IN THE BEGINNING

Fats and the flag man: Two pioneers with St. Clair ties helped plant the seeds for modern stock car racing

Story by Paul South Submitted Photos

Before Bill France Sr. saw his dream of big-time, big money stock car racing take root in little towns like Daytona Beach, Darlington and Talladega and big cities like Atlanta and Charlotte, seeds were being planted.

Two men – Perry Edgar “Fats” Layfield and Johnny Garrison Sr., both hard working, blue-collar husbands and fathers who made a living with their hands, were two of those planters.

Layfield, the patriarch of a racing clan that drove dirt and asphalt tracks for three generations, and Garrison, who became a respected official as a flagman, didn’t know it then. But they, like the more famous Allisons, Pettys, Earnhardts and Waltrips, helped build the glitz and glamor of modern stock car racing.

“Fats” Layfield’s son, James, himself a short track driver, said it best. “All the little tracks are what made NASCAR.”