NASCAR History: Car Number 48 and James Hylton

by JamesJ, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2011 NASCAR schedule, video, Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

Sundays of my youth consisted of NASCAR racing and cold bottles of Mountain Dew. Thirty years later not much has changed for me. However, nearly everything has changed in NASCAR.

December 28, 2009 9:48 am CST 4 Comments

Over the next several weeks we’ll be featuring car numbers in NASCAR history. We started with #50 and are working our way down the line. With each car number we’ll take a brief look at a couple stats related to the featured car number, but we’ll primarily spotlight either a driver, sponsor, car owner or other significant subject closely tied to the car number.

With the back-to-back-to-back-to-back {Oh good grief Charlie Brown!} championships for the #48 Lowe’s team, and their outstanding finishes in… well, every season, it would be all too easy to spotlight Jimmie Johnson. Besides, I know you’re tired of hearing about that crew! While I personally like Jimmie Johnson, he certainly has been the subject of his fair share of media exposure over the years. Instead, I’m going to look into another driver who ran car #48 even more than Jimmie has so far, James Hylton.
NASCAR Driver James Hylton

Stats for cars running the #48

Number of Races: 1,196
Number of Wins:50
Number of Top 5s: 279
Number of Top 10s: 552
Number of Poles: 28

Check out current NASCAR race statistics here at On Pit Row!

Spotlight Subject: Driver James Hylton

To most fans, especially those who only got turned on to NASCAR in the last few years, Jimmie Johnson and the #48 are probably about as close to being synonymous with one another as Earnhardt & #3 or Gordon & #24 are. After all, prior to Jimmie jumping in the #48 for the first time in 2001 the #48 had sat dormant for eight years with no Sprint Cup races logged. But Jimmie’s total of 291 races in the #48 pale in comparison to James Hylton’s total of 581 races with the #48.

NASCAR driver James Hylton's car number 48 James Hylton’s racing career spanned 27 years (1964-1993) during which he logged 2 wins, 140 top fives and 301 top tens! All of this he accomplished without a major primary sponsor. All through the late sixties and the early seventies James was one of the racers that were known as ‘independents’ who raced without factory support and more often than not most ran without major primary sponsorship. Yet that didn’t stop James from putting up great results. Consider this, with 581 races in the #48 James averaged a 13.1 place finish! When I look back over the the season standings (especially in the sixties and seventies) it’s amazing how close James was to being the Cup champion. He had season standings runner up finishes in ‘66, ‘67 and ‘71. In ‘69, ‘70, ‘72 and ‘74 he finished third in the standings. And if that wasn’t impressive enough, a 4th in the ‘73 standings! This guy rocked!

Honestly, it looks like I could go on for quite a while about James Hylton and his early career. But I’d like to change direction here for a moment and look at what James Hylton has done recently. I will admit that a couple years ago during Speedweeks I read the stories and watched the television coverage of what I thought was “some old guy” trying to make the Daytona 500. I later felt ashamed that I didn’t pay more attention and look into exactly who that “old guy” was.

If you don’t recall, James had a good showing in the first Qualifier races last year. Despite mechanical issues with the car’s clutch, James and his crew fought back from being a lap down to put themselves up and running in the top five. Unfortunately James was hampered by the clutch problems and wound up being freight-trained by the field leaving him not only out of the draft but also out of the top ten and relegated to a 23rd place finish. This meant his dream of again starting the Daytona 500 and becoming the oldest driver to do so was gone.

James Hylton in car number 48 I personally have found this spotlight on James Hylton very fun to do. As a matter of fact, I think I had more fun researching him than I would have spotlighting Jimmie Johnson. And there’s so much more that I didn’t even mention about James, such as his current ARCA team operation! [Do yourself a favor and check out www.jameshylton.com for more on his history and his current involvements in racing.] As I said before, I feel ashamed that I didn’t pay more attention during last year’s Daytona 500. I allowed myself to be oblivious to the fact that a NASCAR icon was trying to make yet another mark in NASCAR’s history books right before my eyes. And then to pour salt in my own self-inflicted wound, James Hylton’s race shop in Inman, South Carolina is a mere 33 miles up the road from my house. I think maybe I need to go pay some respects. Not to “some old guy”, but to a racer I now admire.

Filed under: NASCAR, NASCAR History, Nascar Legends

Tagged with: James Hylton

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Comments

4 Responses to “NASCAR History: Car Number 48 and James Hylton”

Charlie Turner on December 28th, 2009 10:32 pm

Fantastic piece on the #48 James.

I’ve had the privilege of speaking with Hylton a few times. And I know guys who race with him regularly today. You didn’t miss the real James Hylton. Great guy and racer. Still.

It’s a bit funny to me, that even in this post, Jimmie Johnson gets shuffled. I understand why. He already gets ALL the attention. But does he really? I think J J gets short shrift an awful lot.

But no matter. This may be the last time that anyone ever remembers James Hylton in a #48 NASCAR ride. And I’m glad it’s here.
R KEITH on December 29th, 2009 5:35 pm

JOE WEATHERLY DROVE CAR 48 IN THE FIRST DAYTONA 500
FINISHED 5TH
Charlie Turner on December 30th, 2009 10:52 am

When I was putting together the posts for our 64 Greatest NASAR Drivers Tournament last spring, I spoke to a bunch of NASCAR folks who said ‘Little Joe” Weatherly was the best there ever was in NASCAR.
Chris Leone on December 30th, 2009 1:01 pm

Good stuff. Looking forward to the rest of this series. Just don’t tell me Cole Trickle is gonna get the spotlight for car No. 46…

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