Art Malone
When Art Malone visited his lifelong friend Don Garlits in the hospital in 1959, Art offered to drive his dragster, and his life changed forever. Having only experience in circle track stock-car racing, Malone was immediately tagged “The Green Kid ” byKid” by Hall of Famer Setto Postoian (the same man who named Garlits the “Swap Rat”). Green or not, he quickly established that he had what it took, and spent the next two years learning drag racing from his old friend. But, Art Malone cannot be defined by drag racing alone. In 1961, became the first man to lap the Daytona International Speedway at over 180 mph. Driving a blown Chrysler powered wing equipped Indy roadster, he became the world’s closed course record holder at 181.561 mph. By 1963, he had been dubbed “The Colonel” by Ed Iskenderian, was number one on the Drag News Mr. Eliminator list, runner-upped to Garlits at the NHRA Winternationals, won the Bakersfield Fuel and Gas Championships, the AHRA Nationals, and drove one of the fabled NOVI V-8’s in the Indianapolis 500. As he put it so simply to Garlits: “They’ve all got four wheels and an engine”. Eventually, he finished eleventh at Indy, drove on the USAC Championship Trail, he owned a series of fuel dragsters, several oval track stockers, a gas dragster, a drag boat, a funny car, and a jet dragster before retiring from driving in 1975. In 1984, Garlits and Malone were reunited as a drag racing team, taking Swap Rat 26 out of the Garlits Museum to win the NHRA US Nationals and NHRA World Finals, launching one of the greatest comebacks in auto racing history.