Here is a great example of how bad NASCAR is on it's own history. This is a video of the NASCAR Hall Of Fame "Historian" stating that NASCAR had "about 32 races" in '48?. Come on!! This should be common knowledge, especially to the NASCAR Historian, that there were 52 races. At least he knew 1948 was the first season, lol.
Wow, that's an incredible find. The list of drivers is amazing. N.B., when at you going to open up a museum?
I thought Billy was saying in 1948 sometimes Big Bill would let all different types of cars in a race to fill the field. I guess I misunderstood.
Well, I learnt something new. I didn't realize Fonty sometimes drove a Parks car. Great info, thanks!
N.B., did you mean September 7, 1947 for Martinsville? Their first race in '48 was on July 4th won by Fonty Flock. Peace Haven had a non points race the next day won by Curtis Turner. I'm wondering why the race wasn't counted?
The Fielden book is NASCAR Chronicle. The schelule in the book looks to be the same as the one above (probably taken from the book). It's a very good book and one of the few that does tell a little of the 1948 season. Thanks for prompting me to get it out. It helped explain to me what Billy was referring to above.
Great story about Gober Sosbee. Goes to show, the fans (customers) really have the power when it comes right down to it.
Now an embarassing question I should aready know... Was there a 3rd Parks car in '48? I know 2 were Red Byron #22, and Bob Flock #14. Their wins would add up to 16 if I saw right. Who was the other 15? I thought Fonty Flock drove the Joe Wolf #47?
Nevertheless, the Georgia drivers dominated back then.
Dave, with morediscussions like this one maybe we'll start to set the record straight about the beginning of NASCAR. Feel free to pass on the 1948season results page to Richmond. It's mind-boggling that the track doesn't even know it's own history!
Great info, Billy. Taking into account that there where many other sanctioning bodies in 1948, it leads me to speculate the rules and regulations were pretty much the same among them. And Big Bill probably just "borrowed" them to use for NASCAR with a minor tweek hereor there. Therefore I may never find a rules book for that year. But since that first season they called the cars "Modified" I'm guessing that were the same as the '49, '50, '51... modifieds which allowed two carburetors, camshaft mods, and wheel and brake upgrades.I'm taking what you're saying as - inthe 1948 season you could run a modified, or even a less modified "Sportsman" type car as long as it met the other basic regulations. Possiblyeven a roadsteralso if needed to fill the field?
I've noticed quite a few odd things about the 1948 season and it's so frustrating that NASCAR, or even racing historians, have skipped over that first year like it didn't even count or exist. I can't even count how many times I've read on supposedly reputable websites that NASCAR's first race was June 19, 1949.The whole lack of knowledge and clarity of the very first season of this massive racing organization so many follow and enjoy is completely pathetic and miserably inadequate.
* The first oddity I've noticed is the multiple races on the same day. Nothing strange for that time to have a "Double Feature", two points races on the same day at the same track, but I'm talking about multiple races on the same day in different states. Sometimes as many as 3 races in different states on a single day. I don'treally understand how that worked when everyone couldn't be at the same race.
* Another oddity is Johnny Rogers' win at Dover N.J.. I know he was mostly a northern driver who raced in different sanctioning bodies in that region, but he doesn't show up in the points standings. Maybe just a typographical error? I don't know.
* Another oddityI've heard mention isthat NASCAR sanctioned many more races than the historically mentioned 52. I've seen people mention this in various discussions on the internet over the past few years. Here is one comment from memoryI was able to track down from a blog post on NCpedia.com-
The notion that NASCAR sanctioned only 52 races in 1948, although perpetuated ad nauseum all over the net and in various books, is total fiction. Besides the 52 1948 mostly Southern races reported in the 1949 NASCAR Yearbook, NASCAR also sanctioned about 30 other modified events in the Northeast at Allentown, Pa., Dover, NJ. Lewiston ME, Kingston RI, Fonda NY, and Palmyra NY.
I'm really looking forward to reading this book.
