Darel Dieringer (June 1, 1926 – October 28, 1989) was an American professional

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It or ...

driver. He ran 181 NASCAR Grand National Series races during his career, notably racing for

Bud Moore Engineering Bud Moore Engineering, later Fenley-Moore Racing, was a championship-winning NASCAR team. It was owned and operated by mechanic Bud Moore and ran out of Spartanburg, South Carolina. While the team was a dominant force in the 1960s and 1980s, th ...

and Junior Johnson & Associates. Dieringer won seven races and recorded 79 top ten finishes.

Racing career

Early years

Dieringer began to race in 1949 in and around his native

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

, and had offers to race IndyCars.

NASCAR

Dieringer began to race 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. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

Grand National Series The name NASCAR Grand National Series refers to former names of the following NASCAR series: *National-level stock car series: **NASCAR Cup Series (known as NASCAR Grand National Series between 1950 to 1970, then the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand Nation ...

in 1957, running nine races for three owners and finishing in the top ten twice, the first being in only his third race. He did not finish a race in 1958, and did not run a Grand National race again until 1961, where sporadic runs throughout the season culminated in one race for

Petty Enterprises Petty Enterprises (formerly Lee Petty Engineering) was a NASCAR racing team based in Level Cross, North Carolina, USA. It was founded by Lee Petty with his two sons Richard Petty and Maurice Petty. The team was later owned by Richard Petty, h ...

late in the year. The following year, Dieringer ran at Daytona with

Ray Fox Raymond Lee Fox, Sr. (May 28, 1916 – June 15, 2014) was an American engine builder, NASCAR car owner and NASCAR engine inspector. His cars won fourteen NASCAR Grand National Series events and sixteen pole positions. His son and grandson ...

, but from that point ran part-time in other lower-tier equipment. For 1963, Dieringer teamed up with Bill Stroppe and Mario Rossi to run Mercury Marauders, as they would over the next several years. Dieringer found the checkered flag at Riverside International Raceway in the season's final race, finished outside the top ten only five times, and finished seventh in points despite running less than half of the season's 55 races. He seemed set to go for the next season, but early season difficulties forced Stroppe to withdraw his team, leaving Dieringer to search for a new team. Taking his Marauder with him, Dieringer quickly found a home at

, taking the pole for the summer Daytona race and winning a late-season road course race in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. 1965 was the closest Dieringer ever came to running a full season in NASCAR, participating in 35 of 55 events. He ran with Moore for the premier events, winning the pole for the 1965 Daytona 500 and finishing second. Piecing together a partial schedule with several different owners for smaller races, Dieringer found moderate success with owners like

Elmo Langley Elmo Harold Langley (August 21, 1928 – November 21, 1996) was a NASCAR driver and owner. Langley primarily used the number 64 on his race cars during his NASCAR career. Racing career Langley began his racing career racing modified cars in Vir ...

and finished third in overall points behind champion Ned Jarrett and Dick Hutcherson. Continuing his method of running with many teams in a season, Dieringer found success with Moore, Petty,

Buck Baker Elzie Wylie Baker Sr. (March 4, 1919 – April 14, 2002), better known as Buck Baker, was an American stock car racer. Born in Richburg, South Carolina, Baker began his NASCAR career in 1949 and won his first race three years later at Columbia ...

, Junior Johnson and a surprising race win in Reid Shaw's No. 0 car in 1966. Dieringer's biggest triumph was that year, as he claimed the

Southern 500 The Southern 500, officially known as the Cook Out Southern 500 for sponsorship reasons, is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, United States. The race distance is and consists of 367 laps. Fro ...

with the only other car on the lead lap being

Richard Petty Richard Lee Petty (born July 2, 1937), nicknamed "The King", is an American former stock car racing driver who raced from 1958 to 1992 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notably ...

. Dieringer continued a dominating part-time schedule with Johnson in 1967, leading every lap form the pole at

North Wilkesboro Speedway North Wilkesboro Speedway is a short oval racetrack located on U.S. Route 421, about east of the town of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, or 80 miles north of Charlotte. It measures and features a unique uphill backstretch and downhill fr ...

. He also ran three races for former driver Cotton Owens. Past the peak of his career by 1968, Dieringer ran part-time with former crew chief Mario Rossi and his

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to ...

team, scoring no wins and only one pole. He ran one race with Rossi in 1969, then retired for a while. He came back to run superspeedway races in 1975 and attempted one race in 1976 until he entered into a phase of permanent retirement.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dieringer, Darel 1926 births 1989 deaths NASCAR drivers Racing drivers from Indianapolis