Holman-Moody Race Winners
by Tom Jensen June 14, 2024
Some of the best drivers in the world won races and championships in Ford Motor Co. products built by Holman-Moody Racing.
From 1957 to1971, Charlotte-based Holman-Moody Racing was both Ford Motor Co.’s flagship team in what today is known as the NASCAR Cup Series, and a manufacturing facility that built Ford race cars for other teams.
Former driver turned mechanical mastermind Ralph Moody established Holman-Moody Racing with partner John Holman in 1957. Moody oversaw production of the race cars while Holman ran the business. In the 1960s, Holman-Moody built everything from Ford Falcon rally cars to the powerhouse Ford GT-40s that raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and, of course, Ford and Mercury NASCAR race cars.
For his efforts, Moody was recently posthumously voted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2025, along with Carl Edwards and Ricky Rudd.
All told, Holman-Moody team cars won 96 races and two championships in the Cup Series, with 10 different drivers contributing victories. Here are the 10 drivers, six of whom are NASCAR Hall of Famers, who won races in Holman-Moody cars.
Mario Andretti overcame a lengthy late-race pit stop to run down his Holman-Moody teammate Fred Lorenzen and win the 1967 Daytona 500. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Mario Andretti, 1 win
One of the most versatile racers in the world, Mario Andretti only won one NASCAR race, but it was a huge one. Driving a Holman-Moody Racing Ford, Andretti and teammate Fred Lorenzen (Class of 2015) lapped the entire field in the 1967 Daytona 500 to finish 1-2. Both Andretti and Lorenzen drove Fords with engines built by Waddell Wilson (Class of 2020). Andretti is the only driver to win the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500 and the Formula 1 World Driving Championship.
A star road racer, Dan Gurney won on the old Riverside International Raceway road course in 1963. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Dan Gurney, 1 win
A winner in Formula 1, Indy Cars and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Dan Gurney was also an ace at wielding stock cars. He demonstrated his prowess in 1963 when he won the Riverside 500 on the 2.700-mile Riverside International Raceway road course in Southern California. Driving a Holman-Moody Ford, Gurney led 120 of 185 laps to finish a whopping 36 seconds ahead of A.J. Foyt.
In 1962, Nelson Stacy won races at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway and Martinsville Speedway. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Nelson Stacy, 3 wins
Ohio driver Nelson Stacy had a modest career, running no more than 15 Cup Series races per season and a total of 45 between 1952 and 1965. His best year came in 1962, when he scored three of his four career victories behind the wheel of Holman-Moody Racing Fords. Stacy’s biggest victory came in the 1962 World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where he and Joe Weatherly were the only two drivers to complete all 400 laps in the grueling race.
Although it would not become a NASCAR Cup Series venue until 1961, Atlanta International Speedway sponsored Curtis Turner’s Ford in the 1958 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Curtis Turner, 3 wins
One of NASCAR’s first true superstars was the legendary Curtis Turner (Class of 2016), a bootlegger, lumberman, pilot, racer and larger than life personality. Turner was the first driver to win a Cup Series race in a Holman-Moody Ford, which he drove to victory on March 15, 1958, at Champion Speedway, a 0.333-mile paved oval in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Driving the No. 12 Holman-Moody Racing Ford, Joe Weatherly won the 1960 Rebel 300 at Darlington Raceway to cap off a great month of racing. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Joe Weatherly, 4 wins
While piloting the No. 12 Holman Moody Racing Ford in the spring of 1960, Joe Weatherly (Class of 2015) went on a hot streak, winning three times in a four-race stretch of starts. On April 15, Weatherly won the Hickory 250 at Hickory Motor Speedway, then followed it up two days later with a triumph on another North Carolina short track, Wilson Speedway. Then on May 14, Weatherly capped off a great month of racing with a victory in the Rebel 300 at Darlington Raceway.
After racing Pontiacs for several years, Fireball Roberts joined Holman-Moody Racing in early 1963. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Fireball Roberts, 5 wins
The 1963 season was an excellent one for Daytona Beach native Fireball Roberts (Class of 2014) as he won four races after joining the Holman-Moody Racing team early in the schedule. Among those victories were triumphs in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway and the Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway. The 33rd and final race win of Roberts’ career would come on November 17, 1963, in the only Cup Series race ever run on the 3.000-mile Augusta International Raceway road course in Georgia. Despite taking place in 1963, the Augusta race was considered the second event of the 1964 NASCAR season.
In his only full year of NASCAR competition, Dick Hutcherson won nine races and finished second in points to Ned Jarrett in 1965. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Dick Hutcherson, 12 wins
Although his NASCAR driving career was brief, Iowa native Dick Hutcherson definitely made his mark in the sport. In 1965, Hutcherson competed in 52 of 55 races on the schedule, winning nine times in his Holman-Moody Racing Fords. The following year, Hutcherson won three more times for the team, despite making just 14 starts. Retiring from driving after the 1967 season, Hutcherson served as crew chief for David Pearson (Class of 2011) in 1969, when Pearson won his second consecutive Cup title with Holman-Moody. Hutcherson later joined forces with fellow racer Eddie Pagan to form Hutcherson-Pagan Enterprises, one of the most successful chassis building companies in NASCAR.
After winning the 1971 Talladega 500, Bobby Allison was joined in Victory Lane by his wife Judy. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Bobby Allison, 12 wins
Most everywhere he went, Bobby Allison (Class of 2011) won races, and Holman-Moody Racing was no exception. The leader of the “Alabama Gang” of racers won both his starts with the team in 1967 and one of two in 1968. But his best season with Holman-Moody was in 1971, when he won nine races, including five in a row in May and June, starting with the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. On Labor Day, Allison captured another one of NASCAR’s marquee races when he won the Southern 500. Allison’s 12 race victories with Holman-Moody came in just 27 starts.
In just 109 starts with Holman-Moody Racing, Fred Lorenzen won 25 races. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
Fred Lorenzen, 25 wins
In the mid-1960s, whenever Fred Lorenzen (Class of 2015) and the white No. 28 Holman-Moody Racing Ford showed up at a racetrack, they were a threat to win. Lorenzen only ran more than 20 races in a single season once, entering 29 of 55 events in 1963. That season he won six times and earned $112,245, which made him the first NASCAR driver to win more than $100,000 in a single season. Nicknamed “The Golden Boy” for his movie-star good looks, Lorenzen won often, but retired at the age of 32, preferring to avoid the grind of the full NASCAR schedule. Although he made a brief return to racing after leaving Holman-Moody, Lorenzen never won again.
In 1969, David Pearson won his third NASCAR Cup Series championship and second in a row with Holman-Moody. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archives & Research Center via Getty Images
David Pearson, 30 wins
The most successful driver in the history of Holman-Moody Racing was South Carolina native David Pearson (Class of 2011), who amassed huge numbers while winning NASCAR Cup Series championships in 1968 and ’69. In just those two seasons, Pearson won 27 times in 98 starts, while finishing in the top five a remarkable 78 times. In an 18-race stretch from June to September in 1969, Pearson never finished outside the top five, proving the remarkable speed, consistency and reliability of his Holman-Moody Fords.
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