Fireball – Man and Legend.

No matter the age of the racing fan, hear the name “Fireball” when it’s connected to auto racing and imaginations are immediately fueled with visions of a handsome and talented race driver, both intense and cavalier, literally setting the racing world on fire with his speed and derring-do. And that’s not far from the truth. Yet, too many of today’s fans have no idea what kind of race driver or what kind of man it took to earn the name “Fireball” and live up to it.

Edward Glenn Roberts, Jr. was born on January 20, 1929, in Tavares, Florida. He didn't start out life quite expecting that he was going to become a race driver. Yet, with a nickname like "Fireball", could anyone expect anything else?

After high school, Glenn Roberts enlisted with the Army Air Corps, but was given a medical discharge because of asthma. "Fireball" enrolled in the University of Florida and raced on dirt tracks on weekends. Roberts attended four semesters at the University, but never graduated. He preferred racing, entering his first race in 1947 at the age of 18 on the Daytona Beach Road Course. He eventually found his way into NASCAR in late 1949. In 1950, he won his first Grand National race in only his 3rd start.

Glenn "Fireball" Roberts went on to build a career that most other racers can only dream of. Considered by many to be the greatest driver never to win a Championship, he earned 32 pole positions, won 33 events and garnered 22 runner-up positions in only 207 races, along with a total of 93 Top-5s and 122 Top-10s. He set an astonishing 400 records at various tracks, leading a total of 5,970 laps including 1,644 laps led at South Carolina's famed Darlington Raceway, NASCAR's first superspeedway and best known as the track "Too Tough To Tame".

He would eventually succumb to severe burns received from a terrifying crash in the 1964 World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. From that fiery crash of May 24 he would hang on until slipping away from complications due to pneumonia on July 2, 1964.

What’s in a Name?

Roberts’ fitting, and now legendary nickname wasn't earned in racing. In fact, organized stock car racing apparently wasn’t even a blip on his radar when the name first stuck. It was bestowed upon Roberts for his ability to throw a baseball during his years as a pitcher in youth baseball in Apopka, FL. Per the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide, “His blazing fastball was more like a fireball, according to most of the hitters who faced him. He applied the same kamikaze ­attitude whether slinging baseballs or racing stock cars -- he was wild, rambunctious, and electrifying.”

Wow. How can you argue with a legend like that?

However, the “legend” of the nickname may have become a bit distorted over the years, as most legends tend to do. It is accepted that the "Fireball" moniker was reportedly earned while pitching in organized baseball, namely with the Zellwood Mud Hens American Legion team, before Roberts moved on to the University of Florida in September, 1947.

That settles that, right? Not so fast, my friend…

Free-lance magazine writer Norm Froscher, himself a 1953 graduate of the University of Florida, researched NASCAR archives and paid NASCAR Hall of Fame Historian Buz McKim a visit. He learned that Roberts’ late widow told McKim Roberts had told her the moniker came from baseball. Other sources claim Roberts played in the Class D Florida State League, while others insisted it was at Apopka High School or the most popular one, with the Zellwood Mud Hens American Legion team.

And, of course, the NASCAR media guide and other journals say the same thing, baseball, but they didn't go far enough to satisfy Froscher.

Enter Jack Hall, who attended Apopka High briefly with Roberts. It was Hall's declaration that Glenn Roberts didn't play organized baseball, but that he got the nickname for his "devil-may-care" speeding on the race track. Roberts reportedly didn't care for the nickname, but it wasn't long before his fellow competitors would be calling him by a shortened version of FireBALLs.

Read whatever you want in there, and you’re likely reading it right.

"There was no baseball at Apopka HS 1942 – 1947 due to a U.S. Army camp occupying an area that the WPA had built as a playground area,” recalled Hall. “We only had football and basketball and students came from Zellwood to play those sports."

According to daughter Pam Roberts, Fireball hardly had time for any organized sports once racing became his true calling. "He became friends with and hung out with Marshall Teague at his garage in Daytona and Marshall built the car in which he won a race at Martinsville," she said.

And when interviewed, Roberts’ own sister didn't know where the Zellwood Mud Hens story came from, either. "He never played any organized sports except a very little football. He picked up the nickname "Fireball" from participation in sandlot games as a baseball pitcher. I believe they call them pickup games.”

Finally, Froscher contacted American Legion State headquarters in Orlando and spoke with Larry Leudenburg.

"There never has been an American Legion team in Zellwood," Leudenburg says. "We didn't have a post there and to my knowledge there was no organized baseball."

It looks like one legend was put to rest, but the legend of the man continues.

Fireball knew aerodynamics, too.

Back in late 1958 NASCAR founder Bill France was just completing his new 2 1/2 mile Daytona International Speedway and had offered a bounty of something like $10,000 for the first driver to go 150 miles an hour on the new high-banked track.

Roberts, already a star, was on a good will tour for a tire company and dropped by the offices of the Jacksonville Journal for an interview with Norm Froscher, then the assistant sports editor.

"One hundred and fifty miles an hour?" Froscher asked. "Jeez, where's it gonna stop, at 160 or 170 even, what's the limit?"

Roberts didn't hesitate.

"When the car gets airborne, that's the limit. As long as you can keep that from happening, there's little limit."

Those observations were made by Roberts 50 years ago. Looking at the race cars of today, with their spoilers, front ends barely off the track and other aero devices to keep the cars from getting airborne, Froscher wonders maybe we should have called him "Crystal Ball" Roberts.

A legend in life… and death

The Auto Editors of Consumer Guide did some great writing about Roberts. I’ll let them take over for a while:

Fireball Roberts was one of NASCAR's most electrifying speed merchants in the 1950s and early '60s. As stock car racing began squeezing its way into the sports mainstream, Roberts was easily the most recognized name in the rough-and-tumble sport.

In the first couple of years of his stock car racing career, Roberts rarely won, But he gained notoriety by the way he played the game. As he gained maturity, Roberts became a consistent winner. A blend of bravery, lightning-quick reflexes, and ­precise judgment were his signatures.

He scored his first NASCAR Grand National victory on August 13, 1950, at Hillsboro's Occoneechee Speedway. At the tender age of 21, Roberts spanked the field in only his third career start. While he tasted early success in NASCAR's elite stock car racing division, Roberts preferred the appealing Modified division, which had speedier cars with virtually no engine restrictions. When the auto industry shoveled millions of dollars into the NASCAR Grand Nationals, Roberts was a hot commodity.

The factory Ford team added him to its roster in 1956, and he responded with 13 wins over the next two seasons. When the factories retreated in the summer of '57, Roberts finished out the year then sold his equipment, having no inclinations of being a team owner. For '58, Roberts accepted a ride with Frank Strickland's Chevrolet team, and won six of his 10 starts.

In 1959, Fireball teamed with Pontiac's Smokey Yunick, and the pair became the most feared team in NASCAR. A shining example of excellence, Roberts and Yunick set dozens of speed records. Roberts was a master in qualifying, taking nine poles in 17 starts in '59 and '60. He won three races, and would have won several more if the tire companies had been able to produce a rubber compound that could've withstood his heavy right foot.

A Premonition?

But something seemed to come between Yunick and Roberts. Yunick said he didn't want to race with Roberts any longer because the driver didn't appear comfortable behind the wheel of a stock car. Yunick had diagnosed Roberts' problem as "seat gap."

"Instead of relaxing and leaning back into the seat, a driver begins hunching anxiously over the steering wheel, opening a gap between himself and the back of the seat. Fireball was jittery," Yunick wrote in an article for Circle Track magazine.

Since Yunick and Roberts had agreed to participate in selected races during the 1962 season, Yunick gave Banjo Matthews all his race cars and engines, and told Roberts to finish the season with Matthews.

"Personally, I think it'd be better if you quit, but I don't expect you to," Yunick recalled telling Roberts.

But for all he had accomplished, sadly, it is Roberts’ death that makes his life and career seem even more legendary.

Roberts was mulling the prospect of retirement in 1964, having just taken a prominent public relations position with the Falstaff Brewing Co. In what was scheduled to be one of his final race appearances, Roberts entered the May 24 Charlotte World 600. He wanted one last crack at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the only superspeedway in the South where he had failed to score a win.

Roberts had qualified in the eleventh position and started in the middle of the pack. He was running with the leaders by the eighth lap when Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett hooked bumpers and slid sideways off the second turn. Roberts looped his car to avoid a direct hit but careened into the edge of a concrete retaining wall inside the backstretch. Roberts' #22 Ford burst into flames and tumbled over.

Witnesses at the track claimed they heard Roberts screaming, "Ned, help me!" from inside his car as it was engulfed by the flames. Jarrett climbed out of his own burning car and helped pull Roberts to safety. Roberts suffered second- and third-degree burns over 80 percent of his body and was airlifted to a hospital in critical condition. Roberts lay in a Charlotte hospital bed for 39 days after the horrific crash, and it appeared he might pull through, but Roberts' health took a turn for the worse on June 30, 1964. He contracted pneumonia and sepsis and slipped into a coma by the next day, and succumbed to his injuries on July 2, 1964. The life of America's top stock car driver was over at the all-too-early age of 35.

There is a bronze plaque on Roberts' mausoleum. The inscription says it all:

E. GLENN "FIREBALL" ROBERTS
JANUARY 20, 1929 - JULY 2, 1964
HE BROUGHT TO STOCK CAR RACING A FRESHNESS, DISTINCTION, A CHAMPIONSHIP QUALITY THAT SURPASSED THE REWARDS COLLECTED BY THE CHECKERED FLAG.

Perspective

Although it was widely accepted that Roberts had an allergic reaction to the chemicals used at the time to make race uniforms flame-retardant, it was actually the same asthmatic condition that had caused his military discharge that was to blame as the chemicals made his breathing worse.

Roberts' death, as well as the deaths of two drivers at the Indianapolis 500 the same year, led to an increase in research for fire-retardant uniforms, and to the development of the Firestone RaceSafe fuel cell. All race cars today use a foam-backed fuel cell to prevent severe fuel spillage of the massive degree that Roberts endured. Flame-retardant chemical dips gave way to fully fire-retardant coveralls, which would eventually lead to the mandatory Nomex racing suits now used in all forms of professional motorsports.

Statistics

Despite having his career cut short and having never won a Grand National title, Fireball Roberts was named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers. Other career awards include induction into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990, and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1995.

Roberts' 33 wins in 207 races equates to a winning percentage of 15.94%. Jeff Gordon (at 16.09% as of 8/4/07) narrowly exceeds that winning percentage and is the only active driver that does. Only David Pearson (105 wins in 574 starts - 18.29%) and Richard Petty (200 wins in 1185 starts - 16.88%) have a higher win percentage than Fireball Roberts of inactive drivers with over 200 starts. (Sorry, Dale Earnhardt, Sr. fans... the late, great driver of the #3 car "only" managed 79 wins in 676 starts, or 11.24%.)

Roberts' very good friend and fellow Holman-Moody Ford pilot was Fred Lorenzen, the "Golden Boy". Lorenzen did amass a higher win percentage than Fireball; 23.21%, based on his 26 wins in 112 starts. Again, Roberts' win percentage is based on 200 or more starts. The death of Fireball Roberts left its mark on Lorenzen, though. Lorenzen points to his friend's death as a major reason he retired early from stock car racing. Had Fireball lived, who knows how many more wins might have been made by the two men, and how many Championships might have been earned between them?

- Don Falloon

Last updated: 05/13/08 16:09:23 Pacific Daylight Time.