NASCAR Daily Factoids March 16th~31st 2010 | LittleE~Big M fan's Blog

06:30 PM ET 03.22 |

More from my daily trivia calendar (aka Best Christmas Gift Ever)....please note anything preceded by **** is something that I have added.

16th: Tim Richmond's 7 yr Nascar racing seasons made an impression on the competition. In 1986, the flamboyant driver won seven races, more than any other driver, and finished a career-high third in the NASCAR Winston Cup points race. Richmond started just eight races in 1987, winning two races, one pole position, tallying three top-five and four top-10 finishes. Richmond passed away on Aug. 13, 1989.

17th:When Goodyear comes to the track to handout tires, a Team does not get specific tires. They just get what is handed to them off the truck. No special individual Team orders allowed.

18th: Marty Robbins is the only country and western singer to compete in 33 Grand National and Winston Cup races from 1970 to 1982. He owned his own car and has a career best 5th place in 1974.

19th:Jack Ingram's NASCAR career started in the Busch Series Grand National Division. He won three straight championships (1972-74), and a fourth in 1982, (Busch Series) and a fifth championship in 1985. His 31 NASCAR Busch Series wins stood as a record until Mark Martin won his 32nd series event at North Carolina Speedway in October, 1997. 29 of his 31 wins were at short tracks. He ran in 275 Busch Series races, averaging five wins a year from 1982-87. In 1997, Ingram was inducted in the National Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

20th: Jeff Bodine added a unique twist to the 1981 Daytona 500, by crashing into a car that was not even entered into this race. On lap 48 Bodine spun out towards the infield and crashed into a parked stationwagon, that belonged to a TV crew that was there to film the race.

21st: In 1985 Bill Elliott earned the nickname Awesome Bill, after winning 11 races that year and also earning the Winston Million.....**** The Winston Million was $1,000,000 from R.J. Reynolds and Winston companies given to any driver who won at the "Crown Jewels" of racing, which were The Daytona, Talledega, Charlotte and Darlington.

22nd: In 2009, Teresa Earnhardt was so confident that Dale Sr would be nominated/voted into the Nascar Hall of Fame that she had invitations printed and a room reserved for a celebratory party at the Ritz~Carlton, where she was staying, even before the voting was finished.

23rd: Ralph Earnhardt never won a Championship, but he was a driver of extraordinary talent. An acknowledged master of North Carolina short tracks, Earnhardt raced sparingly in NASCAR's elite division during his 23-year career. He won NASCAR's Sportsman Division championship in 1956 and in 1961 posted seven top-10 finishes in eight starts in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series division -- good for 17th in the point standings. He died suddenly on Sept. 26, 1973 while working on a race car in his shop. In 1989, Earnhardt was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega Ala., in 1997.....**** short track skills seems to have been passed down to his son Dale Sr and grandson Dale Jr.

24th: Unlike the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series of today, many drivers did not compete in every race on the circuit for a number of reasons (cost, damaged equipment, travel expenses, etc.). The points standings were often skewed toward the drivers that were entered in the most races. Seven of the top eight in the final point standings in 1949 only started in six of the eight races that season. Only two of the other fifty drivers that scored championship points in 1949 started in more than four races

25th:The top 10 drivers and their points in 1959 were;

#1 Lee Petty 11792 .......#2 Cotton Owens 9962

#3 Al Thompson 7684.....#4 Herman Beam 7396

#5 Buck Baker 7170.......#6 Tom Pistone 7050

#7 L.D.Austin 6519........#8 Jack Smith 6150

#9 Jim Reed 5714.........#10 Rex White 5526

26th: The year 2000 brought in a new millennium and a new NASCAR Winston Cup champion. Bobby Labonte brought in a new chapter of NASCAR history as well. He became the first driver to win both the NASCAR Busch Series championship as well as the NASCAR Winston Cup championship.

27th: NASCAR is one of the most viewed professional sports in terms of TV ratings in the USA. Professional football is the only sport to hold more viewers than NASCAR. Internationally, NASCAR races are broadcast in over 150 countries. NASCAR holds 17 of the top 20 attended single-day sporting events in the world, and claims 75 million fans who purchase over $3 billion in annual licensed product sales. in all of sports and as a result, More Fortune 500 companies sponsor NASCAR more than any other Motor Sport....****this data was written a few years ago.

28th:In 1974, the Daytona 500 was changed to the Daytona 450 for that year due to the fuel crisis. So Bill France asked all the track owners to cut the length of their races by 10% in the early part of the season.

29th: Three women drivers competed in the 1977 Firecracker 400. They were Janet Guthrie, Christine Beckers, and Lella Lombardi. The previous time that this had happened was way back in 1949.

30th: in 1990, Kyle Petty was given a Rolls Royce, by his car owner, Felix Sabates for winning the Unocal 76 Bonus, The Unocal 76 Challege pays off to the winner of a Winston Cup Series race who started from the pole position. $7600 is added each race until there is a winner.

31st: In 1967 Richard petty won 27 of the 49 races that season (55%), including 10 in a row and also won the Championship.

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November 20, 2012 12:21 PM ET

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I found this info to be fascinating, but unfortunately only a few others shared this opinion......in copying my blog on here from my group, the comment count was lost.....this one had 5 comments.