1. Fireball Roberts was a pitcher for the Zellwood Mud Hens, an American Legion baseball team, where he earned the nickname, "Fireball" because of his fastball.
19 Facts About Fireball Roberts
1. 2.
Fireball Roberts enlisted with the United States Army Air Corps in 1945, but was discharged after basic training because of his asthma.
3.
Fireball Roberts attended the University of Florida and raced on dirt tracks on weekends.
4.
Fireball Roberts won a 150-mile race at Daytona Beach the following year.
5.
Fireball Roberts competed in local stock and modified races at Florida tracks such as Seminole Speedway.
6.
Fireball Roberts finished in the top-five 45 percent of the time, and in the top-ten 59 percent of the time.
7.
Fireball Roberts won both the Daytona 500 and Firecracker 250 events in 1962, driving a black and gold 1962 Pontiac built by car builder legend, Smokey Yunick.
8.
Between 1962 and 1964, Fireball Roberts competed in multiple major sports car races, including a class win at the 1962 24 Hours of Le Mans driving a Ferrari 250 GTO entered by North American Racing Team.
9.
Unlike the banned Curtis Turner and Tim Flock, Fireball Roberts soon returned to the NASCAR fold.
10.
On May 24,1964, at the World 600 in Charlotte, Fireball Roberts had qualified in 11th position and started in the middle of the pack.
11.
On lap seven, Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson collided and spun out and Fireball Roberts crashed trying to avoid them.
12.
Fireball Roberts' Ford slammed backward into the inside retaining wall, flipped over, and burst into flames.
13.
Witnesses at the track claimed they heard Fireball Roberts screaming, "Ned, help me", from inside his burning car after the wreck.
14.
Fireball Roberts suffered second-and third-degree burns over 80 percent of his body and was airlifted to a hospital in critical condition.
15.
Fireball Roberts contracted pneumonia and sepsis and had slipped into a coma by the next day.
16.
Fireball Roberts had lost his close friend, Joe Weatherly, in January 1964 at the MotorTrend 500, at Riverside, California.
17.
Many sources reported that Fireball Roberts was planning to retire since he had taken a public relations position at the Falstaff Brewing Company and that the race in which he was killed was to be one of the final races of his career.
18.
The Fireball Roberts Run is credited with assisting in the recovery of 38 missing children.
19.
In 2013 Fireball Roberts was nominated for induction in the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina, and he was included in the 2014 induction ceremony.