Elias Abraham Bowie Jr. (May 10, 1910 – January 26, 2005) was an American professional

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

driver. He is credited as being the first African-American to start a top-level

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 hi ...

race, doing so in 1955 at

Bay Meadows Racetrack Bay Meadows was a horse racing track in San Mateo, California from 1934 until 2008, in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States. History Built on the site of an old airfield, Bay Meadows Racecourse was the longest continually operating t ...

Racing career

Bowie made his lone

NASCAR Grand National Series The name NASCAR Grand National Series refers to former names of the following NASCAR series: *National-level stock car series: **NASCAR Cup Series (known as NASCAR Grand National Series between 1950 to 1970, then the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand Nation ...

start on July 31, 1955. Driving a

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

, a mile-long dirt track, Bowie completed 172 of 252 laps and finished 28th of 34 cars. He was noted for having the largest pit crew of all the drivers in the race.

Personal life

Although sometimes denoted as 1909 or 1914, Bowie was born in 1910 in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

, to a laundress and a hotel porter. He was a transportation entrepreneur in the San Francisco Bay, California area.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Strictly Stock/Grand National Series

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bowie, Elias 1910 births 2005 deaths African-American racing drivers NASCAR drivers Racing drivers from San Antonio Racing drivers from Texas Racing drivers from California 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people