[kup]

(c) NASCAR.COM

History records that on Sept. 14, 1969, (was) the inaugural NASCAR Grand National race at what was then called Alabama International Motor Speedway.

Earlier that (1969) summer, many of the prominent drivers of the day had agreed to join a group called the (PDA) Professional Drivers Association, with the idea of having more of a voice in how the sport was operated and controlled.

NASCAR president Bill France, who had already crushed a previous attempt to organize a union in 1961 -- banning Curtis Turner and Tim Flock from the sport -- was not amused.

The situation came to a head immediately following qualifying.
According to longtime sportswriter Tom Higgins, who was in attendance that day, several drivers -- including Richard Petty, president of the new union, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough and LeeRoy Yarbrough -- confronted France in the garage area on Saturday.
The discussion became more animated and the words harsher as neither side was willing to compromise.

A closed-door drivers meeting went late into the night, and sometime shortly after midnight, Petty and more than 30 teams loaded up their cars and walked out, assuming that France would have to acquiesce to their demands.
But France had Plan B already in place.

A few of the single-car independent drivers hadn't been invited to join the PDA and needed purse money to cover their expenses.

France made two pointed remarks aimed squarely at the PDA.
"Winners never quit and quitters never win," France said.
And he followed that by saying, "The boys who pulled out owe their future to the drivers who ran today, if they have a future."

Petty and Pearson were the first to break ranks within the PDA, deciding to run at Columbia Speedway five days later, and the organization quickly crumbled and disappeared.
And no further successful attempts to unionize NASCAR's drivers have been made to this day.