Winning the race was the only thing that mattered Herb Thomas
The record winning percentage is rigged NASCAR Hall of Fame Credentials
Take it from the king. Herb Thomas stood in an era where the stock car really defined what it was NASCARThe pioneers of
“He was as good as they come,” Richard Petty said. “There were very few guys who had more confidence in what he could do than Herb.
“He was going to beat the track guys no matter what was going on. That was his idea.”
High praise indeed from a driver whose father, Lee, battled Thomas door-to-door and traded NASCAR championships with him. Both Pettis, father and son, are members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Thomas will be inducted into the Hall on Friday, February 8, along with fellow NASCAR premier series champions Buck Baker and Rusty Wallace; championship owner Cotton Owens and innovative crew chief, mechanic and engine builder Leonard Wood.
Thomas, born in Olivia, NC to a farming family not far from where the North Carolina Auto Speedway was to be built, was NASCAR’s first two-time champion. He won back-to-back titles in 1951 and 1953 and finished as runner-up in two other seasons, including 1954. Lee Pettythe first of three championship years.
Thomas, who died in 2000 at the age of 77, won 48 races between 1951 and 1956, setting a record winning percentage of 21.05 percent over a 228-race career. He ranks 13th all-time in NASCAR’s premier series wins. Thomas won three of the first six Southern 500s at Darlington Raceway.
“It’s win or lose,” Thomas once said. “Second place is never enough.”
Thomas caught the racing bug in 1947 when he entered a modified race in Greensboro, NC with a group of friends. He bought one soon after, but never had much success with the car. Thomas’ son, Victor Herbert Thomas, guessed that his father honed his driving skills behind the wheel of a dump truck on the winding back roads leading to Ft. Bragg, NC, during World War II.
“Dad came from farming, he never touched a moonbeam,” she said of her father, who cut wood and ran sawmills.
Although he won in different cars, Thomas will forever be remembered as the driver of the No. 92 Fabulous Hudson Hornet, powered by built engines. Smokey YunickOwner of the self-proclaimed “Best Damn Garage” in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Thomas, who had won races earlier in the season driving a Plymouth and an Oldsmobile, went factory-backed. Hudson Motor Car Co. efforts in mid-1951. The Hornet had a high-revving inline-six engine and, according to Thomas, a low center of gravity that gave the car a performance advantage.
The biggest edge, however, seemed to be the driver himself.
“The tracks were rough, dusty and not tightly packed (clay). You had to learn to drive around the holes,” he said. Herschel McGriffwho raced against Thomas in 1954 and won five races driving an Oldsmobile for Frank Christian. “He was real competitive.”
Baker was often quoted as saying: “The one guy to beat is Herb Thomas.”
Thomas won seven times in 1951, five in his Hudson, and won the championship by a comfortable margin over Fonty Flock to become NASCAR’s first driver/owner. He had eight wins a year later, but finished second to Tim Flock, who also drove Hudson.
Thomas won 12 times in both 1953 and 1954, when he and Lee Petty traded championships. By 1955, Hudson’s factory presence was gone and Thomas switched to Chevrolets and Buicks. He crashed in a May race at Charlotte Speedway, a .750-mile dirt track, suffering injuries that sidelined Thomas for most of the summer. However, Thomas came back to win the Southern 500 for the third time and finished fifth in points despite missing 19 races.
The 1956 season was Thomas’ last as a full-time competitor. He won five times, including three in a row at Portland, Ore., Eureka, Calif., and Merced, Calif. in Carl Kiechhafer’s No. 300B at the wheel of a Chrysler 300. His crew chief was current NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Ray Fox.
Thomas ran three more times in 1957 and 1962 before finally retiring. “I was passing everyone one by one, now they are passing me one by one, it’s time to hang up,” he said. “Running is pointless if you can’t be first.”
Thomas’ son, Victor, remembers that his father was a quiet man and never boasted about his achievements.
“He always respected others and was not a talker, but if he said something, it was the truth,” he said. “He never thought of himself as a NASCAR champion. He was an ordinary guy, a humble man.”
Induction ceremonies will take place at 7:30 pm ET in the Crown Ball Room at the Charlotte Convention Center, which is directly connected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The event is the first half of the NASCAR Acceleration Weekend, followed by the 2013 NASCAR Preview on Saturday, February 9. Tickets for the ceremonies start at $45 and are available at www.nascaracceleration.com and at the NASCAR Hall of Fame Box Office. Additionally, a $20 ticket will give fans all-day access to NASCAR Preview 2013 and the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Saturday, February 9th.
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