MOTOR SPORTS
NASCAR’s oldest living champion dies at 95
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Rex White, who was NASCAR’s oldest living champion and a 2015 inductee into the Hall of Fame, has died. He was 95.
NASCAR and the NASCAR Hall of Fame confirmed White’s death on Friday. No additional details were provided.
“Rex epitomized the formative days of NASCAR — a true pioneer whose contributions helped shape the foundation of our sport,” NASCAR chairman Jim France said. “His hard work, dedication and talent allowed him to make a living doing what he loved most — racing cars. He was the model of consistency — finishing in the top five in nearly half of his races — and dominated the short tracks.”
White won the 1960 Cup Series title and 28 Cup races in a career that spanned 233 starts across nine seasons. He led the final five laps in 1958 at Champion Speedway in Fayetteville, N.C., to earn his first career victory and scored 13 top-five finishes in 22 starts.
White won five more races the next season, but didn’t earn his only championship until 1960, when he won six times in 44 starts. He won seven times the next year, when he was runner-up to fellow Hall of Famer Ned Jarrett in the championship standings.
Born during the Great Depression and raised in Taylorsville, N.C., White suffered from polio as a child and that altered his gait for most of his life. He had an early interest in cars and was working on the family Model T by the time he was 8. He had learned how to drive two years earlier using a neighbors truck.
“I was unaware the car on which I labored represented hope to people around me, frustration to those trying to stop illegal moonshine,” he said. “I saw automobiles as transportation, not the symbol of an upcoming billion-dollar sport.”
White purchased his first car in 1954 when a relative of his wife helped him with the $600 needed to buy a 1937 Ford. He immediately began racing as a means to earn a living.
FILE – Rex White, left, poses with the trophy he won for finishing first in the Dixie 400, a NASCAR Grand National Series race, next to Jean Phillips in Atlanta on Oct. 28, 1962. (AP Photo/Horace Cort, File)
FILE – From left, Richard Petty, Bobby Labonte, Rex White and Bobby Allison, all former NASCAR champions, pose during a news conference in Coral Gables, Fla., Nov. 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)