[SIZE=“4”]Sorry guys, I know you?re running way ahead of me here but please bear with me while I remain stuck in the low 90?s car number-wise for another entry. I promise I?ll catch up shortly.
Just like my reverence for ?The Greatest Generation? that provided the freedom we enjoy today, I also revere the original racers from back in the day (as if you can?t tell) that helped start it all.
Comes now probably the most respected driver of old that was ever associated with the #92, Herb Thomas.
Thomas?s career spanned 13 years from 1949 (NASCAR?s first race at Charlotte) to 1962, his last race at North Wilkesboro which was just a cursory attempt.
Although Thomas drove a myriad of auto makes during his career, including a short stint in the eccentric Carl Kiekhaefer?s ?Full Jewelled? Chryslers, he?s best known for the four years he spent campaigning the Smokey Yunick prepared ?Fabulous Hudson Hornet? from 1951 to 1955.
Here he is shown in March of 1953 at the Harnett Speedway, a ?-mile dirt track in Spring Lake, NC. He led all 200-laps of this race to take his 17th career win and became NASCAR?s all-time Grand National race winner in this event. He held this distinction until Lee Petty surpassed his 48 wins in 1960.
Here he is shown later in the same year racing in NASCAR?s Grand National Western tour throughout
Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. Thomas won two of these three races and finished
second in the third race which turned out to be NASCAR?s first and last visit to those three states.
Here is Thomas in his #92 Buick starting on the pole in the NASCAR Grand National event on the dirt at Charlotte Speedway in May, 1955. As shown in the second shot below, he hooked a rut on the 42nd lap of this 100-mile event which sent him rolling over several times off the turn. The two-time NASCAR champion was tossed from the car receiving severe injuries including a badly broken leg, a broken shoulder, a lacerated arm, a concussion and several bruises.
Here is Thomas shown in his Smokey Yunik #92 Motoramic Chevy during the closing stages of the
Sixth annual Southern 500 at Darlington in September of the same year. In only his third start since
his injuries suffered at Charlotte, Thomas took the lead late in the event and went on to win.
As indicated in the second shot here, this was a very popular win whereas NASCAR could not hold back
the jubilant mass of fans surrounding his car when he pulled around onto the front stretch after the win.
Thomas continued as an owner in 1956 and beyond but curtailed his driving to just a few events after
Being critically injured at another race in Shelby, NC in the final stages of the 56? season.
Here is a Herb Thomas owned #92 Pontiac sitting twisted and deformed after a horrendous wreck
In the early laps of the Southern 500 in September, 1957. The car was piloted that day by Fonty Flock
who spun on the back-stretch ending up facing traffic at the entrance to turn 3.
Both Paul Goldsmith and Bobby Meyers plowed full bore into the idle Pontiac.
Goldsmith and Flock suffered severe injuries. Meyers was killed.
Flock announced his retirement from his hospital bed shortly after the wreck.
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