Stumpy's Corner: Smokey and NASCAR's Early Years Part One

I have been re-reading Smokey Yunick's book "Best Damn Garage in Town" of late.? Henry "Smokey" Yunick was one of those guys who was around at the beginning of NASCAR, and also raced at Indianapolis as well when it was the "Big Dog" in auto racing.? He was an inventor and innovator, and often out smarted the rule book.? The rule writers considered him a "cheater," not because he actually violated rules but because he did things they had never thought of!

Smokey was of the breed of human that won World War Two.? He was tough and smart and ended up serving as a flier in every theater of the war.? His nickname came from the nose art he used on his B-17 which was the cartoon character in the comic strips of the day "Smokey Stover" a fireman.? Yunick's plane was called "Smokey and his Firemen."

He started as a bomber pilot and later was reassigned to clandestine operations.? These?often involved flying well behind enemy lines to drop supplies, deliver or pick up agents, or get shot down fliers out of bad situations before they could be captured.? These flights were heavily classified and he never got much recognition for what he did, nor did he care.? Like most soldiers, he just wanted to be alive at the end of the war.? During slow periods?in his flying adventures, he taught himself engineering, chemistry, and aerodynamics by getting free books through Army Air Corps library programs.

Also like many fighting men of the era, Smokey did not pass up?"recreation," in the form of drinking and woman chasing.? He had no preferences during the war with the nationality of either the booze or the women.? He?also was exposed to?a few?money making opportunities of the times by observing the corrupt military and civilian leadership in the many countries in which he served, particularly in the China-Burma-India Theater.?

When you look back at those who survived World War Two, there are two main types.? The guys who served their country and then quietly went home to a normal 9 to 5 life, and those who thrived?on "living on the edge"?with post war life far too dull.? Auto racing of the post-WWII era was filled with those who "couldn't slow down!"

Smokey states how Stock Car racing in the South began in a couple of paragraphs: "Start with a man who had a piece of land and a relative with a small bulldozer.? Next thing you know, you have a race track.? Next you throw in a con-man who envisions a series of?annual races he can live off of comfortably.? Then, to these few tracks and some organization, you add small garage owners, or young people associated with surface transportation, who like to build?noisy, fast cars."

"Lastly, you add some parts and capital from the local car dealer, parts store, tire shop, or gas station, bribe the local sports editor, wait a week, stir well, open the gates to fans on Sunday, milk a few bucks from 'em to get in plus sell 'em Hot Dogs, Cokes, and beer for double the price, and presto-Stock Car Racing!? Really a weird cross-section of Americans, that today would get into social trouble (as we were then.)"? This last was in relation to the standard off track fare of the average racer which was drinking and woman chasing, something that Stock Car racing had in common with all forms of motor sports of the day.

As you have probably already realized, Bill France Sr. was the "con-man who could live off a series of annual races."? At the time, France had promoted a few races using Daytona's beach and highway 1 to make an oval.? He ran a small gas station and garage in town and was a master bullshitter with the local politicians and motel owners.? But he saw that there was opportunity for a regional racing series based on production cars which needed little money to race.

Rather than being a race driver, Smokey became an owner-mechanic,?"the brains of the outfit" because he could build great engines and cars out of the Detroit?stuff being manufactured at the time.?? In reality, there was little new being made by American car manufacturers because they could sell?all the old technology they were using as fast as they could build it.? Smokey had seen better technology that was manufactured?in Europe?during the thirties than Detroit was building in the fifties!?

When France formed NASCAR with the help of a few track owners and other racing movers and shakers, the Modifieds were the main draw.? These were cut down pre-WWII coupes and sedans with big engines and drivers with big egos.? Some were various scofflaws who delivered Moonshine, or were in some other activity "on the margins of legality."? All liked to go fast, on the track, in the bar, and in the bedroom.? Smokey built and campaigned Modifieds for?Marshall Teague?and Glenn "Fireball" Roberts.

After getting established with the Modifieds at a growing number of Southern dirt tracks, France recognized that to get REAL attention, he'd have to move into "Late Models."? He formed rules for a strictly stock division and named it "Grand National" in typical?"understated" France style.? He battled other small organizations to get Darlington Speedway sanctioned by NASCAR, the first "Super Speedway" in the South.? It was also one of the very few paved tracks.

Darlington was to be the home of the Southern stock car people's "Indy 500."? It got immediate attention by a press which was far more interested in stick and ball sports.?? Owner Harold Brasington slipped and few dollars under the table with local sports writers to cover the race.? France's sights were higher.? He bribed a group of regional and one national sports reporter to cover it.?

The race was a huge success and got NASCAR it's first national attention.?? At the time, the AAA was THE racing sanction in the nation and merely laughed at "those hillbillies in stock cars."? By 1956, AAA was gone and USAC took over.? USAC was less inclined to overlook "those hillbillies" and promoted it's own Stock Car division, which it ran in addition to the Indy 500, Champ Cars, Sprint Cars, and Midgets nation wide.?? They really took notice that Stock Car racing was exploding nationally in popularity and that NASCAR was expanding into the North and Midwest.

Across America,?at various?small speedways everywhere, the "door slammers" and "taxi cabs" as open wheel fans and racers derisively called stock cars, were becoming more and more popular.? It was a trend that NASCAR would take advantage of.? And Smokey would be there....Mr Stumpy

Source: http://stumpyscorner.blogspot.com/2013/03/smokey-and-nascars-early-years-part-one.html

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