Ed Samples

Ed Samples (January 31, 1921 – June 10, 1991) was a pioneering American driver, who competed in NSCRA and NASCAR events in the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the winner of the 1946 stock car racing championship, and later won the 1949 championship.

Born January 31, 1921 in Atlanta, Georgia, and driving from the early age of eight, Samples became one of the better-known moonshine runners in the Dawsonville area, a hotbed of the production of moonshine liquor during and after Prohibition. He survived being shot three times in a dispute over the production of the liquor shortly before World War II; soon afterwards he changed his career to competition on the racetrack after observing the racing prowess of fellow moonshiner Lloyd Seay, declaring auto racing to be "safer than moonshine". He raced motorcycles a few times before switching fully to stock cars.

Samples raced at tracks such as Lakewood Speedway in the early, pre-World War II era of stock car racing; in the track's 1941 Labor Day event he battled for the lead before crashing out of the race. In 1946, Samples won the first stock car race promoted by Bill France, Sr. held outside Daytona Beach, Florida, an event held on Independence Day at Greenville-Pickens Speedway; the win, among others the inaugural National Championship Stock Car Circuit (NCSCC) event, run on the beach at Daytona on June 30 of that year, allowed Samples to be declared the 1946 national champion of stock car racing, a consensus decision among officers of the NCSCC, the , and the U.S. Stock Car Drivers Association, defeating Roy Hall and Bob Flock for the title.

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