July 27, 2007
By Allen Madding

Allen Madding

While there are no clear records or history of when Louis Grier "Buddy" Shuman officially began racing, we do know that he won the first Stock Car race held at Alcyon Speedway at Pitman, New Jersey on August 27, 1948, with Chick Di Natale of Trenton, New Jersey, finishing second. Born September 8, 1915 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Shuman quickly established himself in the racing community as a mechanic and a driver.

It is told that Shuman shined in the NASCAR Modified ranks where he scored 100 feature wins.

Shuman entered NASCAR Grand National Division competition in 1951. Shuman drove R .H. Yandell’s No. 17 Ford at the ½-mile Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina finishing tenth. He followed that with a third place finish in the Southern 500 at Darlington. A sixth place finish came on the ¾-mile dirt Charlotte Speedway.

He finished eighth in the Wilkes 200 at North Wilkesboro’s .625-mile dirt track, ninth at Jacksonville, Florida’s ½-mile dirt Speedway Park, eighth at the one-mile dirt Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, and sixth at the ¾-mile dirt Lakeview Speedway in Mobile, Alabama. In seven starts in his first year of competition with the series, Shuman recorded an amazing one top-5 and seven top-10s.

Shuman began the 1952 season driving his own No. 17 Ford and Oldsmobile in six events and then began driving B.A. Pless’s No. 89 Hudson Hornet. He finished second in the Motor City 250 on the one-mile dirt track at Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit.

On July 1, 1952 NASCAR held its first event outside the United States. The location was Stamford Park, Ontario, Canada near Niagara Falls. Stamford was a flat ½-mile dirt horse track that began hosting stock car races in 1948. Shuman took the lead of the event on lap 71 and led the rest of the 200-lap event winning by two laps over the second place car of Herb Thomas. Only seventeen cars started the race that day, but because the track became so rough, only six cars managed to complete the event.

In 15 starts in 1952, Shuman scored one win, three top-5s, and seven top-10s.

In 1953, Shuman drove J. R. Dunberry’s No. 190 Hudson at the beach course at Daytona Beach. On the fourth lap, the car lost a clutch putting him out of the competition. He made two starts in his own No.12 Oldsmobile and then made two more starts driving Pless’s No. 89 Hudson including a 14th place finish in the Southern 500.

In 1955, Shuman drove Frank Christian’s No. 14 Chevrolet at Hickory Speedway finishing ninth. He drove Bob Griffin’s No. 87 Oldsmobile at Southern States Fairgrounds in Charlotte in August finishing sixth. On November 13, 1955, Buddy Shuman tragically perished in a hotel fire. He was 40 years old at the time of his death.

In 1957, NASCAR established the Buddy Shuman Award to recognize outstanding contributions to NASCAR racing. Some of the recipients of the Buddy Shuman Award have included Banjo Mathews, Richard Petty, Rick Hendrick, Dave Marcis and Chris Economaki.

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