When Being Great Meant Sporting a 'Stache

Among NASCAR stars, golden age of facial hair appears to be in eclipse.

ByABC News
March 21, 2008, 12:58 PM

— -- Watching classic NASCAR races especially the Daytona 500s shown earlier this season on ESPN Classic you see some of the greatest of the Great American Races.

From The King to The Intimidator to The Kid to Paul Menard today, facial hair has always been a part of of NASCAR. Take a look at the history of mustachioed (or not) rogues of the raceway.

You may be introduced for the first time to drivers like the Allisons, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and Dale Earnhardt, some of the racers who laid the framework for what NASCAR and the Daytona 500 have become. You see the classic paint schemes running out on the track like the black No. 3, the STP No. 43 and the Spam car.

One thing is a little troubling, however. Where have all the great mustaches gone?

Many of the great drivers had mustaches.

Petty, Earnhardt, Dale Jarrett, Terry Labonte. All these drivers got their cookie dusters in Victory Lane multiple times and their kisses on championship trophies were cushioned by a luxurious layer of lip hair.

Even Jeff Gordon sported one of the most fantastically cheesy mustaches during his days in the Nationwide Series.

What was it about the mustache? Did it somehow lower wind resistance as the drivers sailed around superspeedways? Would a mustache give a driver the confidence and nerve to make a three-wide pass in the waning laps? Could mustache hair be the secret illegal additive that was put in Michael Waltrip's intake manifold last year?

Gordon's career didn't take off until he shaved his mustache, but some stars' careers faded only when they lost their spiritual connection with Tom Selleck and other mustachioed soulmates.

Labonte's face was the only thing smooth about him at the end of his career. He won just one race after the turn of the millennium.

In 1999, Dale Jarrett won the Cup series championship. In 2000, he showed up at Daytona without his nose neighbor. Laughing superstition and mustache power in the face, Jarrett finished fourth in points, then fifth the next year, ninth in 2002 and then 26th in 2003.