Chevrolet Brings Back Its Champion
By Anne Jones
Atlanta Motor Speedway teemed with excitement during the track’s last Nextel Cup weekend. As drivers prepared to race, Chevrolet brought back one of its own.
G-2 Communications representative Steve Smith, Jeff Chew (Chevrolet’s Marketing Manager- NASCAR Chevy Racing), and Jan Thomas, (GM Motorsports Communication Manager), arranged a press conference for 1960 NASCAR Champion Rex White. The event heralded the return of Chevrolet’s legendary nameplate, Impala SS, and Chevrolet’s recognition of and gratitude for White and his accomplishments.
White wowed fans by driving a replica of his winning 1962 Chevrolet in the Speedway’s pre-race parade lap and, afterwards, joined GM executives for lunch and to watch the race in their VIP suite. “My best years of racing were spent driving Chevys,” says White. “I couldn’t pass up a chance to drive around the track again. With Chevrolet sponsorship, I was able to win a lot of races. It’s a good feeling to know Impala is coming back to the oval track.”
According to Ed Peper, Chevrolet’s General Manager, “The return of the Impala SS to stock-car racing marks a historic event in motorsports history. What better way to start a new chapter for Chevy in racing than revisiting its memorable successes. Few early Chevy drivers had as much success on the track as Rex White. What’s even more fitting is Rex lives in the Atlanta area and it was here he won a special race for Chevrolet, the 1962 Atlanta Dixie 400.”
Chevy’s top driver in the early 60’s, White was one of the most consistent drivers in NASCAR history. Six of his 28 career victories were won in 1960 and he finished in the top 10 in 35 of his 40 starts that year. He was one of the first drivers to aim for the goal of Championship, now known as Nextel Cup, and reach it (In 1960 when he was named Driver of the Year). He sat on the pole 36 times and had 28 career victories in 233 starts. He also finished in the top 10 in Final Point Standings six of the nine years he competed in NASCAR. In 1961, he won seven times and finished second in points.
White was a member of the original Chevrolet racing team and drove his favored model Chevy during most of his career, finishing in the top ten in just under 70% of his races. He led more than 50 races with over 100 top-five finishes, winning more races than anyone else from 1959-1963.
The Dixie 400 was one of White’s most significant victories in a Chevrolet and he beat Joe Weatherly by seconds. It was the only super speedway win by 409 engine.
According to White, “It was the longest event I ever won and my grandest moment in racing.”
In his autobiography, Gold Thunder, White states “With sponsorship, I could build a competitive car today. The cars and chassis haven’t changed much except aerodynamically, and in order to be a winner, you have to have knowledge of that. If you had all the pieces of a car in a pile and told me to put it together and win a race, I could do it. I’d have to study it, but it would be easy. I can rub my hands over car parts and know what they are in the dark, and if I could choose my car, it would be Chevrolet.”
Note: After the success of Gold Thunder, Rex White and Anne Jones co-authored a second book, All Around the Track. The new book consists of fifty-eight memoirs from racing’s past and present. In addition to famous drivers, All Around the Track includes scorers, media personnel, struggling drivers (to explain how the system works), a race team, mechanics, racing historians, a speedway president, and memorabilia collectors, etc. The work gives a comprehensive picture of how the sport has evolved historically and what it has become today. NO other book has attempted to present such an in-depth picture and the reader will come away extremely knowledgeable. Examples include David Pearson, Cotton Owens, Bobby Johns, Chris Economaki, Tim Flock, J.D. Gibbs, Joe Epton, Bobby Allison, Junior Johnson, Tiny Lund, Benny Parsons.
The following excerpts are from All Around the Track:
From Louis and Crawford Clements-Crackerjack Racing Mechanics: “My Mom, was named Magdalene, “says Mike Clements, “but everybody called her Maggie. She took us to races in her old station wagon and we’d have fun in the infield with the other kids. That wagon had everything from bandaids to pencils. She’d carry five kids, our pet Chihuahua and a parakeet. Once after we’d moved to Spartanburg and my Dad and Crawford were working for the Bud Moore factory team, we were on our way to Ashville-Weaverville when everyone realized Cotton Owens had forgotten his helmet. One of the guys on the team had a ’58 Pontiac lowered down with Glaspak mufflers and hopped up racing parts, so he roared back to the garage wide open. I bet he didn’t see under 100mph on his way back to get that helmet. My Mom had brought fried chicken, potato salad, drinks, and a homemade prune cake. Cotton Owens had a sweet tooth so before the race he came down to our car and ate half of Mom’s cake. Cotton won and lapped back around, but instead of going to the winner’s circle he jumped out and ran into the port-a-john. We decided anytime we wanted Cotton to win, we’d just bring him prune cake.”
From David Pearson: The Cunning Silver Fox: Pearson became hooked on racing as a youngster when, attracted by the noise at the track at Spartanburg Fairgrounds, he climbed a tree to see what was happening. “I’d always been interested in cars, and I decided right then, that was what I wanted to do with my life.
“As a teenager, I worked with my brother in a body shop. I didn’t make but forty or fifty dollars a week and the first car I bought was a wrecked Ford coach. I gave thirty dollars for it, chopped the fenders off and made a little ‘ol street rod out of it. There was a pasture down below our house where I jumped gullies and turned it over. My Mom told me if I’d get rid of it she’d give me fifty dollars. When she gave me the money, I took the car to the junk yard and sold it for twenty-two dollars. I made a profit right then and there, turned around and got something else. I’d do anything to make a dollar to get an old car to work on. At one time, there were eight or nine racing teams out of Spartanburg and I used to hang around all of them to see what mechanics and drivers were doing.”
The publisher’s price for Gold Thunder is $39.95 and All Around the Track is $35.00. You may order the books for $25.00 each plus $3.00 each for postage and handling. Address orders and checks to
Anne B. Jones
477 Harbour Shores Drive
Jackson, Georgia 30233
annebjones@msn.com