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For many people, the name Marty Robbins might make them think about country music – that would be back in a time when it really was “country” and not some hybrid between 80s rock and ballads. Robbins had quite a few classic country hits from the 1950s through the 1970s, and while many of you may not know that he was a country singer, many others may not know that he also drove a stock car and loved auto racing.
Marty Robbins' early years: rubbin' was racin' - and sometimes wreckin'.
Robbins raced NASCAR through the 1970s, and competed in 35 career races. In all his years, he took in six top ten finishes in the various cars he raced. He was partial to Dodge, and raced Chargers and also a 1978 Magnum.
His last race was in a 1982 Buick Regal built by racing legend Junior Johnson. It was to be his last race; a month after the Atlanta Journal 500, Robbins passed away on December 8, 1982, after complications from cardiac surgery.
A year after his death, NASCAR renamed the Nashville Fair Grounds race to the Marty Robbins 420, in his honor. He usually drove a car with the number 42 or 22 on the side, but there was another car that Robbins raced for a while was a purple and yellow 1964 Plymouth Belvedere with #777 plastered on the side.
Earlier this year, NASCAR championship crew chief and team owner Ray Evernham, along with Robbins’ son Ronny and Nashville racing historian Al Jones, brought the former Nashville stock car back to its roots with a full restoration. It was unveiled on May 31st and the next day it was at the Fairground Speedway in Nashville for its on-track return.
Some of the other Mopars that Robbins had raced in the '60s.
Robbins had run the car at the Fairground Speedway in Nashville in the Modified and Sportsman classes in the late 1960s. Ronny Robbins was able to be there and take the Belvedere for a few laps at the fairgrounds, and of course it brought back fond memories as it was one of the first cars he ever got to work on.
Robbins said, “To take that car for laps, and think that my father sat in that seat, held that steering wheel and mashed those pedals, is an incredible connection to him. I’m so proud of his legacy and what bringing this car back means to our family and to his fans.”
Evernham had always been a fan of the car and Robbins, and had seen an article about the car and tracked down Al Jones in Nashville, who was the owner. Jones had found the car sitting on it’s side, in the bushes, having spent decades searching for it. He finally purchased the car in 2010, and felt he was at the right place at the right time to have come across it. Evernham did an astounding job on his own ’64 Belvedere, which he debuted at SEMA last fall.
Jones wasn’t able to restore the car to the condition he felt it deserved. But when Evernham showed up and asked about the car, Jones knew that it was going to be in the right hands, and that the car was finally going to get the restoration it needed, and that Evernham would do it well, and do right by Robbins.
The project and its unveiling were part of a car culture television show hosted by Evernham called AmeriCarna, a show that takes viewers back in time and introduce them to the cars that helped shape the American culture. The show is a behind-the-scenes look at almost everything automotive – from barn finds to cool beach cruisers – and tell the stories about these cars and meet with people who helped shape and preserve automotive history.
The car was a bit of a basket case when it was found, but you'd never know it to look at it now.
The show will debut on the Velocity Network on January 28, 2014 at 10:30 p.m. EST, where the Robbins car will be presented. For more information about the car and the show, you can visit Ray Evernham’s web site or the AmeriCarna show web site. Be sure to check out the gallery below to see the work that was done on this car!
