In a discussion of the Rex White win on June 29, 1958, the subject came up of who was the actual car owner for that win, since different sources list different owners.
One thing I can tell you for sure is that Racing Reference and just about every single other source is TOTALLY INCORRECT compared with the actual listed owner of record on the original event entry blank submitted to NASCAR and the promoter (a copy was mailed to each and either could refuse the entry, like Darlington always did to Wendell Scott) when they list the car owner as Petty Enterprises, Roush Racing, Hendrick Motorsports, etc.
I have handled enough NASCAR Cup, LMS, Modified, Busch, etc. entry blanks in my lifetime to know that is NOT how those entry blanks were filled out.
For instance, for tax purposes, to skirt NASCAR rules on multiple car teams and for other reasons, when I was at the Richmond track, an entry blank NEVER, EVER read Roush Racing. It would list Jack Roush or Geoff Smith or Geoff Smith's daughter as the car owner. An entry blank never read Hendrick Motorsports. It would read Rick Hendrick, Linda Hendrick, Joe Hendrick, Ricky Hendrick and assorted others as the car owner.
The same is true for Petty Enterprises. An entry blank was never received listing that name as the car owner. NASCAR rules specifically required the naming of an individual as the car owner.
That brings me to Red Myler. Do you know Red Myler?
I first met Kenny "Red" Myler in Fall of 1981 at Bud Moore's Spartanburg, SC race shop when we visited to affirm the move we'd make for 1982 taking our Wrangler sponsorship with Dale Earnhardt there from Richard Childress for the 1982 Winston Cup season.
Bud introduced me to a very nice, soft spoken gentleman in a front corner of the shop building rear end gears. That was Red. I was in my mid-30s then and I thought him elderly. He was probably about my age today. I found out later that he was Bud's shop foreman during their multi-car Trans-Am Championship winning days.
Red never went to the track in those days, though I believe he came to one of the Charlotte races. He stayed at the shop. It was on another of my visits that Red mentioned to me that his daughter was married to Maurice Petty, but I didn't make any other connection between Red and the Pettys.
Well, if you look at Racing Reference or most any other stat site, you'll see Petty Enterprises listed as the car owner for the winning Oldsmobile in the inaugural 1959 Daytona 500 won by Lee Petty. However, if you had access to the actual entry blank, you'd find the car owner of record for that winning Oldsmobile listed as Ken Myler. Myler was also the crew chief for that winning entry. Why was Myler listed as the owner? Many think it was to lessen the friction with Chrysler Corporation over Lee's impending switch to Plymouth.
Then again, knowing what an astute businessman Lee Petty was, Red may have been listed as the owner simply for tax purposes.
If you look up Red's name - usually listed as Kenny Myler - you'll find Red listed as the winning car owner for Cale Yarborough at Valdosta, Georgia in 1965. Not a whole lot of other info, though.
The stats won't tell you that it was Red who Lee Petty dispatched as chief mechanic to Columbia, SC in 1958 to accompany a young Richard Petty and Dale Inman for their first race.
The stats won't tell you of the success Red had with Jack Smith.
The stats won't tell you how many multiple car teams Red turned wrenches on, including for the Pettys, Moore and Smith.
In fact, in a 1960s story in the Spartanburg paper written by later to be NASCAR VP of Marketing and Communications, Jim Foster, it was estimated that if records were kept, no mechanic in NASCAR history had turned the wrenches for more multiple car entries that finished 1-2 in the same race or both scored top-5 finishes in the same race than Kenny "Red" Myler.
That was the same Kenny "Red" Myler - the quiet fellow working in the background, but the actual owner of record on the "Official" NASCAR and Daytona International Speedway entry blank for the first Daytona 500 winning car.
I really had the "bad stats" thing hammered home on Thanksgiving Day 1990 when I was interviewing Ned Jarrett for a feature magazine story I had been commissioned to write for a Tennessee publication. As Media Relations Director at the time for the Richmond track, we naturally talked about Ned's long running Ford factory sponsorship by Richmond "Ford" Motor Company.
We also talked about Ned's Richmond races. I mentioned his 1963 Richmond win, listed in the Winston Media Guide in a Bondy Long car and Ned quickly corrected me. That winning car, he informed me, was owned by Charles "Red" Robinson of Burton-Robinson Construction Company in Manassas, Virginia - the man who retired from racing when Jimmy Pardue was killed in his car the following year at Charlotte.
Ned wanted me to set the record straight that many sources had his winning car owner incorrect, including the "Official" NASCAR Winston Cup Series Media Guide which had gotten their stats from my old friend, Gene Granger in Spartanburg. Gene and Greg Fielden at one time collaborated on their stats research projects. Ned wanted Red Robinson to get credit where credit was due. It about took an act of God, but because of my relationship with Gene, his and Winston's stats were changed to reflect the real winning car owner as named by the man who drove the car.
How many more of those deals are out there? Many, I'm sure.
What Gene Granger, Greg Fielden, Racing Reference, Ultimate Racing History and all the other dedicated purveyors of racing stats have achieved is amazing. I have the utmost respect for what those folks have accomplished and use their data bases nearly every day.
Remember, however, just because you see it listed in a data base doesn't mean it's correct.
Remember the Reds. That's why it is so important to record NASCAR history from the actual history makers and the fans and crews and media who were there.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 08/07/18 05:12:09AM
