He walked away with $22 for a steak dinner and gas for the journey home.
Starting in 1946, it is estimated Turner won more than 350 races on dirt tracks across the South. His NASCAR stats include 38 wins in the Convertible Division and 17 in the Cup Series, with his biggest triumph being the 1956 Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
Turner is the only driver to be flagged the winner of a NASCAR Cup Series race because all other cars fell from competition. That triumph came at Asheville-Weaverville (N.C.) Speedway on Sept. 30, 1956.
Turner was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Ass’n Hall of Fame in 1971, the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1999, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2006 and the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2016.
He was a legend off the track as well, some say for all the wrong reasons. Even though NASCAR was still working to become a nationally recognized sport during the 1960s, Turner was known in many circles and was friends with some of the nation’s greatest entertainers, including James Garner, the Smothers Brothers, Elvis Presley and Dan Blocker.
According to a prominent newspaper reporter of that era who asked to remain anonymous, when parties became a bit boring or slow, Turner would stop the music and say, “OK, everyone stop what you’re doing. We’re going to start a brand-new party in 15 minutes.”
The gatherings were very, very wild, very unpredictable and could last for days.
In fact, Turner would often party all night and his only sleep would come behind the wheel of his race car while awaiting the command to start engines.
Longtime SPEED SPORT editor Chris Economaki was an eyewitness to one of Turner’s much-needed naps prior to a race on the Beach and Road Course in Daytona Beach, Fla., during the late 1950s.
“The sun is beating down and it’s incredibly hot already,” Economaki said during a documentary for the History Channel. “In comes Turner wearing a blue suit with a vest, shirt and tie and incredibly hung over.
“It’s an hour before the race starts. He gets in the car, leans back and is sound asleep. I look in the car from time to time and he is gushing perspiration. Finally, they give the command: ‘Gentlemen, start your engines.’ Someone wakes him up. He starts his engine and he drives the wheels of that thing while wearing a vest and a tie. It was incredible. It really was. Turner was a magnet because he was always worth a story.”
Turner made and lost millions of dollars, helped build Charlotte Motor Speedway and was banned from NASCAR from 1961 to 1965 for trying to unionize its drivers.
Then, he returned to NASCAR and proved he could win at age 41, considered old for a driver during the 1960s.
“He was a loose goose,” Wheeler said. “He had an incredible sense for things and an incredible sense for business but often didn’t have the finances to pull off what he was trying to do.
“When it came to race cars, the more loose the better,” Wheeler continued. “He was terrific with a loose race car, but he didn’t know anything about working on a race car. He just wanted it as loose as his crew could get it.”
Loose on the track and loose in life. That was Curtis Turner.
This story appeared in the Nov 15, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
