This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Dick Brooks" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Richard Harold Brooks (April 14, 1942 – February 1, 2006) was an AmericanNASCAR driver. Born inPorterville, California, he was the 1969NASCAR Rookie of the Year, and went on to win the 1973Talladega 500. Brooks held off veteran Buddy Baker by 7.2 seconds for the Talladega win. After he retired, he served as a NASCAR sportscaster for a brief period of time. His Grand National statistics include the win atTalladega Superspeedway, 57 top-fives, 150 top-tens, 4 top-ten points finishes (1975 through 1978), and 358 career races. Although Brooks only won one NASCAR race, he was a popular figure in that league of motorsports. Brooks drove for the underfundedJunie Donlavey team throughout his racing career.

Brooks made his Grand National Series debut at the firstDaytona 500 Qualifying Race in 1969, driving a self-ownedPlymouth.^[1] Brooks had a solid year, and with twelve top-tens he finished 21st in the final standings. This also meant Brooks became the rookie of the year. He continued to drive his Plymouth in1970 and scored fifteen top-five finishes in 34 races, improving to thirteenth in the final points standings. Brooks came close to winning the1970 Georgia 500, but eventually finished third toRichard Petty andBobby Isaac after having led 133 laps.^[2] In1971 Brooks moved to the team of Mario Rossi, driving the No. 22Dodge. In fifteen races with the team Books scored twelve top-ten finishes. His best run of the season came atDarlington where he finished second toBuddy Baker.

For the next two seasons, Brooks did not have a full-time ride and practically picked up whatever ride came up. Brooks started the1972 season at theAtlanta 500, driving the No. 90Ford forJunie Donlavey. Brooks made three additional starts for Donlavey with a best finish of eighth, at theWinston 500. Brooks also drove five races for Marvin Welty but failed to finish any of them. Brooks only finished one other race that year, when he drove forBill Champion at theTexas 500.^[3] Brooks started out his1973 season driving the No. 6Owens RacingDodge to a third place finish at theDaytona 500. He returned to Donlavey and drove eight races for that team in 1973. The highlight of Brooks's career came at theTalladega 500, when he drove the Plymouth of Jimmy Crawford to an unexpected victory. Brooks was not supposed to drive Crawford's Plymouth, but after officials ruled that Crawford did not have enough experience on the big speedway, Brooks took over the ride.^[4]

Without a ride for the1974 season, Brooks started to field a self-owned Dodge. Of the sixteen races that Brooks entered that year he finished three times. His best finish of the season was in theVolunteer 500 atBristol International Speedway.^[5]

Brooks returned to Donlavey for the1975 season, driving the No. 90 Ford once again. In 25 races Brooks scored fifteen top-ten finishes of which he finished six in the top-five. His best result that season was a second place, in theDelaware 500 atDover Downs International Speedway. Brooks also finished in the top-ten in the final points standings for the first time.^[6] He continued to drive forDonlavey Racing in1976. Brooks scored eighteen top-ten finishes that year and he finished tenth in the final points standings for the second year in succession. Brooks continued his good run for Donlavey Racing in1977. He scored a total of twenty top-ten finishes that season of which he finished seven in the top five. He finished sixth in the final points standings, which would turn out to be a career high.^[7] Brooks had another good year in1978, with seventeen top-ten finishes. He finished eight in the final points standings and left the Donlavey team at the end of the season.

Brooks moved to the team of Nelson Malloch in1979, driving the No. 05Oldsmobile andChevy. Brooks had a lot of mechanical issues during the season and only managed to finish thirteen of 27 races that year. Brooks scored eight top-ten finishes during the year and finished 22nd in the final points standings. He stayed with Malloch for the1980 season but left the team after he only finished five of the first sixteen races. Brooks entered in three more races that season, which he drove forBanjo Matthews.^[8]

Brooks only drove five races each season in 1981 and 1982 before reuniting with Donlavey for 1983. After finishing fifth in theDaytona 500, he had several other solid runs. After four races, Brooks led the point standings for the only time in his NASCAR career. Brooks also led the most laps in the third race of the year, atRockingham, but retired on lap 384. This was the only time in Brooks's career that he led the most laps during a race.^[9] Brooks faded to fourteenth at season's end. In 1984, the Donlavey team struggled to keep up with the better-financed teams and Brooks finished fifteenth. After driving three races for thePetty Enterprises team in 1985, Brooks left. His final NASCAR race was behind the wheel of aRick Hendrick-owned car in the 1985World 600 where he finished in tenth place.^[10]

Midway through the 1994 season, Brooks purchased the No. 40 Pontiac team fromSABCO Racing, inheriting driverBobby Hamilton and sponsor Kendall Oil. Hamilton left for Petty Enterprises in 1995, and Brooks fielded the No. 40 forGreg Sacks,Rich Bickle,Shane Hall,Andy Hillenburg,Randy LaJoie, andButch Leitzinger, but after a season which saw the car lead only two laps with a best finish of twelfth, Brooks sold the team back to SABCO.

Brooks lent his name to a series of car dealerships inNorth andSouth Carolina.

After complications from a plane crash in late 2004, Brooks died of pneumonia on February 1, 2006.^[11]

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying timeItalics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time * – Most laps led)

24 Hours of Le Mans results
Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1976	Donlavey Racing	Dick Hutcherson Marcel Mignot	Ford Torino	NASCAR	104	DNF	DNF
1982	Stratagraph Inc.	Hershel McGriff Tom Williams	Chevrolet Camaro	IMSA GTO	141	NC	NC

• Dick Brooks driver statistics at Racing-Reference

• 1942 births
• 2006 deaths
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• Motorsport announcers
• NASCAR drivers
• NASCAR team owners
• Sportspeople from Porterville, California
• Racing drivers from Tulare County, California
• World Sportscar Championship drivers
• Hendrick Motorsports drivers
• Daytona 500 drivers
• Coca-Cola 600 drivers
• Southern 500 drivers

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from August 2025
• All articles needing additional references