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  • Tom Higgins, longtime reporter and Squier-Hall honoree, dies at 80

    Tom Higgins, longtime reporter and Squier-Hall honoree, dies at 80

    Zack Albert | NASCAR.com

    Tom Higgins, who told the stories of stock-car racing for decades as a reporter and author, has died. He was 80.

    Among his many accolades, Higgins was the 2015 recipient of the Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence. He had been in declining health since suffering a stroke last year.

    Higgins is credited as the first writer to cover every race on the NASCAR schedule. He joined the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer as a reporter on outdoor recreation and transitioned into the motorsports beat full-time. He was a mainstay at the Observer until his retirement in 1997.

    “For more than five decades, Tom Higgins was an ever-present figure in the NASCAR garage,” said NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France. “Within the industry, he built a reputation as a trusted and fair voice who delivered our sport to the fans. To those fans, he was a must-read journalist whose reporting was rightly taken as gospel. Simply put, he defined what it meant to be a NASCAR beat reporter.

    “As such, his outstanding career earned him NASCAR’s top honor for journalists, the Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence, in 2015. On behalf of the France Family and all of NASCAR, I extend my deepest condolences to the friends and family of Tom Higgins, a true NASCAR media giant.”

    Higgins was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame in 2011. He also was recognized with the Henry T. McLemore Award for lifetime achievement in motorsports journalism from the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1980.

    “He was very well-respected with the racing crowd, from the Allison (family) all the way to Jeff Gordon,” Richard Petty told the Observer years ago. “He probably covered more racing than any one individual.”

    Drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon were among several in the NASCAR community to offer condolences to the Higgins family on social media.

    Higgins was raised in the mountain community of Burnsville, North Carolina, and became a two-sport standout in baseball and basketball. His connection to the outdoors spurred him to take on his first writing jobs in the Blue Ridge towns of Canton and Asheville.

    “Once I got to Asheville and heard the clacking of those teletype machines and was part of putting out a daily newspaper, I was hooked,” Higgins told the Asheville Citizen-Times in 2014.

    Higgins was also won over by stock-car racing, covering his first NASCAR event on July 1, 1956, at the former Asheville-Weaverville Speedway. Hall of Famer Lee Petty was the winner. Higgins said he initially balked at the assignment, but became enamored by the sounds, smells and the personalities.

    “I thought it was the wildest thing I had ever seen,” Higgins told the Asheville paper. “Those people were crazy.” But his bonds with the sport’s earliest stars only grew through the years. “When I started, the drivers and I were the same age, and they had the same background as me,” he said. “Small towns, just regular fellas, and we hit it off.”

    From the sport’s pioneers to the most recent generation of drivers and mechanics, Higgins covered them all with a homespun style. He chronicled the life of original NASCAR hero Junior Johnson in a book he co-authored with Steve Waid, the 2019 Squier-Hall honoree.

    After his retirement from the Observer, Higgins remained active as a writer on a freelance basis and in his personal blog. He said later that his philosophy for covering the sport and cultivating relationships was borrowed from his mountain upbringing, a code among the community to treat people fairly and with respect.

    “I really, really enjoyed the people,” Higgins told the Citizen-Times. “I’m tickled to say I got invited to a lot of (drivers’) parties and poker games, and not many people in the press were afforded that opportunity. They trusted me, and they did throughout my career, and I’m proud of that.”

  • 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Honors Five Iconic Wheelmen

    2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Honors Five Iconic Wheelmen

    Elliott, Lorenzen, Scott, Weatherly, White Officially Enshrined

    DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 30, 2015) – Five legendary drivers with distinct styles and contributions to NASCAR were enshrined into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina tonight during the Induction Ceremony held in the Crown Ball Room at the Charlotte Convention Center.

    Those who added their names to the list of now 30 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees, included: Bill Elliott, Fred Lorenzen, Wendell Scott, Joe Weatherly and Rex White.

    The group makes up the Hall’s sixth class in its history.

    Bill Elliott – a fan-favorite with a record 16 NASCAR Most Popular Driver Awards – compiled numerous accolades that put him near the top of many all-time NASCAR lists. In his 37-year driving career, “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville” notched 44 wins (16th in NASCAR history) and 55 poles (eighth), but his most prestigious accomplishment came when he won the 1988 premier series championship. Elliott always performed on the biggest of stages, winning the Daytona 500 twice and the Southern 500 three times.

    “One thing I look at out here today is one common bond with all these racers, it’s the hard work and the dedication all these guys had,” Elliott said. “I mean, for me to stand up here among the guys that have already been here, it’s just totally incredible.”

    Fred Lorenzen – one of the first “outsiders” to capture the fancy of NASCAR’s early southeastern crowds – was one of the sport’s first true superstars, even though he never ran more than 29 of the season’s 50-plus races. The Elmhurst, Illinois, native won 26 races from 1961-67, with his best overall season coming in 1963 as he finished with six wins, 21 top fives and 23 top 10s in 29 starts. The victor of the 1965 Daytona 500 and World 600, Lorenzen boasts the fifth-highest career winning percentage (16.86) in NASCAR history.

    “Dad always said, ‘The sky is the limit and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise,’” said Lorenzen’s son, Chris, who spoke on his behalf. “That has been dad’s most important saying in life, and he certainly lived by it. He also believed people made their own luck and that luck just doesn’t fall upon people.”

    A true trailblazer, Wendell Scott was the first African-American to race fulltime in NASCAR’s premier series, as well as the first to win a NASCAR premier series race. Scott posted 147 top 10s in 495 starts, as well as finished four seasons in the top 10 of the championship points standings. He won more than 100 races at local tracks before making his premier series debut, including 22 races at Southside Speedway in Richmond, Virginia, in 1959 en route to capturing both the Sportsman Division and NASCAR Virginia Sportsman championships.

    “The legacy of Wendell Scott depicts him as one the great vanguards of the sport of NASCAR racing,” said the late Scott’s son, Franklin, who accepted the induction on his behalf. “Daddy was a man of great honor. He didn’t let his circumstances define who he was.”

    Joe Weatherly claimed consecutive premier series championships in 1962-63 and won 25 career races before his untimely death in January 1964 at Riverside (Calif.) Raceway. Known as the “Clown Prince of Racing” due to his jovial personality, Weatherly displayed impressive versatility beyond his premier series dominance. A decade earlier in 1952-53, he won 101 races in the NASCAR Modified division, capturing that championship in 1953. He even tried his hand in NASCAR’s short-lived Convertible Division from 1956-59, winning 12 times.

    “He loved his family and he was very generous, but I am sure there are many memories the fans could share as well, maybe ones of the practical jokes he enjoyed playing on fellow drivers,” said Joy Barbee, Weatherly’s niece. “He definitely had a sense of humor, he loved a good laugh and he loved to have a good time. He always had a big smile on his face; he was a character to be around and definitely lived up to the title given to him – the ‘Clown Prince of Racing.’”

    One of the greatest short-track racers ever, consistency was the hallmark of Rex White’s NASCAR career. He finished among the top five in nearly half of his 233 races and outside the top 10 only 30 percent of the time. Of his 28 career wins in NASCAR’s premier series, only two came on tracks longer than a mile in length. Driving his own equipment, White won six times during his 1960 championship season, posting 35 top 10s in 40 starts. He finished in the top 10 six of his nine years in the series, including a runner-up finish in 1961.

    “Words can’t express how honored I am to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame along with the other Hall of Fame members, especially my 2015 fellow inductees,” White said. “No driver wins a championship by himself and nobody enters the Hall of Fame alone. I am the symbol of a team effort.”

    Each of the five inductees had an inductor who officially welcomed them into the hall. The inductors for the five inductees: Ray Evernham for Bill Elliott; Amanda Gardstrom (daughter) for Fred Lorenzen; Wendell Scott Jr. for Wendell Scott; Bud Moore for Joe Weatherly; and James Hylton for Rex White.

    Active drivers introduced each inductee during tonight’s program: Kasey Kahne for Bill Elliott; Tony Stewart for Fred Lorenzen; Jeff Gordon for Wendell Scott; Brad Keselowski for Joe Weatherly; and Kevin Harvick for Rex White.

    In addition to the five inductees enshrined on Friday night, Anne B. France was awarded the inaugural Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR.

    France, paired with her husband, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., created what today is one of the largest and most popular sports in the world. Anne played a huge role in the family business. “Big Bill” organized and promoted races; she took care of the financial end of the business. She first served as secretary and treasurer of NASCAR, and when Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959, served in the same roles for the International Speedway Corporation. She also managed the speedway’s ticket office. France remained active in family and business life until her passing in 1992.

    Prior to tonight’s Induction Ceremony, long-time Charlotte Observer reporter Tom Higgins was awarded the third Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence.

    Higgins was the first beat writer to cover every race on the NASCAR schedule, a role he held from 1980 until his retirement in 1997. He started his journalism career in 1957 at the weekly Canton (N.C.) Enterprise where he covered racing for the first time. Higgins joined the sports staff at The Observer in 1964 as an outdoors writer and soon began covering stock car racing as well. He has continued to write motorsports nostalgia columns for the newspaper and its website ThatsRacin.com since his retirement.

    About NASCAR
    The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. (NASCAR) is the sanctioning body for the No. 1 form of motorsports in the United States. NASCAR consists of three national series (the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series), four regional series, one local grassroots series and three international series. The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) governs the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, the premier U.S. sports car series. Based in Daytona Beach, Fla., with offices in eight cities across North America, NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races in more than 30 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico and Europe. For more information visit www.NASCAR.com and follow NASCAR at www.Facebook.com/NASCAR and Twitter: @NASCAR.

    About NASCAR Hall of Fame
    Conveniently located in uptown Charlotte, N.C., the 150,000-square-foot NASCAR Hall of Fame is an interactive, entertainment attraction honoring the history and heritage of NASCAR. The high-tech venue, designed to educate and entertain race fans and non-fans alike, opened May 11, 2010 and includes artifacts, hands-on exhibits, 278-person state-of-the-art theater, Hall of Honor, Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, NASCAR Hall of Fame Gear Shop and NASCAR Media Group-operated broadcast studio. The venue is opened 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. seven days a week and has an attached parking garage on Brevard Street. The five-acre site also includes a privately developed 19-story office tower and 102,000- square-foot expansion to the Charlotte Convention Center, highlighted by a 40,000 square-foot ballroom. The NASCAR Hall of Fame is owned by the City of Charlotte, licensed by NASCAR and operated by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. www.NASCARHall.com.

  • 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.”

  • Dale Jarrett, Tom Higgins, Waddell Wilson Receive Honors

    Dale Jarrett, Tom Higgins, Waddell Wilson Receive Honors

    Dale Jarrett, 1999 Cup Champion and three-time Daytona 500 winner, Waddell Wilson, engine builder and crew chief, and Tom Higgins, noted NASCAR journalist, were inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame in a grand style in Charlotte this weekend.

    [media-credit id=11 align=”alignright” width=”237″][/media-credit]The three inductees joined other NMPA Hall of Fame notables including Bobby and Davey Allison, Neil Bonnett, Dale Earnhardt, A.J. Foyt, Barney Hall, Harry Hyde, and Junior Johnson just to name a few.

    Father Ned Jarrett gave the induction speech for his son Dale.  He noted how proud he was that his son had followed in his footsteps not only in his racing career but now in his broadcasting career as well.

    “We truly have been blessed in our careers, both Dale and I, to have been able to share a lot of good things together along the way,” Jarrett said.  “For him to follow in my footsteps as a driver and now as a broadcaster is very, very special.  Those of you who have children know what that means.”

    Ned Jarrett also noted how important 2011 has been and will be for the Jarrett family.

    “A number of good things are happening in 2011,” Jarrett said.  “First is Dale being inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame.  It was announced last week that he was also elected to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.”

    “And it has been documented that I will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame this year,” Jarrett continued.  “So, 2011 is a very special time for us and our family.”

    Jarrett noted that there have been many opportunities for he and his son Dale to share in the sport of NASCAR.   The most special of all, however, was being able to broadcast the Daytona 500, pronouncing his son Dale as the winner.

    “To do the things that we’ve been able to do together, like him winning the 1993 Daytona 500,” Jarrett said. “I was working with CBS in the booth.  That was a very, very special moment for us and it turned out it was a very good moment for the sport of auto racing too because that moment has been shown a lot over the years.”

    Jarrett noted that his son was also an all-around “sports nut”.  He, as did many others in their tributes to Dale Jarrett, noted his prowess not only on the race track but also on the golf course.

    After accepting the presentation by his father and donning the grey NMPA Hall of Fame jacket, Dale Jarrett took a moment to pay tribute to his fellow honorees, as well as the many other honorees in the room.

    Jarrett thanked Tom Higgins for “always being a great friend, treating me fairly from the press, and having fun on the golf course” and recognized all of the support he had been given by Waddell Wilson, especially as he struggled with his own Busch Grand National team.

    “Whether it be a gear that I needed that he loaned me and never charged me anything to sharing a closed test at Daytona,” Jarrett said.  “These are the things that most people don’t know about that are so important.”

    While Jarrett thanked and recognized many in the room who had helped him in his racing career, as well as his current broadcasting career, the most powerful moment of his remarks came when he was recognizing his family, his parents, his wife, his two sons Zach and Jason, his sister and brother-in-law, who were with him for the celebration.

    “It’s a tough business we’re in,” Jarrett said.  “When you’re on the road all the time, it makes it pretty difficult.  I was fortunate that throughout a lot of my career, I had my family there. That helped ease things.”

    Another famous NASCAR family  member, Kyle Petty, made the induction remarks for engine builder and crew chief Waddell Wilson.  He noted how Wilson’s career as an engine builder at Holman Moody launched his success including winning 109 races, 123 poles and three championships, two with David Pearson in 1968 and 1969, and one with Benny Parsons in 1973.

    Petty also noted that the Daytona 500 was a special race for Wilson, just as it had been for Dale Jarrett. Wilson won three Daytona 500s, as crew chief to  Buddy Baker in 1980 and with Cale Yarborough in 1983 and 1984.

    “I’m here for Waddell,” Petty said.  “I talked to Waddell the other day and I asked Waddell why am I introducing you.  And he said ‘Because the Pettys have always been a pain in my ass.’

    When Wilson took the stage to don his NMPA Hall of Fame jacket, he did indeed reminisce about many aspects of his career, especially chasing after the “Petty blue” cars.  He not only drove in his career, but became one of the sport’s most noted engine builders and crew chiefs.

    Steve Waid, himself a noted journalist, introduced the final inductee and his best friend Tom Higgins. Chronicling many of their exploits together, Waid paid tribute to a man that chronicled some of NASCAR’s most interesting times, especially its years of growth and expansion.

    Higgins started his career at the Asheville Times in 1958, eventually writing for the noted Charlotte Observer. He was one of the first reporters to cover the sport on a full-time basis and did so until his retirement in 1997.

    When Higgins took the stage for his induction, he told story after story about the special people that he had met in the sport.  He was especially emotional telling some of the tales of his favorite drivers who he counted as friends, from Cotton Owens to Dale Earnhart, Sr.

    Kyle Petty summed up the honors best for Higgins and all three inductees.

    “This is a big deal,” Petty said.  “I grew up in the sport when there wasn’t a lot of media.  Higgins and Steve (Waid) were two of the first.  The group that we had looked after the sport and protected the sport.”

    “The sport has gone on to higher heights but the foundation that these inductees laid, we’re not here in this room,” Petty continued.  “It’s important to touch base with that and to continue to educate the new fans.”