What is the history of wrapping the front of the car?

I have been going through NASCAR history a lot this past year, mainly spurred by my hobby of creating race win diecasts or models. I noticed in a lot of the videos from the early 50's, the front of the car is wrapped in white tape. I am curious about the history of it, as it seems to have come and gone fairly quickly. Interestingly enough Marshall Teague won in 1951 at Daytona with the wrap pictured, but won the same race again with no wrap.