NASCAR Hall of Fame 5th Class Finalist - Red Byron, Driver
 Red Byron (ISC Archives/Getty) |
SEE ALSO: Complete List Of Finalists - Includes Official NASCAR Bio's and Pictures
(b. 3/12/15 – d. 11/11/60)Hometown:
Anniston, Ala.
Competed:
1949-51
Starts:
15
Wins:
2
Poles:
2
Robert "Red" Byron was there at
the outset, to say the least.
Byron won the sanctioning
body’s first race in 1948, on the Daytona beach-road course. He went
on in ’48 to win NASCAR’s first season championship – in
the NASCAR Modified Division. The following year he won NASCAR’s
first Strictly Stock title – the precursor to today’s NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series – driving for car owner Raymond Parks. The Strictly
Stock schedule had eight races; Byron won two of them.
Wounded in World War II, Byron
drove with a special brace attached to the clutch pedal, to assist an
injured leg – making his accomplishments even more impressive. That
injury contributed to Byron’s relatively brief career, after which he
continued to be involved in motorsports.
When he died in 1960 at the age
of 45, Byron had branched out, striving to make more history, by developing
an American car capable of winning the famed 24 Hours of LeMans sports car
event.
In 1998, he was named one of NASCAR’s 50
Greatest Drivers, recognition of a highly significant career, the relative
brevity of it notwithstanding.
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