Lloyd George "Shorty" Rollins (April 3, 1929 – December 28, 1998) was the first official Rookie of the Year in what is now the NASCAR Cup Series.

Summary

He began stock car racing in Corpus Christi, Texas. The great success achieved there led him to Fayetteville, North Carolina and NASCAR's

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 ...

. In his rookie campaign of 1958, he had one win at

State Line Speedway Stateline Speedway is a 1/3 mile racetrack in Busti, New York. Len Briggs, Lloyd Williams, Don Frank and Jerry Frank are among the 5 original owners, The First race was held on July 21, 1956. The first feature was won by Emory Mahan driving a 1955 ...

, 12 top five finishes and 22 top ten finishes in 29 starts with car owner Spook Crawford. He won the first stock car race at the

Daytona International Speedway Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR as well as its season opening event. In addition to NASC ...

, a 100-lap qualifying race 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 ...

, which gave him a second place start in the first Daytona 500 in

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 ...

. He made 43 starts in three professional seasons and earned $17,018. He left racing in 1960 with just 43 starts and settled in Pensacola, Florida with his wife, Mozelle, where he established Hurricane Fence Industries. He was a resident of Pensacola until his death at the age of 69.

References

NASCAR.com

Career statistics at Racing-Reference.info
1929 births 1998 deaths NASCAR drivers People from Granbury, Texas Sportspeople from Pensacola, Florida Racing drivers from Texas {{NASCAR-bio-stub