Racing History Minute - August 17, 1952
Stock Car Racing History
Tim, I never read one of your History Minutes that I don't learn something(s) and realize how little I know about NASCAR's early days and want to find out more.
I know very little about the winner of today's highlighted race - Bob Flock. I have often read that many who watched all the members of that talented family race rated him the the most proficient driver of the lot.
I know even less about the owner of the top-2 finishing cars in today's featured event - Ted Chester, a resident of Dawsonville, Georgia. Somewhere on this RR site I bet Cody Dinsmore has posted about that early NASCAR car owner. Maybe he can post an update or perhaps someone else can paint a portrait of Mr. Chester for us.
I just read this morning that the former East 4th Street in Dawsonville was renamed this past July 2013 to TED CHESTER STREET to honor the Dawsonville car owner.
When I looked up his stats as a NASCAR Grand National Car Owner, Ted Chester's Winning Percentage was astounding to me. Between 1950-1957, Ted Chester-owned NASCAR Grand National cars won 20 times in just 125 starts for a win percentage of 16% as a car owner. How, you might ask, does that win percentage compare to some other NASCAR Car Owners / Teams with which we might be more familiar? Here's a selected few I ran the percentages on to see how Ted Chester stacked up. These are just selected teams most will be familiar with... there may be others with better percentages. Entries and wins are through the past week.
SELECTED NASCAR STRICTLY STOCK/GRAND NATIONAL/CUP OWNER-TEAM WIN PERCENTAGES
Owner/Team Starts Wins Winning Percentage
Karl Kiekhaefer 190 52 27.4%
Holman-Moody 526 96 18.3%
TED CHESTER 125 20 16.0%
Junior Johnson 1048 132 12.6%
Petty Enterprises 2817 268 9.5%
Cotton Owens Garage 405 38 9.4%
Wood Brothers 1403 98 7.0%
Joe Gibbs 1581 107 6.8%
Rick Hendrick 3203 215 6.7%
Bud Moore Engineering 958 63 6.6%
Richard Childress Racing 2339 103 4.4%
Jack Roush 3078 132 4.3%
Oh... by the way - early the next season after today's event - in 1953 - car owner Ted Chester was shopping for a family member in an Atlanta pet store. A rambunctious monkey caught his eye. Chester bought the monkey, named him Jocko Flocko and convinced his driver, Tim Flock to carry him in the race car with him. Thus, we also have Ted Chester to thank for the infamous Jocko Flocko!
I'd sure like to learn more about car owner Ted Chester.
