Of the 75 men that faced starter Alvin Hawkins in the first 500 at Darlington only 6 where set to start the 1957 Southern 500. Who were those drivers?
The list would have been 7 long if a finance company collector had not snatched the car from undera previous winneras it sat on starting line in 1950. Who was he?
I look forward to hearing the answer. Brave folks to snatch a car off the starting line!
My guess for the 6 drivers who started both the 1950 & 1957 Southern 500 is
Buck Baker
cotton Owens
Lee petty
Fireball Roberts
Fonty Flock
Curtis Turner
I don't know who was repo'd from the starting line but that's funny. A side note and possible trivia point is Johnny Mantz the winner of the 1950 Southern 500 was the slowest qualifier and started 43rd. The 4th place
finisher Bill Rexford won the championship that year because Red Byron who finished 3rd in the 500 and Lee Petty who finished 6th had their points stripped earlier in the year for running non sanctioned races and started from scratch in points.
Outstanding. Big Bill didn't easily tolerate the "outlaw" stuff did he.
By the report I saw you got 4 of them in your list Bill.
I called a friend of mine in the NASCAR vault and he said the official race results for those two races show the following... You know how things get changed lol
Fireball Roberts 2nd in 1950- 33rd in 1957
Lee Petty 6th in 1950- 24th in 1957
Cotton Owens 7th in 1950 - 2nd in 1957
Fonty Flock 28th in 1950- 48th in 1957
Curtis Turner 60th in 1950- 11th in 1957
Buck Baker 69th in 1950--- 5th in 1957
If there is a prize lets split it...hehe, Bill
Bill, the prize is being FIRST! LOL
And you have made me realize I was not as detailed as I should have been. I got the idea from a news clipping so went back and read it again. What I'm really looking for are the 6 men who started the first and each succeeding until the 1957Southern 500. I was trying to say it in as few a works as possible but left out some important ones.
OK Dennis, Lets try this. After some tea leaves, tarot cards and some thought......
Is the other 2 Joe Eubanks and Jim Paschal????
The article clearly states Eubanks has "retired and made it stick" and infers only five of the Big Six would be racing in that year's Southern 500.
Here's a link to a clip from a 1958 Southern 500 preview from the Spartanburg paper proclaiming Eubanks an early favorite in a Cotton Owens ride, although "he hasn't raced in nearly two years."
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kG0sAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tcsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3455,3487151&dq=joe+eubanks+southern+500+1957&hl=en
I'll give the reporter that wrote the article the benefit of the doubt and say that he thought Joe Eubanks was going to start the '57 Southern 500. It did state there would be 5 after the '57 race, but it also said the retirement stuck.
Fact is, as y'all have recorded, there were 5 who had run in every 500 from 1950 up and including the 1857 edition. They were: Lee Petty, Curtis Turner, Buck Baker, Fireball Roberts and Jim Paschal.
I would love to here a story on Herb's car being snatched off the line in 1950.
Hope y'all enjoyed this trivia trip ino racing history.
Very thought provoking. I didn't have a clue, Dennis. That must be some story about snatching the car.
Dennis, Sounds like a reality made for Lizard Lick Towing or Repo-Men lol.....Snatched off the Starting Grid...oh my, Thanks for a great trivia question.
