Back in the day, NASCAR's annual 'banquet' wasn't a black-tie affair in early December at the Waldorf in NYC or at the Wynn in Vegas. NASCAR and its competitors had an awards dinner in February before the next season's Speedweeks really got rolling. (My hunch tells me the festivities continued informally until the wee hours of morning in hotel lounges, rooms and poolside.)
Yet some of the post-season awards were announced before the end of the calendar year. A couple of significant awards for the 1964 season were announced on December 23rd.
Lloyd Dane was named as the winner of the annual Naughton Award for Sportsmanship. Rather than wait until the Grand National division's dinner in February, Bill France did a classy thing by choosing to present the award to Dane in front of his peers at the Pacific Coast late model division's dinner in early January 1965.
From Spartanburg Herald .
G.C. Spencer, Fred Lorenzen, Larry Frank and Ned Jarrett as well as NASCAR official James Ellmore were recognized by NASCAR for their acts of heroism in coming to the aid of other competitors. From Spartanburg Herald .
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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/23/19 08:38:52AM