TRIBUTES/MEMORIALS TO LEGENDS

            Rex White                      

 
Rex White is hardly a household name today, but a look at his accomplishments reveals that he was Chevrolet's best driver in the early 60's and one of its most consistent drivers ever. If Richard Petty is the Babe Ruth of stock car racing, then Rex White is Joe DiMaggio.

       

Rex did not always have the fastest car, but he could set up a car better than most. He had all sorts of contorted positions and the cars looked different, but he won. From 1959 through 1963 Rex won more races than any other driver, and he competed against the best -- Lee Petty, Ned Jarrett, Fireball Roberts, Junior Johnson, Joe Weatherly, Curtis Turner, and Buck Baker.

Rex was a member of the original Chevrolet racing team, and both he and his crew chief, Louie Clements, worked at the legendary Southern Engineering Development Company (SEDCO). With the exception of the last half of the 1963 season and the 1964 season, he always drove a Chevy, and he finished in the top ten in just a hair under 70 percent of his races.

Rex captured 36 poles and had 28 career victories in 233 starts and finished in the top ten in points six of the nine years that he competed. Six of the wins came in 1960 when he won the Grand National Championship. He was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame in 1974.