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was an American race car driver. He was nicknamed by NASCAR fans as the "King of the Beach" for his performances at the Daytona Beach Road Course. He walked into fellow Daytona Beach resident Smokey Yunick's "Best Damned Garage in Town", and launched Yunick's legendary NASCAR mechanic career. Teague competed in 23 Sprint Cup Series from 1949 to 1952, winning seven of them. Teague approached the Hudson Motor Car Company by traveling to Michigan and visiting the automaker's factory without an appointment. By the end of his visit, Hudson virtually assured Teague of corporate support and cars, with the relationship formalized shortly after his visit. This "is generally regarded as the first stock car racing team backed by a Detroit auto manufacturer." During the 1951 and 1952 racing seasons, Teague was a member of the Hudson Motors team and driving what were called the "Fabulous Hudson Hornet" stock cars. The Hornet allowed Teague and the other Hudson drivers to dominate stock car racing from 1951 through 1954, consistently beating out other drivers in cars powered by larger, more modern engines. Smokey Yunick and his drivers won 27 of 34 events in major stock car events. In 1953, Teague dropped out of NASCAR following a dispute with NASCAR founder William France Sr. and went to the AAA and USAC racing circuits. Teague attempted to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 on five

occasions; and made the field twice (1953 and 1957). In 1953 he made the event starting 25th. He fell out on lap 169 with an oil leak. 1957 would prove to be better as he started 28th; working his way through the field and finished in seventh place on the lead lap. NASCAR driver Dick Rathman also qualified for this race; but due to being mugged the night before; he had to withdraw and Johnny Parson drove the car in his place. Rathman's was injured when the muggers threw a rock and hit him in the eye. Teague, Parsons and Pat O'Conner all drove the "Sumar
Special" in the 500. Teague died while attempting to break the closed course speed record, which had been established by Tony Bettenhausen. He was driving a

reconfigured Indy car at the newly opened Daytona International Speedway. He was conducting test sessions in preparation for the April debut of the United States Auto Club championship with Indy-style roadsters. He was piloting a "Sumar Special" streamliner, a Kurtis-Kraft chassis with a Meyer-Drake Offenhauser 270 engine, streamlined fenders, and a canopy enclosing the driver, thus being classified as Formula Libre. On February 9, 1959, Teague set an unofficial closed course speed record of 171.821 On February 10, the left rear tire was cut as a result of running over a foreign object, which forced Teague to pit. Teague was attempting to go even faster on February 11, 1959, eleven days before the first Daytona 500. "Teague pushed the speed envelope in the high-powered Sumar Special streamliner. His car spun and flipped through the third turn and Teague was thrown, seat and all, from his car; ending up 150 feet from the crashed race car. He died nearly instantly. For his Cup career (1949-1952) Teague started

23 events, only the first four started did not come in the Hornet. His first win came on the Beach Course at Daytona in 1951, and his final came in 1952 at Jacksonville, Fl. In all he won seven times in the Cup Series. Teague was the first driver to get killed at Daytona Speedway. He was only 37. The photos below show his 1957 Indy car, and also the Sumar Special he crashed at Daytona. The arrow on the crash picture indicates how far away from the car the seat from Teague's car ended up. Some info from Wikipedia.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

MARSHALL PLEASANT TEAGUE - 02/22/1921 - 02/11/1959