Racing History Minute - June 8, 1952
Stock Car Racing History
13th place June 8, 1952 Lakewood NASCAR Speedway Division finisher and outside pole sitter, Al Fleming , was an extremely talented open wheel driver from my hometown of Richmond, Virginia. He passed in 1966 at age 59. In your first photo (I've reproduced it below) , that's Al Fleming in car #74 starting on the outside pole at Lakewood. The Hudson powered entry was owned by JB Siegfred.
When the NASCAR Speedway Division got to Charlotte Speedway on June 29, 1952, Richmond's Al Fleming put his #74 Hudson powered machine on the pole - below:
In 2001, the Indy cars returned to Richmond for the first time since the early 50s. On October 12, 1946, Al Fleming of Richmond won the 3rd heat of the first racing event (won by Ted Horn) ever staged on the brand new 1/2-mile dirt track at the Virginia State Fairground's Strawberry Hill, owned by Atlantic Rural Exposition. The red car below that was displayed before the 2001 Richmond Indy Car race is the very one Fleming drove at Richmond in 1946:
Below is a 1952 NASCAR Speedway Division photo of Richmond's Al Fleming in his #74 Hudson powered JB Siegfred car beside Bill Miller in Raymond Parks' #7 Olds powered entry:
That's Al Fleming of Richmond back in 1946 wheeling his #8 outside of Bill Holland's #3 on the same Lakewood track:
Fleming raced far and wide from his Richmond, Virginia home base. Below, that's Fleming getting ready to start his #4 from the outside pole at a 1948 AAA race in Belleville, Kansas: