December28, 2002

As we progress into the 21st century perhaps its time for NASCAR the sanctioning body for the Winston Cup series to ponder the idea of including all of the history records into one permanent grouping.

On December 12, 1947 in a location known as the Streamline Inn Motel in Daytona Beach FLA, NASCAR would hold their first meeting in an effort to plan the future of the sport. The association would name Bill France as President. The organization would officially be incorporated on February 21, 1948 with an event held on the Daytona Beach road/beach course several days before the incorporation. Red Byron would win that event ahead of Marshall Teague and Raymond Parks.

The 1948 season would produce 52 races on 20 different tracks of which all were sanctioned by NASCAR. The first official race if you discount Red Byrons win on the road/beach in February was held at Martinsville Speedway on July 4, 1948. Fonty Flock won the feature event that day and pocketed $500 for his efforts.

Now, if you look at what the Martinsville Speedway has to say about history you will see that they built the track in 1947 which they claim was one year before NASCAR started having sanctioned events.

Our current way of thinking suggests that the world was created in 1949 with our first champion being Red Byron. Red wrapped up the Strictly Stock championship in the 100 mile event at the Martinsville Speedway. Red 33 years of age at the time drove an Oldsmobile to the lead on lap 104 and smoked the field the rest of the way. Lee Petty would finish second that day and was scored as being three laps down to the leader.

The first example of the modern era history book is the easiest to grasp as we use Richard Petty whom should be yelling the loudest at this invented term. In the official records of all time Richard Petty displays 126 winning poles but, in the Modern era is only recognized as having 23. This example proves a simple point of how history is not recorded properly in the sport.

Even our starting point in the sport is hazed because in 1947 Bill France had this idea to have three select divisions in which Strictly Stock/Modified/Roadster classes would be considered. The Roadster class was wiped out quickly upon the news that it was a Yankee class and didn’t play well in the South East. The race at Martinsville in 1948 in which Fonty Flock won was considered a Modified race thus those records don’t really count in regard to the starting point.

Lets move on to the biggest reason for discrepancy in the sport and try to get a grasp on how and why this happened.

You will hear a phrase in this sport that in and of itself sounds good but actually covers up history and hides a lot of records and that is “The Modern Era”

In 1971 R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company approached Junior Johnson and wanted to pour some money into the sport. Junior was on top of the game at that time and realized that Reynolds wanted to invest more than what Johnson and team could ever do justice too. Johnson would make the formal introductions from NASCAR to Reynolds and this is where problems in the official record book started to take form.

The 1971 season would not be the start to this invented term of the Modern Era due to the fact that Winston did not sponsor all of the 48 races held that year. The race schedule was reduced from 48 events in 1971 down to 31 races in 1972 at which time Reynolds began their own history and seemed to wipe out everything that happened before this time in the official record book.

If you look at the invented term its seems as if the sport was racing horses and then in 1972 the automobile was ushered in and saved the day. The fact is that 1972 was no more modern as compared to other years in the sport but, only served as a starting point for Winston as NASCAR appeased their need for notoriety in exchange for monetary backing. Please do not read me wrong here. I am thankful for the growth that Reynolds has brought to the sport and, such noted heroes such as Richard Petty will tell you that when Winston came on board they brought money and that is what marked change in the sport.

There have been other sports in which change led to growth. Let’s look at the National Football league, they had a merger of the NFL and the AFL almost around the same time we had this modern era term coined in NASCAR. Football didn’t try to wipe out all the previous records before that point and neither should we.

Let’s look at just a couple examples of how things were changed around in the history books.

The first example of the modern era history book is the easiest to grasp as we use Richard Petty whom should be yelling the loudest at this invented term. In the official records of all time Richard Petty displays 126 winning poles but, in the Modern era is only recognized as having 23. This example proves a simple point of how history is not recorded properly in the sport.

We can take this situation one step further in an additional example that is still in dispute. Richard Petty in his 1992 farewell tour minted a collection of Pepsi bottles in which the King lays claim to 127 poles which is clearly printed on a bottle that you may have in your collection. It is believed that the disputed number of poles comes from the 1970 season in which Petty won the pole for the Virginia 500 at Martinsville. Petty qualified the car in April but the race was postponed until May 31 due to rain. During this period Petty was injured and withdrew the car from the event thus was stripped of the pole by NASCAR.

The NASCAR Winston Cup Series Media guide has always been the official handbook of records for the sport. There have been corrections to records throughout the years. The term “Modern Era” was softened around the time at which we celebrated our 50 years as a sport with NASCAR calling for “All Time” records. If you think about it they had to come up with something or else we wouldn’t really be celebrating 50 years of anything until the year 2022 as per the modern era concept.

I believe when we look at the history of the sport we need to look at all the records and all the claims to streaks, wins, poles, and the like. This “Modern Era” term needs to be understood as what it is which is nothing more than a publicity effort and not the true beginning of a sport.

In 1998 Jeff Gordon would attempt to go for what the modern era media called a record for consecutive wins. Gordon offered up four consecutive wins and fell short of the fifth but it was reported in the media that he had tied the consecutive wins mark in the modern era. Let’s set the facts straight folks, Richard Petty has ten consecutive wins in the record books. This amazing record was set in 1967 but is wiped out by R.J. Reynolds and their self proclaimed “Modern Era” record book. Ask yourself how much different the sport was in 1967 as compared to 1972 other than the fact that Winston was officially on board.

So, as you can see we have some issues with records and the like that need to be squared up by the sanctioning body. We need to get a grasp on the idea of a starting point other than 1972. As discussed above even NASCAR is confused about the 48-49 beginning point. I still say that there needs to be a committee of sorts in which history is examined and cleaned up with little influence from the sanctioning body. NASCAR may control the events on Sunday but they do a poor job with history on Monday. This is not the Soviet Union, this sport belongs to the fans and the fans deserve to understand and fully consider all the facts and figures in some form other than what Bill France and family dictate. There should be but one history book for this sport not two!

With the making of that last claim I will now move to the North Slope of Alaska where I will be forced to write articles about the Caribou heard and the relation between heat from the Alaskan pipe line and effects on their noted offspring. I understand that the Caribou have changed their history to reflect the conception of the pipe line and now consider their starting point to be when oil first flowed to Anchorage. I can’t win!

You can contact Joe at: Insider Racing News