SAMUAL "SAM" MCQUAGG - 11/11/1935 - 01/03/2009
was an American former NASCAR Rookie of the Year driver. He died of cancer on January 3, 2009 at the age of 73. He and his wife Joy had recently celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary. Born in Columbus, Georgia, McQuagg was named NASCAR Rookie of the Year in 1965 after achieving 5 top-10 finishes in 16 races. McQuagg was a major player in an incident in one of the wildest NASCAR races ever. McQuagg was leading the 1965 Southern 500, when Cale Yarborough tried to muscle past McQuagg for the lead. Yarborough flew over the guardrail, rolled around six times, and ended up at the end of the parking lot by a light post. Yarborough waved to the crowd as he walked back to the pits. A video clip of the wreck was used on ABC's Wide World of Sports for several years. The race was eventually won by 14 laps by Ned Jarrett. Dodge noticed his accomplishments in his small Ford team, and Dodge hired him to their factory team. He was the first driver to use a spoiler. He used the spoiler to
win the Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway; the flag from the Firecracker 400 now hangs on his grandson's wall. It all sounds simple; but it took Chrysler months of work to come up with the idea. McQuagg said "The car wouldn't run at all. I'd start down the back straight at at about 180 mph it would start to lift up. The back end started spinning the back wheels. SO the engineers came up with this little spoiler. It was just about 1 1/2 inches tall and run across the back of the car. The car immediately picked up 5-6 mph." McQuagg dominated the race leading 126 of 160 laps. His Dodge Charger was sponsored by a newlywed Georgia couple. McQuagg was also the first driver to bring a motor home into the Daytona garage area. In 1967, he was hired to drive Cotton Owens' Dodge. He ran 14 races, and had three Top 5 finishes. On lap 81, he tangled with another driver at Darlington, went over the guardrail, and flipped numerous times before coming to a rest. The wrecks frustrated McQuagg, and he scaled back his schedule to mainly local tracks. He retired from racing to become a
1965 Daytona 500
1966 Firecracker 400 win
commercial pilot, which was a skill he had learned to travel quickly between races. His last start came in World 600 in 1974. For his career he made 62 Cup Series starts over eight season; with the one lone win, and nine Top 5 finishes. Sam only raced part time, and never raced in more than 1/3 of the races in any season. Some info from Wikipedia
1967 Daytona 500
All Photos copyright and are property of their respective owners