Who Crossed Over Successfully from Drag Racing to NASCAR?

Every time I see posts on RR from our good friend, Wally Bell, I think about folks who made a name for themselves first in drag racing and then also had great success later in NASCAR. The three names that come immediately to my mind are all owners, Raymond Beadle and Kenny Bernstein in Cup and Don Beverley in the Busch Series. I know Jack Roush also had success in drag racing and Rick Hendrick with drag boats before they hit the Cup circuit. And Joe Gibbs and Richard Petty were involved in drag racing, but in Cup first and foremost. I'm out of my league here and wonder are there other car owners or drivers in NASCAR now or before who came with a drag racing background?


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

John Andretti went from Open Wheel to Top Fuel Dragster and Stock Cars. Jack Roush teamed with Wayne Gapp in Pro Stock (I think Gapp & Roush was Pro Stock, were'nt they Wally?). Doug Kalitta went from Open Wheel Sprints to Top Fuel Dragster. Danny Ongais went from Top Fuel Dragster to Indy Car. I can't recall a driver who began in Drag Racing coming to Nascar though. Wally would be the MAN to answer that. What a great question Dave!!

In 1984 things were going so badly for Kyle Petty running out of the near empty Petty Enterprises shop that his engine for the 1984 World 600 came from Keith Black and also Bob Glidden's wife Etta considered building a motor for Kyle.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

The only NASCAR racer I remember seeing on the drag strip was Richard Petty - but that was after he was an established NASCAR star and spent 1 year drag racingbecause Chrysler had boycotted NASCAR & Petty was under contract to them.

Art Malone who drove for Don Garlits ran Martinsville in 1961 Ibelieve in a Pettycar and finished 8th.Also ran the

July race at Daytona in 1962 and finished 10th.Don't remember the year but he made the first 180mph lap at Daytona in a special open wheel car.He went on to race open wheel cars at Indy.

I forgot all about Bill Simpson. I don't have any proof, but it wouldn't surprise me if Bill Simpson ran a stock car race or 2 over the years. He ran Indy Cars for nearly 10 years, although not full time or with great success. With his safety business, he was one to demonstrate his products on himself and might have ventured out into different forms of racing to prove it. I'll keep checking my books, but it wouldn't surprise me if he ran some Nascar.

I think drivers should thank their lucky stars for Bill Simpson.

Wally, how about on the local level? Did places that had both oval tracks and drag strips on the same premises such as the Gore family's Old Dominion in Manassas, Va. have weekly guys who tried their hands at both types of racing, I wonder?


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

And I had no recollection of a NASCAR Drag Racing Division in the summer of 1966 until I stumbled on these links:

http://www.dragracingonline.com/special/nascar_1.html

http://www.dragracingonline.com/special/nasmin_1.html

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

An interesting fact about the Mad Dog IV which was owned by Bob Osiecki was that Bill France had posted a $10,000 bounty for the first person to break the 180 mph lap at Daytona.On August 29th,1961Bill France went home with $10,000 less in his pocketbook as Art Malone took up his challange and won.Don"t believeBig Bill made any more challenges to up that barrier!!

My drag racing knowledge and experience is severely and extremely limited and highly suspect, but I did once meet someone in drag racing I'd probably have to put on my list of most colorful characters. When I wasat Southland Corporation (7-Eleven/CITGO/Chief Auto Parts) in 1984-1986 we were sponsoring Billy Meyer's Funny Car and Bob Glidden's Pro Stock, as well as the Winternationals at Pomona, CA(Chief Auto Parts) and a new venture, the 7-Eleven Cajun Nationals at Baton Rouge, LA. My program management at the time included NASCAR, IMSA, TransAm and NHRA. I was pretty lost outside of NASCAR, but a January visit in 1985 to Pomona was supposed to make me an expert. From there, sometime in early spring, I travelled to Baton Rouge, LA to meet with "Moose" Pearah, the promoter of the NHRA State Capital Dragway in Baton Rouge, home at the time to the Cajun Nationals, which we desired to sponsor under the 7-Eleven colors. It is "Moose" Pearah who goes on my list of most colorful characters. My only experience in Louisana at the time was traversing it from stem to stern diagonally on my way with the family station wagon from Dallas to Daytona Beach 4th of July week 1984. Well, "Moose" was certainly a character. He picked me up when I landed and took me first to his business, then to his home. I had never heard of "Rent to Own" automobiles until I met this colorful drag strip operator. That was his main business, along with an auto insurance agency he was operating on the corner of his rent to own used car lot. He explained to me that under Louisiana law, the Parish Sheriff had to reposess a car for him as soon as a 'rental" payment was missed, then he began the process all over with a new client. I had also never been out in the bayou or eaten crawfish until I met "Moose". With him driving, I did both these things. We were absolutely in the middle of nowhere and I was not very comfortable. I expected any minute to see the ghost of Huey Long or some character from "Look Homeward, Angel." It was very different from going to the barbecue joint in North Carolina. We did over some pitchers of cold refreshment reach a sponsorship agreement. One interesting note is that the dragway was built beside a horse track, something kind of in common with Dover. The only other strip I got to was in Gainesville, Florida for the Gator Nationals.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Drag Racing?
Legal Drag Racing on the Drag Strip or Illegal Street Drag Racing ?
What kind Racing was Kyle Busch doing 120mph? Drag Racing or NASCAR Racing?

Fred Lorenzen website:
FRED LORENZEN . . . . . . by Steve Samples
As a young man, he won the National Gas Eliminators at the tender age of 18 proving his mettle on the drag strip. Just a few years later he would try his hand at another form of racing. Stock car racing. The results would be a pair of United States Auto Club Championships in 1958 and 1959, and a venture into NASCAR as a full time driver for Holman-Moody in 1961. It was in NASCARs southern stock car circuit, referred to as the Grand National Division (currently Nextel Cup) that Lorenzen would establish his Fischer-like credentials. In his first season as a factory driver, young Fred would outduel veteran Curtis Turner at Darlingtons famous egg shaped oval to claim victory in the annual Rebel 300. The win would have been significant had a rookie simply outdriven the legendary Turner, but Lorenzen went a step further. He actually created a never before traveled groove on the high banks of Darlington. In turn two on the final lap, with room for only one and a half cars to proceed, Fred Lorenzen earned a nickname that would follow him forever. The nickname was 'Fearless Freddie'. At 130 miles an hour with the wall fast approaching, Lorenzen did the impossible. He faked high, drove low, and while Turner was hopelessly trying to run him into the outer guardrail, Fred Lorenzen somehow passed on the inside. The maneuver frustrated Turner so much that he slammed his car into Lorenzen during the victory lap. It was vintage Turner. It was vintage Lorenzen.
http://www.fredlorenzen.com/

http://www.fredlorenzen.com/Pictures.htm

Fred Lorenzen facebook 32 photos

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fred-Lorenzen/198248260212478#!/photo.php?fbid=2099475281332&set=o.198248260212478&type=1&theater

Kyle Busch was doing neither.