Cotton Owens passes

[jonw29]

http://www.cbssports.com/nascar/blog/eye-on-nascar/19290152/hall-of-famer-cotton-owens-passes-away.

[Ghoste]

Another big part of auto history lost.  Had he been ill or anything like that?



  RIP you sly dog.

[jonw29]

Cancer.Lungs maybe but I am not sure.

[charger_fan_4ever]

Wow past few months has been brutal for auto legends.
RIP

[Indygenerallee]

R.I.P. Cotton! On to the big racetrack in the sky!!

[Cooter]

RIP Mr. Ownes...You were one of the lucky ones...

[Aero426]

Cancer.Lungs maybe but I am not sure.

He was diagnosed back in 2006.   So he did pretty well.   I am sure his wife passing did not help.   Very sorry to hear that he is gone. 

[tan top]

 sad , RIP Mr Owens   nother part of Mopar/ automotive history  gone for ever

[moparstuart]

 

[68X426]

Racing and winning with Mopars since 1946.

(And a couple Pontiacs too.)

Elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame this year. As a driver and owner, finished top 5 in 201 of 487 races.

What a legacy. RIP.

[odcics2]

He was a 100% MoPar guy.  Not one "off brand" to be seen at his compound. 
Priceless stories.   Parts - with prices!!
I'll miss him.

[68X426]

He was a 100% MoPar guy.  Not one "off brand" to be seen at his compound. 

Sorry friend, he ran Pontiacs too. Lots of Pontiacs, set lots of records. All thru the 50's and 60's. Side by side with the Godfather of Mopar, Ray Nichels, who ran Pontiac racing. Really.

The Pontiac guys miss him too and we Mopar addicts have to share him. 

Nice little article of the Pontiac days: http://www.highperformancepontiac.com/features/hppp_0802_pontiac_nascar_cotton_owens/index.html

[68X426]

There are great Cotton stories about the 1965 race season. NASCAR disallowed the Hemi (the first time), so Cotton and buddy David Pearson boycotted and went drag racing. One of their cars was the"Cotton Picker".

Cotton ran a '65 Dart wagon with a Hemi in the rear. Some of the stories from his official website: http://www.cottonowens.com/cotton_picker.shtml  And there's lots of material over at HAMB.

[odcics2]

68X, I should clarify, when he switched to MoPar, all he owned was Chrysler products ever since.  I knew he ran Pontiacs in the early 60s.
His old junk yard was pretty much all MoPar, too.

At his place, I saw a 66 Charger, 65 Coronet, A Dakota, a few mid 80s Dodge Daytonas, a newer minivan and his Dodge ram car hauler.

Going to lunch with him and Dot at the Peach Blossom, well, we did all we could to keep up with him!!     That guy could drive....   

[daytona71]

A friend of mine had been over to Owens shop with her father. Apparently Cotton still had a Nascar engine out of Marty Robbins car sitting in the garage. If its still there, maybe it could be donated to the Nascar Hall of Fame. That way 2 legends could be honored at the same time.