FANTASY NASCAR Racin

Billy Wade was the 1963 NASCAR Rookie of the Year for car owner Cotton Owens. He finished the season with 14 Top 10 finishes in 31 races. He won four consecutive races the following year for Bud Moore Engineering between July 10 and July 19, 1964. The four wins give Wade the sole distinction of being the only driver to accomplish this feat with victories at Old Bridge Stadium on July 10, the road course at Bridgehampton, N.Y on the 12th, a July 15 win at Islip Speedway in New York, and his fourth (and final) win at Watkins Glen. Dick Linder also followed his first victory at Dayton with a win at Hamburg; but Wade is the only driver to string four victories in a row once he got his first. He also accumulated five poles and 25 Top 10 finishes in his 35 starts. Wade got a late start in NASCAR, running four races in 1962 at the age of 32. Although he wasn’t young when he entered NASCAR competition, Wade was a seasoned veteran racer, having amassed three Modified championships and two more Late Model titles on the hardscrabble short tracks near his Houston home. In four starts in 1962; he posted two top ten finishes with a best of eighth at Martinsville. In 1963, Wade joined forces with his first of two Hall of Fame owners from Spartanburg, South Carolina. Driving for

Cotton Owens, as a teammate to David Pearson, Wade had four top-five and 14 top-ten finishes in 31 starts, winning premier series rookie of the year honors that season. His best finish would come at Nashville where he finished second behind Jim Paschal. A year later, Wade moved over to drive for Bud Moore, another Spartanburg native. In their first 20 races together in 1964, Wade posted six top-five finishes, including three third-place results. Through his first 13 starts the worst finish Wade would have was 15th. He had 12 top-tens and four top-fives. After a DNF at Martinsville; he ran off a string of finishes no worse than eighth. The July 1964 NASCAR schedule opened with A.J. Foyt winning the July 4th Firecracker 400 at Daytona

International Speedway, followed four days later with a short-track race in Manassas, Virginia, won by Ned Jarrett. From there, the NASCAR circuit headed north and everything changed. For a brief 10 days in July of 1964, Texan Billy Wade blazed like a comet through NASCAR tracks in the Northeast, becoming the first premier series driver to win four straight races. No one before and no one since won his first NASCAR race and then followed it up with three more consecutive victories, a record unlikely to ever be matched. It was as unexpected a performance as it was a remarkable one. The first stop on the northern swing was July 10th at Old Bridge (N.J.) Stadium, a 0.500-mile paved track that played host to the Fireball Roberts

200, a race named for the Hall of Famer who had died just eight days earlier from burns suffered in a crash at Charlotte Motor Speedway. There, Wade qualified on the pole but backed his pace way down so he could go the distance on a single tank of fuel, while others would have to pit. Roberts himself had used the same strategy a year earlier to win the race. Wade’s gamble paid off as he lapped the field, finishing ahead of Jarrett and Richard Petty. Two days later, on July 12th, the premier series moved to New York’s Bridgehampton Raceway, a

picturesque 2.85-mile road course. Attrition was brutal as only nine of 24 cars that started the race finished it. Pearson was poised to win, but when the engine let go in his Owens-owned Dodge with 12 laps to go, Wade was able to put Moore’s #1 Mercury in Victory Lane for a second consecutive race. Next up on July 15th was the shortest track on the circuit, the tiny 0.200-mile Islip Speedway on Long Island. There, Wade and Jarrett engaged in a furious battle, trading paint while being the only two drivers to lead the race. The 300-lap event saw

just two lead changes, as Jarrett passed polesitter Wade on Lap 97 and Wade retook the lead for good on Lap 193, holding off Jarrett for the final 108 circuits. The premier series moved to another road course, Watkins Glen International, for the third and final New York race, this one on July 19th. For the third time in four races, Wade started from the pole. Jarrett again was Wade’s toughest competitor, but an engine failure in his Bondy Long-owned Ford took Jarrett out of contention. Wade led 41 laps, including the final 31 to win for the fourth straight time. After his historic victory at Watkins Glen, Wade competed in 12 more races during the 1964 season, with his best results being a pair of fourth-place finishes at North Wilkesboro Speedway and Augusta Speedway. Wade ended the season fourth in points behind Petty, Pearson and Jarrett. As the season ended he made 35 starts in the 62 race season. Along with the four wins, Wade posted 12 top five and 25 top ten results. Then disaster struck and

cut a promising career short. The Texas racer stayed with Bud Moore for 1965, but Wade’s life tragically ended on January 5, 1965, during a test at Daytona International Speedway. Wade was performing a tire test at Daytona International Speedway, when a tire blowout caused his car to crash in the west turn, killing the 34-year-old Texan. As of 2023, he is the most recent driver in NASCAR to get his first pole and win in the same weekend. Wade was married and had four daughters. He was a three-time Texas Modified Champion. He twice won the Texas Late Model Championship. He also competed in open-cockpit cars and in sports cars.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

BILLY DREW WADE - 02/28/1930 - 01/05/1965