Byron won the sanctioning body's first race in 1948, on the Daytona beach-road course. He went on in '48 to win NASCAR's first season championship -- in the NASCAR Modified Division. The following year he won NASCAR's first Strictly Stock title -- the precursor to today's Cup Series -- driving for car owner Raymond Parks. The Strictly Stock schedule had eight races; Parks won two of them. In 1998 he was named one of NASCAR's "50 Greatest Drivers," recognition of a highly significant career, the relative brevity of it notwithstanding.