Legends of NASCAR - Robert "Red" Byron Traditional Cache
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Legends of NASCAR - Robert "Red" Byron
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This series is in honor of the legends of
the sport of NASCAR racing who have passed away. There is something
for everyone (the numbers hounds or the history buffs). The series
is meant to be done from east to west. Please park completely off
of the road and use caution at all times. Most weekends, there
isn't more than a handfull of cars along this road but 2 weekends a
year this becomes one of the largest cities in the
State!
Anniston, Alabama's Robert "Red" Byron made
history by winning the first NASCAR Strictly Stock (now Nextel Cup)
Championship in 1949. In just 15 races, Byron scored two poles, two
wins, and seven other top 10 finishes, earning 842.5 championship
points. He was followed by Lee Petty, Bob Flock, Bill Blair, and
Fonty Flock to round out the top 5 that year. Robert "Red" Byron
won the first NASCAR sanctioned race on a beach-road course in
February 15, 1948. He went on to win eleven races that year and
finished in the top three twenty-three times, and he also won the
very first NASCAR Championship. Red Byron got his start in the
early '30s in unorganized races at a little known track at
Talladega. When World War 2 broke out Byron served as a tail-gunner
on a B-24 pulling off 57 missions before his plane was shot down
over the Aleutian Islands on run number 58. Red spent 27 months in
military hospitals while doctors tried to rebuild his left leg. The
doctors didn't think that Red would ever walk again but in February
1946 Red returned to racing again at Seminole Speedway near
Orlando, FL. He drove a car owned by Raymond Parks and because of
his injured left leg, he had to have it put in a steel stirrup,
which was bolted to the clutch. Byron won that race beating out
such drivers as Bob and Fonty Flock, Mad Marion McDonald, Roy Hall,
and Bill France. He also won his next race at Daytona beach-road
course, beating out Roy Hall again. After a short career in AAA
cars, Byron returned to stock cars in 1947 and won half of the 18
races he entered. He finished third in points and only competed in
less than half the races that year. Red retired from racing in the
early '50s to head a sports car racing team. He was inducted into
the National Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1966 and in 1998 he was
named one of the top-50 NASCAR drivers. Poor health forced him out
of driving but not out of racing. He worked for a time with Briggs
Cunningham, who was trying to develop an American sports car that
could win Grand Prix races, and then became manager of a Corvette
team that had the same goal. Neither project succeeded, but Byron
enjoyed sports cars. When he died of a heart attack at a Chicago
hotel in 1960 at the age of forty-four, he was managing a team in
Sports Car Club of America competition.
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