Self-improvement made easy: Read "Tom Higgins' Scuffs"

Sometimes when golf buddies and I are standing around, maybe waiting for the group in front of ours to clear the fairway - just in case one of us actually hits the fairway - the talk turns to shots we've seen at tournaments or on the tube. And sometimes I like to tell them that if any of us were half as handsome and could play half as well as Fred Couples, all our lives would be far better.

Obviously enough, neither of those scenarios has a snowball's chance of happening. But here's another: If any of us had half Tom Higgins' knowledge of NASCAR, his warehouse full of stories about its characters and his wonderful ability to tell them, all our lives would be far better.

That ain't happening either.

But the good news is that we've talked Tom into sharing some of those stories with us at ThatsRacin.com. That might not get us a Tour card, result in any more fairways and greens or pack our galleries with beautiful women, but it should bring more smiles to our faces.

And that's got to fit just right under the Life Improving header.

Like David Green is doing, Tom will start as a guest blogger in this space while we wait for the final tweaks to be made on his blog. It will be called, appropriately enough, "Tom Higgins' Scuffs." Today, we'll start with the About Me feature that will appear on Tom's blog once it's up and running. Following that will be his first lap as one of our Inside Line bloggers.

We're absolutely certain he'll put up a good time, too, on this lap and those that follow.

About Tom Higgins

So now I'll only get to fish once a week and play 54 holes of golf instead of 72.

My retirement, which dates to 1997, has been partially interrupted to join the cast of ThatsRacin.com.

I covered the first NASCAR event I ever attended - in 1957 at Asheville-Weaverville Speedway in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains. During the race I felt that all the drivers were mad men. You'd have to be nuts to drive that fast that close together.

Lee Petty edged Buck Baker by 10 feet to win a thriller.

And I was hooked.

For the next 40 years I wrote about motorsports for newspapers in the Carolinas, the last 34 of those years at The Charlotte Observer.

I covered a colorful cast of competitors ranging from NASCAR pioneers such as Junior Johnson to the father of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

I look forward to writing about them again.

Rick Mast wins first Brickyard 400 pole

When Rick Mast pulled a major upset to win the inaugural Brickyard 400 pole in August of 1994, it was "The Moo Heard 'Round The Motorsports World."

Only the NASCAR regulars among the big media contingent knew much about Mast, and not surprisingly.

The easy-going, likable driver from rural Rockbridge Baths in the hill country of Virginia had never won a Winston Cup Series race. And he previously had qualified fastest only once.

Even Robin Miller, then the fine, authoritative motorsports writer for the Indianapolis Star, conceded that he had little knowledge of Mast.

Robin sought me out in the media center at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after Mast posted a qualifying lap of 172.414 mph to edge the elder Dale Earnhardt for perhaps the most coveted pole in NASCAR history. "Quick, Higgy," Robin implored, "tell me something about this guy's background that I should know."

I grinned.

"Just ask him about the cow."

Miller was puzzled, but expressed thanks.

After Mast had made some general comments during his post-qualifying press conference, Miller was called on to ask the first question.

"Rick, tell us about the cow," said Robin.

Mast's face reddened and his eyes narrowed. He turned to search me out in the packed room.

"Damn you, Higgins!" said Mast, but his scowl quickly became a grin. Mast actually was amused, not mad.

Mast rightly had figured I was the culprit, because "The Story Of Rick Mast And The Cow" had long been one of my favorite racing anecdotes.

The story:

In 1972 a youthful Rick Mast traded a cow for his first race car.

Here's how he first told the tale:

"My family had this little farm, but I didn't want to be a farmer. When I was growing up, at 15, I was determined to go racing one way or another. Of course, though, I had no money.

"Well, my dad, who had promoted some races along with an uncle at Natural Bridge Speedway, ran into this guy who had a race car, trailer, and some equipment for sale. The price was $575. We traded him a cow for the outfit.

"That's how I got into racing."

Mast generally repeated this story for Miller and the rest of the media horde at Indy in '94. It became a rollicking press conference, the most amusing post-time trial session in my memory.

The witty Mast offered one funny one-liner after another about the cow, including a couple rather risqué in nature.

Many writers made humorous use of the material.

Miller and others wrote about all the "moo-lah" that Mast had won for his team, owned and led by Richard Jackson. The pole was worth $60,000 and a new van.

Some wrote of Mast "milking his Ford for all it was worth."

Dick Mittman of The Indianapolis News noted that should Mast win the Brickyard 400 he'd be able to buy "an entire herd" of cattle.

Unfortunately for Mast, the cows didn't come home, so to speak, in the race.

He led the first two laps, then began falling back. Mast eventually finished 22nd, a lap down to winner Jeff Gordon.

Mast, who won 9 Busch Series races before joining the major circuit in 1989, continued as a Winston Cup regular through 2001, posting a third as his best finish. In early 2002 he was found to have carbon monoxide poisoning, a diagnosis that forced his retirement from racing.

Mast still makes his home at Rockbridge Baths, where he founded and operates a company named Enviro-Clean.

And, yes, on the farm he owns are some cattle.