First ever Brickyard qualifier Bailey dies.

H.B Bailey, the first driver to ever make an official NASCAR Winston Cup qualifying attempt at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has died in his native Texas aged 66.

A NASCAR independent in the truest sense, Houston born Bailey (full-name Henning Burl) made no less than 85 starts in NASCAR's highest division between 1962 and 1993, an incredible span of 31 years. Bailey was also a weekly racer in many lower division Championships all across America and saw success at many tracks, including the famed Daytona and Darlington Speedway's.

It was fitting that his final NASCAR Winston Cup start came in the 1993 Southern 500 at Darlington where he finished 37th in his familiar red #36 Almeda Auto Parts Pontiac.

Almost literally a One Man Band when it came to the high tech world of NASCAR in the 1990's, the lure of the first ever stock-car race at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway brought Bailey back for one final attempt at making the 'Big Show.'

As NASCAR began making bigger and bigger strides towards mainstream popularity during the mid 1990's, moving away from the regional, oily faced Southern-based legend characterised by drivers like Junior Johnson, Fireball Roberts, Richard Petty, David Pearson and Bailey himself, everyone was glad that it was a driver like Bailey whose name would go down in the record books at such a prestigious venue.

Although Bailey failed to qualify for the inaugural Brickyard 400, his time only 69th fastest out of the 83 teams who entered, the sense of occasion was not lost on Bailey at the time.

"It's a real privilege to be the first qualifier," said Bailey from pit road at IMS on August 4th, 1994 just minutes after his historic moment. "It's really something you will remember for the rest of your life. We thought it was a real honour to be able to be the first qualifier."

Bailey never attempted another Winston Cup event after that, although one member of his family had a role to play on raceday in the form of H.B's son Joe Dan, who was working for Dale Earnhardt's #3 Goodwrench team at the time.

Despite the fact that NASCAR records almost gloss over drivers such as Bailey, whose best finishes were a pair of fifth places in 1965 and 1972, news of his passing travelled quickly across the NASCAR community.

"Our sport was built by people like H.B. Bailey," said Richard Petty, who raced alongside him for years. "We all did things the same way in those days - we drove ourselves to the race track, we worked hard when we got there, we raced hard and then we drove home. H.B. was a racer through and through, and the sport is better off because he was a part of it. We will miss him."

Bailey leaves behind a wife and six children. Joe Dan still works in NASCAR for their Research and Development centre.