- Herman Beam
Herman Beam (
December 11 1929 –August 27 1980 ) was aNASCAR Grand National (now Sprint Cup) driver and team owner fromJohnson City, Tennessee who was active as a driver from 1957 until 1963. He is famous for holding the longest streak of races without a DNF, with 84, from 1961 until 1963. He had 57 Top 10 finishes in 194 races. [cite web|url=http://www.racing-reference.info/driver?id=beamhe01|title=Driver's statistics|publisher=Racing Reference|accessdate=2008-09-02]Driving Career
Beam made his Grand National debut in 1957, finishing 20th in a self-owned
Chevy . In 1958, he ran 20 races, with a single top 10 finish. 1959 was his best season, where he started 30 of 44 events, had 12 top 10 finishes including his first career top 5, and finished 4th in points. He made 2 starts in theNASCAR Convertible Division that year. In 1961, Beam suffered an engine failure atRichmond International Raceway . It was the last last DNF for 84 races, starting the streak of finishes that he is most famous for, which ended atAtlanta Motor Speedway in 1963. Beam retired from racing that year, but continued to field cars for other drivers, includingNed Jarrett andCale Yarborough .References
* [http://www.racing-reference.info/owner?id=beamhe01 NASCAR Owner stats]
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