JIMMY FLORIAN NETS FORD'S FIRST WIN
It was considered an upset then and would probably be looked upon the same way today. Jimmy Florian beat NASCAR legends Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly and Lee Petty in a thrilling 100-lap feature to claim the first NASCAR Winston Cup victory for Ford on June 25, 1950 at Dayton Speedway.
As memorable as Florian's victory was, he made an equally big impression on victory lane when he emerged from his car shirtless -- another NASCAR first.
Florian, who was a 27-year-old mechanic at the time of his big win, passed away at the age of 75, February 1999 after a battle with cancer. He was sponsored by Euclid Motors and made a name for himself around his native Cleveland, Ohio, driving primarily midget and sprint cars.
Bill Whitley was Florian's closest friend -- ever since World War II. Whitley, who is currently 77 years old, owned a couple of cars with Florian and knew him better than anyone. A truck driver in the early fifties, Whitley is now retired and lives in Winston-Salem, N.C. He recalled that magical day in 1950, along with some of his other favorite Florian memories.
WHAT CAN YOU RECALL FROM THAT FIRST RACE WIN IN 1950: "He did win that race in a Ford. It was a car originally that belonged to the chief of police in Detroit and Euclid Ford got a hold of it and it was a 1950 Ford. The night that he won the race against (Curtis) Turner, (Joe) Weatherly -- all the big boys were there -- and he just outdrove them that's all. We talked about that for years and years and years. I kept telling him there was no way he could outrun those Oldmobiles with a flathead Ford, but we had been running on that track seven nights a week in midgets and sprint cars and it was just a fact that we were very familiar with it (the speedway) and they weren't. He just outdrove them."
WAS THERE A CERTAIN POINT WHERE YOU KNEW JIMMY HAD THE RACE WON? "With about 35 laps to go he passed Turner for the last time and stayed in front. He was about a half lap ahead when the race was over. I remember a whole lot about it because it was four o'clock in the morning before we got paid because Turner, Weatherly, (Lee) Petty -- the whole bunch -- they protested saying there was no way they could have been outrun with a flathead Ford. That was the year they came out with the rocket Oldsmobile engines -- overhead valve engines -- and they were really tough. But the Ford was just as stock as it could be."
DID THEY HAVE A POST-RACE INSPECTION? "Oh yeah. They even checked with Ford Motor Company to make sure it wasn't an illegal engine. Ford sent a letter back to Euclid Ford saying that the car was just as legal and as stock as it could be."
WELL, IT WAS A POLICE CAR AT ONE TIME SO IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE FAST, RIGHT? "In the old days the police cars weren't any different, it was just designated to the police department but they weren't any different in the old days. Later on they came out with high dollar police cars, but back in the forties and the fifties you just put the name on it and went with it."
ONE OF THE INTERESTING NOTES TO THAT RACE WAS THE FACT JIMMY ARRIVED IN VICTORY LANE WITHOUT A SHIRT ON. WHY DID HE DO THAT? "It was hotter than hell, that's all there was to that. The rulebook back then...you didn't have any rollbars...you didn't have to have a seatbelt if you didn't want it and the seat had to be just like it came out of the factory...a plain old seat and they're uncomfortable. You couldn't do anything to the car back then. For ventilation you had to run with the windows down and that was the main reason why he was shirtless. He thought that was the greatest because he had all the protection in the world around him. We ran a midget and sprint car back then and you had to have something on because you were getting hit by rocks. That was the main reason for that."
WHAT WAS YOUR ROLE WITH JIMMY WERE YOU LIKE HIS CREW CHIEF? "We owned two or three cars together. I drove a Hudson Hornet back then and I had another Ford that he drove for awhile. We just swapped off back and forth. I had an Oldsmobile that he took to Darlington to run and he put on a show there with it, too. He came from 69th up to second place in about 40 laps in the first race they ever ran there before somebody hit the wall and got tangled up with him. He put that old Ford on the pole at two or three races. It wasn't just that night in Dayton. He stuck that thing on the pole at two or three places and got two or three thirds out of it and two or three seconds out of it."
IF YOU HAD TO WAIT UNTIL 4 A.M. TO GET PAID WERE YOU CELEBRATING ALL THAT TIME? "Well, not really. We kind of took it as just an everyday thing like we expected to do it. You were coming from down south up north running on a track against a driver that's running there every night -- seven nights a week and sometimes in the afternoon. You just can't plan on falling in there and outrunning somebody like that because Jimmy was a terrific midget driver. We had one track where out of 75 races he had 71 feature wins. As far as I'm concerned, he just outdrove them. The car, really, I don't know if it probably would have been a wagon he would have done the same thing because he was in his prime."