Jocko Flocko, a rhesus monkey, was his co-driver. Compared to usual monkeys, rhesus monkeys are more intelligent and adaptable. They tolerate stress better. They can also handle loud environments, crowds, and confinement better, which explains why Jocko Flocko could handle the NASCAR spotlight.<\/p>\n
Jocko Flocko\u2019s primate instincts captured the public\u2019s attention, and he became the star of the garage. At one point, many were attending the races just to see him sit beside Tim Flock and have competitive finishes. However, 1953 also turned out to be a subpar season for Flock, as he wasn\u2019t winning half as many races as he did the season prior.<\/p>\n
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This was when they went racing down at Hickory Motor Speedway on May 16, and he delivered his season\u2019s only race win. Yet, the more exciting factor wasn\u2019t him but his co-driver, Jocko Flocko. While he wasn\u2019t driving, sitting in the car as the co-driver gave him the privilege to be the only race-winning monkey in NASCAR history, 73 years ago. This also made the #91 Hudson quite popular.<\/p>\n
That win saw the last one for Flock in the No. 91. Post that, he changed sides but continued racing, and enjoyed championship success in 1955.<\/p>\n
In more recent years, however, the sport has evolved. NASCAR currently seems nothing like it used to back in the day, with major revamps for safety and competitiveness. Hence, the regulations don\u2019t allow co-drivers, and especially not animals.<\/p>\n
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The latter is also because of animal rights, which weren\u2019t very prominent at the time. But there is a whole other safety aspect as well, which also brought an end to Jocko Flocko\u2019s entry in the races.<\/p>\n
Why did Jocko Flocko stop running the races?<\/p>\n
A monkey sitting in the co-driver\u2019s seat sounds rather goofy and cute. But at the end of the day, the monkey has to be sitting down on the seat to keep it that way. But as it seemed, Jocko Flocko had discovered free will, and having seen Tim Flock open the trap door in the car throughout the races, Flocko also did that. This was where trouble began.<\/p>\n
![\"Tim](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/3dd8997bebcc5b7657fc11c913a4ac7b.jpeg\"\/)
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Tim Flock and his monkey copilot Jocko Flocko (@DanTorsiello)<\/p>\n
\u201cBack then the cars had a trap door that we could pull open with a chain to check our tire wear. Well, during the Raleigh 300, Jocko got loose from his seat and stuck his head through the trap door, and he went berserk!<\/p>\n
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\u201cListen, it was hard enough to drive those heavy old cars back then under normal circumstances, but with a crazed monkey clawing you at the same time, it becomes nearly impossible!\u201d Flock said in a later interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to come into the pits to put him out and ended up third. The pit stop cost me second place and a $600.00 difference in my paycheck. Jocko was retired immediately. I had to get that monkey off my back!\u201d<\/p>\n
While this cost him quite a bit, it also made sure that no more monkeys were alongside the drivers in the future. Owing to this, Jocko Flocko remains the only monkey that ever ran a NASCAR event; moreover, managed to win one of those.<\/p>\n
The post NASCAR\u2019s Most Unbelievable Moment: The Time When a Monkey Won a Race 73 Years Ago<\/a> appeared first on EssentiallySports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Co-drivers are a less common sight in NASCAR. But what is even more uncommon is a monkey winning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,180091,634,115513,82,180090],"class_list":["post-432930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-jocko-flocko","tag-nascar","tag-rhesus-monkey","tag-sports","tag-tim-flock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}