Description and History
The Harley J. Earl Trophy is named after General Motors car designer Harley Earl. Earl, the second commissioner of NASCAR, was the designer of the Chevrolet Corvette; his Firebird I concept car provides the basis of the automobile that sits atop the trophy; the car is often misidentified as Sir Malcolm Campbell's "Blue Bird" land speed record car. Earl was a friend of NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr., 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 Sprint Cup Series (formerly known as the Nextel Cup Series, Winston Cup Series, and 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 a NASCAR driver can be presented with.
The Harley J. Earl Perpetual Trophy, the "official" version of the award, is housed at Daytona 500 Experience, a museum adjacent to the Daytona International Speedway. It stands about four feet tall, and five feet wide, and is in the same triangular "tri-oval" shape of Daytona International Speedway. It is removed from its display once a year to appear in victory lane with the winner of the Daytona 500. However, in 2010, the trophy was removed from the Daytona International Speedway, and transported to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where it was 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 Week.
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“He hath achieved a maid
That paragons description and wild fame;
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)