The People Of NASCAR: Herb Thomas
Thursday, October 12th, 2006 6:26pm EDT
By Frank Morrison, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
[thumb:387:l:s=1:l=x]Born in Olivia, North Carolina was NASCAR’s first superstar. Herb was the first driver to hit the $100,000 mark, while en-route to 48 Grand National wins, and winning the most races in three different seasons. Herb won the premiere race, the Southern 500, three times and Grand National championship twice. He did this in only seven full seasons as a driver.
Herb was the most passionate driver in the early years of NASCAR. When Herb didn’t win 7 times out of 10 he got a DNF. His motto was “Second place is just the first loserâ€.
Herb went to see his first race at Greensboro, North Carolina in 1946. A week later he was out on the track in his own car. In his first couple of races he ran strong but rarely finished.
When Bill France started the Strictly Stock series in 1949 he went out and built his own late model car to compete in. His first win didn’t come until late 1950 at Martinsville.
His Martinsville win kick started his 1951 season. Herb used three different makes of cars during that campaign; Hudson, Plymouth, and Oldsmobile. Herb won seven races as he put the hammer down on the way to his first championship.
Between 1952 and 1954 he won 32 races, finishing no lower than 2nd in the points. During the 1955 season, which was a title defense, he took a bad tumble down the back stretch of Charlotte’s dirt track and was thrown from the car. From the hospital bed he vowed to be back by the Southern 500, and promised to win it, bringing back memories of the Babe and hit pointing into the outfield. Keeping his word he was back on the track by August, and won the Southern 500. After missing 22 races in 1955, he still finished 5th in the points standings.
In Herb’s final season as a full time driver he fielded his own Chevy, but through the mid point of the season joined the Chrysler team. The team owner sanctioned some last minute races with Herb in the points lead that he couldn’t make to allow Buck Baker to pass him in the point standings. And you thought those “debris” cautions were controversial. Yeah, try pulling a stunt like that in today’s NASCAR.
In a 100 mile race at Shelby, NC, Herb started 13th and was running 2nd by the midway point of the race. Going down the back stretch he took 2nd from Speedy Thompson. Going into turn 3, Speedy tapped Herb and sent him into the guard rail and he got hit by at least 6 cars. Herb was pulled from his car unconscious with a fractured skull. Herb retired from his hospital bed. He was quoted as saying “It’s to dog eat dog out there now and I’m done.”
There you have it, the story of Herb Thomas.
See Y’all Next Time!
Filed Under: Features, Frank Morrison, Guest Authors, Nascar, The People Of Nascar
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