The History of NASCAR, Part
2 -
Charlie
Young
Big Bill France was a visionary, and he had a feeling the people wanted to see something else. He had the idea that people would like to see show room new, unmodified "stock" cars. The late 1940's also saw an automobile manufacturing boom, so the supply of cars was not low. So, France decided to start a new division called "Strictly Stock" that allowed one to two-year old cars with no modifications for speed or otherwise.
Lee Petty, the unknowing patriarch of a racing family dynasty, rolled the family Buick and had to hitch hike home with his two sons. The race win belonged to Hubert Westmoreland, but on inspection it was found that he used altered springs. He was disqualified and the win was given to Jim Roper, who finished nine laps behind Westmoreland. Several other races were held that season at tracks in Daytona Beach; Hillsboro, North Carolina; and Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Winners of that first Strictly Stock season were Jack White, Lee Petty, Fonty Flock, and Red Byron.
On June 19 at a dirt track in Charlotte, North Carolina, France tried his great experiment for the first time. Thirteen thousand people attended the one hundred fifty mile race, and confirmed its success. Many drivers drove the family car to the race, drove the car in the race, and drove it home again, if it lasted.
Robert "Red" Byron was a wounded World War II flyer from Alabama who had to strap his shrapnel-wounded leg to the pedals. Even so, he won the first NASCAR race at Daytona Beach. Byron went also on to win the season championship in that first season of Strictly Stock racing, later known as the Winston Cup Series, although he only won twice in fourteen starts.
NASCAR was on it's way. Now all it needed was a big event, like the Indianapolis 500. Harold Brasington, owner of a heavy equipment business, and resident of Darlington, South Carolina, had a vision similar to France's. After a trip, on which he saw Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Brasington thought that stock cars should have a big paved track to race on (Hembree, p. 53-59). The idea that stock cars had never really raced on asphalt, or that no one knew what would happen didn't deter him at all. He started collecting contributions from businesses in the small town of Darlington, and sold stock in his track to people on the street. Now he just needed that land to build it on. A farmer by the name of Sherman Ramsey traded Brasington seventy acres of farm land for stock in the race track. However, Ramsey had one wish: that the small minnow pond on the corner of the property remain intact. So, Brasington and his crew went about building their track, but because of the farmer's wishes Darlington Raceway has a rather unusual shape. In order to save the minnow pond, the track had to be shaped like a pear, with turns one and two very tight and turns three and four wide and sweeping. Amazingly, the track was completed in less than a year, and Brasington set the date for the first race to be September 4, 1950, Labor Day.
As the date for the race grew closer there were few entries, and Brasington started to worry. He called Bill France, and together, NASCAR and the Central States Racing Association co-sanctioned the first ever Southern 500. Seventy-five cars were qualified for that landmark race, yet there was an air of uncertainty as no stock car race had ever been held on asphalt for a distance of 500 miles. Would engines last? Could drivers drive that far?
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