NASCAR's original trophies in good hands with Parks

History was under wraps at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday morning, hidden behind colorful terrycloth bath towels and tied together with plastic police barrier tape. That's how the championship trophies from NASCAR's first two seasons were transported to the track.

The Hall of Fame will bring NASCAR's history to life and preserves that history in the appropriate environments. The facility will allow fans to have the opportunity to relive the sport's greatest moments.

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Hockey's Stanley Cup travels in its own protective steel case, handled by assistants who wear spotless white gloves. The same goes for the NFL's Vince Lombardi Trophy and baseball's Commissioner's Trophy. The 1948 NASCAR Modified and 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock trophies might be envious, if bronze had feelings. But then again, they don't get out much.

For the past six decades, the two symbols of NASCAR's very beginnings have been lovingly cared for by their owner, 94-year-old Raymond Parks, who owned the cars Red Byron drove to consecutive championships.

"They've always been in Raymond's office," said Violet Parks, Raymond's wife.

Parks still visits his office on Northside Drive in Atlanta on a regular basis, and as the trophies are a reminder of a NASCAR era long since gone, the liquor store on the corner is the last vestige of his once-vast real estate holdings.

"I didn't get to know Raymond until 1979," Vi Parks said. "I don't go back to that history, but he has always been very protective of those trophies. 'No, you can't touch those.' We had a fire in 2002 and all the newspaper people and radio people came up there to make sure those trophies were safe. It was a big deal."

The eldest of 16 children, Raymond Parks was born in 1914. His first brush with the law came at 14, when he was arrested for running moonshine in the family's 1926 Model T Ford. Two years later, he moved to Atlanta to help an uncle run a service station, which was a front for illegal activities that eventually landed Parks in a federal penitentiary for nine months, starting in 1936.

Hall's big gain

Raymond Parks won NASCAR's first trophies in 1948 and '49 and has had them stored in his Atlanta office. That will change as the artifacts will have a new home at the Hall of Fame.

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By 1938, Parks had made enough money to fund a racing program for two aspiring drivers, cousins Lloyd Seay and Roy Hall. He hired two of the best mechanics in the area, Red Vogt and Buckshot Morris, and entered cars at a race at nearby Lakewood Speedway. Seay won the race, and Parks' career as a car owner was born.

Seay was killed in 1941 in a moonshine dispute, and Parks went into the Army during World War II, seeing action in the Battle of the Bulge. When he returned to Georgia, his racing operation resumed without missing a beat. At one point, cars owned by Parks won 10 of 13 races on the old Daytona beach course.

He was present at the famous 1947 meeting with Bill France at the Streamline Hotel, and with Byron behind the wheel, dominated the 1948 and 1949 seasons. By 1952, Parks decided to get out of the racing business for good. However, even though he didn't maintain a presence in NASCAR, Parks was never far from the action.

"He's been to Daytona for the races nearly every year," Vi Parks said. "He's only missed two races since he first went down. We have a condo down there, and we've gone every year for at least 30 years. He stills buys his 10 seats."

At this year's Daytona 500, Parks was introduced at the drivers' meeting -- and received a standing ovation.

But this story is less about where the trophies have been all these years and more about where they're going. The Parks are donating those trophies -- along with many other pieces of racing memorabilia dating all the way back to his first win as a car owner in 1938 -- to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, due to open sometime next year.

"Raymond doesn't have any living children," Vi Parks said. "He has three grandchildren but they're not particularly interested in this, and keeping those trophies is a big responsibility. If you want to preserve them, you need to donate them to some museum that's going to take care of them. That's the idea."

Just like her husband's meticulous efforts to keep his crowning achievements sparkling as the day he received them, Vi Parks said her biggest fear would be to have Raymond's legacy tarnished in some way.

"I don't want to have them sold on eBay or something."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.