Once upon a time, NASCAR raced during the holidays

As you sift through mounds of wrapping paper, dozens of dirty dishes and plan on hitting the after-Christmas sales, there was a time back in NASCAR's early history that racing was part of the holiday season. Two Grand National events have been held between Christmas and New Year's.

On Dec. 30, 1956, NASCAR took over the runways of the Titusville-Cocoa airport in central Florida for the only time in its history to run a 56-lap, 90-mile race called the Indian River Gold Cup. Some 16,000 people turned out to see the event, which featured only 15 cars, but included some of the biggest names in the sport at the time.

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No fewer than four future Daytona 500 winners -- Lee Petty, Fireball Roberts, Marvin Panch and Tiny Lund -- were in the field, which also included future two-time champion Joe Weatherly and Ralph Moody, who would influence racing as a car builder for much of the next two decades.

Manufacturer involvement in the sport was just starting to take hold. Smokey Yunick, who owned "The Best Damn Garage" in Daytona Beach, just an hour up U.S. 1, was Chevrolet's standard-bearer. Petty brought two factory Dodges from North Carolina for himself and Lund. But the Ford factory effort was, in a word, overwhelming.

The Purple Hogs were out in force as Pete DePaolo entered five brand-new Fords, with Roberts, Weatherly, Moody, Panch and Curtis Turner behind the wheel. And from the moment they took the track, it was obvious that DePaolo's team would be hard to beat.

Paul Goldsmith won the pole in Yunick's black and gold No. 3, but the Hogs were right behind, taking the next five starting positions. Then it was Doug Cox, in another '56 Ford, followed by Petty and Lund, with Jim Paschal in a Mercury rounding out the top 10.

Not surprisingly, Goldsmith took the lead from the start and appeared to have enough to hold off the Hogs, especially when Weatherly retired early with clutch problems. But Goldsmith began to slow on Lap 27 and eventually retired with a broken fan belt. That handed the lead to Florida native Roberts, who led a Ford sweep of the top four positions.

Roberts was followed across the line by Turner, Panch and Moody as those four Purple Hogs were the only cars on the lead lap at the finish, although 12 of the 15 cars were running at the checkered. Interestingly enough, a Ford team would repeat that finish in the Sunshine State four decades later, when a quartet of Jack Roush cars -- led by Greg Biffle -- captured the first four places in the 2005 Ford 400 at Homestead.

Ned Jarrett won the pole at the Sunshine 200 but posted a DNF with engine problems.

On Dec. 29, 1963, the old dirt half-mile Savannah Speedway hosted the Sunshine 200, which was ironic, since the race was postponed from its original post-Thanksgiving date that season because of rain.

There were some similarities to the race run seven years before. Lund and Weatherly were both entered, as were a pair of Petty Enterprises Plymouths, driven by Richard and Maurice Petty. A field of 22, led by pole-sitter Ned Jarrett, took the green.

Jarrett led the first 67 laps before being sidelined with engine troubles, leaving him with a 20th-place finish. Richard Petty, who started fifth, inherited the lead at that point and never looked back, leading the next 133 circuits on his way to a $1,000 payday. Jack Smith -- making his final Cup start -- was second, a lap down. Lund finished third and Maurice Petty was fourth.

Several future Daytona 500 winners were also a part of history that day. David Pearson finished 12th in Cotton Owens' Dodge. LeeRoy Yarbrough crashed midway through the race and finished 17th. And Buddy Baker's Chevrolet had ignition problems, leaving him 19th.

Weatherly, who had captured the 1963 championship a month before, finished 10th in what would end up being the next-to-last race of his career. He would be killed in a crash three weeks later at Riverside.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.