With NASCAR formed, Bill France set out to crush the competition, but he needed stars to bring the crowds.

Enter a family from Fort Payne, Alabama, 'The Sock Capitol of the World', the Flocks.

Dubbed the 'Mad Flocks', Bob, Fonty, Tim and their sister Ethel Flock, became huge attractions throughout the South through their charisma and risky driving.

Tim even started racing with a rhesus monkey—named “Jocko Flocko”, just to add to the entertainment.

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Resources

There is a lot on the web about NASCAR’s early days, including a heap of contemporary sources. Rising above all that and a lot more accessible if you want to learn more are two key books, Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France by Daniel S. Pierce and Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR by Neal Thompson.

For more on how the moonshine industry worked, North Carolina Moonshine: An Illicit History by Frank Stephenson Jr. and Barbara Nichols Mulder is fascinating.

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