Todd Turner

Ray Tucker, among North Carolina’s winningest Late Model drivers over a 40-year career that included successful stints in the No. 1 Dunn Benson Motorsports car and Lee Roy Rumley’s famed entry, died Monday at his Greensboro, N.C., home. He was 68. | Slideshow

He died after a battle with cancer, according to his son Daniel Tucker, the family’s third-generation racer.

Tucker accumulated 478 victories and 20 track titles at tracks including Ace Speedway in Burlington, N.C., 311 Motor Speedway in Madison, N.C., Log Cabin Raceway in Rocky Mount, Va., Wayne County Speedway in Pikeville, N.C., and Clary’s Speedway in Brinkleyville, N.C.

Among his best seasons was 1987 when he won 27 races in 42 starts, including 21 in a row, driving for Rumley, a National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame engine builder and team owner.

Tucker was a 10-time winner on the Coltman Farms Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series and a two-time winner with the Short Track Auto Racing Series, including a 1992 triumph at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C., that was then the biggest victory for Dunn Benson owner Carlton Lamm. He also had single victories with the Southern All Stars (2000 at Friendship Speedway in Elkin, N.C.) and Northern Allstars (1999 during Florida Speedweeks at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla.).

His richest victory came with a $6,500 payday in his family-owned No. 0 car at Clary’s Speedway in 2006.

He primarily ran part-time on the Carolina Clash circuit but finished fourth in points in 2000, the tour’s first season. He was a member of the Carolina Clash Hall of Fame.

Tucker, a two-time ARCA starter at Atlanta and Talladega in 1988, followed the tire tracks of his father Donald Tucker, whose career began in 1952 and included a stretch of running a Rumley car alongside his son as well nine NASCAR Cup starts and a best finish of eighth in 1965’s World 600 at Charlotte. Including Daniel’s career, the family has competed over 74 seasons with a combined 902 victories.