Wild History: A Jaguar XK120 Once Won a NASCAR Race
The legendary Jaguar XK120 once bested a NASCAR grid during a post-war race in the Garden State — and it wasn’t close.
Over the course of its long history in motorsport, Jaguar has seen more than its fair share of success. From iconic wins at the 24 Hours of Lemans, to domination at the British Saloon Car Championship, to the notorious Alpine Rally of the ’50s, the Cats of Coventry have wound up on the podium plenty. At one point, Jag even had its own spec series, called Fast Masters, where racing drivers over the age of 50 competed in identical XJ220s. Given how rare the XJ220 is, it’s wild to think how many got sacrificed on the track.
Of course, plenty of American privateer teams had success in local and national contests across the USA too. But even diehard fans of the brand might have no idea that Jaguar was actually victorious at a NASCAR event, that most American of all the American racing series. I didn’t until a few years ago, when I stumbled across this intriguing bit of history as I was researching another subject entirely. This bit of the Jaguar story has always fascinated me, because it’s so weird — and there’s excruciating little information about it to be found online. Here’s what we know.
The race was run on on June 13th 1954, and it occurred at the Lindon Airport in New Jersey. NASCAR apparently ran three Grand National events at the track, between 1949 and 1954, and it was a road course — not the high-speed ovals that are synonymous with the the sport today. The most detailed information, which includes some awesome period photos, is over on Speedway and Road Race History, and the driver was Al Keller. The car was an XK120 similar to the one in these pictures — and the margin of victory was substantial.
When the checkered flag fell, Keller and his Jaguar were almost a full lap ahead of the pack, which consisted of a 50-50 split between domestic and foreign hardware. Given that the XK120 was the fastest production automobile in the world at the time, and handled far better than anything from the Big Three, it was hardly a dark horse victory. But it remains a awesome feat nonetheless. Now, I’ve scoured YouTube and plenty of video sites for footage of this race, but have consistently come up empty. I’ve also looked on Jaguar’s press site, but since this doesn’t appear to be a factory effort, I’ve come up empty there too.
So if you have any info on this mysterious little tidbit of Jaguar history, hit me up and let me know. I’d love to know more about how this race came about, and what other cars were in theh running!
Photos: Jaguar