An Interview With Cotton Owens - The Cotton Owens Story

Cotton Owens smiles next to the '56 Pontiac ordered by Pontiac General Manager, Bunkie Knudsen, to race the Daytona Beach and Road Course in 1956. Owens held a tight second place behind Tim Flock until a broken fan belt forced him out of the race. The next year, Owens came back again, and won the race.

Who was the first NASCAR race car driver to ever win in a Pontiac? If you answered Everett "Cotton" Owens [or read the subtitle for this story], you're absolutely right. Known as "King of the Modifieds," Cotton Owens is a household name for fans of Pontiacs from the fabulous days of the Daytona Beach and Road Course and the early years of the NASCAR Super Speedways.

Cotton began his professional racing career in 1950 when he competed in the first Darlington race driving a '50 Plymouth owned by F.J. Bland and mechanic Joe Rumph. Cotton was leading the race when the right rear tire blew, after which he had many tire problems, causing him to finish seventh. According to Cotton's biography, he finished Thirteenth in the points standings and earned $1,100.

His first trip to Victory Lane brought Pontiac along for the ride. In 1957, at the Daytona Beach and Road Course, Cotton took home $4,250 and earned prominence as the very first race car driver to earn Pontiac a NASCAR win.

He was recruited to race Pontiacs by Semon E. "Bunkie" Knudsen, the General Manager of Pontiac Motor Division, and Ray Nichels, Bunkie's righthand man in Pontiac's stock car development. Bunkie personally agreed to put Cotton behind the wheel of a Nichels Engineering-prepared '57 Pontiac Chieftain at the 4.17 mile Daytona Beach and Road Course on February 17, 1957, after recognizing Cotton's talents the year before in a Lou Moore-prepared '56 Pontiac sent to Daytona by Bunkie himself. Bunkie's plan to rapidly shift Pontiac's image from a family-friendly car into a champion race car had called upon its first candidate. If his desire was to have Cotton initiate it with a much-needed national win, then he was successful.

According to NASCAR records, Cotton piloted all 39 laps of the historic 1957 Daytona Beach and Road Course race, tracking 159.9 miles over 1 hour, 34 minutes, and 29 seconds, at an average speed of 101.541 mph, and winning first place with a commanding 55-second margin of victory over Johnny Beauchamp.

Pontiac was quick to pump up the publicity. An advertising campaign that featured Cotton was released to the national press and enthusiast magazines. It showed Cotton being awarded the Harley Earl trophy, which was presented personally by Harley as Bunkie, NASCAR President Bill France, and Ray looked on. The advertisement proclaimed, "NASCAR's Top Award Goes to Pontiac, Undisputed Grand National Champ over all Stock Cars, regardless of Size-Power-Price."

Cotton Owens was more than a top-rank NASCAR driver. He was a highly-respected mechanic, too. Here, during the USAC Inspection process, part of the Nichels Engineering 24 Hour Speed and Endurance Runs at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Owens digs into one of the two '62 Catalinas supplied by Pontiac for the event.

Impressed with Pontiac's new '57 Chieftain race car, Cotton continued campaigning the stocker in 16 of the 17 races he ran in 1957, earning $12,325. On September 17, 1957, at the Southern 500 in Darlington, South Carolina, Cotton earned his second biggest cash prize of the year, $6,100, for a courageous top-tier finish, putting him behind only Speedy Thompson on the leaderboard.

He continued to race Pontiacs in 1958, moving up to the '58 model. Cotton took first place at the Monroe County Fairgrounds in a 100-mile NASCAR-sanctioned Grand National race and was national runner up in the NASCAR Championship for the 1958 season. More successes were soon to come.

In 1959, Cotton, driving a '58 Pontiac, took the quickest time away from Fireball Roberts, with a speed of 143.198 mph, at the inaugural Speed Week of the Daytona 500. In 1960, driving a '60 Pontiac Catalina, Cotton took the pole at the Daytona 500 qualifier on February 12, and again at the Daytona 500 on February 14, with a pole speed of 149.892. He continued to campaign a Pontiac Catalina in 13 of the 14 races he entered in the 1960 season, earning $14,065.

By 1961, Cotton was racing '61 Pontiac Catalinas exclusively, and it paid off with four First Place wins: Spartanburg, Hillsboro, Columbia and South Boston. He took home $11,800 in earnings. Cotton's final full year of racing was with Pontiac and its '62 Catalinas. Due to eyesight problems that forced him to withdraw from the driver position, he then focused his incredible talents on leading his own race team to some of the most famous moments in NASCAR history.

Today, the famous racer still owns and operates Cotton Owens Enterprises in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the very same pleasant town where he enjoyed building, preparing, and racing Pontiac stock cars in the 1950s and early 1960s.

High Performance Pontiac magazine recently met the gracious Mr. Owens at a private event at the J.B. Day Riverbend Stock Car Museum in Easley, South Carolina. We asked if we could give our readers an exclusive interview with him, the world-renowned racing legend. He agreed and said, "I'm happy to talk about my race days with Pontiac. Let's do an interview."

Cotton Owens holds the lead position in front of Chevrolet at the 1957 Daytona Beach and Road Course in a '57 Pontiac Chieftain supplied by Pontiac General Manager Bunkie Knudsen.

Pontiac's publicity campaign gave Cotton Owens his first national recognition with Pontiac race car fans, and provided the division's opportunity to announce their win at Daytona to the world.

National Speed Sport News quickly went to press on February 20, 1957 with the headline that Cotton set a new Daytona record in a '57 Pontiac. He still holds the course record at 101.541 mph. The following year, Paul Goldsmith won the race, but did it at a slower pace. In 1959, NASCAR Daytona racing was moved to the Daytona International Speedway.