Former NASCAR Team owner Raymond Parks passed away Saturday night. He was 96.
He was the last living member of the group of men who created NASCAR in 1947 during a meeting at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Parks was one of NASCAR’s earliest team owners who founded his first team in 1938 after finding success in real estate and business in Atlanta Georgia. However, it was his partnership with mechanic Red Vogt in the late 1940s soon after the formation of NASCAR that brought Parks his greatest success. During the era of the late 40s and early 1950’s Parks and Vogt put together stock cars that were among the most competitive on the newly formed NASCAR circuit. Driver Red Byron won the first NASCAR Cup Series title in 1949 racing cars fielded by Parks.
Parks teams only competed for four seasons, 1949, 1950 and 1954 and 55, but produced two wins, 11 top-five finishes and 12 top-10s in 18 events. In addition to Byron, Bob Flock and Roy Hall competed for Parks. Fonty Flock drove for Parks in 1954 and Curtis Turner raced for the team in 1955.
Parks retired from racing in the mid-1950’s but is remembered for helping to lay the ground work for future successful NASCAR team owners. He was among the first group of people nominated to NASCAR’s Hall Of Fame and donated his winning trophies to the Hall.
"Raymond Parks is one of the nicest men the sport has ever known," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president for corporate communications when Parks attended the 2009 Daytona 500. "He's a true southern gentleman, and he supported the sport long before NASCAR was a household word."
"The NASCAR Community is saddened by the passing of Raymond Park," NASCAR CEO Brian France said. "Raymond was instrumental in the creation of NASCAR as a participant in the historic meeting at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach. He was also our first championship owner. Raymond is a giant in the history of NASCAR and will always be remembered for his dedication to NASCAR."
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