Final Race of the Season – Nov. 14, 1948
Fonty Flock piloted this car provided by Joe Wolf's Speed Shop out of Pennsylvania.
The last race of the season was November 14, 1948, with huge stakes involved.
This final points event would decide the first NASCAR championship in history. Fonty Flock was a mere 23 points behind Red Byron for the title. Flock had won the 1947 NCSCC title (National Championship Stock Car Circuit). The NCSCC was Bill France’s operation prior to the formation of NASCAR.
What if you have the final race of the season for the NASCAR title, and nobody shows up? That is kind of what happened. The original date was the week before, on Sunday, November 7. The newspaper reported noted the “race was called off when the motor in Fonty Flock’s engine blew up in the first race on the seven-event program.” Over two thousand fans were there, but because of the problems with Flock’s car, plus the fact that only six racecars showed up, it was postponed.
Red Byron had set a new lap speed at the track, and took the first heat of the day, the same one Flock dropped out of. Bill France Sr. had flown in from Daytona Beach headquarters to rein over this season finale. He announced to the fans a misunderstanding on dates by drivers was apparent, (it would seem?)
First, France addressed the grandstand of customers if they would like to come back next week for free, and see a full field for the championship event. But the majority voted, by raising their hands, to continue the show. France decided that regardless, next week would be it. The “boos” in the crowd had little effect.
GARHOFA's Mike Terrell stands near the start/finish line on the frontstretch. The grandstands would have been to the left, with the infield to the right.
So on November 14, the year-long seesaw battle was finally coming to an end. Byron would be driving the same Vogt/Parks built 1939 Ford Coupe. Flock would be in a near identical machine, except his time fielded by mechanical wizard Joe Wolf.
Flock had won the title the previous year when he replaced his brother Bob in the Parks’ machine late in the season after Bob suffered a near fatal wreck in Spartanburg.
A year later, here is the opportunist Fonty competing against his former boss for the title.
But when it was over, the day belonged to Byron, who had the pole position carried over from the previous week. Byron kept the lead until lap 18 of the 30-lap feature. At that time, Flock had worked his way to the front after a broken wheel in an earlier heat put him deep in the field. But on lap 24, Byron retook the lead with Flock trailing by a mere 15 feet at the finish.
Byron won $1,250 for the 1948 NASCAR points championship. Months earlier, the Columbus track had brought him a tragedy that stayed with him the rest of his life. But it also brought him a triumph and a championship at the season’s end.
The first NASCAR season had begun appropriately in February at Daytona Beach, their home base. But the dramatic outcome of their very first championship wasn’t determined until the 54th and final race of the season in November in Columbus, Georgia.