Odd Couple – MG and NASCAR

MG and NASCAR?

There is nothing wrong with your vision. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are now in control of the transmission …

Okay, so it’s not The Outer Limits, but understandably, the images that you see below may seem shocking given that we normally discuss British sports cars and only British sports cars but this is a bit of trivia that is too good to pass up.

An advertisement for the 1963 International 200

Much was made in the mainstream media when Toyota decided in 2007 to enter the highest levels of NASCAR competition with the Toyota Camry in the NEXTEL Cup. Having competed in lower NASCAR series before then, Toyota was the first foreign auto manufacturer to compete in the series since 1963. While much was made of the return, little was said about the last foreigner to run in the prestigious – at least to NASCAR fans – championship series.

On August 16, 1963, an MG competed in the Grand National (then the highest level series) International 200 held at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Billed as the only event on the NASCAR calendar where stock and sports cars competed against one another, the battle was highly skewed as only two sports cars showed up (the other was a Corvette that lasted only one lap). The No. 32 MG (no model was specified on the entry sheet) was driven by a Smokey Cook (a small-time driver who competed in only 2 Grand National events in his career) who started as the next to last car in a 19 car grid. His run that day was brief, with the car retiring due to overheating after having completed only 12 laps, and Cook ended up in 17th place overall. He received $75 in purse money for his efforts.

Regardless of the MG model it would have been dwarfed by the American competition

At least Cook could console himself with the knowledge that he was competing against the best that day as the legends of the era came out to race that night. As a Grand National Championship points event, some of the greatest names in NASCAR were there on the grid: Junior Johnson who won the race; Richard Petty who finished in second; David Pearson who finished in fourth and Ned Jarrett just one spot back; and hero Wendell Scott (the first African-American to drive in NASCAR) came in just outside of the Top Ten in eleventh.

This 1963 Ford Galaxie would have shared the North Carolina track with Cook’s MG.

Unfortunately, there are no surviving images of Smokey Cook and his MG but the car is in the record books as the last vehicle to have been built outside the United States to compete in NASCAR until Toyota’s twenty-first century arrival. It would have been awesome to see the look on King Richard’s face when he saw the little MG pull up to the grid.