looking back
He also made his mark
Richard Petty (left) and Curtis Turner in 1965.
‘Style, Not Statistics’ T
rivia question: What NASCAR driver was the first to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated?
The Internet will give you
some wrong answers to the question, telling you either Cale Yarborough or Bill Elliott first made the SI cover. One might also easily conclude that it was probably someone who won lots of races in NASCAR’s top division like Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison or Darrell Waltrip. The answer is none of the
above. Curtis Morton Turner —
the “Blonde Blizzard” from Christiansburg, Va. — was the one who achieved this milestone. Given Turner’s career statis-
tics, this is especially surprising. Turner won zero championships in NASCAR’s top division, or even its second-tier divisions. In fact, his highest finish in the
36 NASCAR ILLUSTRATED
point standings was fifth in 1950. He won only 17 races in a career that lasted 17 years — it would have been longer had NASCAR founder Bill France not banned him from the sport from 1961 to 1965. Look beyond those statistics,
however, and it would be hard to argue that anyone else in NASCAR deserved that first SI cover more than Turner. With Turner, in the words of SI reporter Kim Chapin, it was always a mat- ter of “style, not statistics.” Indeed, Turner was a domi-
nant presence and the most watched and talked about driver in any race in which he competed — from his first appearance on the scene in 1946 until his last race in the sport’s top division in 1968. Turner regularly hauled
liquor at an early age and even had his own operation by his early teens. The high school
in racing off the track. He partnered with Bruton Smith to build Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960 — although he was later fired by his own board of directors. He also led a movement to organize a driv- ers’ union under the Teamsters in 1961 — a move that got him “banned for life” by France. When France lifted the
dropout also developed an eye for buying timber, and before he reached his 20s had bought and sold thousands of acres of timber land — and made and lost hun- dreds of thousands of dollars, a practice that he would continue the rest of his life. In 1946, at the age of 22, he
hit the growing stock car circuit. He soon became one of the major stars and the master of the powerslide on the region’s red clay tracks. Turner was the ultimate hard charger and raced by the philosophy of win, blow up or wreck. Turner lived the same sort
of hard-charging lifestyle off the track. He hosted the loudest, lewdest and most outrageous parties in NASCAR history. He landed airplanes on city streets to get liquor from a friend’s house and had demolition der- bies in rental cars with buddy Joe Weatherly.
ban in 1965, Turner proved that even in his 40s, he could still win major races and, most important, put on a show for his fans. Indeed, late in his career, he pulled some of his most outrageous stunts on the track — competing in a three-piece suit when a sponsor thought he should look more professional and instigating a 10-lap demoli- tion derby at Bowman Gray Stadium with Bobby Allison that destroyed both cars but provided fans with a lifetime memory. Turner died tragically in a
plane crash in 1970. As we honor the memory of great NASCAR legends, we should remember to recall not just the race win- ners or Cup champions, but the “style” of Turner and so many other early drivers that made the sport so endearing to so many.
—DANIEL S. PIERCE
Daniel S. Pierce is the chairman of the history department at the University of North Carolina Asheville and author of “Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France.”
Photo: Don Hunter Collection/SmyleMedia
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