Jack’s Favorites
Jack Smith and his Pontiac parked next to Cotton Owens in the ealry sixties.
I asked him what was his favorite track and his worst track.
“I don’t remember being too fond of any of them,” he said. “I guess my favorite was Daytona, not the beach but the super speedway. It was a smooth track. Of course, I had a good win there in ’60 for the Firecracker race. I led my share of the first 500 there in ’59 but had ignition problems at the end. But it was a good, smooth track.”
I noticed at his transmission shop that he now operates that he has several 1960 Pontiacs he is restoring. Why the preference?
“Well, they just drove good,” said Jack. “The ’60 Pontiacs were about the best and smoothest running cars I raced. I just really liked them.”
And finally, the reason I had dropped by his office. What about the NASCAR top 50 list? Why aren’t you on it?
Jack Smith's son, Lance, pilots a replica of his father's Pontiac racer at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Photo courtesy Eddie Samples
“That’s a good question,” he laughed. “The credentials are there, but I can’t tell you.”
They certainly are. Smith won 21 Sprint Cup events, was the 1958 Most Popular Driver, and is a member of the Motorsports Press Hall of Fame. That’s not including the 1951 NSCRA National title or all the wins with France before NASCAR was formed.
“They called me with three hours of voting time left and told me I was 34th on the list. Cotton Owens wasn’t on it at all at that time but made it. I don’t worry about things like that but it would be interesting to know the true story of it, and I’m sure there is one behind it,” he concluded.
I left feeling sure there was one too.
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the June 1999 edition of the Pioneer Pages magazine. Jack Smith died on October 17, 2001. In 2003, Smith was inducted into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame.
Eddie Samples is a racing historian and writer, and is the son of champion stock car racer and Georgia Racing Hall of Famer Ed Samples.
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