NASCAR Hall of Fame Nominee Fred Lorenzen gets his Own Exhibit

 

NASCAR Hall of Fame Nominee Fred Lorenzen had a great racing career.  While waiting to see if Fred gets a spot in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, fans will be able to see memorabilia of his career at an exhibit in his home town of Elmhurst Illinois.Fred Lorenzen, the ‘Golden Boy’ of NASCAR, started his NASCAR career in 1956 but his limited racing didn’t amount to much that season.  He moved to USAC, racing stock cars and won championships in 1958 and 1959.  In 1960 he went back to NASCAR, racing his own car for only a few races of the season.  He didn’t win but his five top ten finishes got him noticed by another NASCAR Owner, Ralph Moody.

Still racing a limited schedule but now with a factory backed team, he managed to win three races in 1961, two in 1962 and six in 1963.  Those six races made him the first NASCAR driver to win over $100,000.00 in a single season and earned him his highest finish in the standings of third place.

In 1964 Fred raced in only 16 NASCAR Grand National (now known as Sprint Cup) races.  He did what was unthinkable for any part time driver in this sport.  He won an incredible five races in a row on his way to winning half of the races he was entered in, eight wins total.  He finished the season an incredible 13^th in the standings.

‘Fearless Freddie’ then went on to win the 1965 Daytona 500 and the World 600 (Coca-Cola 600), NASCAR’s biggest events at the time.  Fred retired in 1972 finishing his NASCAR career with 26 wins, 75 top five and 84 top ten finishes in only 158 starts.  He is number 23 on the NASCAR all time win list winning two more races than Kurt and Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth with over 100 less races run.

A new exhibit of Fred’s racing accomplishments will open February 1st, 2013 at the Elmhurst Historical Museum.  The exhibit will be called “On the Road to Glory: Fred Lorenzen”.

The exhibit will have memorabilia on loan from Fred and his family.  A few items include trophies including his 1965 Daytona 500 trophy, a fire suit and helmet.  There will also be videos from other NASCAR drivers including Bobby Allison and others.  There will also be previously unpublished photographs.

What might be more interesting is that there will be some footage from his appearance in the 1968 “B” movie Speed Lovers, as well as vintage racing footage from the NASCAR Hall of Fame archives.

If you are in the Chicago area, make sure to put Elmhurst on your list and look up the Elmhurst Historical Museum so you can check out the Fred Lorenzen exhibit.  Find out why Fred was called ‘The Elmhurst Express’.   Get there fast as it will only run from February 1^st until May 19^th 2013.  Visit www.elmhursthistory.org for details.

Brian Berg Jr. is a NASCAR writer for www.RantSports.com.

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