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 Le Mans 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.
This is the latest in
a series of GodfatherMotorsports.com biographies profiling the 25 nominees for
the 2012 class of the NASCAR Hall Of Fame. Each of the 25 candidates will be
profiled in the coming weeks, in alphabetical order.
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