Sit down and I'll tell ya 'bout that first superspeedway race. There was this feller come up out of Spartansburg where I growed up, no not that one, this 'nother feller by the name of Joe Eubanks. This was a way back in the late 40's. Ol' Joe, he was one of the 'riginals.
Raced for NASCAR right from the start running in Sportsman races. But Ol, Joe wanted to run Grand National, the big leagues! So in 1950 when they run that first big Southern 500 down the road a piece in Darlington, Joe grabs a local wrench head by the name of Bud Moore and they head off to see if they can run with the big dogs.
This here hot-shot by the name of Curtis Turner put his Eanes Motor Co. backed Olds with brand new Dunlop tires from a Dunlop dealer sponsorship on the pole in a field of 75 with a wind tearing speed of 82 miles per hour. Joe, he didn't care none that he was just shy of 79 miles per hour long's he had that new Mercury starting that race in 21st. He was there to prove he could race big time and that's what he was aiming to do.
Well, Turner, he loses his lead, first lap to Ol' Gober Sosebee divin' down off the high side in that 3 car wide front row. He took it to 'em for 'bout 4 laps before "Pops" Turner comes up and give 'em one of his patented "pops" in the rear end. Gober got a loose and Turner go-ed low on 'em to take the lead. Once Pops got to the front he was one of the hardest to get 'round but 'nother one of them Spartansburg boys by the name of Cotton Owens, feller had hair like a cotton boll, all fuzzy y'know, well, Cotton managed to get his nose down below Turner and slides back up in front of him. Before Turner can "pops" him again Owens slips away and goes out as the lead dog in that big old pack.
Trouble was all them boys was used to running dirt tracks, bout all the asphalt they'd ever raced was that long beach drive on the highway down there to Daytona, when they come up off the beach. That old straight away didn't make no difference on the tires they was all used to running. But Big Bill had him a ringer in that race. Seems France had come up to Darlington with a car for that first 500 miler with a partner, Alvin Hawkins, who was the flagman. France knew this 500 miler would go down in history and it was paying some good money too. Had a purse of $25,000.
He brought in a feller from California name a "Madman" Johnny Mantz. Then he brought in Hubert Westmoreland, a legend in the lightnin' runnin' business, as partner #3 to tweak the engine of their '50 Plymouth. Turns out that car was used by France to run business errands before they made it a race car.
But like I was sayin', them ol' boys was used to runnin dirt tracks. T'weren't nothin' to get a few races out of a set of tires. Mantz, who had been running AAA Indy cars had a ton of asphalt racing under his belt so he suggested to Westmoreland to run truck tires with a harder compound than a normal auto tire. As the laps counted down to round 'bout 50 laps, everybody was having tires wear out on them and having to duck down pit road. Mantz had qualified slowest of all 75 cars on them rock hard tires but by lap 50 every other car had to pit and Mantz kept right on a-goin'.
Madman never looked back as some of them cars went thru' over 30 tires trying to last to the end. That ol' Lady in Black was chewin' up tires faster than they could put a new pair on. Mantz managed to run that whole race on them truck tires and run away to a 9 lap win over Fireball Roberts. Madman only qualified at a shade less than 73 and a 1/2 miles per hour but he finished six and a half hours later at an average of a little over 75. Took him home a little over ten grand for that race in France's fast back Plymouth.
"Pops" Turner? Well he went and turned that Olds over on lap 275, broke his nose, finished in 60th place and took home $320 in qualifying and lap money. Ol' Cotton come home in 7th place, 20 laps behind and Gober took home 17th, still running but 36 laps behind.
Eubanks come home to Spartansburg after proving he could run with the big dogs. Finished in 19th place outta 75 cars! And Ol' Joe, went back to the Grand Nationals again in '51. In only his fourth start he was away up north in Detroit for the Motor City race and durn near won. He was leading with 18 laps to go but Tommy Thompson went by him like the po-lice was chasing him and stole away that victory. Ol' Joe never did win a race, took himself 3 runner-up spots, 3 poles and 68 top 10's in 130 races. He finally called it quits the end of '56.
But that finishing so close and just knowing he could do it haunted Joe and after settin' 'round worrying over it for a little over a year and a half his buddy Cotton told him he'd build him a car to run at Darlington for the Southern 500 in '58, 8 years after that first start. He got that Cotton Pontiac in the field in 6th place, led 26 laps and had his clutch quit on him. He ran 2 more races for Cotton and at the third race they was runnin' up there to Hillsborough in North Carolina. They had themselves a 99 mile race there and Joe got in that race starting in 7th place. He run like only Eubanks could, kept himself a steady pace and when Junior Johnson crashed with 12 laps left Joe found himself being the rabbit. He cruised home to a half lap win over the rest of the field. Joe run a few more years but that was his only win.
And Bud Moore. Well, boy, that's a whole 'nother story!
(*Some dramatic "embellishment" was added in the interest of interest. The names and facts weren't changed to give creedence to the innocent. Only the "teller" was changed to protect my guilt.)