John Anderson (April 20, 1944 – August 5, 1986) was an American

stock car 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 ori ...

racing driver. He drove 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 ...

Winston Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971 ...

between 1979 and 1983, posting a best finish of fifth.

Career

Born April 20, 1944, in

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval A ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, Anderson first drove in racing competition at

Flat Rock Speedway Flat Rock Speedway is a race track in Monroe County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Ash Township just south of the city of Flat Rock along U.S. Route 24. Opened in 1953, it is owned by ARCA and is the sister track to Toledo ...

in 1965, winning the Michigan

Figure 8 racing Figure 8 racing is a form of stock car racing in which automobiles race on a track that purposely intersects itself, increasing the risk of collisions. Figure 8 racing is most common and popular in the United States and Canada. Because of the r ...

championship in 1967. He was the

Automobile Racing Club of America The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) is an auto racing sanctioning body in the United States, founded in 1953 by John Marcum. The current president of ARCA is Ron Drager, who took over the position in 1996 following the death of Bob Log ...

(ARCA) Rookie-of-the-Year in 1968. During the late 1960s and 1970s Anderson was successful in competition, winning a number of track championships, along with several ARCA and

American Speed Association The American Speed Association (ASA) is a sanctioning body of motorsports in the United States formed in 1968. The Association was based in Pendleton, Indiana, and later in Daytona Beach, Florida. The ASA sanctioned asphalt and dirt tracks ...

races. He moved up to

United States Auto Club The United States Auto Club (USAC) is one of the sanctioning bodies of auto racing in the United States. From 1956 to 1979, USAC sanctioned the United States National Championship, and from 1956 to 1997 the organization sanctioned the Indianapol ...

(USAC)

sprint car Sprint cars are high-powered open-wheel race cars, designed primarily for the purpose of running on short oval or circular dirt or paved tracks. Sprint car racing is popular primarily in the United States and Canada, as well as in Australia, New ...

and

midget car Midget cars, also speedcars in Australia, is a class of racing cars. The cars are very small with a very high power-to-weight ratio and typically use four cylinder engines. They originated in the United States in the 1930s and are raced on m ...

racing in 1977, and ran his first

race, in the modified series, at

Charlotte Motor Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway (previously known as Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009) is a motorsport complex located in Concord, North Carolina, outside Charlotte. The complex features a quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing includin ...

in the fall of that year, winning the pole for the event. In 1979 he made his first NASCAR

start, scoring a fifth-place finish in his first race, at

Michigan International Speedway Michigan International Speedway (MIS) is a moderate-banked D-shaped speedway located off U.S. Highway 12 on more than approximately south of the village of Brooklyn, in the scenic Irish Hills area of southeastern Michigan. The track ...

. He ran the majority of the 1980 season for a number of teams, scoring two top-10 finishes; towards the end of the year he was hired by John Rebham to drive for his team; in 1981, driving an Oldsmobile, he was involved in an accident, in which his car got airborne and flipped over multiple times before landing upside down, during the UNO Twin 125 qualifying races for the Daytona 500. Shortly afterwards, Rebham, impatient for results and under pressure from his sponsors, fired Anderson, replacing him with

Donnie Allison Donnie Allison (born September 7, 1939) is an American former driver on the NASCAR Grand National/Winston Cup circuit, who won ten times during his racing career, which spanned from 1966 to 1988. He is part of the "Alabama Gang", and is the bro ...

. Anderson would only run a few additional races in the Winston Cup Series and Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series before retiring. Anderson won over 200 races of various types during his racing career. He was killed in a road crash on

Interstate 85 Interstate 85 (I-85) is a major Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States. Its southern terminus is at an interchange with I-65 in Montgomery, Alabama; its northern terminus is an interchange with I-95 in Petersburg, Virginia, ...

near

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

on August 5, 1986, being survived by his wife Mary Ann and two children. Anderson was inducted into the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, John NASCAR drivers 1944 births 1986 deaths Sportspeople from Warren, Michigan Racing drivers from Detroit Road incident deaths in North Carolina