buddy Baker.
For the next two Brooks did not have a full-time ride and practically picked up whatever ride came up. Brooks started of his 1972 season at the Atlanta 500 driving the No. 90 Ford for Junie Donlavey. Brooks made three additional starts for Donlavey with a best finish of eight at the Winston 500. Brooks also drove five races for Marvin Welty but failed to finish any of those races. Brooks only finished one other race that year when he drove for Bill Champion at the Texas 500. Brooks started out his 1973 season when he drove the No. 6 Owens Racing Dodge to a third place finish at the Daytona 500. He returned to Donlavey and drove eight races for that team in 1973. The highlight of Brooks's career came at the Talladega 500 when he drove the Plymouth of Jimmy Crawford to an unexpected victory. Brooks wasn't even supposed to drive Crawford's Plymouth, but after officials ruled that Crawford did not have enough experience on the big speedway, Brooks took over the ride.
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