Teague approached the Hudson Motor Car Company by traveling to Michigan and visiting the automaker's factory without an appointment.

Driving a reconfigured Indy car at the newly opened Daytona International Speedway, Teague died while attempting to break the closed course speed record, which had been established by Tony Bettenhausen in qualifying for the 1957 Race of Two Worlds at about 177 mph.

Teague was conducting test sessions in preparation for the April start of the 1959 USAC Championship Car season, piloting a "Sumar Special" streamliner, a Kurtis Kraft chassis with a 270 c.i.

On February 9, 1959, Teague, clocked at 171.821 mph (276.5 km/h), markedly improved Ed Elisian's unofficial 148-mph-one-lap record for an American race track, which had been set in preparation for the 1958 Indianapolis 500.

[5][6] The next day, the left rear tire was cut as a result of running over a foreign object, which forced Teague to pit.