John Ditz
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John Ditz
''John Ditz'' is a former NASCAR Grand National Series car owner whose career spanned from 1954 to 1955. Career He employed Arden Mounts, Dick Rathmann, and Donald Thomas for his 52-race career as a NASCAR owner. Ditz's drivers earned two NASCAR victories in addition to 30 finishes in the "top five" and 35 finishes in the "top ten." These drivers also earned seven pole positions and lead 850 laps out of 7321. Ditz's drivers started in sixth place on average and finished in 10th place on average; for a grand total of raced. This owner competed in the 1955 Southern 500; with one of the highest paying prize purses prior to the 1959 Daytona 500. One of Ditz's wins came at the 1954 Wilkes County 160 The 1954 Wilkes County 160 was a NASCAR Grand National Series event held on April 4, 1954, at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Until the 1957 running of the Wilkes 160, North Wilkesboro Speedway was a dirt oval track ...; with Dick Rathmann behind the wheel. ...
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NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and his son, Jim France, has been the CEO since August 2018. The company is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida. Each year, NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 48 US states as well as in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Europe. History Early stock car racing In the 1920s and 1930s, Daytona Beach supplanted France and Belgium as the preferred location for world land speed records. After a historic race between Ransom Olds and Alexander Winton in 1903, 15 records were set on what became the Daytona Beach Road Course between 1905 and 1935. Daytona Beach had become synonymous with fast cars in 1936. Drivers raced on a course, consisting of a stretch of beach as one straightaway, and a narrow blacktop beachfront highway, Florid ...
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Sprint Cup Series
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, when the series began leasing its naming rights to the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, it was referred to as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series (1971–2003). A similar deal was made with Nextel in 2003, and it became the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series (2004–2007). Sprint acquired Nextel in 2005, and in 2008 the series was renamed the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (2008–2016). In December 2016, it was announced that Monster Energy would become the new title sponsor, and the series was renamed the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (2017–2019). In 2019, NASCAR rejected Monster's offer to extend the current naming rights deal beyond the end of the season. NASCAR subsequently announced its move to a new tiered sponsorship model beginning with the 2020 ...
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1954 In NASCAR
The 1954 NASCAR Grand National season consisted of 37 races from February 1, 1954, and to November 1. Lee Petty, driving for Petty Enterprises, won the championship, his first of three in the series. Season recap The 1954 season consisted of 37 events from February 7 through October 24 of the year; opening in West Palm Beach, Florida, with a Herb Thomas victory, and concluding in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, at the North Wilkesboro Speedway with a Hershel McGriff win. While Thomas captured the opening event in a Hudson, the year was witness to the increased power of GM, Ford and Chrysler as Hudson slipped in its domination of the sport from previous years. Petty came back to win the second race of the year at Daytona Beach, Florida, in his Chrysler. Petty completed the season with 32 top-10 finishes of the 34 events that he competed in. Through 1953, and up until the Southern 500 in 1954, Petty strung together a streak of 56 consecutive races where he was still runnin ...
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1955 In NASCAR
This category contains articles on individual years in NASCAR. {{Commons cat, NASCAR seasons Seasons A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ... Seasons in stock car racing ...
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Arden Mounts
Enoch Arden Mounts (July 9, 1917 – March 4, 2003) was an American NASCAR Grand National Series driver from Gilbert, Mingo County, West Virginia. His primary vehicle was the #18 self-owned Pontiac machine; although he would occasionally drive a Hudson vehicle on the race track. Career He raced in the NASCAR Grand National Series from 1953 to 1956. Like J.D. McDuffie, Alan Kulwicki, and Joe Nemechek, Mounts was an "independent" race car driver who would never receive manufacturer's support or the support of blockbuster sponsors. Arden would earn six finishes in the top ten from the 37 races that he would compete in NASCAR. The 1954 Grand National season would see Mounts record his best championship finish at 21st place in the standings. During his career, Mounts would earn $2,505 in race winnings ($ when adjusted for inflation) and race 4489 laps - the equivalent of . Only the 1953 and 1956 NASCAR Cup Series seasons would see him finish better than he started in the races. Mount ...
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Dick Rathmann
Dick Rathmann (born James Rathmann; January 6, 1924February 1, 2000) was an American race car driver. He drove in the American Automobile Association, AAA Championship Car series in the 1949 and 1950 seasons with 4 starts, including the 1950 Indianapolis 500. He finished in the top ten once, in 6th position at Milwaukee in 1950. In 1951, he moved to NASCAR, where he was a very successful Nextel Cup, Grand National driver through 1955. In 1956, he returned to the United States Automobile Club, USAC Championship Car series, racing in the 1956–1964 seasons with an additional 41 starts, including the Indianapolis 500 races in 1956 and 1958–1964. He finished in the top ten 21 more times, with his best finish in 2nd position in 1959 at Daytona. Rathmann sat on the pole for the 1958 Indianapolis 500. On the first lap, he and fellow front-row starter Ed Elisian raced into turn 3 and started a chain-reaction accident which involved 15 cars and claimed the life of Pat O'Connor (ra ...
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Donald Thomas (NASCAR Driver)
Donald Thomas or Don Thomas may refer to: * Donald A. Thomas (born 1955), American engineer and former NASA astronaut * D. M. Thomas (Donald Michael Thomas, 1935–2023), Cornish novelist, poet, and translator * Donald Serrell Thomas (1934–2022), British writer of (primarily) Victorian-era historical, crime and detective fiction * Donald Thomas (high jumper) (born 1984), Bahamian high jumper * Donald Thomas (American football) (born 1985), American football guard * Donald Thomas (racing driver) (1932–1977), stock car racing driver * Donnie Thomas (American football) (1953–2017), American football linebacker * Donald W. Thomas (1953–2009), university administrator and ecologist * E. Donnall Thomas (1920–2012), American physician, developer of bone marrow transplant * Donnie Thomas (US Army), former commander of Guantanamo's Joint Detention Group * Don Thomas, alias of comic character of Blue Streak Blue Streak or Bluestreak may refer to: Entertainment * ''Blue Strea ...
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Pole Position
In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the race. The number-one qualifying driver is also referred to as the pole-sitter. The pole position, pole sitter, starts the race "at the front of the starting grid. This provides the driver in the pole position the privilege of starting ahead of all the other drivers" Grid position is typically determined by a qualifying session before the race, where race participants compete to ascend to the number 1 grid slot, the driver, pilot, or rider having recorded fastest qualification time awarded the advantage of the number 1 grid slot (i.e., the pole-position) ahead of all other vehicles for the start of the race. Historically, the fastest qualifier was not necessarily the designated ''pole-sitter''. Different sanctioning bodies in motor sport emp ...
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1955 Southern 500
The 1955 Southern 500, the sixth running of the event, was a NASCAR Grand National Series event. The event was held on September 5, 1955, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. This race spanned 500 miles on a paved oval track. An unofficial 30-minute highlight film of this race would appear on the collector's set of ''Stock Cars of 50s & 60s – Stock Car Memories: Darlington-Southern 500''; which was released in 2008. The local radio station '' WJMX'' made it possible to hear the entire race. Coverage of the race would be spotty outside the Darlington area due to the broadcasting limitations of AM radio. Confederate flags were frequently flown in all parts of the state back then; they were shown alongside the Stars and Stripes. Background Darlington Raceway, nicknamed by many NASCAR fans and drivers as "The Lady in Black" or "The Track Too Tough to Tame" and advertised as a "NASCAR Tradition", is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, ...
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1959 Daytona 500
The 1959 First 500 Mile NASCAR International Sweepstakes at Daytona (now known as the 1959 Inaugural Daytona 500) was the second race of the 1959 NASCAR Grand National Series season. It was held on February 22, 1959, in front of 41,921 spectators.Race results
Retrieved October 24, 2007.
It was the first race held at the 2.5-mile (4.0 kilometer) .


Background

Daytona International Spe ...
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1954 Wilkes County 160
The 1954 Wilkes County 160 was a NASCAR Grand National Series event held on April 4, 1954, at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Until the 1957 running of the Wilkes 160, North Wilkesboro Speedway was a dirt oval track. Background North Wilkesboro carried a reputation as one of the fastest short-tracks in auto racing in the late 1940s and 1950s. In 1950, speeds reached 73 mph at the track, compared to the next fastest short-track, Charlotte Speedway, where top speeds only reached 66 mph. Most of the fans in the early years of the sport saw the track as notorious for being a great venue to watch races between the legendary racers of the time. Racing at North Wilkesboro was intense and physical. The 1950 Wilkes 200 was the second Grand National Series race held at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Twenty-six cars entered the race. Twenty-one-year-old Fireball Roberts qualified with a lap speed of 73.266 mph on the dirt track for his first ever Gr ...
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NASCAR Team Owners
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and his son, Jim France, has been the CEO since August 2018. The company is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida. Each year, NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 48 US states as well as in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Europe. History Early stock car racing In the 1920s and 1930s, Daytona Beach supplanted France and Belgium as the preferred location for world land speed records. After a historic race between Ransom Olds and Alexander Winton in 1903, 15 records were set on what became the Daytona Beach Road Course between 1905 and 1935. Daytona Beach had become synonymous with fast cars in 1936. Drivers raced on a course, consisting of a stretch of beach as one straightaway, and a narrow blacktop beachfront highway, Stat ...
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