1. Joseph Herbert Weatherly was an American stock car racing driver.
22 Facts About Joe Weatherly
1. 2.
Joe Weatherly was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2009 after winning NASCAR's Grand National Series championships in 1962 and 1963, three AMA Grand National Championships, and two NASCAR Modified championships.
3.
Joe Weatherly once took practice laps wearing a Peter Pan suit.
4.
Joe Weatherly won three American Motorcycle Association nationals between 1946 and 1950, including the prestigious Laconia Classic 100 Mile road race in 1948.
5.
Joe Weatherly won 49 of the 83 car races that he entered that season.
6.
Joe Weatherly won 52 more races in 1953 and won the Modified National crown again.
7.
Joe Weatherly had a partial interest in what would later be called Richmond International Raceway from 1955 to 1956.
8.
Joe Weatherly drove a factory-sponsored Ford car for Pete DePaolo Engineering.
9.
In 1959, Joe Weatherly recorded six top-5 finishes and ten top-10s.
10.
Joe Weatherly narrowly lost the 1959 Hickory 250 to Junior Johnson; being out lapped twice before the race was concluded.
11.
Joe Weatherly won two consecutive championships, in 1962 and 1963, for Bud Moore Engineering.
12.
Joe Weatherly died on January 19,1964, from head injuries sustained in a racing accident at the fifth race of the 1964 season, at Riverside International Raceway.
13.
Joe Weatherly's head went outside the car and struck a retaining wall, killing him instantly.
14.
Joe Weatherly was not wearing a shoulder harness and did not have a window net installed on his vehicle, because he was afraid of being trapped in a burning car.
15.
Joe Weatherly was the first driver to die during the season after winning the Cup Series championship; since his death, this has occurred just one other time, as 1992 series champion Alan Kulwicki lost his life early in the 1993 season.
16.
Unlike Joe Weatherly, who died in a racing accident, Kulwicki was killed in a plane crash.
17.
Joe Weatherly's grave marker is a sculpture of Riverside Raceway, with a checkered flag marking the spot of his fatal crash.
18.
Joe Weatherly was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.
19.
Joe Weatherly was named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.
20.
Joe Weatherly was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2009.
21.
Joe Weatherly was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame on January 30,2015.
22.
Joe Weatherly was named one of NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023.