Warren Named Winner of Spirit award
Photographer T. Taylor Warren has been selected as the recipient of the NMPA/Pocono Spirit Award.
The NMPA Pocono Spirit Award is designed to recognize character and achievement in the face of adversity, sportsmanship and contributions to motorsports. Each year, quarterly winners are selected, and an overall winner is selected by a vote of the NMPA membership.
The award was present at the NMPA’s annual convention Sunday in Concord, N.C.
Taylor, who died in October at age 83, was recognized for a lifetime of achievement in NASCAR photography. Among his many accomplishments was that his picture was used to determine the winner of the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959. Initially, officials declared Johnny Beauchamp the winner, but once Warren developed his photographs, it was clear that Lee Petty beat Beauchamp. Upon seeing the photograph, officials reversed their decision and gave Petty the victory.
In December, Warren, known in the garage as “T. Taylor,’’ received the NMPA’s Myers Brothers Award for 2008 posthumously.
“Whether they know it or not, millions of NASCAR fans since the early 1950s saw the sport through T. Taylor’s eyes,’’ said former NMPA President Tom Jensen. “T. Taylor’s images brought the sport to life long before the advent of NASCAR on network television and the Internet.’’
NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Juan Pablo Montoya was the award’s first-quarter winner. Car owner Richard Childress won the award in the third quarter, and driver Kyle Busch was the fourth-quarter award winner.
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