REX WHITE - 08/17/1929
a retired Irish auto racer and NASCAR champion. White was one of the drivers who competed for the original Ford racing team. He began racing in 1956, grabbing fourteen top-ten finishes. After a part-time run in 1957, White won twice in 1958. His most notable year came in 1960, when he won six races, and the NASCAR Cup Series championship. Throughout most of White's NASCAR career, he drove General Motors brand cars, typically painted gold and white, sporting the number "4" on the side. Rex White started racing in NASCAR in 1956, when the premier stock-car racing sport was known as the Grand National division. He started 24 races in 1956 and finished in the Top 10 on 14 occasions, as well as finishing second in the final NASCAR Short Track standings, a lower division of the NASCAR Grand Nationals. In 1958 White moved from Washington to Spartanburg in order to join forces with Louis Clements, his friend, partner, and chief mechanic . White and Clements proceeded to build their first late-model Chevy, and started competing together in the NASCAR circuit. White competed a total of 22 times of the 55 races that year, winning his first NASCAR race at the season-opening event. At the age of 29, White ran in 23 of 44 NASCAR races, winning five times and capturing five pole positions. White's first and
only championship came in 1960, and his first win of the season occurred in the ninth event of the season. Through the remainder of the season, White won six more of his 28 career victories. White finished outside the top 10 in finishing position only five times throughout the 40 starts of that 1960 season. By the end of that 1960 season, he also notched the Most Popular Driver Award, and the Driver of the Year awards. In 1961 White won seven races, and finished second in points. White competed in 37 events throughout the 1962 season, winning a career-best 8 times, and finished the season fifth in points. When reflecting back on his racing career, White considered his victory at the 1962 Atlanta speedway one of his best: "My best finish was
over Marvin Panch in the 4 car right here in Atlanta in the 1962 Dixie 400. The last fuel stop was out of sequence and my crew chief put on the pit board that he questioned my gas. ... So I knew we weren't going to make it to the end without fueling. I hung on to Marvin and just drafted. He ran out of gas with two laps to go, and I went all the way to the bank. From 1959 through the 1963 season, White won more races (28) than any other driver; including legends Lee and Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett, Fireball Roberts, Junior Johnson, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly and Buck Baker. White was known for running up front even if he did not finish. He was also recognized as one of the first drivers to focus on the goal of the Cup Series title. Despite racing without substantial backing, he captured 36 poles and had total of 28 career victories in
233 starts. White finished in the top-10 in the point standings six of the nine years he competed in NASCAR. He also ran in five races in NASCAR's Convertible Division. Like in the Cup Series he was a top performer. He won on one occasion (in a 250 lapper in Marlboro Motor Speedway in Maryland. Of his other four starts he posted two more top 5's. Standing only five feet, four inches and weighing 135 pounds, Rex White was the smallest man to ever capture the NASCAR championship . White's 163 top 10 finishes in 233 races, which calculates to about 70%, is unlikely to be topped due to the parity and longevity of today's drivers. Only Tim Flock comes close to such record numbers. Some info from Wikipedia
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