Frank Christian (NASCAR owner)

Frank Christian (October 23, 1910 — December 8, 1969) was a NASCAR race car owner who owned a series of stock car vehicles from 1949 to 1955.[1]

He was also the husband of former NASCAR Grand National Series driver Sara Christian in addition to being a businessman and a provider of illegal alcoholic beverages.[2] During his adult life, he resided in Atlanta, Georgia where he would base his legitimate businessman career from.[3]

Career

As a pioneer in multi-car ownership, Christian would lead the way for the modern day "super teams" like Hendrick Motorsports.[4]

He earned $81,285 in monetary prizes as an owner ($718,034.33 when adjusted for inflation) in addition to winning 22 races. Notable drivers under his employment included: Speedy Thompson, Buddy Shuman, Banjo Matthews, Fonty Flock, Buck Baker, and Curtis Turner.[1] Christian even did several races as a driver/owner; adding to the lap total of 21,804 that his vehicles did while under his ownership.[1] Out of all these laps, only 5220 were by Mr. Christian's drivers.[1]

However, his vehicles did do well in finishing races as the average starting position was sixth place and the average finishing position was twelfth place.[1] Pole positions were plentiful for Frank Christian's vehicles as they managed to accumulate 35 pole positions within a 6-year span.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Frank Christian information". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2011-07-11.
  2. ↑ "Information about Mrs. Frank (Sara) Christian" (PDF). The Henry Ford. Retrieved 2014-08-13.
  3. ↑ "Encyclopedia of Stock Car Racing". Google Books. Retrieved 2014-08-13.
  4. ↑ "Super teams have been around since the beginning". NASCAR.com. Retrieved 2011-07-11.
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