Beam made his Grand National debut in 1957, finishing 20th in a self-owned
Chevy. In 1958, he ran 20 races, with a single top 10 finish. 1959 was his best season, where he started 30 of 44 events, had 12 top-ten finishes including his first career top-five, and finished fourth in points. He made two starts in the
NASCAR Convertible Division that year. In 1961, Beam suffered an engine failure at
Richmond International Raceway. It was the last DNF for 84 races, starting the streak of finishing races that he is most famous for, which ended at
Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1963. Beam retired from racing that year, but continued to field cars for other drivers, including
Ned Jarrett and
Cale Yarborough. Beam's nickname was "Turtle", reflecting his cautious driving style, which was to finish each race without retiring. His most famous moment was at the 1962 Richmond 250 race at the Atlantic Rural Fairgrounds at
Richmond, Virginia. Due to heavy rain, qualifying was cancelled, and the drivers drew for grid positions by lot. Beam drew pole position, but pulled off the track on the pace lap to let the entire field go past. He eventually finished 12th. After the race Beam said that he did not feel comfortable starting in front of faster cars. Beam's 84-race streak took place over the span of 22 months and ten days, and was being threatened by
Clint Bowyer, who if he finished the first ten races of the 2009 season could have tied the record. However, he crashed at the 2009
Southern 500 at Darlington to end his streak at 83 finished races. Bowyer's teammate
Kevin Harvick fell three short when his engine failed in the
2009 Auto Club 500 ending his streak at 81 races without a DNF. After the
2014 FedEx 400, his 84-race streak was broken by
Greg Biffle, who finished the race despite being 108 laps down in 38th. Biffle would DNF at the
Coke Zero 400 a month later, ending the streak at 89 races. Another outstanding mark of Beam's was running the same number throughout his career. In all 194 of his starts, Beam drove only the number 19 in NASCAR Grand National races, the former record for officially retired drivers that has since been surpassed by
Jeff Gordon, with 797 consecutive starts in the #24. ==Career as an owner==