Herman Beam (December 11, 1929 – August 27, 1980) was a

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 ...

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 ...

driver and team owner from

Johnson City, Tennessee Johnson City is a city in Washington, Carter, and Sullivan counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, mostly in Washington County. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 71,046, making it the eighth largest city in Tennessee. John ...

who was active as a driver from 1957 until 1963. He is famous for holding the longest streak of races without a DNF, with 84, from 1961 until 1963. He had 57 Top 10 finishes in 194 races.

Driving career

Beam made his Grand National debut in 1957, finishing 20th in a self-owned

Chevy Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and oust ...

. In 1958, he ran 20 races, with a single top 10 finish. 1959 was his best season, where he started 30 of 44 events, had 12 top 10 finishes including his first career top 5, and finished 4th in points. He made 2 starts in the

NASCAR Convertible Division The NASCAR Convertible Division was a division of convertible cars early in NASCAR's history, from 1956 until 1959, although the signature race for convertibles remained a Convertible Division race until 1962. Two remnants of the Convertible Divi ...

that year. In 1961, Beam suffered an engine failure at

Richmond International Raceway Richmond Raceway (RR) is a , ''D''-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in unincorporated Henrico County. It hosts the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Known as ...

. It was the last DNF for 84 races, starting the streak of finishing races that he is most famous for, which ended at

Atlanta Motor Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly known Atlanta International Raceway from 1960 to 1990) is a 1.54-mile entertainment facility in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Cup Series ...

in 1963. Beam retired from racing that year, but continued to field cars for other drivers, including

Ned Jarrett Ned Jarrett (born October 12, 1932) is an American retired race car driver and two-time NASCAR Grand National Series champion. Because of his calm demeanor, he became known as "Gentleman Ned Jarrett". He is the father of former drivers Glenn Jar ...

and

Cale Yarborough William Caleb "Cale" Yarborough (born March 27, 1939) is an American former NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver and owner, businessman, and farmer. He is one of only two drivers in NASCAR history to win three consecutive championships, winning in 1 ...

. Beam's nickname was "Turtle", reflecting his cautious driving style, which was to finish each race without retiring. His most famous moment was at the 1962 Richmond 250 race at the Atlantic Rural Fairgrounds at

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. Due to heavy rain, qualifying was cancelled, and the drivers drew for grid positions by lot. Beam drew pole position, but pulled off the track on the pace lap to let the entire field go past. He eventually finished 12th. After the race Beam said that he did not feel comfortable starting in front of faster cars. Beam's 84-race streak took place over the span of 22 months 10 days, and was being threatened by

Clint Bowyer Clinton Edward Bowyer (born May 30, 1979) is an American former professional stock car racing driver and commentator for ''NASCAR on Fox''. He competed in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2005 to 2020, driving for Richard Childress Racing for eight yea ...

, who if he finished the first ten races of the 2009 season could have tied the record. However, he crashed at the 2009

Southern 500 The Southern 500, officially known as the Cook Out Southern 500 for sponsorship reasons, is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, United States. The race distance is and consists of 367 laps. Fro ...

at Darlington to end his streak at 83 finished races. Bowyer's teammate

Kevin Harvick Kevin Michael Harvick (born December 8, 1975) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick is the 2014 Cup Series champio ...

fell three short when his engine failed in the 2009 Auto Club 500 ending his streak at 81 races without a DNF. After the 2014 FedEx 400, his 84-race streak was broken by

Greg Biffle Gregory Jack Biffle (born December 23, 1969) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 44 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for NY Racing Team and full-time in the ...

, who finished the race despite being 108 laps down in 38th. Another outstanding mark of Beam's was running the same number throughout his career. In all 194 of his starts, Beam drove only the number 19 in NASCAR Grand National races, the former record for officially retired drivers that has since been surpassed by

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...

, with 797 consecutive starts in the #24.

Career as an owner

After retiring from driving in the middle of the 1963 season, he remained a team owner in NASCAR. He hired

to drive for him the rest of the season. In 1964, Larry Thomas and Yarborough split the ride for most of the season, with H.B. Bailey,

Larry Frank Larry Frank (April 29, 1929 – January 5, 2010)http://racing-reference.info/driver/Larry_Frank Larry Frank Racing Reference Stats was an American NASCAR Grand National Series driver. He is best known for winning the 1962 Southern 500. Career Bor ...

, and

Tiny Lund DeWayne Louis "Tiny" Lund (November 14, 1929 – August 17, 1975) was an American stock car racer. He was a journeyman racer-for-hire in the top level NASCAR Grand National Series, running partial seasons for a number of years, including a vict ...

each driving one race for Beam. Yarborough left Beam's team after one race, and

JT Putney JT may refer to: Arts and media * ''Jakobstads Tidning'', a Finland-Swedish newspaper * Jimma Times, owner of the Ethiopian newspaper ''Yeroo'' * ''Jornal da Tarde'', a Brazilian newspaper from São Paulo * ''JT'' (album), 1977 album by James Ta ...

was hired to drive the car. His team shut down after running only 2 races in 1966.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beam, Herman 1929 births 1980 deaths NASCAR drivers NASCAR team owners People from Johnson City, Tennessee Racing drivers from Tennessee