1,000 Greatest Drivers: Marshall Teague

Racings-in-Hudson

Okay, that was a trying-too-hard pun on the New York village Hastings-on-Hudson. I still didn’t go to visit Mom today since she still has COVID and she still might be contagious. I also wasn’t assigned any work today, so I might write both this and the next one tonight. We’ll see.

My bank account got frozen over the weekend because my bank apparently thought the renewal of my newspapers.com subscription was fraudulent. I fixed it today, but that was pretty annoying.

I got four out of six questions correct on LearnedLeague on the first day since I rejoined that. I don’t know whether I won the match or not, but I’m guessing I didn’t, since I think those questions were unusually easy.

While I was not very impressed by either of Tyler Reddick’s Talladega or Daytona wins, he sure made me look like a fool yesterday as he finally convinced me of his drafting ability. I was pretty gobsmacked that he managed to come back after his crash and drive up through the field to win. I do think he was greatly assisted by backing into the pole and Pit Stall #1 after qualifying was canceled, but I guess it was mainly because fresher tires actually compensated for his crash damage. It’s nice to see a drafting race where handling matters again, even if there was still way too much crashing… I was pretty impressed by Shane van Gisbergen getting a top ten after two rides through the grass, too, but I remain unconvinced he’ll get many top tens on the non-drafting ovals. I don’t have much to say today otherwise.

MARSHALL TEAGUE………………...USA

Born: February 22, 1921
Died: February 11, 1959

Best year: 1952
Best drive: 1952 NASCAR Cup Series Race #1 at Daytona Beach/Road Course

Teague was instrumental in helping facilitate NASCAR’s transition from a discipline dominated by “shade tree mechanics” to an increasingly professionalized sport. One of the most proactive and persuasive drivers in motorsports history, he went to the offices of the Hudson Motor Car Company without an appointment, successfully convincing them not only to let him drive their cars but also to provide full factory backing, which was unprecedented in NASCAR history. He also persuaded Smokey Yunick, proprietor of the so-called “Best Damn Garage in Town”, to join his operation.

On his Hudson debut in the 1951 season opener at the Daytona Beach/Road Course, he took the lead on the 28th lap when previous leader Tim Flock had a slow pit stop, giving Hudson its first Cup Series win. Teague quickly added four more wins, including a flag-to-flag win in NASCAR’s first West Coast race in Gardena, California. His five wins and 789 laps led both ranked fourth in the Cup Series, even though he only started 15 of 41 races. The Hudsons lacked the horsepower of some other car manufacturers, but they compensated by being significantly lighter. Hudson proved so dominant that when Teague’s cars were emblazoned with the phrase “The Fabulous Hudson Hornet”, it wasn’t just pomposity. Hudson won a mind-boggling 79 of 151 Cup Series races before dropping out of racing when Hudson and Nash merged to form AMC.

Although he led his teammate Herb Thomas in back-to-back 1-2 finishes in 1952 (most notably reprising his Daytona Beach win, where he started 11th, took the lead on the second lap, and beat Thomas by 81 seconds against a 61-car field), he defected only a few races later to join the AAA Stock Car Series, where he won seven races and the championship, making him pretty easily that year’s best stock car driver. He alternated titles with Frank Mundy from 1952 to 1955, winning another title in 1954. Teague won 16 AAA races and 3 more after USAC took over sanctioning in 1956. Since the AAA and USAC sanctioned the Indy 500, Teague also made a few starts there. In 1957, he finished seventh and beat both his teammates, polesitter Pat O’Connor and 1950 winner Johnnie Parsons. However, he was killed just before the inaugural Daytona 500 while attempting to break the closed-course speed record in an IndyCar at Daytona. After flipping, both he and his seat were ejected from the car.

The fact that Teague almost single-handedly brought both Hudson and Yunick into NASCAR based on his own chutzpah is an incredible legacy. You could argue Thomas was the best NASCAR driver of the ‘50s, yet Teague was significantly better when they competed together. His 7 wins in 23 starts give him the second-best winning percentage in NASCAR history among drivers with multiple wins, and his AAA career was arguably better yet. Normally, I’d argue that their Cup Series careers don’t accurately reflect drivers’ legacies when most of their success came in non-NASCAR series, but not in this case.

Stock car model: N/A

Teammate head-to-heads: 2-0 (2-0 vs. Herb Thomas)

Open wheel model: N/A

Teammate head-to-heads: 2-0 (1-0 vs. Pat O’Connor, 1-0 vs. Johnnie Parsons)

Year-by-year: 1951: E, 1952: 3, 1953: C+, 1954: E, 1955: C+, 1956: E-, 1957: C-, 1958: C