1001 NASCAR Facts. John Close
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was that the car must be showroom stock. The second rule allowed for the installation of a steel reinforcing plate on the passenger-side front wheel. This was done in the interest in safety because without the reinforcement, the lug nuts would likely pull through the wheel due to heavy loading in the corners.
76 While duct tape earned the nickname, “200-miles-an-hour tape” in modern NASCAR, the first widely used tape in the sport was masking tape. Drivers spent hours prior to a 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock race taping off the headlights, signallights, and taillights as well as bright work, including bumpers, grilles, and bodyside and roof moldings. A giant visor made of masking tape was also often placed across the top of windshield. All this was done to protect the car from debris that kicked up off the track or beach at speed during a race. At the conclusion of the event, the “100-mph masking tape” was easily removed, any residue cleaned up with a little body solvent, and the car was ready to drive back home after the race.
77 Initially, the Roadster Division was part of Bill France Sr.’s vision for NASCAR. France knew he couldn’t hang his hat on only Modified races, so Roadsters and a Strictly Stock division seemed like complementary add-ons. Besides, Roadsters were already playing to big car counts and crowds, especially across the Northeast and Midwest. As much as he wanted it to succeed, Roadster racing never really caught on with the predominantly Southern fan base. As late as February 1949, France was trying to make the Roadsters part of the mix with the First-Annual National Gran Prix Roadster Classic. The Broward Speedway race attracted the best Roadster drivers of the day including “King of the Roadsters,” Dick Frazier, an Indiana driver who won an incredible 21-straight Roadster events in 1948. Bob Flock wound up winning the 100-mile event, but the writing was on the wall for Roadsters in general as NASCAR dropped the Yankee Division in 1950 and the class had all but faded away by the middle of the decade.
78 Chrysler Corporation didn’t invent hydraulic brakes, but did introduce the first reliable hydraulic disc brake system as standard equipment in a mass-produced car, the 1949 Chrysler Imperial. The system featured the now-familiar flat pressure plates (or discs) coated with a lining called Cyclebond. Front disc brakes became common in NASCAR for the next two decades. Team owner Roger Penske, driver Mark Donohue, and their AMC Matador became the first to use a four-wheel disc brake configuration on a Winston Cup car at Riverside, California, in 1973.
The Olds nameplate first visited the Strictly Stock and later the Grand National Victory Lane 35 times from 1949 to 1952. Bill Rexford scored one of those wins en route to the 1950 NASCAR Strictly Stock championship. (Photo Courtesy General Motors)
79 New technologies mastered in World War II launched a wave of automobile innovation after the war. One wartime achievement was the development of aviation gasoline formulas that produced higher octane. By mating high-octane gas with higher compression limits, post-war automotive engineers at General Motors created a new overhead valve V-8 and introduced it in select 1949 Oldsmobile and Cadillac models. The 303-ci powerplant featured a shorter, stiffer cast-iron engine block housing, aluminum pistons, and forged steel crankshaft topped with a dual-plane intake manifold and 2-barrel downdraft carburetor. Power was rated at 135 ponies and it could push a 3,580-pound 1949 Olds Club Coupe from 0 to 60 mph in 13 seconds. The new combination (quickly coined The Rocket 88), was the “hot iron” on the block, winning five of eight 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock events. The ultimate success of the new engine spurred a wave of Big Three V-8 innovations with Chrysler introducing its Hemi V-8 in 1951 and Ford the Y-block in 1954.
80 The first NASCAR Strictly Stock race at Charlotte drew one of the most diverse fields of cars to ever grace a speedway. No less than nine makes were represented with Lincoln, Hudson, Oldsmobile, Buick, Chrysler, Ford, Mercury, and Cadillac in the 33-car field. The last of the original “NASCAR Nine” brands in the inaugural race were a pair of Kaisers, a 1948 driven by Buck Baker and a 1947 wheeled by John Barker. Baker finished 11th in his Penny Mullis Kaiser while Barker hammered his Ralph Chaney–owned Kaiser to a 15th-place finish. Baker drove a second Kaiser owned by Buddy Boehmen to a 23rd-place finish at Daytona in the second race of the 1949 season for his only two career starts in the brand. Chaney, meanwhile, helped keep Kaiser alive into 1951, posting six starts with four different drivers including Barker and Jim Paschal. Internal problems and a partnership breakup at Kaiser-Frazier in 1951 began a rapid decline for the brand, and subsequently its involvement in racing. Production of the Kaiser was discontinued in 1955.
81 On November 25, 1949, Cadillac produced its one-millionth vehicle, quite an accomplishment for the brand launched in 1902. Noted for its strong engines, the 1949 Cadillac shared the same powerful 303-ci platform as the Oldsmobile Rocket 88, making it a prime candidate as a NASCAR Strictly Stock racer that year. Frank Mundy drove the lone Caddy in the inaugural race at Charlotte finishing 30th in the 33-car field. Ethel Flock Mobley wheeled the single Cadillac to an 11th-place finish on the beach at Daytona in the second race of the year while Mundy and Bill Blair gave the brand its best season finish with a 4th and 5th, respectively, at Langhorne. While the 1949 Cadillac failed to win, it earned the consolation distinction of being the first vehicle to win Motor Trend magazine’s Car of the Year award.
82 After moving his family to Daytona Beach, Florida, Bill France Sr. took the job of operating a gas station at 316 Main Street. The station featured full drive-up service and an open-air service bay. Today, known as Main Street Station, a popular bar and music venue in Daytona Beach, the site is a popular attraction for NASCAR history buffs as well as a place to grab a long, cool one.
Bill France Sr. promoted the first stock car race at Jacksonville (Florida) Speedway Park March 23, 1947. France strides to the front of the starting field as a huge crowd looks on prior to Bill Snowden’s win. (Photo Courtesy Ed Samples Jr. Collection)
83 It’s no secret that even today, many Georgia racing fans believe Bill France Sr. “stole” NASCAR and shifted the epicenter of the sport from the Peach State to North Carolina. While there’s no real validation of the claim, the fact is that France scheduled 26 of 52 Modified Division races in the inaugural 1948 season in North Carolina. Meanwhile, only 12 races were held in Georgia. France later scheduled the 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock debut race in Charlotte, the backyard of NSCRA honcho Bruton Smith.
84 Lakewood Speedway was one of the first racetracks to reopen after the conclusion of World War II, hosting its first post-war race on Labor Day, September 3, 1945. The event, featuring a National Hillbilly Jamboree and holiday fireworks show, was met with immediate resistance by the editor of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Ralph McGill. Backed by local Baptist and Methodist religious organizations, McGill campaigned to not allow “unsavory” moonshiners and racketeers to participate in the race, and went so far as enlisting Atlanta mayor William Hartsfield to ban five drivers (Roy Hall, Glen Hall, Bob Flock, Howard Farmer, and Jack Cantrell) from the race at Lakewood, the publicly owned Southern Fairgrounds property.
A giant debate played out in the pages of the AJC as fans voiced their displeasure over the fact that their heroes would not be able to race. The chorus got even louder when 30,000 fans showed up on race day as Mayor Hartsfield presented race promoter Mike Benton with a formal city protest. When Benton caved to Hartsfield’s pressure, the remaining drivers unanimously voted to not race unless the banned drivers were allowed to compete. The event was delayed for more than an hour and when the crowd grew restless and began chanting “We Want Hall, We Want Hall” Hartsfield and Benton, fearing a riot and backlash at the mayoral election polls the following day, agreed to allow all drivers to complete regardless of their police record. Ironically, Hall won the race. Great public fallout and a crackdown on activities at the Southern Fairgrounds site ultimately kept Lakeland Speedway from hosting another stock car event for more than a year.