Larry Smith (racing driver)

Technopedia Center

Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
S1 Informatics S1 Information Systems S1 Information Technology S1 Computer Engineering S1 Electrical Engineering S1 Civil Engineering

faculty of Economics and Business
S1 Management S1 Accountancy

Faculty of Letters and Educational Sciences
S1 English literature S1 English language education S1 Mathematics education S1 Sports Education

Larry Smith (racing driver)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Larry Grayson Smith

Born

June 16, 1940
Lenoir, North Carolina, U.S.

Died

August 12, 1973 (aged 31)
Lincoln, Alabama, U.S.

Cause of death

Racing Accident

Awards

1972 NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year

NASCAR Cup Series career

38 races run over 3 years

Best finish

23rd - 1972 Winston Cup Series season

First race

1971 World 600 (Charlotte)

Last race

1973 Talladega 500 (Alabama)

Wins	Top tens	Poles
0	9	0

Larry Grayson Smith (June 2, 1940 – August 12, 1973) was a professional stock car racing driver. He made his debut in the 1971 World 600 in the #92 Ford, finishing 22nd. He would go on to run three more races that year, acquiring one top-ten finish. In 1972, he was named the first NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year, running 23 races and posting seven top-ten finishes. The next year, Morris H. Keen, pit crew member and former gas man for Donnie Allison, went to Carling Black Label in Atlanta and talked to President of Atlanta office and acquired a sponsorship for Larry Smith.

Later that year, while running the Talladega 500, Smith spun his 1971 Mercury on lap 14 and slapped the Turn 1 retaining wall.^[1] His car suffered minor damage, which the crew was preparing to repair. However, during the ensuing caution flag, members of Smith's pit crew surprisingly discovered that the driver did not survive the impact of the crash; track doctors confirmed that he had died of massive head injuries.

An August 23, 1973 news report indicated that Smith's helmet had been sent to an independent testing laboratory for examination, to determine what role his helmet had in the injuries he sustained. It further reported that a study was underway to determine if safer helmets for drivers could be found.^[2]

A 1975 report stated that doctors determined that Smith's skull was "abnormally soft", and that it had been fractured several times before his fatal wreck.^[3]

It is rumored, but not confirmed, that the head injuries that killed Smith came because he tore the inner-lining out of his helmet, which had been bothering him for some time. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Talladega Superspeedway infield hospital. No other drivers were involved in the crash.^[1]

Smith is one of several drivers featured in the 1975 book The World's Number One, Flat-Out, All-Time Great Stock Car Racing Book by Jerry Bledsoe. Bledsoe describes the struggles Smith went through in his run for Rookie Of The Year in 1972.

References

[edit]

^ ^a ^b Larry Smith Killed In Race Crash, Atlanta Daily World, August 16, 1973, pg. 9.
^ "Florida Today, Page 3C - at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2016-03-20.
^ "The Bakersfield Californian Page 20 - at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. 1975-05-11. Retrieved 2016-03-20.

External links

[edit]

Larry Smith driver statistics at Racing-Reference

Preceded by Friday Hassler	NASCAR Cup Series fatal accidents 1973	Succeeded by Tiny Lund

v t e NASCAR Rookies of the Year
NASCAR Cup Series	1954: Pitt 1957: Rush 1958: Rollins 1959: Petty 1960: Pearson 1961: Wilson 1962: Cox 1963: Wade 1964: Cooper 1965: McQuagg 1966: Hylton 1967: Do. Allison 1968: P. Hamilton 1969: Brooks 1970: Dennis 1971: Ballard 1972: L. Smith 1973: Pond 1974: Ross 1975: B. Hill 1976: Manning 1977: Rudd 1978: Thomas 1979: Earnhardt 1980: Ridley 1981: R. Bouchard 1982: Bodine 1983: Marlin 1984: R. Wallace 1985: Schrader 1986: Kulwicki 1987: Da. Allison 1988: K. Bouchard 1989: Trickle 1990: Moroso 1991: B. Hamilton 1992: Hensley 1993: Gordon 1994: J. Burton 1995: Craven 1996: Benson 1997: Skinner 1998: Irwin 1999: Stewart 2000: Kenseth 2001: Harvick 2002: Newman 2003: McMurray 2004: Kahne 2005: Ky. Busch 2006: Hamlin 2007: Montoya 2008: R. Smith 2009: Logano 2010: Conway 2011: Lally 2012: Leicht 2013: Stenhouse Jr. 2014: Larson 2015: B. Moffitt 2016: Elliott 2017: Jones 2018: Byron 2019: Hemric 2020: Custer 2021: Briscoe 2022: Cindric 2023: Gibbs 2024: Hocevar
NASCAR Xfinity Series	1989: K. Wallace 1990: Nemechek 1991: Gordon 1992: Craven 1993: Sadler 1994: Benson 1995: Fuller 1996: Allen Jr. 1997: Park 1998: Santerre 1999: Raines 2000: Harvick 2001: Biffle 2002: S. Riggs 2003: Stremme 2004: Ky. Busch 2005: Edwards 2006: O'Quinn Jr. 2007: Ragan 2008: Cassill 2009: Allgaier 2010: Stenhouse Jr. 2011: T. Hill 2012: A. Dillon 2013: Larson 2014: Elliott 2015: Suárez 2016: Jones 2017: Byron 2018: Reddick 2019: Briscoe 2020: H. Burton 2021: Gibbs 2022: A. Hill 2023: S. Smith 2024: Love
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series	1996: Reffner 1997: Irwin 1998: Biffle 1999: Stefanik 2000: Ku. Busch 2001: Kvapil 2002: Gaughan 2003: Edwards 2004: Reutimann 2005: Kluever 2006: Darnell 2007: Allen 2008: Braun 2009: Sauter 2010: A. Dillon 2011: Coulter 2012: T. Dillon 2013: Blaney 2014: Kennedy 2015: Jones 2016: Byron 2017: Briscoe 2018: Snider 2019: Ankrum 2020: Z. Smith 2021: C. Smith 2022: Heim 2023: Sanchez 2024: L. Riggs

This biographical article related to NASCAR is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Larry_Smith_(racing_driver)&oldid=1255101034"

Categories:

Hidden categories:

Authority control databases
International	ISNI VIAF WorldCat
National	Germany United States France BnF data Latvia Israel Belgium
People	DDB
Other	IdRef