Today in History (cont'd)

• Jan. 31 -- 1923: Nolan Swift, a racing legend in upstate New York, is born on this day. Swift wins well more than 200 feature races in his career that spans the '50s, '60s and '70s. He is the New York State NASCAR champion in 1952. He competes in two Cup races, both in upstate New York in 1956, finishing 10th at New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse and 20th (of 21 cars) at Monroe County Fairgrounds in Rochester.

• Jan. 30 -- 1920: Roy Hall is born on this day. Although he starts only two NASCAR races -- in 1949 and 1952 -- he is famous in his day and remains so today. He was a standout stock racer before the debut of NASCAR's Strictly Stock division (today's Sprint Cup Series) in 1949 and is forever immortalized in Jim Croce's song, Rapid Roy (the Stock Car Boy), released in 1972.

• Jan. 29 -- 1945: Nationwide Series standout Tommy Houston is born on this day. Houston finishes his career in 1996 with 24 wins, 23 top-five finishes and 198 top-10s in a then-record 417 starts. Although he never wins a championship, he finishes in the top five in seven of his first nine seasons, including the first five. He is now third in career Nationwide starts, behind Jason Keller (458) and Kenny Wallace (418).

• Jan. 28 -- 1946: Jim Robinson, a member of the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame, is born on this day. Robinson, who wins three consecutive Grand National Division West Series titles (1983-85), starts 21 Cup races from 1979 to 1987, 19 on the road course of Riverside International Raceway (the other two were at Ontario Motor Speedway). Both of his top-10s come at Riverside in 1981, the only time NASCAR holds three Cup races at Riverside in one season.

• Jan. 27 -- 1934: Road-course champion George Follmer is born on this day. A member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame, Follmer starts 20 Cup races in five seasons from 1972 to 1987. He has his most success in 1974 when he starts 13 races and posts three top-fives and five top-10s and wins one pole. Those are the only top-10s and pole of his career.

• Jan. 26 -- 1976: Scott Wimmer is born on this day. Wimmer has raced in the Cup and Nationwide series since 2000. He is winless in 106 Cup races but has enjoyed success in the Nationwide Series with six wins, 29 top-five finishes and 68 top-10s in 169 races. His best season was 2002 when he won four races and finished third in the points standings. Running a part-time schedule last year of 23 races for Richard Childress Racing, Wimmer had one win and 13 top-10s and finished 17th in points.

• Jan. 25 -- 1941: Joel Davis is born on this day. Davis makes 30 Cup starts in the 1960s, including 21 in 1966. The only top-five of his career comes at Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds in Spartanburg, S.C., in June 1966. Davis finishes fourth, 10 laps behind winner Elmo Langley, who wins by more than four laps over Neil Castles in the 200-lap race on the half-mile dirt track.

• Jan. 24 -- 1984: Scott Speed is born on this day. Speed, who makes the jump from open-wheel racing to NASCAR in 2008, wins the AAA Insurance 200 Truck race at Dover in May. The victory comes in his sixth Truck race. He finishes the season with one win, four top-fives and nine top-10s in 16 races and also wins a pole. He starts the final five Cup races of the season, posting his best finish, 16th, in the finale at Homestead.

• Jan. 23 -- 1966: Mario Andretti makes his NASCAR debut in the Motor Trend 500 at Riverside International Raceway. Andretti finishes 16th, completing 154 of 191 laps over the 2.7-mile road course before an accident ends his day. Dan Gurney wins the race with David Pearson second and Paul Goldsmith third.

• Jan. 22 -- 1978: Cale Yarborough begins his quest for a third consecutive Cup Series title with a victory at the season-opening Winston Western 500 at Riverside. Yarborough wins the 119-lap (311.8-mile) race by 1 second over Benny Parsons. It is Yarborough's first victory on a road course.

• Jan. 21 -- 1973: Mark Donohue wins at Riverside to give owner Roger Penske his first NASCAR victory. Donohue, driving a 1973 Matador, leads 138 of the 191-lap Winston Western 500 and beats Bobby Allison by more than a lap to record his only NASCAR win.

• Jan. 20 -- 1929: Glenn "Fireball" Roberts is born on this day. Roberts wins 33 races and 32 poles in a 206-race Cup career from 1950 to 1964. Included in Roberts' wins are seven victories at Daytona, including the 1962 Daytona 500, and NASCAR's only race at Soldier Field in Chicago, on July 21, 1956.

• Jan. 19 -- 1975: Bobby Allison leads a track-record 173 laps in winning the Winston Western 500 at Riverside International Raceway. David Pearson finishes second by 22.6 seconds in the 191-lap race on the 2.62-mile road course.

• Jan. 18 -- 1998: Ron Hornaday wins the 1998 Chevy Trucks Challenge at Walt Disney World Speedway in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. It is the last race in NASCAR's top three series to be run in January. Hornaday beats Joe Ruttman by .211 seconds.

• Jan. 17 -- 1925: Legendary crew chief Harry Hyde is born on this day. Hyde, the inspiration for Robert Duvall's character Harry Hogge in the movie Days of Thunder, won 56 Cup races and 88 poles. He was the crew chief for 36 of Bobby Isaac's 37 Cup wins and Isaac's 1970 championship.

• Jan. 16 -- 1932: Lewis Jones is born on this day, but NASCAR fans know him better as Possum Jones. During 10 seasons from 1952 to 1965, Jones was winless in 47 starts, with 13 top-10 finishes and five top fives. His best season was 1960 when he posted four top-fives in a career-high 13 starts.

• Jan. 15 -- 1978: Sonny Easley dies on this day in a crash, which also claims the life of a pit crew member, during practice for a NASCAR modified race at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. Easley started 19 Cup Series races from 1972 to 1977, all but five in California. He posted five top-10 finishes and one top-five, a fifth in the Winston Western 500 on Jan. 16, 1977, at Riverside. Easley, who was inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2003, had nine career wins in the Winston West Series.

• Jan. 14 -- 1972: Dude Teate, whose career has consisted of one start in the Nationwide Series, is born on this day. Teate started 28th and finished 22nd at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Aug. 2, 2003. Also worth noting: Teate is the only driver named Dude to compete in NASCAR's top three series.

• Jan. 13 -- 1931: Ron Hornaday Sr., a member of the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame, is born on this day. Hornaday started 17 Cup Series races, all in the West, during 10 seasons from 1955 to 1973. Fifteen starts were in California and the other two were in Phoenix. Hornaday's best finishes were a fourth at California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento in 1960, and a fifth at Ascot Stadium in Los Angeles in 1961. Both races were on dirt.

• Jan. 12 -- 1933: Walter Ballard, the 1971 Cup Series rookie of the year, is born on this day. Ballard started one race in 1966 and didn't return to NASCAR until 1971 when he started 41 of 48 races and finished 10th in the points standings. He posted 11 top 10s and three top fives his rookie year, including a career-best third in the Space City 300 in the only Cup race run at Meyer Speedway in Houston. Ballard finished his career winless with four top-five finishes and 34 top-10s in 175 races.

• Jan. 11 -- 1981: This is the last time a Cup Series race is run in January and the last time a race other than the Daytona 500 begins a Cup season. No Nationwide Series race has been run in January, but there have been two January Truck races, in 1997 and 1998 at Walt Disney World Speedway in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The Cup race on this day, the Winston Western 500, is won by Bobby Allison, giving him the last of his six victories on the Riverside road course.

• Jan. 10 -- 1971: NASCAR changes forever on this date with the first running of a Cup Series race under the title sponsorship of Winston. It is during Winston's sponsorship (1971-2003) that NASCAR grows from a regional to a national sport. Before NASCAR's top series became the Winston Cup Series, it was known as the Strictly Stock Series in 1949 and the Grand National Series from 1950 to 1970. It became the Nextel Cup Series in 2004 and the Sprint Cup Series in 2008.

• Jan. 9 -- 1959: Happy 50th birthday, Mark Martin, who returns to full-time racing in the Cup Series in 2009. Martin will be in the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. Martin has 35 Cup wins in 722 races in 26 seasons. His 48 victories lead the Nationwide Series.

• Jan. 8 -- 1977: Bobby Hamilton Jr. is born on this day in Nashville, Tenn. Hamilton has been most successful in the Nationwide Series, where he has five wins in 244 races. He is winless in 64 Cup races and 30 Truck races. In 2008, Hamilton competed exclusively in the Nationwide Series for the second consecutive year and had two top-10s, including a third at Talladega in April. He finished 15th in the standings.

• Jan. 7 -- 1968: Marty Houston is born on this day. Houston, whose father, Tommy, has 24 Nationwide Series victories (tied for fifth with Matt Kenseth), competed in 19 Nationwide races (2000-01) and 44 Truck races. His best Nationwide finish, 13th, came at Daytona in 2001 in his fourth start. In the Truck Series, he had 11 top-10s, including his only top-five, fourth at Kentucky in 2000. Houston's brother Andy competed in all three of NASCAR's top series and picked up three wins in the Truck Series.

• Jan. 6 -- 1993: Carl Tyler, who started 12 Cup races in the late '50s, died on this day. His best finish was 11th in his second career start, at Wilson (N.C.) Speedway in March 1958. He started 10 races in 1958 and two in 1959. His final start came in the first Daytona 500. Tyler finished 54th in the field of 59. He completed 29 laps before his '57 Ford overheated.

• Jan. 5 -- 1931: Happy birthday, Robert Duvall, who made his NASCAR debut in Days of Thunder in 1990 as Tom Cruise's crew chief, Harry Hogge.

• Jan. 4 -- 1977: Chuck Hossfeld is born on this date. Hossfeld competed in 10 Nationwide races for Jack Roush in 2000-01 with a best finish of 10th at Pikes Peak in May 2001. He has had much success in modifieds and finished fourth in 2008 in the Whelen Modified Tour.

• Jan. 3 -- 1973: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., is 36 today. In 2008, Eury guided Junior to his first Cup victory since 2006 and a spot in the Chase.

• Jan. 2 -- 1950: Grant Adcox is born on this date. Adcox was a standout in the ARCA series who was winless in 60 Cup races from 1974 to 1989. His best Cup Series finish was a fifth in the 1978 Winston 500 at Talladega, where Adcox won five times in the ARCA series. Adcox died in an accident in the 1989 Atlanta Journal 500 Cup race.

• Jan. 1 -- 1971: Happy 38th birthday, Scott Riggs. In 167 Cup Series races, Riggs has four top-five finishes and 16 top-10s. Although winless in the Cup Series, Riggs has four wins in the Nationwide Series in 80 starts and five wins in the Truck Series in 43 starts. In 2005 he ran a full Truck schedule, winning five times and finishing fifth in the standings.