{"id":26653,"date":"2024-11-11T19:00:19","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T00:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=26653"},"modified":"2024-11-11T18:50:21","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T23:50:21","slug":"honoring-nascar-pioneers-who-served-in-the-us-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/11\/11\/honoring-nascar-pioneers-who-served-in-the-us-military\/","title":{"rendered":"Honoring NASCAR Pioneers who served in the US Military"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Throughout the 76 years of NASCAR Competition, NASCAR has seen numerous pioneers, legends and members of the sport who served in the United States Armed Forces. On this veterans day, we will take a look at some of those who have served the United States and their contributions to the highest level of stock car racing.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NASCAR remembers fallen soldiers at halfway break in the Coca-Cola 600\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6_oXlLLI_eE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>WW2 Veterans become NASCAR Pioneers:<\/h3>\n<p>Beginning at the origin of the sport, just three years from the conclusion of one of the deadliest conflicts in human history, we saw champions emerge who served. Many young men served as engineers and mechanics, skills that would help them rise to NASCAR legends.<\/p>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nascarhall.com\/hall-of-famers\/inductees\/red-byron\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Red Byron<\/a>, the first Modified series champion in 1948. Byron was an engineer on a B-24 Liberator bomber, and was seriously wounded during the Aleutian Islands campaign during WW2. While recovering from his injuries, he made it a goal to drive in NASCAR. While he never fully recovered from his injury, he wore a leg brace to help him push the clutch pedal. Byron would go on to also win the first Cup Series (then Strickly Stock) championship.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Winston Kelley accepts Hall of Fame honor for Red Byron\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9_LG5hT5FUQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.mshf.com\/hall-of-fame\/inductees\/smokey-yunick.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Henry &#8216;Smokey&#8217; Yunick<\/a> is well known for his rule bending and creating half the rules in NASCAR Book. But like Byron, Yunick was also in the US Army as a bomber crewman. He flew a B-17 Flying Fortress in over 50 missions into Europe during WW2. Yunick won two championships, &#8217;51 and &#8217;52, as a mechanic as well as an <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/05\/27\/indy-500-the-breath-of-fresh-air-indycar-desperately-needed\/\" target=\"_self\">Indianapolis 500<\/a> in 1960.<\/p>\n<p>By far the most decorated member of the NASCAR garage was <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nascarhall.com\/hall-of-famers\/inductees\/bud-moore\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bud Moore<\/a>. Moore was drafted into service in 1943 at 18 year old. He served as a machine gunner, taking part in the D-Day invasions and served under General George S. Patton. For his service, he was awarded two Bronze Stars and five Purple Hearts.<\/p>\n<p>Moore went on to a hall of fame NASCAR Career, becoming a crew-chief. He would find victory lane, 63 times and won three championships. Moore was inducted into the Hall of Fame in the class of 2011<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bud Moore Recounts the Days before D-Day\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TwhRrXk-3Oc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h4>Military Service to Crew Chief:<\/h4>\n<p>The military seems to teach successful crew chiefs, with both <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nascarhall.com\/hall-of-famers\/inductees\/dale-inman\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dale Inman<\/a> and Leonard Wood both serving after the war in the US Army. Inman was an ordinance specialist. Inman and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/01\/in-1967-richard-petty-more-than-earned-his-nascar-throne\/\" target=\"_self\">Richard Petty won seven championships<\/a> together and one with Terry Labonte in 1984. Leonard Wood of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/08\/27\/harrison-burton-pulls-ultimate-upset-gets-100th-win-for-wood-brothers\/\" target=\"_self\">the Wood Brothers<\/a>, served as a motor pool mechanic in the 1950s. He and his brothers would go on to become innovators for all of motorsport, and Leonard one of NASCAR&#8217;s best engine builders.<\/p>\n<p>The Wood Brothers were instrumental in Ford and Jim Clark&#8217;s 1965 Indy 500 win, bringing an enhanced gravity fed refueler, shaving seconds of pit stops. Many consider them to be the creators of the organized pit-stop, allowing them to achieve great success with drivers like David Pearson, Neil Bonnett, Cale Yarbourgh, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/18\/how-david-malukas-became-the-newest-member-of-a-j-foyt-racing\/\" target=\"_self\">AJ Foyt<\/a>, and Dan Gurney. Leonard Wood is still present in NASCAR and still incredibly handy in the shop. In 2021, he built a 1\/2 scale Ford 427, used in the GT40, out of a solid block of aluminum.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">a completed 50% scale Ford 427 with a handmade stand. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/l0vvct9CPw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/l0vvct9CPw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Wood Brothers Racing (@woodbrothers21) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/woodbrothers21\/status\/1383571773900222467?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 18, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Veterans racing in NASCAR Today:<\/h3>\n<p>While many of those heroes have passed, we still have some active members of NASCAR who served.<\/p>\n<p>Jesse Iwuji went to the United States Naval Academy, where he played football and ran track and field. He graduated as a Naval Surface Warfare officer, was deployed to Bahrain in 2012. His NASCAR Career would begin in 2015, when he ran his first race in the Whelen All American (now NASCAR Weekly) Series. He has made 81 starts across NASCAR&#8217;s touring series, and co-owns an Xfinity Series team with Emmitt Smith, Pro-Football Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ep. 04: The Driver: Jesse Iwuji\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KeIDHmVfijs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Currently driving part-time in the Craftsman Truck Series and the first driver from Alaska to compete in NASCAR is Keith McGee. McGee served in the US Air Force as a RADAR Technician in Alaska. During his service, he suffered a TBI, and found turning laps to be a great form of therapy. He would race at a local go-kart track, and would work his way up to the NASCAR Weekly Series.<\/p>\n<p>McGee would ARCA Starts in 2018 and 2019, running five races. The COVID-19 pandemic would effect his 2020 plans, but in 2021 he would race five races with assorted teams, earning his first top ten at Talladega. He would run 6 races in 2022 and 2023. This year, he made 11 starts with Reaume Brothers Racing, finishing a best of 21st at Atlanta. He is the first Alaskan and first disabled veteran to race in NASCAR.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Talladega | NASCAR ON FOX HIGHLIGHTS\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/syrIZr-_0kM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>On this Veteran&#8217;s Day, we thank those who served our country and their sacrifices. We especially thank those veterans who have contributed to the sport of NASCAR, the sport we are so passionate about.<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Throughout the 76 years of NASCAR Competition, NASCAR has seen numerous pioneers, legends and members of the sport who served in the United States Armed Forces. On this veterans day, we will take a look at some of those who have served the United States and their contributions to the highest level of stock car [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4347,"featured_media":26654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[2382,2383,2381],"class_list":["post-26653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-nascar","tag-bud-moore","tag-dale-inman","tag-smokey-yunick"],"modified_by":"Hayden Murdock","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}