Looking at a Dennis Andrews response to a Tim Leeming history post several years ago, it dawned on me that today is the 65th anniversary of the first Ford Grand National win in NASCAR on June 25, 1950 in Dayton, Ohio..
Here's the comment Dennis made back in 2013:
"Jimmy Florian was the first to win a Grand National race in a Ford when he won at the Dayton Speedway on June 25, 1950 in a '50 Ford with Euclid Motors on the side of the car. The car originally belonged to the Chief of Police in Detroit."
I haven't done any research, but maybe Tim, Dennis or Chase have much more info.
The article below appeared on the Wood Brothers Racing site in 2011:
Shirtless Jimmy Florian Gives Ford Racing First NASCAR Win
In NASCARs formative days, the stars who won all the races and championships were the likes of Lee Petty, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly, Herb Thomas and Red Byron.
Not many people outside of Ohio knew who Jimmy Florian was when NASCARs stock car circuit came to the Dayton Speedway on June 25, 1950, but that all changed when the 27-year-old Cleveland native shocked his fellow competitors and fans alike by winning the 100-lap feature in a 1950 flathead Ford.
Florian passed Turner with 35 laps to go and never looked back in giving Ford its first official NASCAR Grand National win.
It was a car originally that belonged to the chief of police in Detroit and Euclid Ford got a hold of it, recalled Florians best friend, Bill Whitley, who spoke about that day with Ford Racing in 1999. The night that he won the race against (Curtis) Turner, (Joe) Weatherly all the big boys were there he just outdrove them thats all. We talked about that for years and years and years.
I kept telling him there was no way he could outrun those Oldsmobiles with a flathead Ford, but we had been running on that track seven nights a week in midgets and sprint cars and it was just a fact that we were very familiar with it and they werent, continued Whitley. He just outdrove them.
Some of his fellow drivers couldnt believe it either and protested, but Florians No. 27 Euclid Motors Ford passed NASCARs post-race inspection. Florian claimed the $1000 prize money for winning that day and firmly embedded himself in Ford Racing history.
He was about a half lap ahead when the race was over, recalled Whitley. I remember a whole lot about it because it was four oclock in the morning before we got paid. Turner, Weatherly, Petty the whole bunch they protested saying there was no way they could have been outrun with a flathead Ford.
And while his accomplishment on the race track was big enough news, he generated even more when he got out of car in victory lane bare chested. NASCAR eventually established a rule that a driver had to at least wear a shirt while driving. Hence, the nickname Shirtless Jimmy Florian.
It was hotter than hell, thats all there was to that, said Whitley about why Florian wasnt wearing a shirt that day. The rulebook back thenyou didnt have any rollbarsyou didnt have to have a seatbelt if you didnt want it, and the seat had to be just like it came out of the factory a plain old seat and they were uncomfortable.
You couldnt do anything to the car back then. For ventilation, you had to run with the windows down and that was the main reason he was shirtless. He thought that was the greatest because he had all the protection in the world around him. We ran a midget and sprint car back then and you had to have something on because you were getting hit by rocks. That was the main reason for that.
Florian didnt win anymore NASCAR events, but continued to have a successful short track career locally. He raced until he was 70 years old and often took his four children three daughters and a son to the race track with him. He sold his final vintage sprint car when he was 72 and lived for three more years until he passed away from cancer in February 1999 at the age of 75.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
