The NASCAR media machine will take a brief moment from trying to convince the world that this week’s Sprint Cup event at Infineon Speedway is the most important in the history of stock car racing to give a cursory nod to an event of actual historic importance – the inaugural NASCAR ‘Strictly Stock’ race held on June 19, 1949.
Like most NASCAR revisionist history, there will be plenty of bouquets tossed in the direction of NASCAR ‘founder’ Bill France, Sr. for identifying that fans wanted to see the new, modern street cars of the day compete on dusty racetracks across the south.
Of course, that’s not the truth.
NASCAR may be the king of the American stock car world today, but it was little more than a blip on the racing landscape back in the late 1940’s as multiple alphabet soup organizations were ‘sanctioning’ races during the immediate post World War II era.
France, Sr. – the driving force behind launching NASCAR in 1947 after outfoxing his North Carolina and Georgia rivals for control of the organization – was one of the sport’s main players.
Another player – and let me know if this sounds familiar – was O. Bruton Smith.
Yup, the same Bruton Smith who is still a thorn in the backside of NASCAR and the France family today, the same one who built Speedway Motorsports, Inc. into one of the biggest racing organizations in the world today.
In 1949, Smith was the leader of the National Stock Car Racing Association (NSCRA), a major rival of France and NASCAR. Always the promoter, Smith was looking for a new angle and was the first to recognize the public’s fascination with many of the new post-war model cars steaming out of the factories in Detroit,
So it was that Smith – and not France – who announced in early 1949 that he would be promoting a big-money Strictly Stock NSCRA race at Lakewood Speedway near Atlanta in June. The event would be groundbreaking featuring new cars, right off the showroom floor – not the older 1930’s coupe and sedan ‘modified’ style cars that France and the rest of Smith’s stock car racing promoter/competitors were campaigning.
France, who had already scheduled a full year of modified events for 1949, was suddenly on the defensive. As he would do time and again over the next 40 years, France quickly made the Strictly Stock idea his own announcing he would promote a race for new cars in Charlotte on the June 19 – the same day as Smith’s Lakewood event.
To make sure he had all the top racers at his Charlotte event and not at Smith’s NSCRA clash in Atlanta, France offered a total purse of $5,000 with $2000 going to the winner. In an era where most events paid at best a couple of hundred bucks to win, this kind of prize money was heady stuff.
Predictably, 33 of the top drivers from across the country showed up for France’s race in Charlotte on June 19. Depending on what reports you believe, somewhere between 13,000-20,000 fans paying up to $4 each witnessed the event on the ¾-mile Little Rock Road track on the west side of Charlotte.
The 200-lap race featured all the new cars of the day – Lincoln, Hudson, Ford, Chrysler, Buick, Oldsmobile, Kaiser and Mercury – with top drivers such as Red Byron, Curtis Turner, Lee Petty, Frank Mundy and Herb Thomas. The Flock brothers – Fonty, Tim and Bob – were also on hand as was standout female driver Sara Christian.
Eventually, Glenn Dunaway led the final 50 laps winning by three full circuits over Jim Roper, Fonty Flock and Byron. Afterward, it was determined that Dunaway’s 1947 Ford was illegal giving the now historic victory and $2,000 first prize to Roper.
Bruton Smith?
His Lakewood race never came off on June 19, 1949. In 1950, he briefly discussed merging the NSCRA with France and NASCAR, but those plans – and the NSCRA – fell apart with Smith was drafted in the United States Army in 1951.
Meanwhile, France eventually promoted eight Strictly Stock races in 1949 and seeing the public’s fascination with the division, changed the name from Strictly Stock to Grand National (after the horse race in England) for the 1950 season. As we all know now, the division went on to be the foundation of today’s modern Sprint Cup Series.
So tip your hat to France and NASCAR this week when you see the stories about the 1949 Charlotte ‘Strictly Stock’ race. But don’t bow too deep as with many things NASCAR, history and reality can often be strikingly different things.
About John Close
John Close covered his first NASCAR race as a professional media member in 1986 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Since then, Close – a former Associated Press newspaper sports editor – has written countless articles for numerous motorsports magazines, trade publications and Internet sites.
His Close Calls column appears each week on www.CloseFinishes.com, www.
Close has also authored two books – Tony Stewart – From Indy Phenom To NASCAR Superstar and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – From Desert Dust To Superspeedways.
Close also spotted more than 150 NASCAR Cup, Nationwide and Truck events from 1995-2008. His third book – On The Spot – a volume about the history of NASCAR race spotting, will be published later this year.
You can direct comments/inquiries to Close at www.closefinishes@carolina.