WWS: Hershel McGriff to Compete at Portland Speedway

Portland, Or. June 27. Legendary stock car driver Hershel McGriff will be competing in the final asphalt race at Portland Speedway, the NASCAR Winston West NAPA Auto Parts 200 on July 4. McGriff, who turns 73 in December, will be driving a team car for Bill McAnally racing, the 1999 defending championship Winston West Series team. McGriff is an odds on and sentimental favorite to win this years event as he has many laps and wins at the historic North Portland facility. Hershel McGriff began his racing career at Portland Speedway in 1945 and won the first pavement race at the track in 1946, he went on to make racing history winning the first Mexican Road Race in 1950. He competed in the very first Southern 500 at Darlington International Raceway in what is now the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. He has four Winston Cup wins to his credit and finished sixth in the season championship in 1954 despite missing the first ten races of the year. He has accumulated the most wins (14) at the old Riverside (Calf.) International Raceway. He has also raced stock cars at LeMans, France; in Australia and in Japan. He is the NASCAR Winston West Series winningest active driver with 35 victories, and he also holds the record for most pole awards in the Winston West Series (35). He won an event in the initial year of the series in 1954 and was the NASCAR Winston West Series champion in 1986. Hershel McGriff has been voted as one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers.