If there ever was an example of redemption and second chances earned in NASCAR, it was Curtis Morton Turner.
The Floyd, Virginia, native was banned for life, along with Tim Flock, by NASCAR chairman and founder Bill France Jr. in 1961 for attempting to organize a driver’s union (which ultimately failed miserably as virtually every driver chose to remain with NASCAR).
However, due to the deaths of two of NASCAR’s most popular drivers—and Turner’s closest friends—Joe Weatherly and Fireball Roberts, less than five months apart in 1964, it prompted France to lift the lifetime ban against Turner in 1965 (Flock was reinstated in 1966).