Georgia’s Raymond Parks played a strong role in formation of NASCAR. On Wednesday, it was announced that he will be recognized for that role.
Parks will join Benny Parsons, Mark Martin, Richard Childress and Rick Hendrick into the NASCAR Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2017.
Parks, who was born in Dawson County, Georgia in 1914, would go on to build one of stock car racing’s first super teams in an era before there was a NASCAR. With his cousins Roy Hall and Lloyd Seay, both of Dawsonville, Georgia, behind the wheels of Parks’ cars, the duo would dominate the early stock car racing scene.
Seay would pilot his cousin’s car to the win at one of the first organized events for modern stock car racing, held at the Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, GA in 1938. Over the next two years, the Parks team would dominate, winning on Daytona Beach, at Pennsylvania’s famed Langhorne Speedway and at Raleigh, North Carolina, among others.
When the war broke out, Parks served his country. He was on the front lines at the Battle of the Bulge.
After the war, Parks would reform his team, this time with fellow veteran Red Byron behind the wheel. Parks would support his friend Bill France, Sr. when France began working to build NASCAR. Parks’ cars would win not only the first NASCAR sanctioned race in 1948, but also the first NASCAR Strictly Stock race (now Sprint Cup) in 1949. His cars would also win the first two NASCAR championships.
After getting out of racing, Parks would remain close to the Georgia racing scene. He was an inaugural inductee into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in 2002, and would also be inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2009.
Raymond Parks passed away on June 20, 2010 at the age of 96.
Joining Parks in the Class of 2017 will be 1973 Sprint Cup and 1975 Daytona 500 champion Benny Parsons, who passed away in 2007 at the age of 65, along with 40 time NASCAR Sprint Cup winner Mark Martin, and championship winning car owners Richard Childress and Rick Hendrick.
