Rex White

Rex Allen White (August 17, 1929 – July 18, 2025) was an American auto racer and NASCAR champion. White was one of the drivers who competed for the original Chevrolet racing team. He began racing in 1956, grabbing fourteen top-ten finishes. After a part-time run in 1957, White won twice in 1958. His most notable year came in 1960, when he won six races, and the NASCAR Grand National Series championship. When he retired in 1964, he had acquired 28 career victories. Throughout most of White's NASCAR career, he drove General Motors brand cars, typically painted gold and white, sporting the number "4" on the side. After he retired, White was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Hall of Fame in 1974, and was named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.

Background White was born on August 17, 1929, and raised in Taylorsville, North Carolina. White said that at the age of eight, he was working on his family's Model T. "I was unaware the car on which I labored represented hope to people around me, frustration to those trying to stop illegal moonshine. I saw automobiles as transportation, not the symbol of an upcoming billion-dollar sport." White was born during the Great Depression, and suffered from polio as a young boy. The polio left one leg withered, but when speaking about it White said: "Most of the lessons I have learned have stayed with me all my life. The biggest one was how to conquer fear." Rex learned how to drive by piloting a neighbor's truck in the fields where he lived when he was 6 years old, and often pretended to drive while sitting in the family Model T, imagining that he was on a race track. White's looks have at times been compared to those of comedian George Gobel.

White died in Taylorsville, North Carolina, on July 18, 2025, at the age of 95.1960 NASCAR Cup Series champion Rex White passes away at the age of 95

Racing career In 1954, White got his first car when one of his wife's relatives helped him scrape together the $600 he needed for an old 1937 Ford. Within a year he was making enough at the race-tracks to survive. White ran his first race in the Sportsman division at West Lanham Speedway in Maryland. He was forced to drop out of the race due to engine problems. By the time the season was over, White, as a rookie, had won the Sportsman championship at the 1/5-mile high-banked oval.

NASCAR

White started racing in NASCAR in 1956, when the premier stock-car racing sport was known as the Grand National division. He started 24 races in 1956 and finished in the top-ten on 14 occasions, as well as finishing second in the final NASCAR Short Track standings, a lower division of the NASCAR Grand Nationals.

White competed in only 9 of 53 events in 1957; but finished in the top-ten in six of those events, with four of those finishes being in the top 5.

In 1958, White moved from Washington to Spartanburg in order to join forces with Louis Clements, his friend, partner, and chief mechanic. White and Clements proceeded to build their first late-model Chevy, and started competing together in the NASCAR circuit. They met a year or so earlier when both were working for Chevrolet's factory racing team, an enterprise that retired from racing in June 1957, when Detroit and Chevy temporarily withdrew its financial backing to the industry. White competed a total of 22 times of the 55 races that year, winning his first NASCAR race at the season-opening event at the Champion Speedway in Fayetteville, NC.

At the age of 29, White ran in 23 of 44 NASCAR races, winning five times and capturing five pole positions. He finished the season with 11 top-fives and 13 top-ten finishes.

White's first and only championship came in 1960, and his first win of the season occurred in the ninth event of the season. Through the remainder of the season, White won six more of his 28 career victories. White finished outside the top-ten in finishing position only five times throughout the 40 starts of that 1960 season, winning the championship. By the end of that 1960 season, he also notched the Most Popular Driver Award, and the Driver of the Year awards. White, in his gold and white 1960 chevy, secured his championship just prior to the season-ending Atlanta 500 mile event. White's championship hopes improved dramatically in the inaugural World 600 (now named the Coca-Cola 600), when his chief rivals, Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, Lee Petty, and three other drivers were disqualified for not making a proper entrance to pit road at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. White eventually finished the 600-mile event in sixth place. White's check for winning the 1960 NASCAR championship totaled $13,000.

In 1961, White won seven races, and finished second in points. He competed in a total of 47 of 55 events that year, and notched a total of 29 top-fives, and a career best 39 top-ten finishes.

White competed in 37 events throughout the 1962 season, winning a career-best eight times, and finished the season fifth in points. When reflecting back on his racing career, White considered his victory at the 1962 Atlanta speedway one of his best: "My best finish was over Marvin Panch in the 4 car right here in Atlanta in the 1962 Dixie 400. The last fuel stop was out of sequence and my crew chief put on the pit board that he questioned my gas. ... So I knew we weren't going to make it to the end without fueling. I hung on to Marvin and just drafted. He ran out of gas with two laps to go, and I went all the way to the bank."

In 1963, White was unable to win a race for the first time since the 1957 season, but still managed to finish ninth in points, and notch 14 more top-ten finishes. From 1959 through the 1963 season, White won more races (28) than any other driver; including legends Lee and Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett, Fireball Roberts, Junior Johnson, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly and Buck Baker.

White was known for running up front even if he did not finish. He was also recognized as one of the first drivers to focus on the goal of the Grand National Series title. Despite racing without substantial backing, he captured 36 poles and had total of 28 career victories in 233 starts. White finished in the top-ten in the point standings six of the nine years he competed in NASCAR's Grand National Series.

NASCAR career statistics Year Races/of Wins Poles Top 5 Top 10 Laps led Start Finish Winnings Season rank1956 24 / 56 0 1 3 14 0 14.3 12.0 $5,333 111957 9 / 53 0 1 4 6 193 18.1 10.8 $3,870 211958 22 / 51 2 7 13 17 471 5.1 8.1 $12,232 71959 23 / 44 5 5 11 13 827 7.4 10.2 $12,360 101960 40 / 44 6 3 25 35 541 6.4 5.3 $57,525 11961 47 / 52 7 7 29 38 1224 7.6 7.0 $56,395 21962 37 / 53 8 9 18 23 1129 6.7 9.9 $36,245 51963 25 / 55 0 3 5 14 171 7.7 12.2 $27.241 91964 6 / 62 0 1 2 3 27 11.2 13.7 $12,310 28Totals 233 28 36 110 163 4583 8.1 9.0 $223,511 Data as of March 2008

Legacy

Standing only five feet, four inches (1.6 m) and weighing 135 pounds, White remains the smallest man to ever capture the NASCAR championship as of 2025. After 10 years and over 36,000 miles of racing in 233 races, White accumulated 28 wins, 110 top-five finishes, and 163 top-ten finishes. White is considered by NASCAR as one of its top 50 drivers, a winner of the Living Legends of Auto Racing Pioneers awards, and the Smokey Yunick Pioneer award. White was also a member of the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame at Darlington, and the Georgia Automobile Racing Hall of Fame. White's 163 top-ten finishes in 233 races, which calculates to about 70%, is unlikely to be topped due to the parity and longevity of today's drivers. Only Tim Flock comes close to such record numbers.

White authored his autobiography titled Gold Thunder, and teamed with editor Ann Jones for a second book covering 58 memoirs of past and present NASCAR legends titled All Around The Track.

In January 2015, White was selected as an inductee to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. At the time, White was NASCAR's "oldest living champion at 85 years of age". White retained that title until his death at age 95 in 2025.

Motorsports career results NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led. ** – All laps led.)

Grand National Series NASCAR Grand National Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 Pts Ref 1956 Max Welborn X Chevy HCY CLT WSS PBS ASF DAB22 PBS8 WIL8 ATL NWS19 RCH9 CLB8 CON5 GPS7 HCY HBO13 MAR6 LIN CLT21 POR EUR NYF MER MAS CLT MCF POR AWS19 RSP9 PIF CSF CHI CCF6 MGY OKL ROA11 OBS17 SAN NOR3 PIF3 MYB POR CSH10 CLT8 11th 4642 10 LAN25 DAR11 LAN8 POR CLB HBO NWP CLT CCF X Ford MAR32 HCY WIL 1957 44 Chevy WSS CON TIC DAB9 CON WIL HBO AWS NWS LAN CLT PIF GBF POR CCF RCH20 MAR POR EUR LIN LCS ASP NWP CLB CPS PIF JAC RSP CLT MAS POR HCY NOR LCS GLN KPC LIN OBS2* MYB DAR28 NYF AWS4 CSF SCF LAN4 CLB CCF CLT MAR4 NBR CON NWS8 GBF18 21st 2508 1958 Julian Petty FAY1 DAB CON FAY6 WIL HBO FAY26 CLB PIF ATL CLT MAR2 ODS3 OBS3 GPS GBF STR2 NWS3 BGS2* TRN RSD CLB NBS REF AWS1* RSP3 MCC3 SLS TOR7* BUF5 MCF21 BEL2 BRR CLB 7th 6552 Jim Parsley 70 Chevy LIN11 HCY Rex White 11 Chevy NSV23* AWS37 BGS MBS 40 DAR7 CLT BIR7 CSF GAF RCH HBO SAS MAR3 NWS ATL 1959 FAY10 10th 5526 4 DAY10 DAY26 HBO CON14 ATL WIL BGS3 CLB NWS REF19 MAR15 TRN CLT NSV1 ASP PIF GPS ATL CLB WIL RCH BGS1** AWS1 DAY23 HEI2* CLT MBS CLT NSV24* AWS5 BGS1** GPS CLB DAR17 HCY3 RCH CSF MAR1* AWS4 NWS2 Lund Racing 5 Chevy HCY21 Beau Morgan 15 Ford HBO17 CON14 1960 CLT14 CLB DAY 1st 21164 Rex White 4 Chevy DAY4 DAY9 CLT2 NWS2 PHO CLB1 MAR4 HCY14 WIL4 BGS2 GPS9 AWS7 DAR3 PIF12 HBO11 RCH2 CLT6 BGS3 DAY6 HEI3 MAB1* MBS3 ATL23 NSV2 AWS1 PIF5 CLB1 SBO3 BGS4 DAR2 HCY3 CSF GSP6 HBO3 MAR1 NWS1 CLT6 RCH8 ATL5 Scotty Cain 41 Ford HMS8 L. D. Austin 74 Chevy BIR9 1961 White-Clements Racing 4 Chevy CLT2 JSP3 DAY21 DAY DAY12 PIF7 AWS1** ATL2 GPS3* HBO5 BGS1* NWS1* CLB5 HCY3 RCH10 MAR9 DAR24 CLT14 CLT RSD ASP CLT3 PIF10 BIR4 GPS8 BGS1 NOR2 HAS3 STR2 DAY23 ATL10 CLB14 MBS10 BRI25 NSV23 BGS1 AWS3 RCH4 SBO5 HCY1 RCH3 CSF ATL18 NWS1* CLT5 BRI2 GPS3 HBO2 2nd 26442 47 HMS6 4 Ford MAR2* 47 Pontiac DAR10 4 MAR2 1962 Chevy CON4 AWS1* DAY DAY3 DAY7 CON15 AWS18 SVH5 HBO1 RCH1 CLB6 NWS31 GPS17 MBS MAR3 BGS1** BRI29 RCH13* HCY2 CON20 DAR27 PIF CLT11 ATL21 BGS2 AUG RCH2* SBO1* DAY11 CLB1 ASH17* GPS5 AUG SVH MBS BRI7 CHT NSV HUN AWS3 STR BGS PIF VAL DAR9 HCY1* RCH5 DTS AUG MAR27 NWS8 CLT30 ATL1 5th 19424 1963 BIR7 GGS13 THS RSD15 DAY DAY2 DAY14 PIF AWS HBO ATL6 HCY BRI24 AUG RCH3 GPS SBO BGS MAR11 NWS7 CLB THS DAR31 ODS RCH CLT3 BIR ATL6 9th 20976 Mercury DAY21 MBS SVH DTS BGS ASH OBS2 BRR7 BRI9 GPS NSV17 CLB AWS PIF BGS ONA DAR6 HCY22 RCH2 MAR25 DTS NWS7 THS CLT9 SBO HBO RSD37 1964 CON AUG26 JSP SVH RSD DAY DAY DAY RCH 28th 8222 Bud Moore Engineering BRI9 GPS BGS DAR21 LGY HCY SBO CLT3 GPS ASH ATL5 CON NSV CHT BIR VAL PIF DAY ODS OBS BRR ISP GLN LIN BRI NSV MBS AWS DTS ONA CLB BGS STR DAR HCY RCH ODS HBO MAR SVH NWS CLT HAR AUG JAC 01 ATL18 AWS HBO PIF CLB NWS MAR SVH

Daytona 500 Year Team Manufacturer Start Finish 1959 Rex White Chevrolet 19 26 1960 8 9 1961 White-Clements Racing 41 12 1962 8 7 1963 6 14

References

Rex White

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