NASCAR History: Car Number 50 and Gober Sosebee

by JamesJ, Special To NASCAR commentary and driver pictures, 2012 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 26, 2009 12:01 pm UTC 1 Comment

ALTIMAGETEXTGOESHERE The new year is right around the corner and with it the start of the 2010 NASCAR season. Over the next several weeks we’ll be featuring car numbers in NASCAR history. We will start with #50 and work our way down to the #0. With each car number we’ll take a brief look at a couple stats related to the featured car number in NASCAR history, but we’ll primarily spotlight either a driver, sponsor, car owner, manufacturer or other significant subject closely tied to the car number of the day.

So let us get started! Hopefully as the numbers go down the outdoor temperatures will come up (along with our anticipation level) as we near the start of the 2010 NASCAR Cup season. Rolling off first, is number fifty.

Stats for cars running the #50:

Number of Races: 313
Number of Wins: 0
Number of Top 5s: 11
Number of Top 10s: 41
Number of Poles: 5

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

Spotlight Subject: Driver Gober Sosebee

NASCAR driver Gober Sosebee A Dawson County Georgia born racer, Gober Sosebee’s career in the elite series of NASCAR spanned from 1949 to 1959. He has only one race in the Daytona 500. However, back in 1950 & 1951 Gober scored consecutive wins in the Modified Stock race on the Daytona Beach Course.

Most everything about NASCAR racing was different back then, including the tracks. The beach course was actually part paved and part on the sandy beaches. After racing approximately two miles up the sandy beach the drivers would turn left off the beach and onto Highway A1A [Sorry, but I can't help but say "Beachfront Avenue" each time I hear "A1A." Thanks Robert Van Winkle.]. Once on the highway they would run south parallel to the beach for two miles and crank it hard back onto beach again. Gober’s final race on the beach course came in 1955 where he was left with a poor finish of 45th due to mechanical breakdown. As the sport grew so did the need for a proper speedway. Three years later the final race on the beach course was ran in 1958. The following year was the inaugural Daytona 500 at what is known as Daytona International Speedway. In that race Gober again suffered mechanical troubles that relegated him to a 49th place finish NASCAR driver Gober Sosebee after completing only 44 laps. It was not only his last race in the #50, but it was Gober’s final Cup race period.

For more history as well as personal stories involving Gober Sosebee, check out his driver profile on LegendsOfNascar.com. There you’ll find stories about how Gober forced NASCAR to update the rule book to prevent drivers from carrying a passenger in the car during the race. Or the story detailing when Gober demolished the scoring stand.

Filed under: Daytona International Speedway, James Jones, NASCAR, NASCAR History