Legendary car designer Harley J. Earl led a charmed life. A Stanford dropout, Earl was famously discovered by a Cadillac executive while working with his father in the family?s coachwork shop building custom vehicles for the Hollywood elite. The first president of design at General Motors, Earl accomplished many things: the Buick Y-Job, the introduction of tailfins, and shepherding the Corvette into existence, just to name a few highlights. But it?s his styling contributions to the Firebird I prototype?GM?s aircraft-inspired single-seat, gas-turbine-powered research vehicle?that will forever link his design legacy with NASCAR?s ?Great American Race,? the Daytona 500.
He was a close associate of NASCAR founding father Bill France Sr. At some point in the mid-1950s, Earl commissioned a 24-inch-long replica of the Firebird I prototype car and presented it to NASCAR for use as a trophy. In honor of and out of respect for Earl?s contributions to the advancement of the automobile, France designated it the Harley J. Earl Perpetual Trophy and named him commissioner of NASCAR in 1960. As with the Indianapolis 500?s Borg-Warner Trophy, the intention is for the name of each year?s race winner to be affixed to its base in perpetuity.
Although the exact sequence of events is imprecise, photographic evidence confirms that the trophy predates the inaugural 1959 Daytona 500 by at least two years. It was awarded to Cotton Owens for winning the 1957 Grand National race on the Daytona Beac...