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I NPS Foam 10 -9oo•a OMB Approval No. 10240018 (8-88) United States Department of the interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sh_eet- Occoneeehee Speedway Orange County, N.C. Section number 8 Page 12 points leader for that year was held at Occoneechee. Although Lee Petty won the race, Bill Rexford took the title for the year. 16 NASCAR, and the Grand National division, proved successful almost immediately upon its establishment. The overriding reason, according to one historian, is that fans in the Southeast in the early 1950s identified the Grand Nationals as a truly southern sport. The region lacked any representation in major sports; major league baseball and professional football and basketball did not come to the South until the 1960s and 1970s. Even mainstream auto racing scheduled few events in the South, except for occasional Indianapolis -type open wheel racing at Atlanta's Lakewood Speedway. 17 Although fans flocked to Grand National races, racing venues remained modest and paved tracks were slow to become the standard. In 1954, the Memphis- Arkansas Speedway, billed as the largest stock car racing facility in the country, opened with a one -and -a- half -mile dirt track as its centerpiece. In 1955, only three Grand National tracks were paved — Darlington, Raleigh and Martinsville, the latter two established as dirt tracks originally. As late as 1958, only twenty -four of fifty -one venues were paved.13 Meanwhile, advances in racing equipment were made in the mid -1950s when companies began producing specialized racing equipment such as tires, helmets and fireproof coveralls. 19 A turning point for came in the late 1950s as NASCAR and stock car racing emerged as a more professionalized sport. Much of the mystique of its bootlegging roots faded as tracks improved, corporate- sponsored teams dominated and safety became a chief concern. Throughout the 1960s, NASCAR slowly began moving into mainstream American culture, although its roots and much of its fan base remained in the Southeast. In 1960, CBS aired a pair of twenty -five -mile pole position races at Daytona. The following year, ABC televised the Firecracker 250 from Daytona. In 1979, the Daytona 500 became the first nationally televised NASCAR race. Richard Petty won the race and CBS won an Emmy for the production. In 1985, the Grand National Circuit was renamed the Winston Cup. 20 16 Fielden, Forty Years of Stock Car Racing, Volume 1, 21. 17 Ibid., 42. 18 Golenbock, 95. 19 Fielden, Forty Years of Stock Car Racing, Volume 1, 141. 20Chengelis.