Tag: Bud Moore

  • Remembering NASCAR Hall of Fame owner Walter ‘Bud’ Moore Jr.

    Remembering NASCAR Hall of Fame owner Walter ‘Bud’ Moore Jr.

    Walter “Bud” Moore Jr., a NASCAR championship owner and crew chief, as well as a decorated war hero, passed away Monday night at the age of 92.

    Moore was born on May 25, 1925, in Spartanburg, South Carolina and once described himself as “an old country mechanic who loved to make ‘em run fast.”

    As a young man, he was drafted into the Army and went off to serve his country as an infantryman. Moore returned from World War II as a highly decorated hero with two Bronze Stars and five Purple Hearts.

    He showed that same level of commitment and focus when he began his racing career and was a prominent figure in the early days of NASCAR. When you talk about the founding fathers of NASCAR, you’re talking about Bud Moore.

    He owned and operated a NASCAR team for 37 years and in 959 starts accumulated 63 victories, 43 poles, 298 top-five finishes and 463 top-10s.

    Moore was the crew chief for Buck Baker when Baker won the championship in 1957. He won back to back championships as a car owner with Joe Weatherly in 1962 and 1963. Moore also won a Grand American championship in 1968 with Tiny Lund and a Sports Car Club of America Trans-Am title in 1970 with Parnelli Jones.

    If you take a look at the biggest names in NASCAR history, it’s difficult to find anyone who hasn’t driven a Bud Moore car. Those drivers include David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Fireball Roberts, Bobby Alison, Buddy Baker, Billy Wade, Darrell Waltrip, Ricky Rudd, Morgan Shepherd, Dale Earnhardt and more.

    Bud Moore had a front row seat to NASCAR’s future stars.

    “The thing is, a lot of people ask me, who was the best? They all were good,” Moore once said. “Some were better on some racetracks and others were better on others.”

    “Buddy Baker was the best on mile-and-a-half, two-mile racetracks. Bobby Allison was good on all the racetracks, and Dale Earnhardt was just as good, or better. But those (last) two stand out to me, as far as being drivers on all the tracks. But I can’t pick a favorite. I liked them all.”

    Moore’s cars also won at some of NASCAR’s most prestigious tracks. Darel Dieringer won the Darlington Southern 500 in 1966. Baker won three straight races at Talladega in 1975 and 1976 in Moore owned cars. Allison won the Daytona 500 and the National 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1978.

    Moore closed his shop and retired from racing in 1999. It was a familiar story of talent versus money.

    “I spent a bunch of my own money keeping the team alive, keeping the shop and keeping key personnel on board,” Moore said. “Whenever we thought we had a sponsor deal, somebody would say to them, ‘Wait a minute. Why in the world would you spend millions on Bud Moore? We’ll put you on four or five cars for a million.’ If that was you, what would you do? You’d go on four or five cars. So that put us out of business. From 1994 to 1999, there were 23 single-car teams that went out of business.”

    In 2011 Moore’s dedication and expertise were honored as he was inducted into the second class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. His reaction was poignant.

    “I’m really thrilled,” he said. “You just don’t know how thrilled I really am to be chosen. It is one of the greatest moments of my life.”

    There is no standardized template for the perfect Hall of Fame candidate. It’s not as simple as comparing statistics to determine who comes out on top. Each individual’s contributions, both on and off the track, must be considered. For often indefinable reasons, there are always those special few who shape the sport for future generations.

    Moore was one such man.

    “Many choose the word ‘hero’ when describing athletes who accomplish otherworldly sporting feats. Oftentimes, it’s an exaggeration. But when detailing the life of the great Bud Moore, it’s a description that fits perfectly,” said NASCAR chairman Brian France in a statement issued Tuesday morning.

    “Moore, a decorated veteran of World War II, served our country before dominating our sport as both a crew chief and, later, an owner. As a crew chief, Moore guided NASCAR Hall of Famer Buck Baker to a championship in 1957. As an owner, he captured consecutive titles in 1962-63 with another Hall of Famer, Joe Weatherly. Those successes, along with many more, earned him his own spot in the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011.

    “On behalf of all of NASCAR, I offer my condolences to Bud’s family, friends and fans. We will miss Bud, a giant in our sport, and a true American hero.”

    Follow @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.

     

  • Ken Squier: A Common Man with an Uncommon Impact on NASCAR

    Ken Squier: A Common Man with an Uncommon Impact on NASCAR

    Photo Credit: Gary Buchanan
    Photo Credit: Gary Buchanan

    As NASCAR readies to kick off the 2013 season with the Great American Race at Daytona, one common man, Ken Squier, will be ready to once again have an uncommon influence on the sport.

    Squier, a Vermont native, has had a lengthy history of covering the sport that he has grown to love and influence. In fact, he started his broadcasting career at the tender age of 14 years.

    “I hitchhiked to the track because I didn’t want my parents to know,” Squier said of his first announcing gig. “I think I got $5 for it.”

    “They had taken a bull dozer around the field a couple of times and called it a race track,” Squier continued. “It was the north against the south at that time in Vermont and it was a war.”

    “The public address system was on a logging truck,” Squier said. “It got so bad that me and another kid hid under the truck until the fights were under control.”

    As with many in the sport, Squier came by his love of racing naturally, tagging along with his father who was a harness racing announcer. And thanks to those travels, he got his first exposure to stock car racing.

    “My dad was a harness race announcer so I knew I had to be a part of racing somehow, someway,” Squier said. “We used to go to country fairs and one afternoon lasted about five years.”

    “It was awful,” Squier continued. “However, on the weekend, you could blast through those awful days because they had the Hell Drivers and the open wheel, open cockpit cars.”

    “This was no children’s game,” Squier said. “It was the real deal.”

    “We would see on a Saturday or Sunday American Automobile Association races,” Squier continued. “I actually saw the original Joie Chitwood and all the others.”

    “My hero when I was a kid was Ted Horn from California.”

    From then on, Squier was hooked on this intriguing sport of automobile racing, so much so that he was involved with the founding of the Motor Racing Network, where we served as a commentator from 1969 to 1978.

    “The first office for Motor Racing Network was a Pepsi cooler with a glass top folded back and forth out in the hall,” Squier said. “They gave us a phone and said get your ass busy and find some radio stations to carry this race.”

    He then took on a role with CBS Sports, again telling the stories of the racers he so admired, as well as covering other sports, including boxing and even frog jumping and hollering contests. In fact, Squier was part of the debut of the NASCAR broadcast for the 1979 Daytona 500 and would be part of many Great American races from that time forward.

    “I wore my CBS necktie every Daytona 500,” Squier said. “I paid $5 and selected it because whatever you spilled on it, no one could see.”

    And of course, Squier would be part of that one special CBS Daytona 500 broadcast, capturing the infamous fight between the Allison brothers and Cale Yarborough, which was not only seen around the world but which catapulted the sport of stock car racing to the level that it is today.

    “The show was over and the Goodyear blimp was headed back to the airport,” Squier said of that incredible Daytona 500 finish. “We were just fussing around and the producer said, “Take a look at this.”

    “Capturing that brawl was just one of those moments,” Squier continued. “Everything fell into place that day and all fit together.”

    Squier was also part of another historic moment, bringing the innovation of an in-car camera to the sport of stock car racing.

    “I was in Australia and the people providing the in-car equipment invited me to see Bathurst which was their Indy 500 at the time,” Squier said. “I was in the truck and sure enough the thing goes on and the course was like a Christmas tree, up one side and down the other.”

    “It was just remarkable to see the cameras focused on the drivers,” Squier continued. “When they came down the mountain, there was a straightaway and the race is on and the racer is providing commentary right from the track.”

    “I said to myself, I just think I found what we need to do in the Daytona 500.”

    Cale Yarborough carried that first in car camera in a Daytona 500, sharing his insights right from the cockpit of his race car. And he went on to win the race as well.

    Patty Wheeler, Humpy Wheeler’s daughter, recognized other accomplishments of her good friend and mentor Ken Squier.

    “There were other innovations like the Hollywood Hotel on Fox, which was conceived by Squier in the early 1980s as the STP Pit Communication Center,” Wheeler noted. “He started the first ever television production company and launched the first ever weekly motorsports show called Motor Week Illustrated.”

    “You remember that 5:35 on Friday afternoons was must-see TV to find out about racing,” Wheeler continued. “And it even led into live wrestling.”

    “One of Squier’s great legacies was Motorsports University,” Wheeler said. “When you look at the people on the air, most got their first shot or their big break from Squier.”

    “We all owe him a great deal of gratitude for that.”

    “What Squier did for motorsports was what Howard Cosell did for boxing,” Wheeler said. “He introduced a broad American public to the sport he loved and showcased it in a way that made everyone else love it with him.”

    In addition to his broadcasting prowess, what intrigued Squier most were these racers, these gutsy risk takers, who gave their all both on and off the track.

    “This was not a children’s game played by adults,” Squier said. “These were men that were so committed and believed so wholly in what they did that they were willing to take the risk.”

    “If one fell, the greatest tribute was to be there the next week to race in their honor,” Squier continued. “It was the kind of sport where those people who took those chances understood that.”

    “You could trust them,” Squier said of the NASCAR racers. “They could be wild, but when the chips were down you didn’t have to worry that your children were going to take on a hero that was stuffing something up their nose.”

    “That didn’t play in NASCAR,” Squier continued. “It was a different world and still is today.”

    “These were common people doing uncommon deeds,” Squier said. “It was Bud Moore in World War II over in Europe.”

    “So much of what we know of racing and love came from those incredible people who fought for this nation,” Squier continued. “They were common men that did incredible deeds.”

    “And racing is full of those people and still is today,” Squier said. “So, that’s what has always brought me back to this.”

    “I can’t stop it because I like it so much and I like the people so much.”

    “It is that good.”

    For his years of passion for the sport, Squier was inducted recently into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame and also was recognized with the unveiling of the Squier-Hall Award for Media Excellence, with his good friend Barney Hall, at recent ceremonies at NASCAR’s Hall of Fame.

    So, this weekend, as fans across the nation sit down to watch the Great American race yet again, with the new gyrocam and other technological broadcasting advances, all should remember that common men doing uncommon deeds, both on and off the track, have grown the sport to what it is today.

    And Ken Squier was certainly one of those common men with an uncommon influence on the sport of NASCAR racing.

  • Today’s Stars and Yesterday’s Legends Join together at the NASCAR Preview 2012

    Today’s Stars and Yesterday’s Legends Join together at the NASCAR Preview 2012

    [media-credit name=”Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”227″][/media-credit]NASCAR Preview 2012 was all about the fans and the fans came by the thousands.  Many camped out overnight in front of the Charlotte Convention Center, even standing in the pouring rain, in anticipation of the event.  This may sound crazy to some but I can only imagine the stories told and the new friends made while they waited patiently for the doors to open.

    Sam Alverson of Jacksonville, Fla. had the distinction of being the first fan through the door after standing in line for 26 hours.

    They came from all over the country carrying pictures and diecast cars to get autographs and a picture taken with their favorite NASCAR drivers.  Over 60 drivers from all three national divisions were there to accommodate them.

    A few of the drivers even hung out after their autograph sessions and spent a few minutes talking with their fans.

    A friend told me about one small girl that she saw carrying a tire through the long lines for autographs. She would carry it for a few feet, set it down for a quick rest and repeat the process again and again. Her father asked his young daughter if she wanted him to carry it for a while but she loudly told him, “No, I can do it.”

    You can’t help but smile at the dedication and loyalty of NASCAR fans.

    The day was filled with non-stop action including driver interviews on stage, sponsor exhibits and car displays. There were plenty of places to rest and get a bite to eat plus you could buy the newest items honoring Friday night’s class of inductees.  It may have been rainy and dreary outside but inside the fans were having the times of their lives.

    The preview also honored the legends of the sport.

    The day began with a free breakfast with Junior Johnson featuring his famous breakfast items. You could also get a picture and an autograph with the 2010 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee.

    Throughout the day you could take a NASCAR Hall of Fame tour that included a meet and greet with legends Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett, Bud Moore, Richard Petty, Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip.

    Finally the day ended with an “Evening of Living History.” These storytelling sessions took place at different areas in the Hall of Fame and were led by Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson, Glen Wood and Dale Inman who were joined by friends and family on stage.

    Several of these were held at the same time so I chose to attend the one led by Junior Johnson.  It was held in front of his moonshine still and guests were encouraged to sample some of Johnson’s ‘Midnight Moon Moonshine.’ Although I didn’t indulge, the ‘Apple Pie’ flavor seemed to be the crowd favorite.

    Johnson was joined by NASCAR Hall of Fame Executive Director Winston Kelley and writer Tom Higgins.

    This turned out to be the highlight of my day so I’ve included one of several stories that left me with a smile on my face as I headed home Saturday evening.

    Higgins opened things up with what he called his favorite “Junior moonshine story.”

    It was back in the 1950s when Junior and Gwyn Staley, a good friend, headed up to Virginia to take two loads of moonshine to some thirsty sailors. They had to keep moving their stash to keep ahead of the revenuers so they had to drive across the Brushy Mountains to a hiding place near Taylorsville, N.C.

    When they got there, they loaded up their hauler cars and were on the way back to Wilkes County to gas up the cars.

    “They were coming across the mountain and saw where a car had slid off the road. Steam was coming out of it and two dazed men were walking around the car. So Junior who is a very kind man, generous and a Good Samaritan, stopped, although he had liquor in the car. He went up to this car that had turned over and lo and behold there was the high sheriff of Wilkes County and his chief deputy.” said Higgins.

    By this time, everyone in the room was hanging on every word.

    “They had liquor on their breath and lipstick on their collars and they’d been somewhere they shouldn’t have been.  The sheriff looked up and said thank God it’s you Junior. You’ve got to get us back to the courthouse or they’ll throw me out of office.” Higgins continued.  “Junior said, Hell sheriff I can’t take you to the courthouse I got a load of liquor in my car. The sheriff said, Junior if you’ll get me out of this I promise I’ll never chase you again and I’ll never let any of my deputies chase you.”

    Johnson agreed to take the sheriff back.  So they rearranged the cases of liquor in the car to make seats and they took the high sheriff and the deputy back to Wilkesboro.

    Higgins ended the story by saying, “Junior still sees the sheriff from time to time on the streets of North Wilkesboro and he tries to evade Junior but Junior won’t let him.”

    “He’ll grin at him, wink and say, Sheriff, you been across the mountain lately?”

    Kelley asked if the sheriff had been true to his word. Johnson just laughed and said, “After that, he didn’t even want to talk to me.”

  • NASCAR Beginnings Featuring Buck Baker

    NASCAR Beginnings Featuring Buck Baker

    Elzie Wylie “Buck” Baker was one of the most dominant drivers in NASCAR during the 1950s. His never give up attitude was the fuel for the fire that pushed him to be the best. Baker became the first driver to win consecutive Sprint Cup Championships in 1956 and 1957.

    His strategy was a mixture of determination and the belief that he was capable of winning any race.

    “You can’t let anyone think you’re not going to win a race,” he once said during an interview. “If you talk yourself out of believing you are a

    winnner, then you might as well stay in the pits and let someone else do the driving.”

    “There were times we left home without money to buy new tires. We didn’t know where the money was coming from. Heck, there’s times we didn’t have money to put gas in the truck to get to the track.”

    “But someone always came through for what we needed. We always could have used more and better equipment, but I’m talking about don’t let yourself believe you can’t be a winner.”

    Baker was born on a farm near Chester, SC on March 4, 1919. He didn’t grow up with dreams of racing but he always had a wild streak.

    It was a bull calf named Buck that inspired Baker’s nickname because he shared the same uncontrolled abandon as the animal. That recklessness continued into his teenage years when he began running moonshine for his cousin.

    He also supplemented his income with a variety of other jobs including working in a bakery and selling cars.

    When World War II erupted, Baker did a stint in the Navy and served in Maryland. But even the regimented life of a serviceman did not change him. He still found a way to run moonshine for his pals in his spare time.

    After the Navy he moved with his wife and son to Charlotte, NC. Baker found work as a bus driver for Trailways. He had a family and a regular job but Baker was never the typical family man.

    One evening he was headed to Union, SC, with about 20 passengers on board. Somebody mentioned that there was a square dance in the town of Chester. They all took a vote and decided to take a detour to the dance.

    “The vote to go to the dance was unanimous among the passengers, who were singing and having a good time. So I parked the bus and we all went in. Meanwhile, the dispatcher had the police out looking for the bus.”

    They finally arrived in Union about three hours late.

    “The passengers were half drunk, hanging out the windows and waving and carrying on. Driving into the garage to park the bus, I almost ran over the owner of the company. He fired me on the spot but rehired me the next morning before it was time to make another run.”

    It was during this period of his life that Baker decided he wanted to try his hand at becoming a race car driver. He got a later start than most but competed in his first NASCAR race in 1949, at the age of 30.

    Baker found some success in those early years, racing mostly as an independent owner/driver and in 1952 he captured his first win in the Grand National Series (now Sprint Cup Series) in Columbia, SC.

    Baker was known as a hard charger both on and off the track. His competitors knew that too much beating and banging on the track would be dealt with in the pits after the race.

    “My dad won his share of races on the track,” said Baker’s son Buddy, “but I don’t think he ever lost a battle in the pits.”

    In 1955 Baker finished second in the points standings and caught the eye of mulit-car team owner, Carl Kiekhaefer.

    “I saw that Buck was my top competition,” Kiekhaefer said.  “There is only one thing to do with a man like that — hire him!”

    In 1956 Baker won 14 races and his first Cup championship while driving for Carl Kiekhaefer who was partnered with legendary car and engine builder, Ray Fox.

    The following year, Kiekhaefer left NASCAR and Baker was on his own again. He partnered with Bud Moore as his crew chief and scored ten victories in 1957. Baker won his second Cup championship becoming the first driver to win consecutive championships.

    The following season Baker once again finished second in the points standings.

    One of Baker’s most controversial races was on December 1, 1963 at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, FL. Although NASCAR awarded the winning trophy to Baker, the race was actually won by Wendell Scott.

    Hours after the event, NASCAR officials admitted that Scott had won the race. Wendell Scott went in the record books as the first and only African-American to win a NASCAR race in the premier Cup series. They gave him a trophy about a month later in Savannah, but it wasn’t the real thing. Baker got the real trophy.

    Years later, Baker would say, “Many racers gave him a hard time, including some of my friends, but I got along fine with him and tried to help him. He did as well as anybody with the equipment he had.”

    “By the time he was declared the winner, all the fans had left the track. I’ll always believe that I won the race, but I don’t want to take anything from Scott by saying that. It was OK with me, and I was happy for him.”

    Baker continued to race until 1976. In 636 starts, he won 46 times and ranks 14th on the all-time wins list.

    In addition to his two championships, Baker won the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway three times. His last victory there came in 1964, at the age of 45. It would also be the final win of his career.

    Baker considered it his biggest accomplishment.

    “In 1964, I drove Ray Fox’s Dodge in the Southern 500. I was 45 years old at the time. Fox was concerned that I was too old to run 500 miles. Others had written me off as too old. I told Fox not to worry about the horse, just load the wagon. Buddy (Buck’s son) was there, and toward the end of the race, Fox was seriously thinking that I might need relief. Buddy told him there was absolutely no need to say anything to me, because I wouldn’t get out of the car. And he’s never been more right.”

    “It was the biggest thrill I had in racing. There was nothing left for me to prove to those who had said I was finished.”

    Baker was known as one of the most versatile racers of his time. He won races in NASCAR’s Modified, Speedway and Grand American series, raced in multiple makes of cars and won for eight different team owners.

    His son, Buddy once said, “There was a time in the modified division that nobody could beat him.”

    After retiring from NASCAR, Baker opened the Buck Baker Driving School in 1980. Many of today’s top drivers have attended his school including Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Jeff Burton and Ward Burton.

    Baker claimed that Jeff Gordon made the decision to race stock cars at his school.

    “He turned North Carolina Speedway about three seconds faster than the school car he was driving had ever gone. He drove to the motel and told his mother that stock car racing was what he was going to do for the rest of his life. I knew then that he was going to be a hell of a driver. I guess the rest, shall we say, is history in the making.”

    In 1998 Buck Baker was named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers and in 2010 was honored as a nominee in the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

    Baker died on April 14, 2002 at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC, at the age of 83.

    His son, Buddy, followed his father’s path, winning 19 NASCAR Cup races and continued his legacy at the Buck Baker Driving School.

    He summed up his father’s life saying, “Throughout the entire racing world, I don’t know of anybody who would have said he didn’t give 110 percent from the time they dropped the green flag until the time the race was over.”

    “He was that same way in life, too.”

    Achievements:

    1982 – Inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame
    1990 – Inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame
    1992 – Inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame
    1996 – Inducted into the Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame
    1998 – Inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
    1998 – Named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers
    2010 – Nominee to the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame induction class
    2011 – Nominee to the NASCAR Hall of Fame
    2012 – Nominee to the NASCAR Hall of Fame

    Thanks to circletrack.com for Buck Baker quotes