Welcome to the most comprehensive Fireball Roberts information site on the web. This site has been up 9 years and many, many fans have shared memories, pictures and stories.  There are many pages, so make sure you click through to find them all.  Contact us with a request for the page updates.

trag·e·dy : noun; plural - trag-e-dies
1 a : a narrative poem or tale typically describing the downfall of a great man
   b : a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force (as destiny) and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that excites pity or terror
   c : the literary genre of tragic dramas
2 a : a disastrous event : CALAMITY    b : MISFORTUNE 
3    :  tragic quality or element

Tragedy certainly describes the end of the life of Edward Glenn "Fireball" Roberts. Taken from us too early, before he had a chance to reach full life, legacy and legend before hanging up his helmet. It makes it that much harder to deal with. Such was the case of one of NASCAR’s early pioneers, and first superstar of NASCAR racing. Perhaps the greatest driver never to win a NASCAR title.

Facsimile of Memorial Epitaph

OTHER NEWS: Streets surrounding the former Augusta International Raceway will be named for former champions Glenn "Fireball" Roberts and Dave MacDonald at the third annual "Celebrating Georgia's Racing Heritage" on Sept. 9 at 10 a.m. For information, go to www.augustainternationalspeedway.com.
"Real Top 50" 2007 Update! by Steve Samples
Jimmie Johnson - Superstar: by Steve Samples - compare to Roberts?
Great Dr. John Craft Magazine Article
Always playing with the logo. . . .
Believe it or not: Another "Fireball"?
Updated About Us Page: Special Photo
Curtis Turner Pages Updates
Links and Banner Exchange Page Updates
NEW GUESTBOOK!
New Page: Daytona 1955 - Check it Out!
Check out this rare, 1956 personal photo (top of page)
Ray Nichels passes away Nov. 26, 2005
Darlington Pure Oil Record Club
Special Fireball Memorabilia Offered! Get On First Served Email List

Born in Tavares, Florida on January 20, 1929, Roberts didn’t get his nickname "Fireball" for being a fast driver as some people think he did. He got it as a pitcher for the Zellwood Mud Hens, an American Legion baseball team in Apopka, Florida  where he was raised. Thank goodness for the racing world, baseball was never his primary interest. Racing was. Never would anyone dream how prophetic his nickname was considering the circumstances that took his life.  He was quoted as saying, “I fear fire the most!” after emerging uninjured from a grinding crash at Charlotte, the same track that would take his life just months later. He actually disliked the nickname and his friends knew to call him by his middle name, Glenn. Other drivers, because of his hard driving style, called him "Balls." Usually out of listening range of course.
                Fireball in 1947, Age 18
Glenn's family moved to Daytona Beach in 1945. Later, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, but was discharged after basic training of only 90 days due to an asthmatic condition. 1947 found him studying mechanical engineering at the University of Florida, though he never graduated. Glenn would come home on the weekends and raced on the local dirt tracks, honing his early skills. That year in March he won his first Modified event at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The racing bug had bit . . . hard.

1947-Just after turning 18, Fireball started on the beach race course at Daytona  where he wrecked on the ninth lap of a NASCAR sanctioned Modified race.
1948- In Feb. Fireball won the 1st sanctioned NASCAR modified beach race in a 150 miler on a 2.2 mile course.  
1950- After marrying Doris McConnell on 7/22/50 in York, SC and being married for only three weeks,  Fireball at the young age of 21 years old, won his first NASCAR race at Hillsboro, NC on August 13, 1950 in onl Rexford in his rookie season. 

(L to R) 20 yr. old Fireball, Red Byron and Johnny Mantz congratulate each other in victory lane following the 1st Southern 500 at Darlington. Byron (then #22 before Fireball) was originally flagged in 2nd place, ahead of Roberts. Following a lengthy study of the scoring sheets, race officials discovered Roberts had completed one more lap than Byron in the 500 lap race. Mantz collectd $10, 510 (a whopping some back then for a car race), while roberts took home $3,500. and Byron pocketed $2,000.

1951- March 11, his only child, daughter Pamela, was born in Charlotte, NC


1951-1956- Because of his love of the faster dirt modifieds and new family, Glenn opted to stay closer to home and race. Fireball ran only periodically in the Grand National Stock ranks for the next five years and would go winless in NASCAR.
1956- A breakout year with NASCAR racing. With money finally coming to Stock Car ranks, Glenn became part of the Pete DePaolo's Ford "factory team". With 33 starts, he finished in the top 5 sixteen times and won five races.
1957- Found Glenn working for himself and he achieved 27 top tens, including 8 wins, and was voted Most Popular Driver that year. But at season's end, disgusted with the factory pull-out, he sold everything.

1958- He drove for Frank Strickland and raced only 10 times, but had 6 wins, one 2nd and a 3rd, and finished 11th in the point standings despite missing almost 80% of the races! One of his greatest feats came when Strickland switched from Ford to GM and Glenn won the Northern 500 in Trenton, NJ and the '58 Southern 500 at Darlington, SC, becoming the first driver to ever win two 500 mile races in the same year. Glenn always said his most prized award was that of being voted Florida’s 1958 Professional Athlete of the Year, the first driver ever to do so. 

SUPERSPEEDWAY MASTER . . . . . . . . . . .

1959- Joined up with Smokey Yunick and the "Best Damn Garage in Town" Fireball and began to race Pontiac, creating an incredible mastery of the superspeedways.
1962- Roberts started the season off on the right foot with the pedal to the metal when he won the Daytona 500 pole, the 100 mile qualifier (then125, now 150 in 2005) and dominated the race in a Smokey Yunick prepared 1962 black and gold Catalina. He returned to win  back to back Daytona races with the Firecracker 400. Also an accomplished road racer, he finished 2nd at the LeMans 24 hour race in France, won 5 out of 20 convertible races, 5 poles and $66,152, an incredible amount in those days.
1963- Started out the '63 season in a Banjo Mathews car and then Jacques Passino lured Fireball away to the Holman & Moody Ford race team, where Fireball raced a metallic lavender Galaxies to four wins in, including his second Southern 500 victory. One race victory that always alluded him was the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway because of his hard charging "balls-to-the-wall" style of driving (which is what Smokey loved about him). "I’m going to run the hell out of ‘em every lap," Roberts said. "I’ve never won a race stroking." He had a runner-up 600 finish in 1961 and was mentally poised and focused to do well in the 1964 600 race. Little did we know that the Daytona Beach resident with the quiet intensity and mesmerizing broad smile and was about to climb into his race car for the very last time.

Retirement was rumored for the end of the '64 season and later confirmed that he would semi-retire and then leave racing at the end of '65 because he felt at age 35 he was at the top of his game. His competitive drive only allowed him to be at his best. He would become one of highest paid sports personalities as a spokesperson for the Falstaff Beer Company.  Fireball was assured of being able to stay around racing and some baseball events, as well some Indy participation and road racing.  He would only race in selected events the next year, such as the Daytona 500, the World 600, and the Firecracker 400 and Southern 500's where he was the defending champion. It would certainly have given him time to pursue his passion of flying his plane and riding his motorcycle.

During the 1964 May 24th World 600, Roberts was upbeat as he did his usual joking and kidding with all the drivers. With a uncharacteristic mediocre qualifying position in 11th place, Robert's plan was to lay back and let the cars spread out and then make a charge to the front, knowing it was a long race. True to his style, he was most comfortable out front. On lap number 7, something went terribly wrong. Ned Jarrett's and Junior Johnson's cars collided between turns one and two and began spinning. Roberts spun off turn two trying to avoid the accident and his Lavender colored Holman-Moody # 22 Ford slammed backwards into an opening on the inside retaining wall, exploded, flipped over and burst into flames. There were no fuel cells or fire retardant suits in those racing days and they only had a fire resistant solution they could dip their driving uniforms into. It was thought Fireball was allergic to the chemicals in the solution, but he very privately suffered from an asthmatic condition and the chemicals affected his breathing. Jarrett's car spun to a stop near Fireball's car that was engulfed in flames. Jarrett rushed to and pulled Roberts from his car as Fireball was screaming, "My God, Ned, help me! I'm on fire!"With just a tee shirt for protection Roberts received second and third degree burns over 80 percent of his body. He was airlifted to Charlotte Memorial Hospital in extremely critical condition. Good friends Jarrett & Johnson were most shaken by the incident and it's said to have hastened the end to their driving careers a short time later.

Glenn miraculously made it through the first few days. Then he made it a week, then a couple more. It looked like the crew cut, athletic, always smiling driver was going to beat all odds and pull through this horrifying ordeal. It was only his athletic regime of staying in shape that helped him sustain. But 36 days later, on Tuesday, June 30th, Glenn began to fade fast. He contracted pneumonia, sepsis (blood poisoning), and a fever shot his body temperature up to 104 degrees and he slipped into a coma Wednesday night. Then, just 12 hours after things started turning bad, at 7:13am in room 3305 at Charlotte Memorial Hospital on Thursday, July 2, 1964, Glenn Fireball Roberts’ six week struggle for life came to an end. The checkered flag dropped over this fun loving, practical joker at the young age of 35 years old. He was buried July 5th, 1964, at a funeral service that saw over a thousand attend, in an above ground mausoleum in Bellevue Memorial Gardens (now Daytona Memorial Park) in his adopted hometown of Daytona Beach.

THE RECORDS

The records Glenn set would place him in the Top 50 NASCAR Drivers of All Time. These are just a few of the 400 records he set:
In 15 years, he started 206 races and:

As proven by the facts, Glenn "Fireball" Roberts was the first true superstar of NASCAR. Many had great records, but the popularity, mystique and dominance of the fastest tracks made this man truly a legend way before the more recent legacy of the drivers of today.