Cotton Owens was one of the forerunners of stock car racing. Born on the 21st of May 1924 in Union South Carolina, Everett "Cotton" Owens became known as "the King of the Modifieds" after winning over one hundred races and two series championships back to back in 1953 and 1954 during the 1950’s whilst driving open wheel Modifieds. He also ran some limited races in the NASCAR Grand National series without too much success until on the 17th February 1957 he had his first win at the series premiere annual event, the Daytona Beach Road Course, beating Johnny Beauchamp, the runner up, by a staggering 55 seconds. This race was of historical importance for two reasons, firstly it was the first ever race that NASCAR had sanctioned speeds of over 100 mph, (the average speed was timed at 101,541 mph) and secondly it was the first ever win for the manufacturers of Pontiac in NASCAR racing. The car was a 1957 Pontiac, owned and prepared by Ray Nichels. Cotton was to win again the following year at Monroe County Fairgrounds in Rochester, New York but it was in 1959 that Cotton started to make his name as a race car driver. He came second to Lee Petty in the Grand National Series championship which was pretty remarkable because he only had thirty seven starts but managed to have one victory, thirteen top fives and 22 top tens.

Cotton Owens

In 1961 Cotton ran a very limited schedule of seventeen races but still managed to win four races and was placed in the top fives in eleven others, including a win at his home town of Spartanburg, South Carolina. It was this year that Cotton decided to retire from racing to concentrate on his career as a car owner and fabricator and in 1962 he hired the renowned car driver and owner, Junior Johnson to drive for him along with the young, as yet unknown development driver, David Pearson, who went on to earn the nickname of "the Silver Fox". Cotton came out of retirement briefly in 1964 to take part in a special race at Richmond Speedway in Virginia to see if he, now a prominent car owner, could beat his up and coming rising star, David Pearson. Cotton did beat David and received his final NASCAR Grand National career win.

1965 proved to be a bit of a down season for Cotton Owens Racing because NASCAR disallowed the Hemi-engine, designed by the Chrysler Corporation because NASCAR felt the engine was high powered and up-staged their vision of a level playing field among the factory teams. The Corporation decided to boycott NASCAR and as Cotton was one of the teams backed by the Corporation and the Corporation asked that the teams do the same. Boycotting NASCAR Cotton and David spent the 1965 season drag racing, using a Dodge Dart drag car which Cotton had built. The car had a full-sized Hemi engine in the back of it and ran it on nitro and alcohol based fuel in the Experimental class. In 1966 Cotton and David returned to NASCAR racing and they won the Grand National Championship.

In 1967 they had an amicable parting after a successful six year partnership during which they earned twenty seven wins in 170 races. Over the years Cotton has been very lucky to have had some of the most formidable names in stock car racing drive his cars including several from NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers. Twenty five drivers have driven Cotton’s car, giving him thirty two victories and twenty nine pole positions in 291 races. Cotton’s career statistics as a car owner and driver include forty one victories and thirty eight pole positions in 487 races. A truly illustrious career that saw him gain many awards including:- Modified Series champion in 1953 and 1954, Daytona Beach Road Course winner in 1957, Grand National championship car owner in 1966, National Motorsports Press Association’s Hall of Fame in 1970, Recipient of the "Car owners of the 1960s awarded by the Old Timer’s Racing Club in 1996, Named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998, Presented with the Smokey Yunick Award for "Lifetime Achievement in Auto Racing in 2000, Honoured by the Vance County Tourism Dept. Henderson, North Carolina with the "East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame Motorsports Pioneer Award" in 2005, Pioneer of Racing Award, Living Legends of Auto Racing in 2006, Recipient of the Order of the Palmetto, the highest civilian honour awarded by the Governor of South Carolina, created in 1971 to recognise lifetime achievement and service to the State of South Carolina in 2006, Inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2008. This list is not exhausted as there are more awards and credits for notable achievements. Truly a living legend in Stock Car Racing.

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