NASCAR Racing Meets the Tortoise and the Hare

Everyone is familiar with the old children's story about the tortoise and the hare. With the moral of the story being victory doesn't always go to the swiftest but that patience and perseverance can often win out. In 1950, Californian Johnny Mantz brought his version of that old fable to a NASCAR track.

Mantz didn't have a hugely successful career in NASCAR. He ran just twelve races over four years and had only one victory. But that one win was one of the most memorable in history. He took the slowest car in the field to the winners circle. The occasion was the Southern 500 Darlington, the track to tough to tame. Over eighty cars showed up for the race and it took two weeks to complete qualifying runs. The final field was seventy-five cars and at the tail end was Mantz. His qualifying speed was ten miles an hour slower than pole setter Curtis Turner. During practice Mantz noticed that the abrasive Darlington surface just tore tires apart. So he came up with the idea of using hard compound truck tires. These tires aren't good for speed but they are very durable. The strategy really paid off for Mantz. While the rest of the field hit the pits for new rubber, some as many as six times, Mantz cruised around on the track apron. In those days pit stops weren't the twelve to fifteen second stops we're accustom to seeing now, instead a stop often took over two minutes. By the end of the six hour marathon Mantz took the checkered flag nine laps ahead of the legendary NASCAR driver, Fireball Roberts.

To make this story even more unbelievable, when Mantz showed up at Darlington he was without a ride. No one knew much about this West Coast midget car driver. While he had won his share of races in the little cars, he had never won a championship. NASCAR promoter Bill France Sr. had a 1950 Plymouth that he was using for the purpose of running errands. Mantz went to work bending France's ear and after awhile Big Bill caved in and gave the car to him. Mantz won his first NASCAR race with that Plymouth and was ten thousand dollars richer. In those days that was a great payday.

Mantz was also linked with another famous racing promoter during his career, Indy car owner J.C. Agajanian. Aggie signed Mantz to drive his Indy car in 1948. The new car was without a number, so J.C. asked Mantz if he had any ideas. Johnny said, well I had a lot of success with the number 98 on midget racers so let's go with that. The number 98 became one of the most famous numbers in Indianapolis history. Troy Ruttman and Parnelli Jones both put the Agajanian car in winners circles. And by the way, the winning Plymouth that Mantz dove to victory at Darlington, that's right, number 98.

So the moral of this story is that sometimes even in one of the fastest sports in the world, NASCAR, the old fable of the tortoise and the hare can help a driver get to the winners circle.

Ellen H Meador is a sports enthusiast. She currently manages a series of online retail stores. If you are a sports fan and want to show your pride and fly a sports team flag and banners you'll find a variety of collegiate and pro banners, car flags, and garden flags from leading manufacturers at http://www.flagandpennantstore.com

By Ellen H Meador