An Interview with Sammy Packard

In December 1947, Bill France Sr., tallest in top row, gathered racers, car owners and promoters for a meeting at the Streamline Hotel in the Ebony Bar on State Road A1A in Daytona Beach. The end result was a new racing sanctioning body: NASCAR. At top left is Sammy Packard.(Photo: The Daytona Beach News-Journal)Question: A little more than 55 years ago, you and a couple of other gentlemen sat over at the Streamliner Hotel (in Daytona Beach, Fla.) and decided to start this little thing called NASCAR. Describe that meeting.Packard: I think there were 31-32 of us there. Bill France contacted us, different people -- mechanics, drivers, promoters -- and had us gather at one place to start NASCAR."Question: What did you bring to the table? What was your role?Packard: I was a midget driver, and I decided I wanted to get involved in stock car racing. I came down here one time to see what was going on -- I came from Providence, R.I. -- and I liked it, and I went to work for Bill France. When he had this meeting, he notified me, had me come down here, and I was, more or less, the New England representative."Question: What was your impression of the meeting? Was it something you thought would work?Packard: We were having a great deal of problems with promoters running off with the purse. We'd get done racing, and we'd have no promoter, no money. This organization was put together so the promoter had to deposit the money before the race so we were sure to get paid afterwards."Question: That was one of the main reasons to start NASCAR.Packard: I believe so."Question: Fifty-five years later, looking back at what this organization has become, what's your overall impression?Packard: Now it's strictly a rich man's sport. The garage man, the individual, he doesn't fit into the picture anymore."Question: Was that ever the intent 55 years ago?Packard: No one imagined it would possibly get as big as it is today."Question: Even at 83, are you still involved in racing?Packard: Oh yeah, I still have a midget. We run it with the antique association. I have a friend who has a '39 Ford Coupe I drive in the vintage races."Question: Going back to that first meeting when NASCAR was formed, you said it was something that was put together to make sure the promoters were on the up-and-up and didn't take money. Did anybody have any idea it would grow much beyond that?Packard: It was a Southern group, through the Carolinas and into Florida. It didn't expand for several years. It started getting up into New York and Pennsylvania and eventually it got up into New England. It was hard to get the track owners to sign up because they didn't know what it was. Once they got organized and everything, it covers the whole United States now."Question: Was Bill France the ultimate salesman?Packard: Yes."Question: What made it work?Packard: Bill France. He surrounded himself with the right people, promoters and so forth who knew what the operation was and they got it off the ground."Question: As big as Bill dreamed, could he imagine what it's become today?Packard: No way. There was one man who was a promoter, Bill Tutthill, who came down from New York and joined in with Bill. He was the vice president. He was one of the leading pushers of NASCAR."Question: Will you go to the races?Packard: No. When I got done driving, I became an inspector, and I worked for NASCAR all over the country for eight years. Frankly speaking, I couldn't afford to go to them today."Question: Any other memories of that first meeting?Packard: I remember Red Vogt; he was a mechanic from Atlanta. He came up with the name NASCAR. Marshall Teague was there, and I believe Marshall was elected treasurer."Question: Looking at where NASCAR is today and looking back, it's kind of easy to forget how and why NASCAR was even formed. Do you feel like the sport as moved so fast and so quickly, it's forgotten where it came from?Packard: Ninety-percent of it has been forgotten. People have gotten older or passed on. The old beach races, to me that was the greatest. Today it's all condominiums down there and you can hardly drive on the beach anymore. It's not like it used to be."Question: Tell us about the first time you raced on the beach.Packard: The first time I came here to run, I brought a '37 Buick Phaeton. I went down into the north turn, and I went sliding across the seat and ended up on the passenger side. I got back down to the pit area, which wasn't anything but a spot in the sand, and had some kids with me and I said, I can't sit in this thing. I'm sliding around on the leather seats.' So they got some rope they found on the beach and tied me in it. That was my first safety belt."Question: Was that one of the first seat belts in the sport?Packard: No, I imagine there were other people that had more sense than I did."Question: You said 90 percent of the past had been forgotten. Were you disappointed when they came out with the 50 greatest people of NASCAR and they didn't look back at the people who started NASCAR?Packard: The people that originally started it have been long forgotten and they get very little recognition. A few, like Fireball Roberts, David Pearson, Tim Flock, they get a little. Other than that, they're forgotten."Question: What kind of promoter was Bill France?Packard: I came from Providence, R.I., and the people in the South didn't like a Yankee winning their races. They threw bottles and rocks at me. So Bill started telling people I was from Atlanta. Once everyone believed I was from Atlanta, they liked me."In the beginning Bill France had a good idea on how to control the tracks and also the drivers but as you can see things just got out of hand. After Nascar ventured out of the south people started holding out their hand for a piece of the pie so now in todays racing its no shake and bake anymore its all to nobodys liking except the greedy hand.