![]() Roberts set consecutive Daytona 500 qualifying records from 1960 through 1962. ![]() The trio won the track’s first Firecracker 250 (now the Coke Zero 400) and defended the victory in 1960. The inaugural 1959 Daytona 500 truly ushered in NASCAR’s superspeedway era and with it came Roberts’ teaming with crew chief Henry “Smokey” Yunick and Daytona auto dealer Jim Stephens. Roberts switched to Chevrolet in 1958, won six times and was voted Florida’s Professional Athlete of the Year – a first for a race car driver. The car itself became as famous as its driver with roots musician and songwriter John Hiatt later penning “Fireball Roberts” for his The Open Road album. and the other Detroit automakers exited racing at the conclusion of the 1957 season. Roberts’ Hillsboro victory was his last until 1956 when he was signed by Ford’s DePaolo. 5, 1950, Roberts completed eight of 48 laps in a Hudson finishing 33rd and won $25. The 4.17-mile circuit became Roberts’ introduction to NASCAR’s Strictly Stock – now NASCAR Sprint Cup – division. Roberts competed on the Daytona Beach & Road Course in 1947 and won a 150-mile modified race there the following year. 11 and dubbed “White Lightning,” was a frequent winner on central Florida tracks. Roberts attended the University of Florida where he studied mechanical engineering leaving early after deciding that modified stock car racing would become his profession. His family moved to Daytona Beach, where he graduated from Seabreeze High School, a few miles from Daytona International Speedway. 20, 1929, in Tavares, Fla., and raised in Apopka near Orlando. Roberts died July 2, 1964, at the age of 35. Ironically, the pair would perish in separate, May 1964 accidents – MacDonald in the Indianapolis 500 and Roberts succumbing to burns suffered during the then-named World 600 a week earlier at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Driving a Holman-Moody Ford, Roberts finished a lap ahead of teammate Dave MacDonald. 17, 1963, on a three-mile road course in Augusta, Ga. He also won 32 poles tying him with Fred Lorenzen and Jimmie Johnson for 21st on the all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career poles list. Roberts never came close to running a full season’s schedule but finished among the top five in points three times his highest was a runner-up finish in 1950. He posted at least one victory in nine consecutive seasons (1956-64) topped by eight wins in 1957 behind the wheel of Peter DePaolo’s factory-backed No. Roberts, driving an Oldsmobile, defeated Curtis Turner. 13, 1950, victory at Occoneechee Speedway in Hillsboro, N.C., a 0.90-mile dirt track. Over 15 seasons he won 33 of 207 premier series starts beginning with an Aug. ![]() “I’ve never won a race stroking.”Īnd win Roberts did. “I’m going to run the hell out of ’em every lap,” said Roberts in a February 1964 Sports Illustrated interview with Barbara Heilman. He also captured Darlington Raceway’s Southern 500 in 19. Roberts wasn’t afraid of anything – especially the towering banks of the brand-new Daytona International Speedway, where he won seven points-paying races from the superspeedway’s opening in 1959 through 1963. Fellow competitors said the moniker mirrored the Daytona Beach, Fla., driver’s devil-may-care approach to stock car racing. Others, including Roberts’ family, disputed the story, noting that the teen’s alleged American Legion baseball team – the Zellwood Mud Hens – never existed. Legend has it that Roberts, the 1962 Daytona 500 winner, acquired his nickname as a fastball-throwing baseball pitcher. was known as “Fireball.” His friends, however, simply called the pioneer NASCAR premier series racing star “Glenn.” To his legion of fans, Edward Glenn Roberts Jr.
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