Richard White (born July 15, 1939) is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He competed in 12 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and 117 NASCAR Winston West Series races during his career.
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Racing career
White began competing in the NASCAR Late Model Sportsman National Championship in 1971, scoring a top ten. In 1973 White began competing full-time in the NASCAR Winston West Series, driving the No. 42 Ford for Dean Barnicle. In his series debut at Altamont, White finished in fifth. Across the season's twenty-one races, White scored sixteen top tens and finished the season fifth in the standings. He was awarded rookie of the year. White also made his NASCAR Winston Cup Series debut in 1973, finishing eighth and sixth in the races at Riverside International Raceway. White scaled back to part-time in 1974, running fourteen of twenty-eight races and scoring five top tens. In one Cup start, he finished nineteenth. He competed in fourteen West Series races again in 1975, scoring five more top tens. Engine issues caused him to again finish nineteenth in his lone Cup start of the year. The 1976 season spanned only thirteen races, and White competed in ten of them, finishing in the top ten eight times en route to a fifth place points position. White had attempted eleven total races, but failed to qualify for the Cup Series race at Ontario Motor Speedway. White competed full time in 1977, scoring a pole and nine top tens and ending the season a career-best third in points. White failed to qualify for the season opener at Riverside, but was running at the finish in the other two Winston Cup combination races. White also returned to the Late Model Sportsman Championship for at least one race, finishing sixteenth at Riverside. White continued competing full time in the West Series in 1978, scoring thirteen top tens across twenty-two races, and scored a career-high seven top tens. He led his first and only career Cup laps at Ontario, where he also scored his best Cup finish of the season. He scored a top five result in the Late Model Sportsman Championship and also competed in the NASCAR Grand American Stock Car National Championship, although results are unknown. White ran his final full-time West season in 1979, scoring a pole and eleven top tens. He led a career high seventy-one laps. In running the complete schedule, he made his final Winston Cup starts, finishing twenty-ninth, sixteenth, and thirtieth. White attempted a race in the Western States Open Competition Series at Craig Road Speedway, but failed to qualify. In 1980, he competed in the Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway, finishing twenty-fourth. He is also known to have competed in the NASCAR Grand American Stock Car National Championship, although results are unknown. White made his final Winston West start at Mesa Marin Raceway, finishing twenty-first after retiring with oil pressure issues. His final known start in racing is a November 1981 race at Riverside, where he finished eleventh.
Motorsports career results
NASCAR
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)