Red Byron

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Red Byron
Byron's vehicle in the NASCAR Hall of Fame
NASCAR Cup Series statistics
Best placement 1. - (1949)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10
15th 2 2 9


Robert "Red" Byron (born March 12, 1915 in Colorado , † November 11, 1960 in Chicago ) was an American NASCAR racing driver in their early years. Byron was both first champion in the Modified Series in 1948 and in the Cup series in 1949, then known as the Strictly Stock Series .

background

Byron was born in the state of Colorado, but moved with his parents to Anniston , Alabama at an early age . He started racing in 1932. The first successes came in Talladega in the early 1940s . Due to the Second World War , his racing career was interrupted when he had to go to war as a flight engineer for the United States Army Air Forces . When his Consolidated B-24 was shot down during an enemy flight, he sustained serious injuries to his left leg that took nearly two years to heal.

Racing career

After Byron returned home from the war, he turned back to racing and continued to be successful. In 1948 he joined the newly formed NASCAR Modified Series. He drove for Raymond Parks and won the first ever NASCAR race on February 15, 1948 on the Daytona Beach Road Course . In the course of the season there were 10 more episodes and in the end he won the championship title of the series.

In the following year, Byron started in the newly founded Strictly Stock Series, NASCAR's highest series, which has operated as the Sprint Cup since 2008. Together with Raymond Parks he was also successful here. He won the race on the Daytona Beach Road Course and a second race of the eight-race season on a dirt track in Martinsville . At the end of the season, Byron was the first ever champions of the Cup series.

After his two championships he drove only rarely and was the owner of his own racing team in the 1950s.

Career end

Byron's deteriorating health forced him to give up active racing in 1951. However, it remained in racing. Together with Briggs Cunningham , he tried to develop a racing car that could win Grand Prix races . He then became the manager of a Corvette team with the same goal. However, none of the projects was successful.

death

Byron died of a heart attack in a Chicago hotel room on November 11, 1960 at the age of 45. At the time he was manager of a team in the Sports Car Club of America .

statistics

Sebring results

year team vehicle Teammate placement Failure reason
1956 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper Car Company Cooper T39 United States 48United States Leech Cracraft Rank 21 class win

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season team race car 1 2 3 4th 5
1956 cooper Cooper T39 ArgentinaArgentina BUA United StatesUnited States SEB ItalyItaly MIM GermanyGermany ONLY SwedenSweden KRI
21st

Web links

Commons : Red Byron  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Archived copy ( Memento from November 5, 2006 in the Internet Archive )