1001 NASCAR Facts. John Close

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СКАЧАТЬ just off Little Rock Road on land leased from the C. C. Allison family. The track opened with a NASCAR Modified race on July 11, 1948, with Red Byron wheeling a Raymond Parks–owned Ford to victory. Less than a year later, Bill France Sr. changed the course of stock car racing history with the first NASCAR Strictly Stock race. In an ironic twist of fate, neither Pat nor Harvey Charles attended the inaugural NSS race as both were in prison after a 1949 bootlegging conviction.

      90 In an effort to attract as many racers as possible to his first NASCAR Strictly Stock race at Charlotte, Bill France Sr. posted a total purse of $5,000, a giant sum of money in 1949 (approximately $50,000 in today’s money). Jim Roper took home the biggest chunk of the kitty earning $2,000 for winning, Fonty Flock got $1,000 for second, and 10th-place finisher Jimmy Thompson got $100. Those placing 15 through 20 got $25 for their efforts while the remainder of the field, positions 21 through 33, went home empty-handed.

      91 Martinsville Speedway (Virginia) owns the distinction of being the only track on today’s NASCAR tour to have held an event during the sanctioning body’s inaugural 1948 season. One of many tracks carved out of the rich, red clay of southern Virginia, H. Clay Earles shaped the small and narrow Martinsville half-mile oval out of a 30-acre cornfield and opened September 7, 1947. A crowd estimated at 10,000 descended on the 750-seat track to see Red Bryon wheel a Raymond Parks 1939 Ford to a 200-lap, 100-mile race win. Less than a year later, Martinsville hosted its first NASCAR-sanctioned event. The July 4, 1948, holiday race (the 26th event on the 1948 NASCAR Modified tour) saw Fonty Flock score one of his division-high 11 wins again driving a Parks Ford to victory.

      The success of the 1948 race prompted Bill France Sr. to partner with Earles and Martinsville to make it one of the original eight speedways to host a 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock inaugural season race. The sixth race on the tour, the September 25 Martinsville SS race drew an estimated 10,000 fans as Red Byron pushed his 1949 Oldsmobile into the lead on the 104th circuit and rolled to a three-lap win over Lee Petty, Ray Erickson, and Clyde Minter. The early success of the two emerging concerns (Martinsville Speedway and NASCAR) along with the personal friendship between France and Earles forged a mutually beneficial partnership that continues today.

       Bill France Sr. works the stopwatch as Red Byron crosses the finish line during time trials at a 1948 NASCAR Modified race at Greensboro Agricultural Fairgrounds Speedway (North Carolina). (Photo Courtesy Ed Samples Jr. Collection)

      92 Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney lent financial support to build Heidelberg Speedway just southwest of Pittsburgh in 1947. In 1949, Bill France Sr. wanted to bring his Strictly Stock brand to the northeast and Heidelberg’s half-mile dirt oval proved to be a willing partner. Lee Petty scored his first NASCAR win in front of a large crowd on October 2, 1949. The 200-lap race took 1:44:25 to complete and Petty averaged 57.458 mph over the 100-mile distance. Dick Linder was second in a Kaiser (ultimately the best finish ever for the brand in NASCAR) with Bill Rexford, Sam Rice, and Sara Christian rounding out the top five.

      Heidelberg wasn’t part of the 1950 and 1951 Strictly Stock schedules, but returned to the Grand National ranks in 1952 where Herb Thomas scored a dominating win by leading 179 of 200 laps in Hubert Westmoreland’s 1951 Oldsmobile. Heidelberg’s next NASCAR race wasn’t until 1956 when Joe Weatherly topped a 22-car NASCAR Convertible Division field. The track took its last major NASCAR bows with Grand National (now Sprint Cup) races in 1959 (Jim Reed) and 1960 (Lee Petty). NASCAR’s final appearance at the now paved track was the Heidelberg-Gulf 100 Grand National East race August 2, 1973. Tommy Collela, the promoter of the track at the time, won the race in his first and only NASCAR career start. Collela closed Heidelberg Speedway after the 1973 season.

      93 Fonty Flock must have been happy that Bill France Sr. flew an air-plane. While winging his way to a meeting, France flew over an old horse track on a large expanse of land near Hillsboro, North Carolina. France and his investor group built a 1-mile dirt track on the site in 1947 and Occoneechee Speedway hosted its first NASCAR race (a Modified division event) June 7, 1948. Flock won the race and two other Modified events, dominating NASCAR races that season. Flock finished fourth behind his brother Bob in the third race of the 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock season. The event drew an estimated crowd of 17,500 and cemented a spot on the NASCAR schedule, hosting at least one race each year throughout the 1968 season. On September 15, 1968, a crowd of 6,700 watched Richard Petty take the Hillsboro 150 Grand National race, beating James Hylton by seven laps, at the last NASCAR checkered flag at the now Orange Speedway. France shut the track down after facing opposition from local religious leaders over Sunday events at the track and replaced the 1969 Orange Speedway dates with runs at Talledega, the newest NASCAR track owned by France.

      94 Not every early NASCAR race was a classic. The 1948 Modified Series 200-mile race at Langhorne Speedway (Pennsylvania) proved to be a snoozer as Al Keller won by one of stock car racing’s all-time largest margins, 18 laps, over runner-up Buck Barr. Keller’s Ford led 76 laps of the race covering the distance in a time of 3:17:05. Only 14 of the 48 starting cars finished the event.

       Bill France Sr. promoted his first race outside the state of Florida, helping to reopen Greenville-Pickens Speedway July 4, 1946, with a National Championship Stock Car Circuit (NCSCC) event. (Photo Courtesy Gober Sosebee Family)

      95 Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina, is a long-time NASCAR track, tracing its roots back to NASCAR Modified Division races in the early 1950s. An early haven for Georgia and South Carolina racers, Greenville-Pickens opened as a half-mile dirt track in 1940 but quickly shut down with the start of World War II. Reconfigured to a quarter-mile, the track reopened July 4, 1946, with a Modified stock car event (the first promoted outside of Florida by Bill France Sr.) and won by Ed Samples of Atlanta. France and NASCAR were shut out of Greenville in the late 1940s and early 1950s when other Modified racing organizations, including the South Carolina Racing Association, were being featured at the track. On October 6, 1955, Tim Flock piloted the famous Carl Kiekhaefer-owned Chrysler No. 300 to a win in G-P’s first NASCAR Grand National event. Greenville-Pickens went on to host 28 Grand National races over the next 16 seasons, including the final race June 26, 1971, won by Richard Petty. Over the years, Greenville-Pickens hosted nine different NASCAR division events, the most recent being the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. The track is also part of the NASCAR Home Tracks program and hosts weekly NASCAR late model stock car races each summer.

      96 Enoch Staley was an early convert to Bill France Sr.’s vision of stock car racing, and decided to build North Wilkesboro Speedway in 1946 as long as France organized and promoted his races. With a budget of $1,500, Staley quickly ran out of money leading to the track’s odd and now-iconic shape with its downhill front straight and uphill back chute. France staged his first race at North Wilkesboro (a National Championship Stock Car Circuit Modified event) May 18, 1947, with Fonty Flock capturing the win in front of an estimated 10,000 fans. In 1948, North Wilkesboro hosted 6 of the 52 events in NASCAR’s inaugural Modified season tour. Curtis Turner was the early master winning 3 of the 6 events with Red Byron earning 2 victories and Marshall Teague winning 1. North Wilkesboro was one of the original eight tracks on the 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock tour, hosting the final race of the season. The October 16 clash on the then-half-mile dirt oval saw Bill Blair pace the 22-car field for most of the event. Unfortunately, his Cadillac suffered an engine problem allowing Bob Flock’s 1949 Oldsmobile to lead the final 20 laps to his first NASCAR Strictly Stock Series victory.

       Weldon Adams (72) rolls his Plymouth stocker onto the track to practice for the 1951 Wilkes County 150 at North Wilkesboro (North Carolina) Speedway. Also identifiable СКАЧАТЬ