Johnny Patterson (died July 5, 1969) 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 ...

Grand National Series driver from Huntington, West Virginia.

Summary

He drove from

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

and scored four "top five" finishes and six "top ten" finishes. Patterson completed 3,255 laps while earning $6,303 in his career. Despite his best efforts, Patterson started an average of 22nd while finishing an average of 21st place over six years. Patterson would improve on his 25th place start at the 1954 Southern 500 to finish in a respectable 14th place; taking home $225 in winnings.''1954 Southern 500'' racing information
at Racing Reference At the

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. A ...

, Johnny Patterson qualified in 46th place in his 1955 Mercury vehicle only to finish the race in 22nd place out of 69 drivers; collecting $225 after a long day's work. The following year at the

1956 Southern 500 The 1956 Southern 500, the seventh running of the event, was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on September 3rd, 1956, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. This race was considered to be the "Labor Day Classic" ...

, Patterson would qualify in 25th place and would end up finishing in 14th place out of 70 drivers; collecting another $225 for his hard work. Short tracks were Patterson's specialty, as he would finish an average of 18th place. His troubles came mostly at road courses where a 50th-place finish was par for the course. Patterson liked

Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds is a half mile (0.8 km) dirt track racing, dirt oval near Spartanburg, South Carolina. The track held NASCAR Grand National races in the 1950s and 1960s. History An October 1908 program was found for a horse t ...

where he would finish in 5th place but would strongly dislike

Daytona Beach and Road Course The Daytona Beach and Road Course was a race track that was instrumental in the formation of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. It originally became famous as the location where 15 world land speed records were set. Beach and r ...

, where he would finish in a dishonorable 50th place. Patterson was mostly associated with the #55 Chevrolet owned by Bernard Friedland. He would also drive for the Hudson,

Oldsmobile Oldsmobile or formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it pro ...

and Mercury brands.Career details of ''Johnny Patterson''
at Driver Database

References

1969 deaths NASCAR drivers People from West Virginia {{NASCAR-stub