BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Richard “Dick” Bown, one of the Pacific Northwest’s top NASCAR stock car racers during the 1960s-70s era, has passed away at age 95.

Bown competed in 21 NASCAR Cup Series races; the last in 1975. He mainly drove Plymouth cars, including the winged Superbird.

A self-made millionaire in the auto dismantling business, Bown was a regular in the NASCAR Winston West Series, now the ARCA Menards Series West. He competed 130 times, winning 14 events, and finished third in the 1972 championship standings.

“Other than Hershel McGriff and Bill Amick, Dick was the best to come out of the Portland area,” said Ken Clapp, chairman and CEO of the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame and friend of the competitor for 65 years. “Had he have run for points more often, he would have been a NASCAR champion at the West Coast’s highest level.”

Bown was inducted into the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame with its second class in 2003.

Bown had two sons, both with talents equal to that of their father. Chuck Bown is the 1990 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, winning 11 times on the sanctioning body’s No. 2 national circuit. His younger brother Jim won seven events during a NASCAR Winston West Series career and four times finished among the top five in series point standings.

Chuck Bown also is a West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee, enshrined in 2009.