Bud Moore (NASCAR owner)

Not to be confused with Bud Moore (racing driver).
Moore in 1985

Walter M. "Bud" Moore (born May 25, 1925) is a retired NASCAR car owner who operated the Bud Moore Engineering team. He was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina. A decorated veteran of World War II, he described himself as "an old country mechanic who loved to make 'em run fast". His cars were number 15 and usually painted red and white and sponsored by Motorcraft. There was also a different person named Bud Moore who raced in NASCAR in the 1960s and 1970s.

Military career

After graduating high school, Moore joined the military in 1943. A machine gunner, he was among the troops who participated in the Normandy landings in 1944, landing on Utah Beach. After the landings, he served under General George S. Patton, receiving five Purple Hearts and two Bronze Star Medals. The first Bronze Star came after serving nine months and fourteen days without a break, while he received the second after participating in an attack on a German regimental headquarters.[1]

NASCAR ownership

In 1957, driver Buck Baker won the NASCAR Grand National Series championship with Moore as crew chief. In 1961, Moore got much of his success as a car owner for Joe Weatherly, who won eight of his twenty-four races driving Moore's Pontiacs.[2] Weatherly also ended up winning the 1962 and 1963 NASCAR Grand National championships, again driving for Moore.[2]

In 1964, Billy Wade managed to grab five poles and win four Grand National races in a row driving for Bud.[3] Then four years later in 1968, Tiny Lund won the Grand American division championship driving for him.

In 1970, Parnelli Jones won the Sports Car Club of America's Trans-Am championship driving for Moore in the famous Boss 302 Mustang. Buddy Baker won three straight Talladega races in 1975 and 1976, and in 1978, Bobby Allison won the Daytona 500 driving for Moore.

Other notable motor racers have driven for Moore, including Fireball Roberts, Darel Dieringer, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Isaac, Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Donnie Allison, Geoff Bodine, Ricky Rudd, Brett Bodine, and Morgan Shepherd.[2]

During his 37 years as a car owner, he has achieved 63 wins, 43 poles and three NASCAR Grand National Division championships.[2] On May 23, 2011 Moore was inducted into the second class in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Wood, Jordan (May 24, 2015). "World War II Hero and NASCAR Legend Bud Moore Set to Celebrate 90th Birthday on Memorial Day". Wood BRothers Racing. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Bud Moore Owner's Statistics". Racing Reference.info. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  3. ↑ "Billy Wade 1964 Driver's statistics". Racing Reference.info. Retrieved 23 March 2010.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.