Fireball Roberts

Glenn 'Fireball' Roberts

1929 - 1964

Sadly, Roberts was planning his retirement at the time of his fatal crash. He had signed a deal to do promotional work for Falstaff Beer and probably would've retired early in '64, but he decided to wait until after Labor Day in order to defend his wins at the Daytona Firecracker and the Southern 500.

But Glenn Roberts, Jr. didn't get his nickname sitting behind the wheel. He got it as a tall, teenage right-handed pitcher who could bring serious heat from sixty feet, six inches. He was born in Apopka, Florida, January 20, 1929. He was "Glenn Jr." to everyone until the mid-40's, when he was buzzing fastballs past would-be hitters for an American Legion baseball team called the Zellwood Mud Hens. It was a young Cuban, who had trouble focusing on Glenn Jr.'s heater, that ultimately attached the nick-name that would last forever.

Speed had taken hold of him when he was 18, and he begged and pleaded until his mother finally signed a consent form allowing him to race.

It's natural to assume the nickname came at the racetrack, because Fireball was some kind of fast when he slipped behind the wheel of his No. 22 Pontiac and hit the NASCAR ovals. He won 32 races and 35 poles in a career that was cut short when Roberts died at age 35 on July 2, 1964, six weeks after suffering burns in a horrific crash during the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Roberts first raced in the 1948 Daytona race, which was run on the old beach-road course. Though he built a name for himself within racing over the next decade, his biggest fame came in the late '50s and early '60s, during his pairing with local car owner-mechanic Smokey Yunick.

After Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959 and began hosting two big-league events a year, Roberts was the fastest qualifier for five of the first seven events there, and also won four of the first 10 races at DIS. In 1962, he became the first man to sweep the Daytona 500 and the July Firecracker race (only three others have done it in the 37 years since).

Roberts won two Southern 500s at Darlington (1958 and '63) and five poles for that major event. He is a member of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and was an easy choice as one of NASCAR's top 50 drivers of all time, announced during NASCAR's 50th anniversary celebration last year.

Anyone with any additional information to share I would appreciate it. Thanks Gene