Ed Samples recovered from a near fatal gunshot wound in 1944 to become stock car racing’s first official points champion less than 24 months later, he went on to participate in the formation of NASCAR at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach. Ed was also one of the first drivers to fly to racing events in his own plane in the late forties, something that became the norm decades later. The Cumming, Georgia native accumulated many championships and victories in his 10-year career.

• 1942 – NASCAR’s first Technical Chairman
• 1946 National Stock Car Points Championship
• 1947 – National Stock Car Points Championship runner-up
• 1948 – South Carolina Stock Car Points Champion
• 1949 – National Modified Stock Car Points Champion
• 1954 & 1955 – Birmingham Racing Club Points Champion
• 1947 – Noted by Carolina Sports journalists as the ….”Finest Driver in the United States”