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  • NASCAR Beginnings Featuring Richie Evans

    NASCAR Beginnings Featuring Richie Evans

    On Tuesday, June 14, 2011, the NASCAR Hall of Fame announced the 2012 class of inductees. Richard “Richie” Evans was named as part of this new class and joins fellow legends Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Inman and Glen Wood as part of an elite group.

    For those who only follow the Sprint Cup Series, his name may be unfamiliar. But a close look at his record makes it immediately obvious why he was included in such a prestigious class.

    Evans won nine National Modified Championships, including eight consecutive championships from 1978 to 1985. His eight straight championships still stand as a record in any NASCAR division to date.  He has been hailed as the best to ever drive the asphalt modified circuit.

    During his career he won more than 400 feature races and over 30 track championships. One of his best seasons was in 1979 when Evans ran 60 races capturing 54 top five finishes that included 37 victories.

    The International Motorsports Hall of Fame lists his achievements as “one of the supreme accomplishments in motorsports.”

    Evan’s left his father’s farm at the age of 16 to work in a garage in Rome, New York.  He soon ventured into the world of racing as a drag racer but eventually switched to stock cars. In 1965 he began running in the Modified division.

    Evans was not only a gifted driver but often spent 100 hours a week working on his own cars, leaving nothing to chance.

    “Working with the car and working on it in the garage every week is an advantage,” Evans once said. “While I’m working on the car, I’m thinking about every lap I rode in that thing. It’s not like the mechanic who stood and watched it during the feature and then has to make some decisions.”

    Nicknamed the “Rapid Roman,” Evans won his first NASCAR Modified Championship in 1973 at the age of 32. He won his second title in 1978 and continued his reign as “king” of the modified division through 1985.

    Evans was a winner in more ways than one.  He won the Most Popular Driver award nine times and was highly regarded by even the competitors he raced against each week. He was well known for his down to earth manner and his willingness to help others.

    In the eyes of his fans, Evans was a true star.

    Once before a race at Daytona, Paul Newman was sitting next to Richie Evans on the pit wall talking when a seven year old boy spotted his favorite driver. He walked over to the pair and when he got there, Paul Newman said “I don’t give autographs.”  The boy innocently answered, “I wanted Richie’s autograph.” Evans just smiled and gave the boy his autograph.

    Richie Evans never competed in the highest levels of NASCAR.  But don’t make the mistake of thinking that this meant he wasn’t good enough. Richie Evans was, and still remains, one of the best racers in any NASCAR division.

    In 2010, Tommy Baldwin and Steve Park teamed up to race a Richie Evans tribute car at Daytona to pay their respects to this legendary driver.

    “Having Richie Evans along for the ride for this weekend and honoring him is something special to all of us,” said Baldwin, “especially in the NASCAR short track community around the country.  Richie was somebody we all looked up to and when he came to town, we knew we had to beat him to win.  He made us all work harder and I think that prepared a lot of us for the Sprint Cup level.”

    Evans had already clinched his last championship when tragedy struck. On October 24, 1985, Evans was killed during a practice session in a crash at Martinsville Speedway.  A heartbroken racing community mourned the death of one of their own.

    Tony Siscone, a fellow modified racer, summed up the shock and sorrow that many were feeling.

    “Good old Richie just did it to us again. He left under his own conditions and lived his life on his own terms.”

    Accomplishments:

    • Named #1 on NASCAR’s Modified all-time Top 10 list.
    • Only retired number in NASCAR in any series — #61 on the Whelen Modified Tour.
    • Named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.
    • Selected by fans as NASCAR‘s Most Popular Driver in Modified Division nine times.
    • International Motorsports Hall of Fame 1996.
    • National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame 1986.
    • New York State Stock Car Association Hall of Fame.
    • New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame inaugural 1998 class.
    • FOAR SCORE Hall of Fame: 1986 – inaugural class.
    • Oswego Speedway Hall of Fame 2000.
    • As part of the 25th anniversary of the NASCAR Weekly Series in 2006, Evans was named one of the series’ All Time Top 25 drivers.
    • 2010 nominee to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
    • Evans’ #61 was retired at his home track – Utica-Rome Speedway in Vernon, New York in 2008.
    • 2011 nominee to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
    • 2012 Will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame

    Thanks to Area Auto Racing News and allthatmatters.org for quotes.

  • NASCAR Beginnings Featuring Cale Yarborough

    NASCAR Beginnings Featuring Cale Yarborough

    On Tuesday, June 14, 2011, the NASCAR Hall of Fame announced the 2012 class of inductees. It should come as no surprise that Cale Yarborough’s name is at the top of the list. Yarborough received the highest percentage of votes with 85 percent.

    Driver, car owner, businessman, author and actor, Cale Yarborough has done it all. This hard-charging three-time Cup champion was known for giving 100 percent from the first to the last lap.

    Richard Petty said of Yarborough, “It didn’t make no difference if he was two laps behind or 20 laps ahead, he drove that car as hard as he possibly could.”

    Cale Yarborough ruled NASCAR in the 1970’s with three consecutive Sprint Cup championships from 1976-78. No one had ever shown such dominance and his record stood until 2008 when Jimmie Johnson won the championship for the third straight year.

    During those three years, Yarborough won 28 races – nine in 1976, nine in 1977 and 10 in 1978. He not only won those championships, but by a huge margin. In 1978, Yarborough won by a margin of 474 points.

    His 31-year career total of 83 victories ranks fifth all-time and his 69 poles rank third all-time. Yarborough won the Southern 500 at Darlington five times.  He also managed to win the Daytona 500 four times (1968, 1977, 1983-84), second only to Richard Petty’s seven.

    William Caleb Yarborough was born in the small town of Timmonsville, South Carolina in 1939. He was the oldest of three sons born to Julian and Annie Mae Yarborough. As a small boy, he attended races in the nearby towns of Florence and Columbia with his father and fell in love with racing. Yarborough remembers the first Southern 500 in Darlington in 1950. His father had been looking forward to it and he was hoping his Dad would take him to see it.

    “We’d certainly talked about the Southern 500,” Yarborough remembers. “I don’t know whether he was going to take me or not.”

    Sadly, he never got the chance to go. That summer Yarborough lost his father when he was killed after his small plane crashed. Yarborough made it to the Southern 500 the next year, crawling under the fence to get in. He had a ticket but was too excited to wait in line.

    “I wasn’t sneaking in to be sneaking in,” he said. “I was just too anxious to get inside and see my heroes.”

    It seems like no coincidence that Yarborough made his racing debut at that very same track in 1957. It was not the start he had envisioned. Yarborough finished in 42nd place after a broken hub took him out of the race.

    Yarborough only drove in three more races over the next four years but in 1962, he earned his first top ten finish when he placed tenth in the Daytona 500 qualifying race. Over the next few years, he drove for various owners on a limited schedule including Herman Beam, Holman Moody and Banjo Matthews.

    In 1965, he ran in 46 races and captured his first win at Valdosta, Georgia. That year he also had one of the scariest moments of his career at the Southern 500 while trying to pass race leader, Sam McQuagg.

    “We went in the corner side by side, and for some reason my car just got airborne,” said Yarborough. “I went over the hood of his car, never even touched the guardrail, and went out into the parking lot. I ended upside of a telephone pole.”

    In 1966, Yarborough began to find some success. He won both the Atlanta and Firecracker 500 while driving for Bud Moore and finished out the season driving the No. 21 car for the Wood Brothers team.

    Yarborough started to make a name for himself after his partnership with the Wood Brothers and won six races in 1968 including his first Daytona 500 win. That year also saw him in victory lane for the first time at the Southern 500. Yarborough considers it the biggest of his 83 career wins. This was the track where he had watched so many of his heroes race as a young boy. More importantly, it was the last race on the old track before it was repaved.

    “It’s still hard to drive today,” Yarborough says, “but back before they changed it, it was almost impossible to race on. The difference between the old track and the new one is like night and day.”

    “I think Jeff [Gordon] ought to have to win six to equal my five,” he jokes, “because my first one was on the old track, and it was twice as hard to win.”

    Finally, in 1973, Yarborough was able run a full schedule. He won four races that year, including the Southeastern 500 at Bristol International Speedway, where he led every lap from start to finish. What makes it even more unusual is that the race took two weeks to complete because of rain.

    Yarborough finished second in the points standing in 1973, behind Richard Petty. In 1974, he captured ten victories but again finished second to Petty in points. But Yarborough was not to be denied.

    With nine victories in 1976, Yarborough won the first of his three consecutive championships, driving for the legendary Junior Johnson. According to Johnson, winning with Yarborough was easy.

    “When you got a driver you know is going to give you everything he’s got,” Johnson said, “you can take away 30% of the car and he’ll still give you enough to beat everybody.”

    One of Yarborough’s most memorable moments was in 1979 at the Daytona 500. It was the first stock car race ever televised in its entirety. Yarborough and Donnie Allison were fighting for the lead and wrecked when Yarborough tried to pass for the lead during the final laps. The wrecked cars slid into the infield and both drivers jumped out of their cars. Fists started flying with Bobby Allison joining in to help his brother. The entire episode was captured on television and has become one of the most notorious NASCAR fights in its history.

    Yarborough retired as a driver in 1988, ending his driving career with a phenomenal 83 wins. He remained on the NASCAR scene as a car owner until 2000. He had limited success as an owner and recorded only one win with John Andretti in 1997. After leaving NASCAR, he opened a successful Honda dealership in Florence, South Carolina.

    Cale Yarborough was a small town boy with big dreams. He joined the ranks of the heroes he watched race as a young boy to become a NASCAR legend. He remains one of NASCAR’s most beloved drivers and an integral part of its history.

    *Achievements:

    1967 NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Award
    1976 Cup Championship
    1976 Five Consecutive Race Wins – Single Season Record
    1977 Cup Championship
    1978 Cup Championship
    1980 Won 14 Pole Positions – Single Season Record
    1984 First driver to qualify at the Daytona 500 at over 200 mph
    1986 Wrote his autobiography, with William Neely: ‘Cale: The Hazardous Life and Times of the World’s Greatest Stock Car Driver’
    1993 Inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame
    1994 Inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame
    1994 Inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
    1996 Inducted into the Court of Legends at Charlotte Motor Speedway
    1996 Talladega Walk of Fame inductee
    1998 Named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers
    2009 Monument on the Darlington Legends Walk
    2010 Nominee NASCAR Hall of Fame
    2011 Nominee NASCAR Hall of Fame
    2012 Will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame
    4-Time Winner of the Daytona 500
    5-Time Winner of the Southern 500
    83 Career Wins (Fifth All-Time)
    69 Poles (Third All-Time)

    Trivia:

    Yarborough appeared in two episodes of the TV show ‘The Dukes of Hazzard,’ playing himself.

    1979: ‘The Dukes Meet Cale Yarborough’
    1984: ‘Cale Yarborough comes to Hazzard’
    1983: Yarborough appeared in the Burt Reynolds movie, ‘Stroker Ace’

    Thanks to darlingtonraceway.com and NASCAR Hall of Fame for Cale Yarborough quotes.

    *NASCAR statistics as of May 31, 2011

  • NASCAR Beginnings Featuring Wendell Scott

    NASCAR Beginnings Featuring Wendell Scott

    Wendell Oliver Scott, born in 1921 in Danville, Virginia, was an American stock car driver and a pioneer of NASCAR.  On March 4, 1961 in Spartanburg SC, he broke down racial barriers to make his first start in the NASCAR Grand National (now Sprint Cup) division.  Scott went on to become the first and to date, the only, African-American to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup event.

    A look into his life gives us insight into a tumultuous part of NASCAR and American history.

    Scott didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life but was sure of one thing. Whatever it was, he would be his own boss.

    As a youngster he loved going fast, racing his bicycles against other kids and speeding around town on roller skates. Scott also grew up learning about cars at his father’s side. His Dad worked as a driver and mechanic for two wealthy white families and was well known for his prowess behind the wheel.

    Eventually Scott quit high school, became a taxi driver and later served in the segregated Army in Europe during World War II. After the war, he ran an auto-repair shop and ran moonshine on the side.

    Like others before him, he used the moonshine business to hone his driving skills and learn how to build fast race cars. Scott was only caught once and was sentenced to three years probation but continued to make whiskey runs.

    On May 23, 1952, a set of unusual circumstances gave Scott his first racing start.

    At that time the races in Danville were run by the Dixie Circuit, a competing organization to NASCAR.  In order to bring in more money, they decided that they needed a gimmick. Their idea was to bring in a black driver who was fast enough to compete with the usual white drivers. They chose Wendell Scott.

    That first race wasn’t a success. His car broke down and many spectators booed him. But at that moment, Scott realized this was what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

    The next day brought Scott back down to earth. He repaired his car and decided to tow it to a NASCAR-sanctioned race in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The NASCAR officials refused to let him compete telling him that black drivers weren’t allowed.

    He left the race with tears in his eyes but he didn’t quit.

    A few days later he went to another NASCAR event in High Point, North Carolina but was once again told he couldn’t race. They suggested he get a white boy to drive his car.

    “I told ’em weren’t no damn white boy going to drive my car,” Scott said.

    Instead, he left the track and decided to avoid NASCAR races for the time being.

    He raced with the Dixie Circuit and at other non-NASCAR speedways and won his first race at Lynchburg, Virginia, only twelve days into his racing career.

    As time passed, he still got boos but more and more fans began rooting for him. Although some of the drivers were prejudiced and would wreck him deliberately, many drivers came to respect Scott. They saw him as a driver no different from themselves, just another hard-working guy who loved racing.

    Soon, some of the newspapers began writing positive stories about Scott and his popularity increased.

    Scott understood, though, that in order to really succeed in the sport, he had to gain admission to NASCAR. He didn’t know NASCAR founder and president, Bill France, so Scott found a less direct way to get into NASCAR.

    He towed his racecar to a local NASCAR event at Richmond Speedway and asked the steward, Mike Poston, to grant him a NASCAR license. Poston was only a part-timer in NASCAR but he did have the authority to issue licenses.

    Poston told him, “We’ve never had any black drivers, and you’re going to be knocked around.”

    “I can take it,” Scott told him.

    Poston approved Scott’s license but his decision wasn’t popular.

    Scott finally met Bill France for the first time in April of 1954. The night before they met, the promoter at a NASCAR event in Raleigh, North Carolina, had given gas money to all of the white drivers who came to the track but had refused to pay Scott. Scott approached France at the Lynchburg speedway and told him what had happened.

    France immediately reached into his pocket, gave Scott thirty dollars and assured him that NASCAR would never treat him with prejudice.

    “You’re a NASCAR member, and as of now you will always be treated as a NASCAR member.”

    In 1961, Scott moved up to the NASCAR Grand National division.

    On December 1, 1963, driving a Chevrolet Bel Air purchased from Ned Jarrett, he won his first race at Speedway Park in Jacksonville, Florida — the first and only top level NASCAR event won by an African-American.

    Ironically, Scott almost didn’t make the race.

    Scott didn’t have enough cash in his pocket to make the long trip. So he asked Jarrett if he could borrow $500.00.

    “He was a race-car driver and I was a race-car driver,” Jarrett said.

    “But he was having a tough time because of his race at that particular period. He wasn’t going to get a lot of help. I thought he was a good race-car driver and he could be good for the sport.”

    Wendell had won the race, by two laps over Buck Baker, but it wasn’t without controversy. NASCAR waved the checkered flag over Baker and awarded him the trophy.

    Hours later, NASCAR officials admitted that Scott had won the race. They gave him a trophy about a month later in Savannah, but it wasn’t the real thing.

    Buck got the real trophy.

    He continued to race competitively through the rest of the 1960s but was forced to retire due to injuries from a racing accident at Talladega, Alabama in 1973.

    Scott achieved one win and 147 top ten finishes in 495 career Grand National starts.

    He died Dec. 22, 1990, after a long battle with spinal cancer.  In 1999, Scott was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.

    I’m so glad we never gave up,” said Scott’s Widow Mary.

    “When Ned Jarrett and all of those old drivers came to Scott’s funeral, they told us he had the respect of all the drivers. I’d say all of those older guys learned to like him and respect him. They knew he was a genuine person and he stood for what he believed. He didn’t give up.”

    It has been 50 years since Scott’s first race in NASCAR’s premier series. His achievements will be honored on ESPN on February 20th with a movie entitled “Wendell Scott: A Race Story.”

    The film will air at 9 p.m. ET shortly after the 53rd running of the Daytona 500 race. It was produced by the Emmy Award-winning NASCAR Media Group in conjunction with ESPN Films and Max Siegel Inc.

    The docudrama will contain seldom seen historical footage plus interviews from members of Scott’s family and memories shared by some of stock car racing’s past legends.

    “Wendell Scott faced overwhelming challenges throughout his life and as a pioneer in his sport,” said John Dahl, executive producer, ESPN Films. “The film captures his strong sense of determination and honor with a poignant look at his struggles as well as an examination of his legacy.”

    Scott will always be remembered as the man who prepared the way for future generations of minorities in stock car racing.

    But what we should never forget is this. Wendell Scott was at heart simply a racer.

    All he wanted was a chance to prove himself out on the track. The real testament to his success is that he did just that and earned the respect of the other drivers in the process.

    Achievements:

    1963 – The first and only African-American to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup event.

    1999 – Inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame

    2000 – Inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame

    Thanks to Brian Donovan – “Hard Driving: The American Odyssey of NASCAR’s First Black Driver” and NASCAR for quotes.