Five 1954 NASCAR Headlines
by Tom Jensen July 15, 2024
Hall of Famers dominated NASCAR’s top division throughout its sixth season.
The year 1954 produced many headlines that would stand the test of time. Baseball superstar Joe DiMaggio and actress Marilyn Monroe married on January 14. Soon after, peace talks to end the Korean War began, public school segregation was outlawed by the Supreme Court in its historic Brown vs. Board of Education ruling and Elvis Presley released his first single, “That’s All Right.”
There was a lot going on, for sure.
In the Southeast, NASCAR launched its sixth season of racing in the Grand National Division – what we know as today’s Cup Series. The 1954 schedule included 33 races on dirt tracks, two on paved ovals and two on road courses. The 1954 campaign began February 7 at West Palm Beach and ended October 24 at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Here are five NASCAR headlines from the 1954 NASCAR season.
Consistent top-five and top-10 finishes helped propel Lee Petty to his first NASCAR Grand National Division Championship in 1954. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Hall of Famers Dominate in Points in 1954
At the top of the 1954 NASCAR Grand National Series points standings were two future NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees: Lee Petty (Class of 2011) and Herb Thomas (Class of 2013). Petty earned his first championship with 8,649 points, while runner-up Thomas earned 8,366 points. Thomas won more races with 12 wins on the season in his Hudson Hornet to Petty’s seven wins in a Chrysler. But Petty had more top-five (24 to 19) and more top-10 (32 to 27) finishes than Thomas, putting him ahead in points by the end of the year. Collectively, the two Hall of Famers won more than half the races on the 1954 schedule.
Herb Thomas and his fabulous Hudson Hornet led the 1954 NASCAR Grand National Division series in race victories with 12. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Part-Time Pilots of 1954
Speaking of schedules, no driver entered all 37 races on the 1954 NASCAR schedule. The top three in points – Petty, Thomas and Buck Baker (Class of 2013) each competed 34 times but only three other drivers ran has many as 30 races. Curtis Turner (Class of 2016) finished ninth in points but only entered 10 races. Back then, stock-car racers were largely local guys who raced as a hobby near their hometown tracks, not professional racers who toured the circuit year-round to earn their livelihood.
Al Keller was one of four drivers to win in what would turn out to be Hudson’s final year of factory-backed NASCAR competition. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Hudson Wins Third and Final Manufacturers’ Championship in 1954
Hudson Motor Car Company, the first automaker to use NASCAR as a true marketing tool, won its third consecutive Manufacturers’ Championship in 1954. That year they claimed 17 race victories, including seven of the first eight, with its all-conquering Hudson Hornet. While that was good news, Hudson was cash strapped and had no replacement in the pipeline for the Hornet, which was ahead of its time when it debuted in 1951 but was already outdated by 1954. On May 1, 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator to form American Motors Corp. Hudson won its last NASCAR race in February 1955 and the nameplate would die entirely two years later.
On the Linden Airport road course, small British sports cars mixed it up with the likes of the big coupes and sedans from Detroit automakers. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Jaguar’s 1954 One-And-Done
On June 13, 1954, NASCAR did something it’s never done before or since: The sanctioning body invited owners of foreign-made sports cars to race at an airport with the Grand National regulars and their bigger, heavier and more powerful cars. On a 2.0-mile temporary road course at Linden, N.J. Airport, NASCAR staged a 50-lap, 100-mile road race with a 43-car field. British-built Jaguars comprised about one-fourth of the field along with other European sports cars, which included entries from Porsche, MG, Austin-Healey and Morgan. Also in the field were the usual suspects from Hudson, Oldsmobile, Ford, Dodge and even a Henry J. In his Jaguar, Al Keller drove to victory at Linden Airport, as one of four Jaguar drivers to finish in the top six. To this day, it remains Jaguar’s lone triumph in NASCAR.
West Coast racer Hershel McGriff made a lasting impression in 1954. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Hershel Heads East for 1954 Season
At the invitation of NASCAR founder and chairman William H.G. France (Class of 2010), Oregon native Hershel McGriff (Class of 2023) headed east in 1954 to run his only season with more than five starts in NASCAR’s top division. Competing in 24 of 37 races McGriff won four times. Even with his limited schedule, McGriff finished sixth in points, an impressive performance to say the least. But at the end of the year, McGriff headed back home to the West Coast, preferring to stay closer to his family and his business interests.
Plan your visit to the NASCAR Hall of Fame and purchase tickets by visiting nascarhall.com/tickets.
