Crew chief

One of the top crew chiefs of the ‘60s and ‘70s, Nab won DAYTONA 500s with LeeRoy Yarbrough (1969) and inductee Cale Yarborough (1977) and consecutive NASCAR Cup Series titles with Cale in 1976 and ’77 while working for inductee Junior Johnson. According to racing-reference.info, Nab entries scored 74 Cup wins in 331 starts, for a stunning 22% strike rate, and Top 10 finishes in 66% of starts. In addition to Yarbrough and Yarborough, Nab drivers included inductees Fred Lorenzen, Johnson, Buddy Baker and Bobby and Donnie Allison. How good was the man out of Portland? In 1963, Nab led Lorenzen to NASCAR’s first $100,000 season. In 1976, Janet Guthrie was struggling to qualify for the World 600, her first Cup race. Johnson sent Nab to help with her setup; she became the fastest second-day qualifier. Nab was inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2010. At the time, Johnson said, “Anybody who he worked on their cars, they’d win; 99% of the time, his was the fastest car.”