1972 dart - stopped running while at 50 mph ? no warning

1972 dart 318 auto all stock . points . daily driver 20 years . never broke down until today . car warm and running great . i was cruising down the road at about 50 mph , real smooth . all of the sudden , i felt the car die . no warning , no sputtering , no surging , no noises , nothing , just cut off . i instinctively threw it into neutral , and tried to restart it while coasting . nothing , no start . i coasted into a nice parking lot , and first thought fuel pump . this is what i did so far , though maybe not in this order . fuel looked a little low in the filter . i checked the fuel pump by disconnecting the fuel line at the carb and cranking the motor . fuel came out in a , not fast , a little slow spurt then spurt , then spurt ( into a spare container mostly ) once or twice per second . so i think its getting fuel . plus pulling back the carb linkage it squirts inside the carb . i took the wire off the coil and put a spare wire in there and screwdriver at the other end , cranked the motor , had sparks . after putting coil wire back on i did the same to number one and number two wires from the distributor cap . did not see any spark , but mind you this is all in a rainy-ish snowstorm . not real bad but enough to be annoying . so some things were wet , and everything was done kinda rushed . i took the cap and rotor off and tapped the motor to get the points at the high point of the lobe to check gap , looked kinda off , so i reset gap with a feeler to 17-19 ish. , nothing . took the points out . a bit used/pitted . cap & rotor look good . replaced them a few months ago but was lazy a did not do the points . but they were on the front seat so i put the new ones in and gapped again , still nothing ( did not set dwell / no meter in the car ) . i also tried cranking with and without some of that gas , dribbled into the carb . i figured it should run with that even if the pump or filter failed , but did not . i was about to replace the ballast resistor when a flatbed pulled up nearby and did not have a car on it . since i did not have a cell phone with me ( new one in the mail supposedly coming tomorrow ) i took that as a sign from the mopar gods , and flagged the nice tow truck woman down . crazy lucky on that . at home , i replaced the ballast with another old one that tested good a long time ago . nothing . fuses under dash all good . car cranks great , plenty of battery . lights work and all that . i tried to get a dwell reading but something seemed off , like it wasn't reading . but i quit quickly cuz the situation and weather became too irritating , and it can wait . i did try to start it hours later cold , same thing cranks well , no start . i am thinking maybe the distributor went ? or voltage regulator ? timing chain ? i am not sure why it quit with no warning . soon , i plan on trying the dwell meter again , trying another ballast , rechecking spark from cap , cranking the motor to see if the rotor spins , and maybe looking in the valve cover to see if the rockers move . when i get a helper . i will look up how to check the regulator . did this ever happen to anyone ? what would be the likely cause ? any ideas or suggestions ? could it be the condenser ? trying to get a good plan together so i am ready when the weather is better . thank you .