Raymond Parks: NASCAR's Double Inaugural Championship Car Owner

Byron had returned to racing in 1946 driving a car owned by Parks. Byron won his first race back; the field included drivers such as Roy Hall and Bill France. Byron then won the second stock car race he entered, at Daytona Beach, and again Roy Hall was one of those he beat.

Because of his badly injured left leg, Byron wore a special brace that sat in a steel stirrup that was attached to the clutch pedal. The bad leg did not slow down Byron in his Parks-owned car, as he won 11 of the 52 races run in 1948, becoming NASCAR’s Modified Champion, the first Championship in NASCAR history.

In 1949, NASCAR added a new series, called Strictly Stock (now known as the Cup series). Byron drove a Parks Novelty Machine Company sponsored 1949 Oldsmobile 88 in six of the eight races run. Byron won two races and one pole that season on his way to his second NASCAR championship.

Parks entered his car in the two races Byron did not drive, but he  took no wins.  Bob Flock and Roy Hall split those two races as drivers.

In 1950, Byron raced in four of the newly re-named Grand National series races in Parks’ cars with one pole position, but no wins.

In those early days of NASCAR, Bill France often called Parks for advice and even to borrow money.

We may never know how important Raymond Parks really was in the earliest day of NASCAR. Big Bill cultivated the myth that he was the main force behind NASCAR, with men like Parks handing over all influence to him.

In recent years, Raymond Parks has given a few interviews about his participation in the early days of NASCAR. Parks has said that after the 1951 season, he sold his cars and quit racing. Curiously, the records show Parks’ cars racing in the Strictly Stock/Grand National Series in 1949-50 and 1954-55.

The records show Fonty Flock drove in two GN races in a Parks car in 1954, and four races driven by Curtis Turner in 1955. Perhaps these races in 1954 and 1955 were just one old-time whiskey man helping out two former whiskey haulers.

In an interview in 2006, Parks said, “It was money; that’s what it was. I loved racing, but I had to make a living. My business was doing well, but I was splitting the purses with the drivers and paying all the expenses, including parts, and my money was coming up shorter each week.”

Raymond Parks, a teetotaler, was a convicted felon for his whiskey activity. But it must be remembered that a man being sent to jail for being in the whiskey business did not have the stigma in those days that might be attached to someone today. Going to jail was just one of the costs of doing business.

Raymond Parks was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame at Darlington in 1995.

In 2002, Parks was one of eight individuals inducted in the first class of the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame, along with Red Byron, and his cousin Lloyd Seay.

Raymond Parks certainly deserves to be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame as NASCAR’s first double Championship car owner, and hopefully that will be announced before Mr. Parks passes on.

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Photo at top: The racing cousins, [L to R] Lloyd Seay, Raymond Parks, Roy Hall.

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