History Plymouth's Early NASCAR Pedigree

Ever pass by a '49-50 MoPar and think 'ugly', 'unpopular', 'boxy', or 'slow'?

I'll admit that, even after purchasing one and seeing the occasional nice (albeit heavily modded) 'shoebox' in the old little books, the phrase "racing pedigree" never once entered my mind...Until I came across a fuzzy photo of Johnny Mantz's 1950 Plymouth fastback on the pages of the HAMB.

Come to find out, the little Plymouths developed quite a reputation in the early years of NASCAR's "Strictly Stock" (aka Grand National) circuit - piling up an impressive number of top finishes;

Plymouth's first entry into NASCAR was fielded by Lee Petty on August 7, 1949 at the 1.0 mile Orange Speedway outside of Hillsboro, NC. The race was a 200 lapper and Petty finished 9th out of 28 cars and took home $100 in prize money.

Petty ran the #42 Plymouth again on Sept. 11, 1949 at Langhorne Speedway outside Philadelphia, PA, this time finishing 7th in another 200 mile trek around the dirt oval. This time, Petty took home $250 dollars for his efforts.

While the little Plymouths fared decently on the larger tracks, they seemed to excel on the bull rings, where their reliable-yet-mild flathead 6's and better handling capabilities gave them somewhat of a competitive advantage over the much faster, but tire-hungry Oldsmobiles, Mercurys, Buicks, and Hudsons.

In 1949, Petty (and Plymouth's) top finshes were;

2nd at Martinsville's 1/2 mile asphalt oval
1st at Heidelberg's 1/2 mile dirt oval
2nd at North Wilkesboro's 1/2 mile asphalt (Bob Flock's margin of victory over Petty was 100 yards)

For 1950 various drivers would give the Plymouth a try...

Daytona
8th (Otis Martin)
14th (Cotton Owens)
16th (Lee Petty)

Charlotte Speedway (3/4 mile dirt oval)
6th (Glenn Dunnaway)

Langhorne (1 mile dirt oval)
5th (Lee Petty)

Martinsville (1/2 mile asphalt oval)
3rd (Lee Petty)
4th (Glenn Dunnaway)

Canfield (1/2 mile dirt oval)
2nd (Glenn Dunnaway)
4th (Lee Petty)

Vernon Fairgrounds (1/2 mile dirt oval)
5th (Lee Petty)
7th (Art Lamey)
10th (Dick Clothier)
11th (Pappy Hough)

Dayton (1/2 mile asphalt oval)
5th (Art Lamey)
8th (Lee Petty)
12th (Dick Clothier)

Monroe County Fairgrounds (Rochester - 1/2 mile dirt oval)
3rd (Lee Petty)
6th (Dick Clothier)

Charlotte Speedway (3/4 mile dirt oval)
3rd (Herb Thomas)
11th (Lee Petty)
12th (Glenn Dunnaway)

Orange Speedway (1 mile dirt oval)
7th (Lee Petty)
8th (Herb Thomas)

Dayton (1/2 mile asphalt oval)
3rd (Herb Thomas)
4th (Lee Petty)
5th (Art Lamey)

Hamburg (1/2 mile dirt oval)
8th (Ted Chamberlain)

Darlington (1.25 mile asphalt oval)
1st (Johnny Mantz) Mantz led 350 of 400 laps
6th (Lee Petty)
7th (Cotton Owens)
12th (Johnny Grubb)
15th (Weldon Adams)

Langhorne (1 mile dirt oval)
4th (Lee Petty)
9th (Johnny Grubb)
12th (Paul Parks)
13th (Herb Thomas)

North Wilkesboro (5/8 mile asphalt oval)
1st (Leon Sales) Sales was driving the #98 car that had won the inaugural Southern 500 at Darlington
2nd (Jack Smith)
4th (Herb Thomas) Polesitter
5th (Gayle Warren)
6th (Weldon Adams)
7th (Jimmy Thompson)

Vernon Fairgrounds (1/2 mile dirt oval)
2nd (Ted Swaim) lost by 5 car lengths
5th (Jack Reynolds)
7th (Lee Petty)
8th (Jimmy Thompson)
11th (Herb Thomas) led 41 laps, wrecked

Martinsville (1/2 mile asphalt oval)
1st (Herb Thomas)
2nd (Lee Petty)
5th (Weldon Adams)
8th (Jimmy Thompson)
10th (Ted Chamberlain)

Winchester (1/2 mile oiled dirt oval)
2nd (Bucky Sager)
5th (Ray Duhigg)
11th (Elmer Wilson)

Orange Speedway (1 mile dirt oval)
1st (Lee Petty) led 43 of 175 laps
3rd (Weldon Adams)
4th (Tim Flock)
6th (Gayle Warren)
7th (Ray Duhigg)
8th (Jim Delaney)
15th (Ted Chamberlain)
16th (Slick Smith)

1950 results;
4 wins
28 top 5's
49 top 10's
1 pole

Pretty cool, huh?

(If you got period photos...post 'em up!!!)

 

Can't forget Petty's #42 Bus. Coupe

 

Very cool. I've never seen those images.

 

Lee Petty 42

 

anyone hear of '50's NASCAR cars having radios in them?

 

I've never seen those pictures of Lee Petty in his business coupe. Note the tape on the headlights, must have been driven to the track !

 

Gotta remember,at on time all the cars we stock cars,,just like what won on Sunday could be bought on Monday,,,that ain't the case anymore. HRP

 

Amazing I knew the little Plymouths did well but never knew they did that well.

Heard the story before, of how the Plymouth often outlasted much faster, more powerful cars. They succeeded on sheer staying power. A savvy driver could put up a decent average speed, with minimal stops for tires, gas, water or repairs and finish well up in the money. Especially on the shorter tracks where the real powerful cars had no chance to use their speed.

The fastest cars and hardest drivers may have led the race at the beginning but blew up, got wrecked, or fell behind before the race was over.

 

I read a thing by Lee Petty where he basically said the same thing.The little Plymouth wasn't fast, but he just chugged along on the same set of tires and drove around the wreckage of the fast cars. Good strategy.

 

great info

 

and to think they did that to new perfectly good car.....

 

Up in New Brighton Minnesota in 1951 a fella named Don Voge opened a 1/2 mile banked dirt track called Twin City Speedway and ran Stock Cars. Mostly Sunday afternoon 250 lappers. My dad, Joe Dolphy, took the family '49 Plymouth down to the International truck dealer (Paron Motors) that he worked at and "borrowed the wheels and tires off of the parts truck, drove the 3 miles to the track with the headlights taped up, entered the race and avoided the potholes in the track all afternoon and won several of the races. The pay for winning was $250.00 in a time when you worked fifty hour weeks for $32.00. Well when mom found out he was racing she wasn't too happy, however the money earned helped her to come around to his way of thinking.

 

Wow! Do you have any photos of dad's car?

 

Aesop's Fable about the tortoise and the hare is only about 2,500 years old.

Back in the day, most long races, fewer than half the cars even finished. Just being there at the end would pay some money. The Plymouth seemed to be the best choice over the other turtles.

jack vines

 

GWiTE, Back in them there days only the rich folk had cameras, at least when I grew up. P

 

Great pic's and info. Thank's.

 

Ahhhhh....... REAL stock cars. That was a hell of an era.

 

Come to think of it, the car was still around in '60 or '61 and it was a 4 door like Happy Days, Howard Cunninghams car, minus the roof rack. I recall riding in the back of Dad's '57 Plymouth 9 passenger wagon out to Hudson Wisconson for an Ice racing event that one of his buddies drove and raced that old Plymouth out there. I remember stopping on the way home with dad thinking that they were having car trouble with the old car. My brothers and I were sitting in the rear facing of the wagon and watched Dad and pals open the hood and took out a bottle of adult Anti-Freeze and passed it around.

 

It took a tough car to stand the grind of a long race and Plymouths were tough. This surprised a lot of people at the time because they were not thought of as tough or fast. Other low priced cars, and even some higher priced ones, could not stand the gaff the way a Plymouth would.