1001 NASCAR Facts. John Close
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the inaugural Strictly Stock race at Charlotte because he had competed in a National Stock Car Racing Association (NSCRA) race the same weekend as a NASCAR event. Undaunted, he captured the 1949 NSCRA Strictly Stock title and was again leading the NSCRA points when the division shut down midway through the 1951 season.
Over the next three years, Samples concentrated on short-track racing, and won the 1954 and 1955 Birmingham (Alabama) Racing Club championships. Meanwhile, he made 13 NASCAR Grand National starts from 1951 to 1954, his best finish a second at Lakewood in 1952. Samples hung up his helmet in 1956 and lived in the Birmingham area until his death in 1991.
121 Most people know that Glenn Dunaway finished last in the first NASCAR Strictly Stock race, but most don’t that he did the same in the second race as well. After winning at Charlotte and then being disqualified in post-race tech, the Gastonia, North Carolina, driver and his Hubert Westmoreland–owned 1947 Ford were credited with last place, 33rd. In the second 1949 Strictly Stock event at the Daytona Beach Road Course on July 10, Dunaway and his 1949 Mercury were the first to fall out, and came in last, 28th, in the final rundown. Dunaway fared better later in the season by picking up three straight top-10 finishes in a 1949 Olds on the way to a ninth-place finish in the final 1949 point standings.
122 Martinsville, Virginia, native Sam Rice has several distinctions in the annals of NASCAR. Rice introduced H. Clay Earles to stock car racing and convinced him to build Martinsville Speedway in 1947. Rice, an original partner in the track, was also an early NASCAR team owner fielding 60 Strictly Stock/Grand National entries from 1949 to 1959. His cars won twice: once in 1950 when Bill Blair wheeled Rice’s Mercury to a win at Vernon Speedway and again that year when Fireball Roberts piloted an Oldsmobile to victory at Occoneechee Speedway near Hillsboro, North Carolina. Rice’s other connection came as a driver when he competed in the inaugural 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock race starting 14th and finishing 4th in an Oldsmobile. Later that year, Rice again climbed behind the wheel of one of his cars, a Chevrolet, and finished 4th in the Heidelberg (Pittsburgh) Speedway Strictly Stock race. The two races (twin 4th-place finishes) were the only starts of Rice’s NASCAR driving career.
123 Bill France Sr. knew he needed star power if he was going to sell the idea of the first NASCAR race to the ticket-buying public in Charlotte. Never shy to go after the biggest fish in the pond, France enlisted the help of Charlotte radio legend Grady Cole. Cole, a laid-back, down-home Southern type, had dominated the Charlotte airwaves for nearly two decades when France came calling in 1949. Cole’s WBT Radio morning show was the most listened-to program in Charlotte at all times of the day. France wanted the audience and enlisted Cole to hype his race by making him a co-owner with Bruce Griffin on the car driven by Fonty Flock. On race day, Cole addressed the crowd he helped create and gave the command to start engines over the public address system. Cole remained a friend to NASCAR for years afterwards. His contributions to establishing NASCAR awareness with the general public, especially those in regard to the first Strictly Stock race, should not be overlooked or underestimated.
124 If Jim Roper didn’t read the newspaper every day; he might never have won the first NASCAR Strictly Stock race. Roper found out about the race thanks to a mention of the event in The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack comic strip. A local roadster champion, Roper decided to enter the race and drove a 1949 Lincoln to Charlotte from Kansas for the June 19, 1949, contest. Roper was declared the winner after Glenn Dunaway was disqualified. Two months later, Roper made his only other career NASCAR start driving the same Millard Clothier–owned Lincoln to a 15th-place finish at Occoneechee Speedway. Roper continued to race until an injury in a sprint car race at Davenport, Iowa, ended his career in 1955. Roper passed away in Newton, Kansas, in 2000.
125 The second-ever NASCAR Strictly Stock race at the Daytona Beach-Road Course on July 10, 1949, holds the distinction of being the only event in NASCAR history featuring four siblings. On that day, brothers Fonty, Bob, Tim Flock along with sister Ethel Mobley took the green flag with Tim posting the best finish, a 2nd behind winner Red Byron. Meanwhile, Ethel took bragging rights over brothers Fonty and Bob with an 11th-place finish (Fonty was 19th, while Bob came home 22nd). That day remains the only time a brother and sister competed against each other in NASCAR’s top division.
126 Jack White made his first and only start of the 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock season a good one by winning at Hamburg Speedway September 18. The fifth race of eight that year, a 200-lap event, drew just 16 cars. That didn’t stop more than 11,000 fans from pouring into the Hamburg half-mile dirt oval to see White take the lead on lap 134 when race-long front-runner Glenn Dunaway lost a wheel. White led the remainder of the race, winning and taking home the $1,500 top prize. White went on to make 11 more NASCAR starts over the next two seasons, but never again realized his winning form, posting just one other top-5 finish. White’s final NASCAR race was August 24, 1951, when he came in 41st a Grand National event at Morristown Speedway (New Jersey), earning $10 in prize money for the finish.
127 Ask any NASCAR old-timer who the most naturally gifted driver was and you will most likely receive Curtis Turner as the answer. Turner’s first attempt at a racetrack was a 1946 race in Mount Airy, North Carolina. When the race was canceled due to a lack of cars, Turner (a fan at the event) jumped into his 1940 Ford, drove onto the track, and put on a show of impressive power slides and doughnuts. The crowd went crazy and “filled the hat,” showering Turner with money afterward. A lumberjack by trade, Turner quickly jumped into racing full throttle and by 1948 was a star in the new NASCAR Modified Division.
128 NASCAR reported that 50 drivers competed in at least one NASCAR Strictly Stock race in 1949. Ken Wagner had the distinction of finishing last in the season championship standings after competing in three 1949 events: Martinsville, Heidelberg, and North Wilkesboro. The Pennington, New Jersey, driver won the pole for the North Wilkesboro race and his best effort was an 11th-place finish at Martinsville. Wagner’s season winnings were $100.
129 December 14, 1949, will always be remembered in stock car racing history as the demarcation day for NASCAR. Bill France Sr. concluded four days of meetings at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida, on that date, with the result being the formation of NASCAR. The meetings, attended by 35 promoters and drivers from around the country (labeled “assorted hustlers” by Daytona Beach sportswriter Benny Kahn), laid the groundwork for a unified national stock car racing circuit.
Raymond Parks was a regular in the Ebony Room bar atop the Streamline Hotel as Bill France Sr. enjoyed using the Daytona Beach, Florida, facility for meetings and awards banquets. (Photo Courtesy Georgia Racing Hall of Fame)
130 On the final day of the 1947 NASCAR organizational meetings, the group took several votes. One named Bill France Sr. as the president of the organization. A second vote was taken to name the new group. Initially, the preferred moniker was the National Stock Car Racing Association (NSCRA), but that was quickly voted down in part to the name being used by another organization in Georgia. The second reason for the dismissal was due to the fact that Georgia NSCRA was becoming an adversary of France’s new venture. Atlanta mechanic Red Vogt suggested the group be called the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). This time, the vote passed giving the group its new name. Later, “of” was changed to “for.”
131 The first officially sanctioned NASCAR race was held at Daytona Beach on February 15, 1948. The event drew a field of 62 cars to the Daytona Beach-Road Course with 50 of them taking the green flag. Named the Rayson Memorial, a 68-lap race on the 2.2-mile beach road course (149.6 miles), was won by Red Byron in a 1939 Ford coupe owned by Raymond Parks. Byron earned $1,000 first-place prize money, while Marshall Teague, the only other car to run all 68 laps, earned $650 for his effort. Only 12 of the 50 starters finished.
132 Easily the strongest challenger to NASCAR in the late 1940s was the National Stock Car Racing Association (NSCRA), an Atlanta-based sanctioning body incorporated March 27,