The Harley J. Earl Trophy is the trophy presented to the winner of the premier – and season-opening – event of the

National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

(NASCAR), the

Daytona 500 The Daytona 500 is a NASCAR Cup Series motor race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is the first of two Cup races held every year at Daytona, the second being the Coke Zero Sugar 400, and one of three ...

. It is named after influential automobile designer

Harley Earl Harley Jarvis Earl (November 22, 1893 – April 10, 1969) was an American Automotive design, automotive designer and business executive. He was the initial designated head of design at General Motors, later becoming vice president, the first ...

, who served as the second commissioner of NASCAR. Earl is arguably best known as the "inventor of the

Corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

" and designer of the Firebird I prototype that adorns the trophy. The trophy is kept on display at the

Daytona International Speedway Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, Daytona Beach, Florida, United States, about north of Orlando, Florida, Orlando. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race ...

, while a small replica is given to each Daytona 500 winner.

Description and history

The Harley J. Earl Trophy is named after

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

car designer

. Earl, the second commissioner of NASCAR, was the designer of the

Chevrolet Corvette The Chevrolet Corvette is a line of American two-door, two-seater sports cars manufactured and marketed by General Motors under the Chevrolet marque since 1953. Throughout eight generations, indicated sequentially as C1 to C8, the Corvette is not ...

; his Firebird I

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not ...

provides the basis of the automobile that sits atop the trophy; the car is often misidentified as

Sir Malcolm Campbell Major Sir Malcolm Campbell (11 March 1885 – 31 December 1948) was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times, using vehicles called ''Blue Bird'', including a 1 ...

's "

Blue Bird The bluebirds are a North American group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous passerine birds in the genus ''Sialia'' of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. Bluebirds lay an ...

" land speed record car. Earl was a friend of NASCAR founder

Bill France, Sr. William Henry Getty France (September 26, 1909 – June 7, 1992) was an American businessman and racing driver. He was also known as Bill France Sr. or Big Bill. He is best known for founding and managing NASCAR, a sanctioning body of US-based s ...

, who named the trophy after him as a sign of respect. The trophy is awarded to the winner of the annual Daytona 500, known as "The Great American Race", which acts as the season-opening event for the

NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...

(formerly known as the Monster Energy Cup Series, Sprint Cup Series, Nextel Cup Series, Winston Cup Series, and Winston Grand National Series), and is also considered the most prestigious and important event on the NASCAR schedule. The trophy is considered to be the most coveted award with which a NASCAR driver can be presented.

The Harley J. Earl Perpetual Trophy, the "official" version of the award, is housed at the

. It stands about tall, wide and is in the same triangular "tri-oval" shape of

. It's removed from its display once a year to appear in

victory lane The following is a glossary of terminology used in motorsport, along with explanations of their meanings. 0–9 ;1–2 finish: When two vehicles from the same team finish first and second in a race. Can be extended to 1–2–3 or 1–2–3– ...

with the winner of the Daytona 500. In 2010, the trophy was removed from the Daytona International Speedway, transported to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and put on display alongside the Borg-Warner Trophy – awarded to the winner of the Indianapolis 500 – in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum during the Indianapolis 500 race week.

The Trophy and the Award

Winners of the Daytona 500 through 1997 received the ''Harley Earl Award'', a wooden trophy approximately tall, adorned with silver figurines. Starting in 1998, to celebrate the 40th running, individual winners of the Daytona 500 have been presented with a miniature replica of the Harley J. Earl Trophy, which was recreated by John Lajba, a sculptor from Omaha, Nebraska. Previously commissioned to craft a sculpture of Bill France and his wife, Ann France, for display in front of NASCAR corporate headquarters in Daytona Beach, Florida, Lajba's work on each replica trophy requires six weeks of 12-hour days to create the Firebird I automobile, with all the work done by hand, at Herman Engraving, before it gets plated in silver by Koley’s Inc., also located in Omaha. The first replica trophy, won in 1998 by Dale Earnhardt, Sr., Dale Earnhardt was mounted on a marble base, but subsequent trophies have since been mounted to an acrylic base, making them lighter. For the 2008 Daytona 500, the 50th anniversary of the first race, the replica of the trophy, presented to winner Ryan Newman (racing driver), Ryan Newman, was plated in gold rather than silver. The replica trophies weigh , measures tall, wide and deep.

Additional Daytona 500 trophies

The Harley J. Earl Trophy is not the only trophy awarded at the conclusion of the annual Daytona 500. The Pit stop#NASCAR pit crew roles, crew chief of the winning team receives the Cannonball Baker Trophy, named after the first commissioner of NASCAR; the winning team owner is awarded the Governor's Cup.

Winners of the Harley J. Earl Trophy

The most Harley Earl Awards and Harley J. Earl Trophy Replicas have been won by Richard Petty, often referred to as "The King" of NASCAR. Petty's seven victories lead the four Daytona 500 wins of Cale Yarborough, and three each by Bobby Allison, Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, and Denny Hamlin. Bill Elliott, Sterling Marlin, Michael Waltrip, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and William Byron (racing driver), William Byron have won the Daytona 500 and Harley J. Earl Trophy twice; twenty-seven other drivers have been awarded the trophy once. As of , Trevor Bayne was the youngest winner of the trophy when he won it at age 20 years, 1 day in 2011; Bobby Allison was the oldest winner (50 years, 2 months, 11 days) in 1988.

References

{{Daytona 500 NASCAR races at Daytona International Speedway NASCAR trophies and awards NASCAR Cup Series