To many longtime race fans, the NASCAR drivers who made headlines during the 1970s were part of the sport’s Greatest Generation as their talent and popularity carried stock car racing into its modern era.

Drivers of the 1950s and ’60s built a solid foundation for NASCAR’s Cup Series, but those formative years were difficult as the sport struggled to find its way. By the 1970s, NASCAR’s compass was pointed upward and stock car racing was given new life when R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. saw it as an opportunity after cigarette advertising was banned from television.