The 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock season was the inaugural season of professional stock car racing in the United States. Beginning at Charlotte Speedway on June 19, 1949, the season included eight races and two exhibition races. The season concluded with the Wilkes 200 at North Wilkesboro Speedway on October 16. Raymond Parks won the Owners' Championship, while Red Byron won the Drivers' Championship with a 16th-place finish at the final race of the season.
Season recap
Race summaries
1949–01
Complete Results
The very first NASCAR Strictly Stock race was held June 19 at Charlotte Speedway, a 3/4 mile dirt track in Charlotte, North Carolina owned by Carl C. Allison on Little Rock Rd.. Bob Flock won the pole. Glenn Dunaway was declared the original winner, although a post-race inspection revealed that his car was fitted with illegal springs, causing NASCAR to disqualify him.
Top Ten Results
34 - Jim Roper
47 - Fonty Flock
22 - Red Byron
2 - Sam Rice
90 - Tim Flock
37 - Archie Smith
31 - Sterling Long
28 - Slick Smith
41 - Curtis Turner
36 - Jimmy Thompson
1949–02
Complete Results
The second race of the Strictly Stock season was held July 10 at the Daytona Beach Road Course. Gober Sosebee won the pole. Sosebee led the first 34 laps and was passed by Red Byron after he got sideways in the north turn with six laps remaining. Byron won the 166-mile NASCAR Strictly Stock race on the sands of the 4.15-mile Daytona Beach and Road Course. There were 21 of the 28 starters running at the finish. Byron won the caution free race with an average speed of 80.883 mph and won with a gap of 1:51 lead over second-place finisher Tim Flock.
Three female drivers, Sara Christian, Louise Smith, and Ethel Mobley, started the race. Mobley was the highest finishers of the female drivers, finishing in 11th place with her Cadillac. Christian in her Ford finished 18th, while Smith finished 20th after flipping her car early in the race. Pre-race favorites Curtis Turner, Bob Flock and Glenn Dunaway all failed to make it to the finish.
This race took two hours, three minutes and 15 seconds to complete 40 laps. The lead was swapped twice by Sosebee and Byron. Dunaway finished last in this race, which, along with his disqualification at Charlotte, means that Dunaway finished last in the first two races in the season.
Top Ten Results
22 - Red Byron
90 - Tim Flock
5 - Frank Mundy
7 - Joe Littlejohn
44 - Bill Blair
37 - Frank Christian
16 - Bill Snowden
50 - Gober Sosebee
36 - Jimmy Thompson
15 - Jack Etheridge
1949–03
Complete Results
The third race of the Strictly Stock season was held August 7 at Occoneechee Speedway. Jimmy Thompson won the pole. Bob Flock scored his first win of the season in the 200-mile Strictly Stock race at Hillsboro's Occoneechee Speedway, giving Oldsmobile its second straight victory. Flock won the race with a gap of 42 seconds from runner-up Gober Sosebee to collect the $2,000.00 first prize. Third place went to Glenn Dunnaway, Fonty Flock took fourth, and Bill Snowden fifth.
Tim Flock was pressuring brother Bob in the late stages, but a broken right-front spindle sent his Oldsmobile to the sidelines with ten laps to go. The younger Flock got credit for seventh in the final rundown. The race was marred by a five-car crash triggered by Sara Christian. Christian spun her Ford after losing the right front wheel in the 38th lap and as she tried to steer her car toward the pit area on the next lap, Felix Wilkes' Lincoln collided with her. Red Byron, the point leader in the Strictly Stock series, collided with Wilkes's car as he exited turn four. Bob Smith's Olds also crashed in a solo crash. There were no drivers injured in the crash. A crowd of 18,000 watched as Flock averaged 76.8 mph on the low-banked, one-mile dirt oval.
