Feb. 4, 1950 -- Even though racing has been a February fixture in Daytona Beach for years, the first race of the first official "Speed Week" program is a 100-mile Modified race on the 4.17-mile highway/beach course. Gober Sosebee wins it ahead of Fireball Roberts and Red Cummings.April 2, 1950 -- Tim Flock, who will win two NASCAR Winston Cup championships and 39 more races, gets career victory No. 1 at the 3/4-mile dirt Charlotte (N.C.) Speedway.April 8, 1951 -- NASCAR Winston Cup makes its debut on the West Coast, as Marshall Teague wins a 100-mile race on a half-mile dirt track at Gardena, Calif.Jan. 20, 1952 -- Tim Flock wins a 200-lap, 100-mile dirt track race at West Palm Beach, Fla., a victory that kick-starts him toward the 1952 NASCAR Winston Cup championship.Jan. 28, 1958 -- David Green, the 1994 NASCAR Busch Grand National champion and runnerup for 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup rookie of the year, is born in Owensboro, Ky.Feb. 10, 1952 -- Joie Ray is the first African-American to start a NASCAR-sanctioned race. Driving a Henry J, he starts 25th and finishes 51st on the beach/highway course in Daytona Beach.March 30, 1952 -- Only one of the eight Hudson Hornets that start the 200-lap, 125-mile race finish at North Wilkesboro (N.C.), but that was the one of race-winner Herb Thomas. He started on the pole and led all 200 laps in beating Fonty Flock by a full lap.Feb. 14, 1953 -- A field of 136 entries starts the NASCAR Modified/Sportsman race on the beach/road course in Daytona Beach, Fla. It remains the largest starting field in NASCAR history.April 5, 1953 -- Dick Passwater wins a 150-lap race on the 3/4-mile dirt Charlotte (N.C.) Speedway after most of the favorites fall out or make late-race pit stops. The 112.5-mile race sees a then-record six drivers swap the lead 18 times before Passwater leads the final three laps for his only career NASCAR Winston Cup victory.March 26, 1955 -- Fonty Flock gives Chevrolet its first NASCAR Winston Cup victory in a 200-lap, 100-mile dirt-track race at Columbia (S.C.) SpeedwayApril 3, 1955 Buck Baker defeats Dick Rathmann by three feet at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway in the closest NASCAR Winston Cup finish to that point.Jan. 22, 1956 -- Chrysler drivers Buck Baker, Frank Mundy and Tim Flock give owner Carl Kiekhaefer a 1-2-3 finish in a 150-lap NASCAR Winston Cup dirt-track race at the 1-mile Arizona State Fairgrounds at Phoenix.Feb. 6, 1956 -- Mel Larson is the first driver to use an on-board camera in a NASCAR race. Footage was used in Ford commercialsMarch 18, 1956 -- Driving a 1956 Mercury that speaks to the music of the time, Jim Paschal finishes fourth in a rain-shortened, 108-lap race at the half-mile dirt Wilson (N.C.) Speedway. The ``CU Later Alligator'' car finishes behind the Smokey Yunick-prepared Chevrolet of winner Herb Thomas and the Carl Kiekhaefer-owned Chryslers of teammates Buck Baker and Tim FlockFeb. 17, 1957 -- Cotton Owens, in a Pontiac, becomes the first NASCAR Winston Cup driver to win with an average speed faster than 100 mph. He averages 101.541 in winning a 160-mile race on the Daytona Beach (Fla.) highway/beach course.March 17, 1957 -- Ralph Moody starts fourth and leads the final 100 laps of a 200-lap race at Wilson (N.C.) Speedway, defeating second-place Buck Baker by two laps. It is the fifth and final victory as a driver for Moody, who will go on to earn even greater fame as a car owner with John Holman.Feb. 23, 1958 -- Paul Goldsmith wins the final NASCAR race ever staged on the highway/beach course in Daytona Beach, Fla.March 6, 1958 -- 4 days after being flagged third, Lee Petty is certified as winner of a 200-lap, 100-mi Concord, NC dirt-track raceJan. 6, 1959 -- Officials at the brand-new Daytona International Speedway mail out entry blanks for the inaugural Daytona 500, a race that boasts a total purse of $67,760.Jan. 9, 1959 -- Mark Martin, successful driver Winston Cup and Busch Series racing, is born in Batesville, Ark.Jan. 13, 1959 -- Ernie Irvan, winner of the 91 Daytona 500 & 14 other major NASCAR events since 1990, is born in Salinas, Calif.Feb. 1, 1959 -- Cars get on the brand-new 2.5-mile, high-banked Daytona International Speedway for the first time.Feb. 7, 1959 -- Driving a Chevrolet convertible, Gene White is the first driver to qualify for a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race at the Daytona International SpeedwayFeb. 20, 1959 -- Shorty Rollins wins the first stock car race at the new Daytona International Speedway, a 100-mile qualifying event for convertibles entered in the Daytona 500.Feb. 22, 1959 -- The first Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway sees Lee Petty beat Johnny Beauchamp in a photo finish. It takes officials three days to determine the winner.March 22, 1959 -- After having his apparent victory in the Daytona 500 overturned exactly a month earlier, Johnny Beauchamp gets his first NASCAR Winston Cup victory in a 100-lap race at the 1-mile dirt Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta