death_date cup_poles birth_place cup_wins total_cup_races awards last_cup_race best_cup_pos first_cup_race birth_date years_in_cup cup_top_tens article_title name death_cause
12 august 1973 0 lenoir , north carolina 0 38 1972 nascar winston cup rookie of the year 1973 talladega 500 -lrb- alabama -rrb- 23rd - 1972 winston cup series season 1971 world 600 -lrb- charlotte -rrb- 2 june 1942 3 9 larry smith -lrb- racing driver -rrb-
 lawrence smith racing accident
larry smith -lrb- racing driver -rrb-

larry grayson smith -lrb- june 2 , 1942 -- august 12 , 1973 -rrb- , born in lenoir , north carolina , united states , was a former nascar driver .
he made his debut in the 1971 world 600 in the # 92 ford , finishing 22nd .
he would go on to run three more races that year , acquiring one top-ten finish .
in 1972 , he was named the first nascar winston cup rookie of the year , running 23 races and posting seven top-ten finishes .
the next year , he finally acquired major sponsorship , from carling black label .
later that year , while running the talladega 500 , smith spun his 1971 mercury on lap 14 and slapped the turn 1 retaining wall .
his car suffered minor damage , which the crew was preparing to repair .
however during the ensuing caution flag , members of smith 's pit crew surprisingly discovered that the driver did not survive the impact of the crash .
it is rumored , but not confirmed , that the head injuries that killed smith came because he tore the inner-lining out of his helmet , which had been bothering him for some time .
he was pronounced dead on arrival at the talladega superspeedway infield hospital .
no other drivers were involved in the crash .
smith is one of several drivers featured in the 1975 book `` the world 's number one , flat-out , all-time great stock car racing book '' by jerry bledsoe .
bledsoe describes the struggles smith went through in his run for rookie of the year in 1972 .
