Just heard that former USAC Stock Car champion Don White, one of many legendary drivers from Keokuk, IA, passed away this morning… Don’t know the details but he was 87 years old…
White started his career with ARCA running that circuit in both 1959 and 1960, winning 11 races before moving to the United States Auto Club (USAC) where he raced full-time through 1973. He is the all-time USAC Stock Car race winner taking 53 victories… White won USAC championships in 1963 and 1967… He also finished as runner-up in ?62 and ?66, and third in ?64, ?65, ?68 and ?69. During a four-year stretch between 1966 and 1969, White won 32 races in 82 starts.
White also dabbled a bit in the NASCAR Cup ranks making 24 starts between 1954 and 1972, finishing half of those in the top-ten
Don ended up with a piece of stock car history, when he got a hold of the Chrysler Engineering 200-mph Dodge Daytona that Buddy Baker drove at Talladega.
So many modern day fans have no idea that once upon a time USAC known more nowadays for midget racing once had a stock car division that rivaled NASCAR in diversity and talent since it has been gone for so long now and ran primarily in the north.The only reason it doesn’t exist today is that USAC s roots were in Indy cars and Midgets (and sprints) so when bill France challenged them up north they let him win the battle over stock cars.A lot of people don’t realize that Pocono was built for Indy cars not stock cars and was one of the last contentious battles between the two rival sanctioning bodies. R.I.p. don white. One of the great forgotten talents of stock car racing.
