NASCAR’s Hidden History: 1970 Riverside Gallery

[Steve Shauger]

These cars although heavily modified, still had the DNA of what you could buy at your local dealership. These cars were virtually death traps, but that was racing in the 60's and early 70's.

https://www.motortrend.com/features/nascar-1970-motor-trend-500-plymouth-superbird/

[tjs44]

Open face helmets ,no head and neck restraints,no “race”seats.A lot drivers died in many diff series in the”good old” days.

[TomP]

Wow, a 67 Cutlass Nascar racer! Several other uncommon body styles and I guess they didn't have Chevelle body templates to test those quarter panels on number 38.

[1967 4K]

Is that a Camaro three cars behind the Olds in the fourth picture? Hmm 🤔.

[RALLY]

Open face helmets ,no head and neck restraints,no “race”seats.A lot drivers died in many diff series in the”good old” days.

Fact, and drivers even smoking cigarettes too. Good old days for sure.

[markinnaples]

Awesome pics, thanks for sharing Steve.

[SS427]

Open face helmets ,no head and neck restraints,no “race”seats.A lot drivers died in many diff series in the”good old” days.


I think the statistics are still very low all things considered. If I did the math correctly 'only' 26 drivers have died during a NASCAR race since 1940 as a direct result of a crash which is pretty low considering there were little safety factors built into these cars in the early days. I only added up the stock car races/qualifying runs and not other NASCAR events such as Midgets or Sportsman series as well as others. I also did not consider test sessions or drivers who died of medical conditions during a race. The numbers did go from a high of 7 in the 1950's to 2 in 2000's and 0 in the 2020's so obviously there was great improvement in safety.

I believe many more drivers died in the other race series than in the NASCAR races as well of which I did not add those statistics up. As a comparison, 29 pilots have died in 60 years of Reno Air races though admittedly if you crash an airplane during a race, your odds of surviving are slim to none regardless of how many safety innovations came into play.

[Jamess113]

Thanks for sharing the article from Motor Trend, lots a great pictures and a great read. Race cars / NASCAR were so much cooler when they started with a car off the assembly line or what appeared to be.

[68camaroz28]

First Nascar race for Plymouth Superbird....

[danachevroletfor1967]

Great photos. That is the era when NASCAR was at its best. Win on Sunday and sell on Monday. The cars were as close to stock as they ever were with a few fudges here and there. This is the era when I really started following NASCAR. Today I could care less about the series.

[hogdaddy]

Bobby Allison's car #22 up front.
I went to school with Davey Allison 4th-8th grade. He was cool kid.
He used to give me the large B/A racing team stickers. Wish I still had those.

[Tracker1]

The numbers did go from a high of 7 in the 1950's to 0 in 2000's and 0 in the 2020's so obviously there was great improvement in safety.

Two deaths in the 2000s - Kenny Irwin Jr. and Earnhardt.

[SS427]

Two deaths in the 2000s - Kenny Irwin Jr. and Earnhardt.

Correct. A finger error on my part. Thanks for catching that.

[454_Malibu]

Adam Petty,,,

[sixt9rsx33]

Thanks for posting Steve, cool stuff for sure.

[John]

... Is there anywhere that NASCAR talks about the drivers that excelled during the years that they Sponsored Drag Racing ?
... I know it was only a very short time.

... :hmmm:

..

[SeattleCarGuy]

I've never really understood why Chevy wasn't competitive in the late-60's in NASCAR??? I've heard people say the BBC didn't oil well and hold together at sustained 6000-7000 RPM lapping, but they seemed to hold together in Corvette road racing, etc?? If Chevy was able to back-door support NHRA teams, why couldn't they support NASCAR teams? Seems like Chevy just conceded a whole genre of motorsports to the other guys?