Fast Facts: 2014 NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductee Tim Flock

credit: NASCAR Media

2014 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Tim Flock was just one member of a family full of drivers, including his brothers Bob and Fonty and his sister, Ethel Mobley, who was the second female driver in NASCAR history. Learn more about this NASCAR pioneer, who joins the Hall of Fame along with Jack Ingram, Dale Jarrett, Maurice Petty and Fireball Roberts, in this Hall of Fame edition of Fast Facts.

• Julius Timothy Flock was born May 11, 1924 in Fort Payne, Alabama. The Flock family made a strong impression early on in NASCAR’s history, with all three brothers finishing in the top 10 in points in NASCAR’s inaugural season in 1949 – Bob in third, Fonty in fifth and Tim in eighth. Tim Flock sat out part of the 1950 season after a wreck at Charlotte, but returned in 1951 to win seven races and finish third in points.
• Flock earned his first NASCAR title in 1952, winning eight of the 33 races he ran that year and earning 25 top 10 finishes. He followed that up with a second title in 1955, winning 18 of the 39 races he ran in, along with 33 top 10 finishes and 18 poles.
• Flock’s career was relatively short – just 13 seasons (1949-1961) – and the closest he came to running a complete season was in 1952, when he raced in 33 of the 34 scheduled races; in seven of his 13 seasons, he raced in seven or fewer races. He was, however, dominant in the races he competed in: 39 wins (20.9-percent – second-highest winning percentage in NASCAR history) and 129 top 10 finishes (69-percent) in 187 races.
• Flock had an unusual co-driver for a couple of races – his Rhesus monkey “Jocko Flocko.”  “Jocko” was co-driver for Flock’s win at Hickory Motor Speedway on May 16, 1953, but retired two weeks later at Raleigh when he was hit by a pebble.
• Flock died on March 31, 1998 of liver and throat cancer. One month prior to his death, he was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers. He has also been inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1991), the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (1999) and the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame (1972) among others.
• Learn more about the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the inductees at www.nascarhall.com.