One of harley earl's last acts as gm chief stylist was to design an olds dream roadster for personal use after retirement Photos by Ray Brock 0:00 / 0:00 ...

The Daytona 500 is less than a month away in sunny, warm Florida, 1,387 miles from freezing, dreary Nebraska. The Harley J. Earl Trophy sits on a table under plastic sheeting in Lajba‘s studio.

We’ve all become familiar with the most famous hardware in stock-car racing: The Harley J. Earl Trophy, which goes to the winner of the Daytona 500. Strangely, perhaps, the car atop the trophy ...

According to Speedway lore, Earl presented France a small replica of the Firebird 1 in the mid-1950s, and by decade’s end, Big Bill had it copied and mounted atop the perpetual Daytona 500 trophy.