Full Throttle

In the early days of NASCAR there was no such thing as a star. Well, at least there wasn’t until the Fabulous Hudson Hornet showed up and the car became The Star of the fledgling racing series.

Marshall Teague, based in a garage in Daytona, Florida, was something of a barnstormer running his “Fabulous Hudson Hornet” in AAA, independent wildcat, and NASCAR races.

It was Teague who knew what he needed and worked with Hudson’s engineering staff to develop a winner. To that end Teague and Hudson engineers produced a supply of ‘Severe Service’ parts developed for racing and available to the public at Hudson dealers. (this was a first for an American manufacturer).

The Hudson with its low-slung chassis (a modified version of the Super Six chassis), relatively light weight and excellent handling, could overcome the limitations of its primitive, 308 cubic-inch flathead six-cylinder engine and win races.

And in 1951 Teague proved it could by easily winning the 39-lap race across the combination sand-and-road course in Daytona Beach.

Teague wasn’t the sort of guy to chase championships (or listen patiently to NASCAR’s Bill France Sr.). So in the middle of the 1951 season, Herb Thomas switched to a Hudson Hornet—also called the “Fabulous Hudson Hornet” and went on to win seven times and take the NASCAR Grand National season title.

In April 1952 Marshall Teague, who ranked sixth in the NASCAR Grand National points standings, is stripped of all points when he quits NASCAR and joins the rival AAA tour.

After that Tim Flock took the 1952 title in yet another (albeit un-Fabulous) Hudson. Then Herb Thomas came back to win the title again in 1953 and to win 12 races in 1954 (though losing the championship to Lee Petty).

By 1955 the Hudson Hornet was seriously outdated and was replaced by the eighth greatest Daytona Stock Car to be outlined in the next post.