Butch Lindley, (born March 25, 1948 in Greenville, SC) is a deceased NASCAR driver. In his career, he won six career Nationwide Series starts. He also raced in the Winston Cup Series (now Sprint Cup Series) a number of times and also was the 1978 Late Model Sportsman (forerunner to the Nationwide Series) championship. He died on June 6, 1990.
Winston Cup Series Career[]
Lindley made his debut in a special appearance in 1979. Starting 14th in a Kenny Childers Chevy at Martinsville, Lindley fell out early due to overheating. He ended up 28th.
In 1981, Lindley made three starts in a personally-owned car, the #26 Chevy. Lindley, however, struggled in all of them, and did not finish any races. His best run was a 24th at N. Wilkesboro, but he did qualify 4th in Martinsville.
In 1982, Lindley made four more starts, and continued to struggle, only finishing one of them. However, Lindley made that race worth his while. Driving the #01 Emanuel Zervakis Buick, Lindley started 14th at Martinsville. Lindley dominated the middle portion of the race, leading the most laps of his career (163). However, he had to settle for second, losing to Harry Gant by one lap. In his return to Martinsville later in the year, Lindley was once again a factor, leading two laps before engine failure.
Lindley made two starts in 1983. His better run was the spring race for Richmond. Driving for Zervakis, Lindley led seven circuits and came away with an 11th place finish. He also ran at Martinsville for Bill Terry, recording a 25th place finish.
Lindley's last career start came in 1985 for Bobby Hawkins. He drove the #16 Carolina Tool Chevy at Richmond, and had a decent run of it. He started 17th and was running high in the event before a lug bolt fell off and he finished 19th.
Busch Series Career[]
In very limited Busch Series starts, Lindley was simply dominant, starting when he ran half of the 1982 schedule for Zervakis. In fourteen starts, Lindley won four of them. The first came at Richmond, then was followed by a pair of wins at South Boston Speedway and the season finale at Martinsville. In addition, Lindley finished in the top-5 nine times and had an additional top-10. Lindley, in fact, finished in the top-10 in all but one of the races he finished. He also won two poles. The most impressive stat of all was points. Despite only competing in half of the events, he finished 9th place in points.
Lindley ran 25 of the 35 races in 1983, and once again had a solid enough season to stay high in the points, finishing 13th in the final rundown. He won races at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, South Boston and Caraway Speedway despite switching between Zervakis' team and Dana Racing. In addition, Lindley ended up with 3 poles and a total of eleven top-10s.
Lindley made two starts in 1984, both for Whitaker Racing. In his first outing for the team, he started 7th and finished 3rd at Richmond. Later in the year, he once again started 7th at Martinsville and was running well before engine failure doomed him to 29th.