Johnny Mantz
| Johnny Mantz | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born |
September 18, 1918 Hebron, Indiana |
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| Died | October 25, 1972 (aged 54) | ||||||
| Achievements | First Southern 500 champion, 1956 National champion | ||||||
| Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career | |||||||
| 12 races run over 4 years | |||||||
| First race | 1950 Occoneechee Speedway race | ||||||
| Last race | 1956 Willow Springs Speedway race | ||||||
| First win | 1950 Southern 500 (Darlington) | ||||||
| Last win | 1950 Southern 500 (Darlington) | ||||||
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| Formula One World Championship career | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |
 American |
| Active years | 1953 |
| Teams | Kurtis Kraft |
| Entries | 1 |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podiums | 0 |
| Career points | 0 |
| Pole positions | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 0 |
| First entry | 1953 Indianapolis 500 |
| Last entry | 1953 Indianapolis 500 |
Johnny Mantz (September 18, 1918 in Hebron, Indiana – October 25, 1972) was an American racecar driver.
He made 17 starts in the AAA Championship Car series from 1948 to 1952, capturing a victory in his rookie season at the Milwaukee Mile as well as winning the Indianapolis Sweepstakes at Williams Grove Speedway.
He was a member of the Lincoln team in the first Carrera Panamericana in Mexico in 1950. He and Bill Stroppe were able to lead quite a bit of the multi-day race. With the finish line in sight and no more spare tires to run, Mantz was forced to run on rims and limped across the finish line ending up 9th.
He was the first USAC national champ in 1956.
Mantz also made 12 NASCAR Grand National starts from 1950–1951 and 1955-1956. He won in his third NASCAR race, the first Southern 500 held at Darlington Raceway. This was the first 500-mile race in the history of NASCAR. The newly built Darlington Raceway was also the first "Super Speedway" for NASCAR, even though it was a little under a mile and a half in size. The Southern 500 was also the only paved event for NASCAR in 1950. The classification for Super Speedways would later mean 2 miles and up. Mantz and his Plymouth were the race's slowest qualifier, almost 10 MPH slower than the pole winner, Curtis Turner. But because he qualified on the 9th of 15 days of time trials, he started 43d in the 75 car field. Mantz fitted truck tires which did not wear quickly or blow out, while his competitors had to stop often to pit for new tires. It was his only NASCAR win. He would win by 9 laps over the second-place finisher, Fireball Roberts, with an average speed of 75.250MPH. The race took more than 6 hours to run. Other than the car number, Mantz had one lone sponsorship decal on his car which was placed by the Justice Brothers for the product they were distributing. As of 2010, the speedway presents the Johnny Mantz trophy to the winner of the Southern 500.
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Wikipedia