Frankie Schneider of Lambertville, New Jersey was a stock car, modified, midget, and sprint car racer. He had one NASCAR Grand National victory at Old Dominion Speedway in 1958. He also won the 1952 NASCAR modified title, where he may have scored at least 100 wins.

Schneider began his career in 1947 by winning $70 for driving his street car to a seventh place at Flemington Speedway. Schneider is believed to have won at least 750 races in the next thirty years. He routinely raced eight races per week (in several classes). He reportedly scored at least 100 wins in 1958. Schneider won the Langhorne National Open, the country's most noted event for Sportsman and Modified racers, in 1954 and again in 1962. He scored his last feature win in 1977 at the 1/2-mile dirt track Nazareth Speedway. He still occasionally races at Orange County Fair in a Modified. He was recently voted driver of the century by Area Auto Racing News.



"The '57 Chevy and NASCAR share a special link that makes these paint schemes particularly fitting," said Chew. "In 1957 the factory issued basic black utility coupes for NASCAR competition and gave them to many of the Chevy team drivers. Because of their black color, they were nicknamed Black Widows. Rex White, Jack Smith, Speedy Johnson, Frankie Schneider and Buck Baker all drove those cars and Baker won 10 out of 40 races that year en route to the NASCAR Grand National championship."




Schneider and Nazareth Speedway


Nazareth Speedway was a motor racing circuit in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania which operated from the 1910s to 2004. The track is often associated with local drivers Mario and Michael Andretti. It was associated with Frankie Schneider in its earlier dirt track history.

The track was renovated, and re-opened in April 1966 as named. The track featured modified races. Frankie Schneider had a clean sweeps at the event - he had the fastest qualifying time, won his heat race, and won the feature event. That turned out to be the only event at the track in the season.

The track held nine events in 1967, which turned out to be the most the track hosted. Frankie Schneider won five of the events.