Wheeler says he's thrilled Charlotte got the honor of building the NHofF.
"Number one, we [Lowe's Motor Speedway] won't have to build the museum," Wheeler says seriously. "I haven't seen anyone make money off a museum yet. If this had not been done, we probably would have bought the bullet and done it ourselves."
The Other NASCAR MuseumWhile race fans breathlessly await the opening of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, they can visit the Winston Cup Museum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, just more than an hour north of Charlotte.
Museum owner Will Spencer, who also owns and operates JKS Motorsports, says he got the idea for the museum when he was talking to car owner Richard Childress about all of the cars that Spencer had in storage. Childress suggested that there should be a museum to commemorate Winston's involvement in racing.
Spencer started forming a plan in 2003, and the site for the museum was bought next to JKS Motorsports in 2004. Renovations started early in 2005, and the museum opened in May 2005.
After the opening ceremonies, Spencer says he was relieved that everything was done. The building was bare just over a month earlier. The parking lot was paved on the Saturday before opening day, and it was striped the next day. The grand opening was that Tuesday.Among the people in attendance were many who had worked for Sports Marketing Enterprises and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which backed stock car racing through the Winston brand.
Spencer expects the museum to change its displays over time. During a recent visit, visitors saw a winged Richard Petty Dodge Daytona and a familiar black-white-and-silver Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet in the lobby.
When a patron goes through the turnstiles into the museum itself, he sees a giant mural that wraps around three walls. He first sees a photo of Richard Petty, the first Winston Cup champion in 1971, and a shot of Donnie Allison in Victory Lane in the 1971 Winston 500 at Talladega, the first race that Winston sponsored. The mural gives viewers a year-by-year history of the series, and fans will go around the wall and finish at the No. 17 car of Matt Kenseth, the final Winston Cup champion in 2003.
There are many cars in the museum, but the most unique may be the flat-bed vehicle that served as the first Winston show car. T. Wayne Robertson, who later headed Sports Marketing Enterprises, drove the show car, and Marilyn Chilton rode in it as the first Miss Winston.
Spencer says the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the Winston Cup Museum will not compete. Winston-Salem is about 75 miles from Charlotte, and while the NHofF will be about all things NASCAR, the Winston Cup Museum is solely about the 33 seasons that Winston sponsored NASCAR's top series.
"There is no money to be made here," Spencer says of his museum. "This is about preserving history and helping charities."-Tom Gillispie
The Winston Cup Museum is located at 1355 MLK Jr. Drive. The phone number is 336/724-4557.
Honoring Nascar's First RaceThe state of North Carolina recognized the beginning of one of its largest industries on May 17 by placing a historical marker near the location of the 31/44-mile Charlotte Speedway, where NASCAR held its first Strictly Stock car race on June 19, 1949.
The now-defunct Charlotte Speedway was one of the biggest tracks in the Southeast in 1949, and that's the reason Big Bill France chose it for the launch of his vision of racing cars that the folks in the stands could buy right from their local dealer. It was an immediate success, although the number of people who actually attended the first race is open to interpretation. According to NASCAR records, there were 13,000 fans packing the grandstand, but the officials dedicating the plaque in west Charlotte used the numbers 20,000 and 23,000. No matter how many people were actually there, they were treated to a heck of a race.
Glenn Dunnaway, of nearby Gastonia, crossed the finish line first in the 200-lap race, three laps ahead of Jim Roper from Halstead, Kansas, but there was a problem. It seems that Dunnaway's car had made a moonshine run on the Friday night before the race, and the mechanics had not removed the Smuggler's blocks-pieces of wood placed in the springs to hold up the rear of the car. NASCAR officials spotted the infraction after the race and disqualified Dunnaway's '47 Ford and elevated Roper and his '49 Lincoln to the winning spot.
It was not only the first race of today's Nextel Cup Series, it was the first instance of cheating in a NASCAR race, and it also featured the first woman who ever raced in NASCAR's top series, Sara Christian. Thirty-three cars started the race.-Don Hamilton
Brand Variety in NASCARIn the 21st century, the race car brands in NASCAR are determined by automotive corporate involvement. Today, there are only three brands in Cup racing, the fewest in history. That's less than half of what it was only a few years ago as Oldsmobile, Buick, Plymouth, and Mercury have all since departed.
It was "the more the merrier" back in NASCAR's early Strictly Stock years. It might surprise you to learn that a number of those non-Big Three brands, along with some surprising Big Three models, were quite respectable. Take the low-slung Hudson that showed the way in the early '50s. Completely surpassing the established brands with its step-down design, the Hudson could really handle in the turns and won a number of races and two championships, along with two Seconds and a Third in the points.
Key Hudson drivers included Herb Thomas, Tim Flock, Dick Rathman, Speedy Thompson, and Fonty Flock. Unbelievably, Hudson won the Manufacturers Title from 1952 through 1954. It hung around through the '55 season, and then disappeared from the circuit.