NASCAR Convertible Division

NASCAR Convertible Division

Category	Stock car racing
Country or region	United States
Inaugural season	1956
Folded	1959
Drivers	Bob Welborn, Joe Lee Johnson

The NASCAR Convertible Division was a division of convertible cars early in NASCAR's history.

History

NASCAR purchased SAFE (Society of Auto Sports, Fellowship, and Education)'s all-convertible Circuit of Champions “All Stars” circuit late in 1955.^[1] Most drivers did not make the transition to NASCAR's sanction. NASCAR ran the division from 1956 until 1959.^[2] Some Convertibles raced against the Grand National (now Sprint Cup) hardtop cars in the same race.^[3] The 1959 Daytona 500 had one qualifying race for Convertibles and one for the hardtop Grand National cars. 20 of the 59 cars in the Daytona 500 were convertibles.^[4] The split qualifying races of the 1959 race led to the development of the Gatorade Duel qualifying races still used in the Daytona 500.

The current Showtime 500 Sprint Cup race at Darlington Raceway was held as a Convertible Division race from 1957-62. As NASCAR's only superspeedway in 1957, the inaugural Rebel 300 was held as a Convertible race on May 11, 1957, only to be delayed by rain and raced on the ensuing Sunday (May 12), drawing a fine for promoter Bob Colvin for violating South Carolina blue law (the track's signature fall race, the Southern 500, was held on Labor Day Monday until 1983). The Rebel would be held as a Confederate Memorial Day Convertible race even after the division ended in 1959, with three more Convertible division races from 1960-62, won by Joe Weatherly, Fred Lorenzen, and the final Rebel 300 for convertibles on May 12, 1962, won by Nelson Stacy.^[5] The Rebel 300 was run as a Grand National race for the first time in 1963, and expanded to 400 miles in 1966, before going to 500 miles in 1974, reverting back to 400 miles in 1994, and returning in 2005 back to its Confederate Memorial Day date as a Saturday night 500-mile Sprint Cup race.

List of champions

• 1956 Bob Welborn^[6]
• 1957 Bob Welborn
• 1958 Bob Welborn
• 1959 Joe Lee Johnson^[7]

References

1. ^ Bob Pronger - Biography; Stan Kalwasinski; Chicagoland Auto Racing, Retrieved February 20, 2008
2. ^ Coulter, Bill (1998). Building and Detailing Scale Model Cars. Kalmbach Publishing, Co.. pp. page 5. ISBN 0890242852. 
3. ^ Pepsi 400: Nothing like racing at night; NASCAR.com; Dave Rodman; July 3, 2002; Retrieved February 21, 2008
4. ^ Daytona 500 Anniversary - The 50th Run; Stock Car Racing magazine; Benny Phillips; July 3, 2002; Retrieved February 21, 2008
5. ^ Nelson Stacy; legendsofnascar.com; Retrieved February 20, 2008
6. ^ 1956 NASCAR Convertible statistics, Retrieved February 20, 2008
7. ^ 1959 NASCAR Convertible statistics, Retrieved February 20, 2008