Rex White easily passed test to become a racing champ

Rex White readily and laughingly recalls the first race car he ever saw go on a track.

"It was in the early 1950s at West Lanham Speedway in Maryland, near where I lived at the time," White said this week.

"The pit area was sort of hidden from the grandstand, but I heard the car revving up and out it came. I was shocked to see the number on the car was ‘4-F.'

"This wasn't long after World War Two, so the term 4-F was pretty well known. After the races that day I managed to get down to the pits and I asked the driver why on earth he had put 4-F on his car since that meant you'd failed the physical examination to go in the military.

"He smiled and said he chose that because he had been classified 4-F and couldn't get in the Army.

"Anyway, when he first stood on the gas and got that car up to speed coming by the grandstand, I knew what I wanted to do. I was going to become a race car driver!"

White was working at a service station at the time after a stint as a short-order cook.

He was destined to more than pass the test in racing, cooking up a career that included the championship of NASCAR's major circuit in 1960. It's now known as the Sprint Cup Series.

In recognition of the Golden Anniversary of his driving title, White was honored Sunday during a gathering of stock car racing oldtimers at the Memory Lane Museum in Mooresville, N.C. Hundreds of fans attended and White was swarmed.

"It's amazing how many people either remember my career or else are familiar with it," said White, 79. "That's very gratifying and humbling."

Standing only 5-4, White was dwarfed by many of his rivals, such as the giant-sized Tiny Lund, Curtis Turner, Tim Flock and Richard Petty.

"I remember going to races at Asheville-Weaverville Speedway and Martinsville Speedway and thinking that Rex was so little me and my friends hardly could see him in the car," says long-time fan Roy Clarence Harris of Burnsville, N.C. "It appeared he barely could see over the steering wheel.

"However, he raced big. Rex was one heck of a driver. And he had beautiful cars, gold and white No. 4 Chevrolets." White understandably omitted the "F" from that first race car he had seen.

A native of Taylorsville, N.C., the same home town as a later star, Harry Gant, White "scraped together enough money" to buy an old '37 Ford race car in 1954.

He began competing at the West Lanham track and was soon winning.

He moved up to NASCAR's top division in 1956, posting 14 top 10 finishes in 24 starts.

"This showed me I could do it if the right chance came along," said White, who now lives in Fayetteville, Ga.

That opportunity developed when White joined Crawford Clements, a friend and terrific mechanic.

White scored his first big-time victory on Nov. 3, 1957 at Champion Speedway, a .333-mile track in Fayetteville, N.C. Although run in '57, the event was the opener of NASCAR's 1958 season, scheduling that seemed illogical at the time—and which still does.

White scored one more time in '58 and won five races in '59.

Then came the splendid 1960 season.

It produced six victories and a whopping 29 more top ten finishes in 40 starts. Included among the latter was a second place at Bristol, Tenn., where the Cup Series drivers are scheduled to run Sunday.

By far White's biggest victory came in 1962 Dixie 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1.5-mile track.

Using a strategy of drafting faster cars, White was able to make one less pit stop for fuel than his rivals. He took the lead with three laps to go when Marvin Panch had to stop for gasoline. White won by 12 seconds over runnerup Joe Weatherly.

"I just hung on to Marvin's much-faster Ford for most of the race, running in his slipstream," recalls White. "He ran out of gas and I ran to the bank. We won $13,000 that day. It doesn't seem like much compared to purses nowadays, but it was a lot back then."

The victory was to prove the last of White's career, giving him 28 triumphs in 233 starts. He also sped to 36 poles. White posted 110 top five finishes and 163 top 10s.

Rex, considered a facial double for the late comedian George Gobel, ran only 31 races the next two seasons, retiring after the '64 tour.

He then helped found an auto dealership, worked for Delta Airlines 1971-75 and in '76 formed his own trucking company. He retired as a trucker in 2001.

In 1998 the immensely popular White was named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers in conjunction with the sanctioning body's Golden Anniversary. He's a member of the National Motorsports Press Assoication Hall Of Fame.

White authored his autobiography, "Gold Thunder," a few years ago and teamed with editor Ann Jones for a second book, "All Around The Track,' which is about other NASCAR drivers. "I had a great time racing and I'm having a great time now, attending motorsports events and meeting fans," said White. "But gosh, it doesn't seem like 50 years have gone by since I won the championship."