- Never raced a full NASCAR season
- Studied at the University of Florida to become a mechanical engineer, but gave it up for racing
- Called the first superstar of NASCAR
- Called the greatest driver NEVER to win a champoinship
- Was going to retire from racing after the 1964 World 600, the race that claimed his life
- Got the name 'Fireball', from his baseball pitch, not from racing.
- Dave Dudley, famous for his song "Six Days on the Road", also recorded a song called "Fireball Rolled a Seven", no doubt in honor of Fireball Roberts.
- Career stats 1950-1964; 206 starts 90 races led 37,230 laps 33 wins 122 top 10 finishes $325,643.00 in winnings
- Was going to be a spokesman for Fallstaff beer after he retired from racing.
- Ford Motor Company paid all of his hospital bills.
- He suffered burns over 80% of his body which is usually fatal. He managed to hold on for a little over two weeks. Through this time he surprised everyone including the doctors by showing signs of improvement and everybody thought if anybody could beat the odds he could. But infection set in and and after several surgeries, he died.
- When he drove for Smokey Yunick, he drove Pontiacs painted black and gold. When he drove Fords owned by the Holamn-Moody race team, he got to keep his hallmark number 22, but the car was now painted a purple hue if not lavender, as apposed to his teammate Fred Lorenzen's pearl white number 28 Ford. The official reason for this is that Ford's Jacques Passino wanted the other drivers and the fans to see him coming. The car was called "The Purple Eater"!
- Fireball once got pulled over for speeding. The police officer asked him "Who do you think you are, Fireball Roberts?" Fireball replied "Yes, yes I do."
- Although Fireball was press and fan friendly in his later years, in the early years he found the media (what little there was in the 1950s) annoying. He hated their 'sutpid questions'. After exploding an engine during a race, a reporter asked him what happened. Fireball replied "What do you think happened? Didn't you see the smoke? Didn't you see the fire? What do you think I was building a campfire out there?" Later he realized the value of the media, and his star power so he became more fan and media friendly. To demonstrate the turn around, sometime in in the 1960s moments after a crash, Fireball was sitting in the pits with head in his hands when a little boy shoved a program and pencil in his face. Somkey Ynick, his crew chief and car owner, thought Fireball might yell at this little boy. Fireball said to him "Not now kid, but give me a couple of minutes, okay?" Fireball got himself together and gave him the autograph.
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