Tom Higgins' Scuffs

Martin's lesson from 1990? Don't change horses

As Mark Martin battles Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series championship going into Sunday’s Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, memories return of a costly call to pit on Nov. 4, 1990 at the Arizona track.

That decision in the desert, combined with another even bigger one made a few days later prior to the season finale at the track then known as Atlanta International Raceway, proved critical as Martin and his Roush Racing team lost the Winston Cup title to Dale Earnhardt by 26 points.

Martin, still seeking a first championship after being the runner-up four times, presently is 73 points behind Johnson with the Phoenix race and the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 22 remaining.  Mark is 39 points ahead of Gordon.

The popular Martin’s resurgence as a sentimental favorite for the title at age 50 evokes recollections of his splendid chance to become champion 19 years ago.

In 1990 Martin led Earnhardt by 45 points when they arrived in Phoenix.  The advantage would have been an almost insurmountable 91 except for a penalty of 46 points the Roush outfit incurred in the Pontiac 400 at Richmond in March.

NASCAR officials took the action, still controversial and disputed by team owner Jack Roush to this day, because the carburetor spacer plate on the engine of Martin’s Ford was bolted to the manifold rather than welded.

During the Checker 500 of 1990, Earnhardt took the lead on the 51st of  312 laps on the 1-mile track and stayed ahead the rest of the way.  Meanwhile, Martin was running respectably, keeping Earnhardt’s Chevrolet in sight.

Then, while in sixth place on Lap 296 of the 500-kilometer event, Martin decided to pit for four tires during a caution period.

It was a mistake. Martin ran the tires off his car trying to make up the lost distance. He finished 10th, as Earnhardt won.

The difference vaulted Earnhardt and his Richard Childress Racing team into the standings lead by six points.

“Mark and his guys won’t be able to go to Atlanta and hope for us to have bad luck,” said Earnhardt. “Now, they'll have to force the issue, and they're fully capable of doing that, just like we are."

Martin fretted about deciding to make the late pit stop and taking tires all around.

“We did the right thing, didn’t we?” he asked a couple times over the radio hookup to his pit crew, led by Steve Hmiel and Robin Pemberton. The answer was mixed.

Obviously, Martin would have preferred to go to Georgia leading the standings toward a title that then was worth about $1 million. But he indicated that in a way he was  somewhat relieved it would be an all-out race for the crown.

"We want to win this championship, and now the only way we can do it is to outrun Dale," said Martin. "That has to be done.

"It takes all the pressure off. I don't know why, but now I don't feel any  pressure.

"I feel we had a bad day. It could have been worse, but we really should have finished better. We had better than a 10th-place car.

"Now, I don't have to worry about getting outrun by Dale and losing the championship. Now, all I've got to think about is going down there and race to win, and I'm excited about that."

Both teams had plans to begin testing almost immediately for the dramatic showdown at Atlanta.

Martin's team was to be at the Georgia track Tuesday through Thursday, with Earnhardt’s on Wednesday and Thursday.

Roush ordered three different Thunderbirds taken to the Georgia speedway and Martin drove all of them Tuesday and Wednesday.

However, it wasn`t the amount of  machinery that longtime NASCAR observers found so surprising, but who was present to offer input about the cars.

Testing an unpainted Ford, owned by the auto company, was veteran Winston Cup competitor Morgan Shepherd, who at the time drove for the Bud Moore Engineering team.

And conferring after each run by Martin and Shepherd were Roush, fellow Ford team owners/engineers Robert Yates and Junie Donlavey, Eddie Wood  of the Wood Brothers team, Ford engineer Preston Miller and chassis specialist Jake Elder, who worked for Yates.

Roush, Elder and Miller appeared the most active, with the latter two relaying information back and forth between Martin and Shepherd as they sat in the cars, waiting for adjustments to be made between runs.

The "official" explanation for the concerted effort:

A revolutionary steering design of the late car builder Banjo Matthews was being tried in the hope that it might help deliver Ford the NASCAR manufacturers championship. Chevy held a 184-181 lead for an eighth straight title, a crown Ford hadn`t captured since 1969.

Shepherd smilingly conceded, though, that he and the others were working on behalf of Martin.

"I'm hopeful of finding something that will help me win the Atlanta race and Ford win the manufacturers' deal, of course," said Shepherd. "But all of us Ford people really want to see Mark win the championship."

  The three cars driven by Martin and the one by Shepherd were parked side-by-side in the track's sprawling garage area.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, from a location about 100 yards away at the other end of the garage, Earnhardt alternately tested two Chevrolets as team owner Richard Childress and crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine directed operations.

Asked his reaction to the joint Ford preparations, Earnhardt smiled.

"They've got a lot of irons in the fire, don't they?" he said. "It seems  pretty late in the season to me to be engineering. Sure, we've noticed all the Ford people up there, but it doesn't bother us."

The race for the title continued to be civil and diplomatic, a fact both Earnhardt and Martin said they were proud to have maintained. This situation was stressed when the two contenders ate lunch together.

As Earnhardt sat eating barbecue in the track's infield media center, Martin approached, put his plate on the table and pulled up a chair.

"Well, you put it on us Sunday at Phoenix," said Martin.

"We ran good," nodded Earnhardt. "I kept expecting you to come up there and race with me, like we have all year."

"I wanted to, but couldn't," replied Martin. "My car was too tight at the start of the race. When we adjusted, it got too loose and that was burning my tires off."

After lunch, Martin explained the rare move of bringing four cars to a track.

"It’s imperative that we be at our best,” said Mark. “I think winning is what it will take to beat Dale here. Atlanta is a great track for him.”

At the time, Earnhardt had six Atlanta victories, including three of the speedway’s four previous 500-milers.

After making a sustained 25-lap run on Wednesday, Earnhardt's team decided to pass on scheduled further testing Thursday, loaded up and headed home to North Carolina.

It was a psychological ploy, as both Earnhardt and team owner Childress later smilingly admitted. Earnhardt added to the mind game by revealing that he was heading to Alabama to deer hunt.

"We knew the Ford people would notice, and that by leaving after only one day we would drive them crazy,” said Earnhardt.

It appeared to do just that.

By Thursday, Roush and his Ford advisers decided to have one of the Thunderbirds that Davey Allison drove for Yates brought to Atlanta for Martin to test.

The result looked promising in finding some chassis combination or engine factor that might prove pivotal in overtaking Earnhardt. A late run in the Allison car produced a lap of 176.463 mph, fastest by far overall among the dozen or so teams that tested during that week in 1990.

The speed left Martin and his teammates smiling.

"We'll try and duplicate what we learned off Robert's car and put it on ours," Martin said. "We feel going in the only way to beat Dale for this championship is to outrun him, and maybe this will help us do that."

"We're reaching, grasping for something new that will give us even the slightest performance advantage," said Roush.

Understandably, the Roush/Martin contingent was non-committal about what developed from the research runs.

"Basically, the result of all this work is that we've narrowed our choices from four cars to two," Roush said. "Those two will go in the Lockheed wind tunnel at Marietta (Ga.) Sunday and we will see which has the best aerodynamics.

"Then Mark, Steve, Robin and me will go through everything and choose our car for the race."

Looking back, I vividly remember an incredible scene as Martin’s testing neared an end. As track closing time loomed at 5 p.m. Martin pulled one car in, sat conferring briefly with Hmiel and Pemberton, then crawled out.

He was met by Roush, who repeatedly had climbed atop a transporter for a better view of the laps, then descended for consultations.

Roush put his arm around Martin’s shoulders, whispered some information, then patted the driver on the back four times. Martin dashed off to crawl in another car and return to the track.

It looked just like a football coach giving his quarterback the big play on  the sideline and sending him into the game to execute it.

I remarked about the similarity to Preston Miller, the Ford engineer. Miller nodded and smiled.

"I just hope it doesn't turn out that the play has to be a Hail Mary,” he said.

In a stunner, it was decided that the Yates team’s Ford would be entered for Martin rather than a car from the Roush stable.

Not all involved were happy about the decision.

“This sucks,” Pemberton, now NASCAR’s vice president for competition, said privately on the morning of the race.

That it did.

Martin wasn’t able to really get going in the Yates-owned car and finished sixth while Earnhardt took third place and claimed the fourth of the seven Winston Cup championships he was destined to win. Shepherd won the race, marred by the death of Mike Ritch, a crewman for Bill Elliott, in a pit road accident.

“We had to do something out of the ordinary,” Martin said of his move into the Yates car.  “It didn’t work out.”

Bet on Martin, by far the big-time stock car racing tour’s most respected driver, being in his Hendrick team’s OWN machinery for this year’s final two races.

North Wilkesboro's wild 'Rush Through the Brush'

Permit me a history lesson, dear readers.

Decades before "The Pass In The Grass" there was "The Rush Through The Brush."

The former involved Dale Earnhardt, the late seven-time champion. The latter involved Junior Johnson, the legendary driver/team owner who, along with Earnhardt, was elected on Oct. 14 to the inaugural class of five inductees into the expansive new NASCAR Hall Of Fame in Charlotte that opens next May.

Of the two feats of fantastic driving, Johnson's was perhaps the most formidable, although it's much lesser known, lost in the passage of years.

It returns to mind because it occurred at North Wilkesboro Speedway, scheduled to reopen next October after 14 years of inactivity.

Back to the lesson:

The so-called "grass pass" occurred on May 17, 1987, in the all-star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. During a boiling battle for the lead in the final laps, Bill Elliott bumped leader Earnhardt off the pavement exiting the fourth turn.

Earnhardt, who had tangled with Elliott earlier, somehow maintained control of his car while speeding through the grass separating the racing surface and pit road. Earnhardt came back onto the track still in front and continued to a controversial victory.

There was no pass in the grass, but someone called the incident that, and the catchy title has endured.

And "The Rush Through The Brush?"

This is the nickname I've taken the liberty of putting on the improbable move made by Johnson at North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 18, 1958.

The wild escapade is among many memories that came rolling back with last week's news that the historic track will reopen in October of 2010 with a USA Racing Pro Cup Series event.

Allow me to digress a bit ...

The speedway in Wilkes County, N.C., where racing began in NASCAR's earliest years, closed in 1996. New owners moved the track's two Winston Cup Series dates to larger venues. One went to New Hampshire International Speedway and the other to Texas Motor Speedway.

During the ensuing years the .625-mile North Wilkesboro track has been shuttered. It's towering Turn Two Grandstand, looming alongside busy U.S. Highway 421, has served as a stark, sad reminder for stock car racing fans of the speedway's glory days and colorful place in NASCAR lore.

Home-county hero Johnson, who grew up in the Brushy Mountains about 15 miles from the track, provided much of that color. He began his driving career there as a teen-ager, won five times on the home layout after moving up to the major NASCAR tour and posted a record 18 victories before loyal local fans as a team owner.

"I've got great memories, of course, of North Wilkesboro Speedway," Junior said recently. "I have to say that race in 1958 is one of the best."

Not surprising, since it included "The Rush Through The Brush."

Johnson, driving a Ford, was involved in a dandy duel with Chevrolet rival Jack Smith during the early stages of the 160-lap race that spring Sabbath 51 years ago.

Junior took the lead on the 79th lap and steadily pulled away to a half-lap advantage.

Characteristically, the former moonshine hauler refused to back off the throttle and cruise to victory. Johnson, who had only recently been released from federal prison after serving 11 months for manufacturing illegal liquor, kept running as hard as his car would go.

Entering the third turn Johnson overdid it.

He went barreling over an embankment that served as a retaining barrier to keep the race cars on the track.

Here, paraphrased, is how the incident is recounted in "Junior Johnson: Brave In Life," an authorized biography I co-authored with my friend Steve Waid in 1999:

"Junior showed his immense driving talent hadn't diminished in his time away (behind bars). After careening over the embankment he sliced through a patch of weeds and came back on the track ahead of Marvin Panch, who was second at the time.

"A crowd estimated at 6,000 went wild at the sight of the local hero pulling off such a feat."

In the book, Johnson had this description of what happened:

" 'Back then, the newly paved tracks seemed to tear up pretty easily (and North Wilkesboro had recently been transformed from dirt to asphalt). I got into the loose stuff, or pieces of asphalt marbles, and went over the 4-foot high bank. I never touched the brakes. I knew the only chance I had was to keep my speed up to get through that brush and back over the bank, so that’s what I did.' "

Junior won by six seconds over Smith, with Rex White third in the lead lap.

Johnson’s "brush with the brush" and his full-bore philosophy led to a nickname, "The Wilkes County Wild Man."

His like, and derring-do similar to his bounding-over-the-embankment-and-back-again likely never will be seen at North Wilkesboro Speedway again.

Nevertheless, it's terrific that the track, immensely popular with fans, will produce the rumbling thunder of race cars again.

I certainly plan to be there.

A Talladega anniversary – and that scary-fast Dodge

I had heard of jaw-dropping sights, but never seen one.

This changed on Sept. 14, 1969, at Alabama International Motor Speedway, a track now known as Talladega Superspeedway.

With just 11 of the 188 laps remaining in the inaugural 500-mile race at the sprawling, high-banked new layout, Richard Brickhouse dialed up full speed for the sleek Dodge Daytona he was driving.

The difference from the pace Brickhouse had been running around the 2.66-mile facility was astonishing. I doubt there was anyone in a crowd announced at 64,000 who didn't gasp.

It was as if Brickhouse had just flipped the switch on a JATO device.  JATO, of course, is an acronym for jet-assisted takeoff, which was used on some military planes decades ago.

Brickhouse easily caught and passed Jim Vandiver, driving an older Dodge, and continued to the checkered flag, winning by seven seconds. However, to this day, Vandiver and his car owner/crew chief, Ray Fox, contend that Brickhouse was a lap down and that they were the true victors.

There were so many bizarre incidents – and so much confusion – during the  wild weekend four decades ago that exactly what happened on the track perhaps may never be known.

This much is certain:

NASCAR never has had two days like those, and almost certainly never will again.

The hectic, surreal 48 hours return to mind because Sunday’s running of the  Amp Energy 500 is being celebrated as the speedway's 40th anniversary.

The events of Saturday, Sept. 13, 1969, have been chronicled often.

Concerns caused by a dangerous tire problem boiled over between stock car racing's top stars and Bill France Sr., founder of both NASCAR and the awesome Alabama track. The tires couldn't take the strain of speeds just a tick under 200 mph. The tires were shredding after just four or five laps.

The drivers, including Richard Petty, David Pearson, LeeRoy Yarbrough and brothers Bobby and Donnie Allison, wanted France to postpone the 500 until safer tires could be developed. France refused, insisting that the drivers run at a reduced speed.

The leading drivers then made good a threat to boycott the race, taking their cars out of the garage area en masse.

France blamed the walkout in great part on his refusal to recognize the recently formed Professional Drivers' Association, which he called a union.

Petty, the PDA president, countered that the group had nothing to do with the boycott.

"It's our necks we are worried about," said Petty.

Fellow driver Buddy Baker agreed. "I like me," said Buddy. "I want to live a little longer."

With the stars gone, France began cobbling together a field, waiving rule after rule in the process. He put smaller cars from NASCAR's Grand Touring Division on the grid, along with ARCA machinery. 

The GT cars had run a 400-mile race at Talladega on the eve of the 500. France even had a personal Ford entered for Tiny Lund, allowing the car to start although its engine was set back six inches and the vehicle wasn't required to go through prerace inspection.

Covering the race for the Charlotte Observer, I filled two legal pads with notes about what all was going on.

Several pages were devoted to Brickhouse, a 29-year-old farmer from the North Carolina coast who'd only been around NASCAR's major tour a year.

Brickhouse was being put under tremendous pressure to take over a winged, purple Dodge vacated by the regular driver, Chargin' Charlie Glotzbach. The car was nicknamed “Plum Crazy.”

Fellow reporter Benny Phillips of the High Point Enterprise and I lingered in the garage area well into the night to see what Brickhouse and other wavering competitors were going to do.

"I've never been so tore up in my whole life," said Brickhouse, clearly pained and upset. "I just don't know what to do. I promised the other drivers that I'd go along with a decision not to run, and I've never gone back on a commitment in my life. Then Dodge (officials) up and offer me a chance to run one of the factory cars.

"I've always dreamed of getting a factory car. ...Every driver does."

By 10 a.m. on race day, Brickhouse had made his decision.

He was going to drive.

"I was up most of the night trying to make up my mind," he said. "I decided I was giving up too much by not running."

Later it was learned that Dodge had promised Brickhouse he'd be taken care of with a top ride.

So the 500 rolled off with Bobby Isaac the only "name" regular from the NASCAR big time in the field. Also starting was former series champion Buck Baker, who had turned to running on the Grand Touring circuit. Another GT driver in the 36-car field was Richard Childress, destined to gain fame as a car owner for Dale Earnhardt.

Per France's orders, the drivers didn't go anywhere near full-bore, cruising around at approximately 150 mph on a track banked at 33 degrees and designed for 200 mph speeds.

In addition to the slow pace, a further precaution was taken. Every 20 to 25 laps the yellow flag was shown, ostensibly for debris on the track, but actually so the teams could change tires.

The fans bought this in large part because France had announced before the race that ticket stubs would be honored for free tickets to future events at either Talladega or its sister track, Daytona International Speedway.

Finally, it was time to go for the drivers in contention, and GO Brickhouse did.

Brickhouse clocked two laps at 195.4 mph, eliciting the jaw-dropping and gasps. Then, safely ahead, he dropped back to 177.6 at the urging of his crew in order to preserve the tires. Brickhouse averaged 153.778 mph.

"I knew what was coming," said Vandiver, who led 102 laps in only his third big-time start. "If a winged Dodge was in the same lap with me near the end, they'd catch me. They had superior speed.

"But Brickhouse wasn't in the same lap."

Whatever, Brickhouse got the beauty queens in Victory Lane and had a big wreath of flowers placed around his neck by France.

The giant of NASCAR had promised earlier there would be no recriminations against  drivers who sat out the race.

However, he seemed to change tone.

"As far as I'm concerned, the boys who raced today saved this track and they saved NASCAR," thundered France. "They won a major victory.

"The boys who pulled out owe their future to the drivers who ran today – if they have a future."

Turns out it was an idle threat.

Within the next two weeks, Petty and the other stars were back for races at Columbia, S.C., and Martinsville, Va. No penalties awaited them.

And the promise of a factory ride for Brickhouse?

It didn't materialize.

He ran only five races in 1970, one in 1979 and two in 1982. He never came close to winning again.

"I could have spent my life being bitter," Brickhouse said recently. "I'm not made like that. I forget the past and move on."

The Talladega speedway has moved on, too, becoming known for tight, thrilling competition and for producing "The Big One," a frightening multicar crash, in almost every race.

It's known also for a long list of strange, spooky incidents and tragedies that have taken place through the years both on the track and on the grounds.

Somewhat scary, then, to contemplate that the 40th anniversary is being observed on Halloween weekend.

Recalling Schrader's big win, it's about time to come clean

Few NASCAR drivers have been more fun-loving than Ken Schrader.

Oh, there were Joe Weatherly and Curtis Turner, whose antics in the wild and zany 1950s and ‘60s are legend. And lovable Jabe Thomas, who delighted, for example, in sneaking chicken bones into the pockets of rivals right before they got in their cars to start races.

Schrader, semi-retired from the NASCAR big-time, is of this sort. Ken’s penchant for practical jokes and witticisms comes to mind because this week marks the 20th anniversary of his greatest victory at NASCAR’s major level.

On Oct. 8, 1989, Schrader won the All Pro Auto Parts 500, driving a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to the checkered flag at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Schrader and his team, led by crew chief Richard Broome, were beyond delighted. The previous weekend a hard-luck season had hit rock bottom when crashes at North Wilkesboro Speedway cost the team three cars in three days.

I forgot the media code of impartiality the evening of Schrader’s Charlotte triumph, and celebrated with him and his teammates after filing stories for the Charlotte Observer.

I was glad for Ken, even though I’d sometimes been the target of his practical jokes and verbal jabs.

Besides, unknown to Kenny, I had more than exacted revenge during the summer of ‘89. This was achieved using my best media pal, Steve Waid, as an unwitting accomplice.

Here’s the story:

Schrader and Waid happened to move into the same upscale neighborhood in Concord, N.C.  In fact, they lived only a couple houses apart.

Waid began teasing Schrader about “running down the development.”   Observed Waid, “It wouldn’t surprise me if you put a bunch of those fake pink flamingos in your yard.”

Replied Schrader: “Steve, you’re the pink flamingo type. Don’t dare.”

This taunting continued through the spring at the various speedways.

Finally, there was an off weekend in the Winston Cup Series schedule. I learned that Schrader, as usual, was going to be away somewhere making a special appearance in a non-NASCAR race. And the Waid family was going to the beach on vacation.

A ha! I had my chance.

I went to a lawn and garden center and bought six pink flamingos.
Taking my teenage daughter Heather along as a lookout at about 1 p.m. on a dark night, I placed the tacky, phony birds on Waid’s lawn.

When Steve returned home, he and wife Margaret were appalled. Steve, of course, figured Schrader was the culprit.

And just as I knew he would, that very night Steve placed the flamingos in the yard of Schrader and his wife, Ann.

They, too, were mortified and guessed that Waid was the villain.

Schrader, under cover of darkness, returned the birds to Waid’s yard.

This back-and-forth swapping of the birds continued for weeks.

Finally, Ken and Steve convinced each other that neither had started the pink flamingo game.

Waid stashed the birds in his garage for years, just in case it could be learned who was behind the prank.

I’m astonished that he didn’t immediately suspect me, because I love this sort of stuff.  However, I had made a relatively clean getaway.

Now, after two decades, I figure the statute of limitations has passed.

I confess.

I did it.

Sorry (not really) Steve.

And to Kenny?

Gotcha!

Enjoy the 20th anniversary of that terrific triumph at Charlotte.

Long straights, famed curves all part of old track's lore

It generally takes a fine touch to drive on any NASCAR track.

This was especially true at Occoneechee Speedway, a nine-tenths-mile dirt oval near Hillsborough, N.C., that was part of the sanctioning body’s major tour from 1949 through 1968.

   “You’d go so fast on the long straightaways that you’d have to pitch your car  practically sideways in the turns to scrub off speed so you could make it through the corners,” legendary driver Junior Johnson recalled this week.

“I’d say Buck Baker, Curtis Turner, Ned Jarrett,  Lee and  Richard Petty and myself were the best at doing this.”

The six, not coincidentally, all are members of numerous motorsports halls of fame, as are other winners at the layout, which also was sometimes known as Orange Speedway.

The old Occoneechee track comes to mind because some stock car racing fans have organized and are in the process of restoring it.  Not for racing, but as a link to the sport’s past.

The organization working at Occoneechee is named the Historic Speedway Group.  So far its work has led to restoration of the original ticket office and fencing.  Grading of the track has begun.

“I sure wish them luck and I’ll help when I can,” said Johnson.  “There was some terrific racing there.  It will be great if present-day fans, who know only the superspeedways with the big, high grandstands, can see a place like that.

  “When I was racing in the late 1950s and early '60s it was among my favorite tracks.  I really enjoyed it because of the speed and because you had to know how to handle down-shifting.

   “This was right up my alley.  I had a lot of experience in this from my days (and nights) of hauling moonshine whiskey.”

Bob Flock won NASCAR’s first race at Occoneechee on Aug. 7, 1949.  It was only the third race of the organization’s first season.

Through the following years the victors at the speedway in races promoted by NASCAR founder Big Bill France and his associate Enoch Staley of North Wilkesboro Speedway included these pioneer drivers:

   Fireball Roberts, Fonty Flock, Herb Thomas, Tim Flock, Jim Paschal, Joe Eubanks, Cotton Owens, Joe Weatherly, Rex White, David Pearson, Ned Jarrett, Turner, Johnson, Baker, both Pettys  and Dick Hutcherson.

   All are in the National Motorsports Press Association’s hall of fame except Eubanks and Hutcherson – and “Hutch” should be.

   Johnson chuckled.

   “I remember seeing several guys go out of that track, which I never have learned to pronounce right.

   “The trouble those drivers had is sort of amusing now, ‘cause I don’t remember any of them being badly hurt.

   “One of ‘em who took himself a ‘ride’ was Bobby Isaac.  He went out of the park when Ned won there (in September of 1964).  Best I recall Bobby’s car wound up tangled in the tops of some trees off the third turn.

   “Going out of the track in the second turn was a scarier deal.  There was a good-sized stream not far from the turn.  We always had in mind there was a possibility of going into the water.”

   Almost certainly the most memorable triumph in Occoneechee’s history was Johnson’s victory on March 10, 1963.

   Driving a white No. 3 Chevrolet he made famous that year, Johnson held off a late challenge by Paschal, who was in a Petty Enterprises Plymouth.

   Waiting to accompany  Junior to Victory Lane was Jayne Mansfield, a blonde, bosomy Hollywood actress. France, Staley and Hank Schoolfield, who helped out with promotions,  had brought her to Hillsborough as the race’s grand marshal.  The three figured Mansfield  would generate plenty of publicity and help draw a big crowd.

   Her presence worked.  An estimated 15,000 showed up.  Many of them came just to see the Marilyn Monroe look-a-like, not the 168-lap, 148.5-mile race.

   “A lot of the fans got pretty well intoxicated during the race, and they were determined to get close to Jayne Mansfield,” continued Johnson.  “It turned into one of the wildest post-race things I saw in all my years in racing.

   “Some guys were tearing at her clothes.  I had to hold her little boy so she could protect herself.  Finally enough lawmen got there to restore order.”

   Johnson won seven races in that white Chevy in ’63.  The  car now is parked in a prominent position in the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh.

   Ms. Mansfield, the mother of present-day television’s superstar Mariska Hargitay, lost her life on June 29, 1967, in a car wreck in Mississippi.

   “She (Mansfield) was very nice, like most of the movie and TV stars that Charlotte Motor Speedway, Darlington and Daytona were bringing in for races in the 1960s and ‘70s,” said Johnson.  “It was fun meeting her, and I was shocked and saddened when she died.”

   Jayne Mansfield’s visit is part of Occoneechee Speedway’s rich lore.

  Maybe a photo of her smooching a beaming Johnson will be among the pictures from the track’s glory years that eventually will be put on display as part of the restoration, taking  visitors back to a colorful NASCAR era.

Father-son trip to Daytona ignited an enduring fire

The NASCAR driver, holding a press conference at Daytona International Speedway, smiled in fond recollection as he told story after story.

“I can remember being about five years old, sitting on my daddy’s lap while steering his car and we were running about 80 miles an hour.

   “We’d head toward those one-lane bridges they had back then near where we lived and I’d scream, ‘You take it!  You take it!’  And he’d say, ‘You keep it or we’re going to wreck!’  He loved to see me get scared.  He got a kick out of that.  He was a thrill seeker.”

   The fellow doing the talking in July of 1989 was Mark Martin, then in just his second season with the high-powered Winston Cup Series team owned and led by Jack Roush. Martin was the star of the press conference because he’d just won his first pole position in big-time stock car racing, qualifying fastest for the Pepsi 400.
 
  I’ve been writing about motorsports since 1957 and the interview Martin gave that day 20 years ago rates very high among the most compelling I  ever participated in.

   It returns to mind because the immensely popular Martin is seeking to qualify for “The Chase,” or NASCAR’s end-of-season Sprint Cup  “playoff” for the series championship.

   Going into Saturday night’s Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway, Martin is in tight, dramatic competition for one of the 12 spots available.

   He enters the 300-mile race on the 3/4th-mile track in 10th place in the standings.  Martin is a single point ahead of Greg Biffle, 48 points up on 12th place Matt Kenseth and 69 ahead of Brian Vickers, who is in 13th position.

He starts from the pole.

 When the “Dandy Dozen” are determined at Richmond, they’ll race over the final 10 events for rich post-season bonuses, including millions of dollars for the title winner.

But back to that intriguing press conference of two decades ago at Daytona, in which - in spite of his fond recollections - Martin was in no way endorsing or encouraging irresponsible driving on public roads.

   “It was about 100 miles to Memphis from my hometown, Batesville, Arkansas.  And it was 125 miles to Little Rock,” continued Mark.  “I can recall my dad, Julian, making those trips in a little over an hour - and over two-lane, winding roads.  It was always a big deal and thrilling to go.

   “As fast as my dad, Julian, and his friends drove, they were conscious of wrecking.  Whenever there was a fatal highway accident in the area, dad would take me to the scene where it happened.  He’d tell me things like, ‘He had two tires over the edge here and overcorrected too quickly.’  But he never, never said that whoever it was that wrecked was going too fast.

   “Back in the early to mid-1960s the area where I grew up was like the Wild, Wild West.  There was a lot of lawlessness.  People did what they wanted to do, especially while driving.  There wasn’t a highway patrolman every 100 square miles.

   “I’m not picking on Arkansas.  That’s just the way I remember it.”

   Considering Julian Martin’s fascination with fast cars, it probably was inevitable that he’d go to Florida for Speed Weeks at Daytona.  He did, in 1973, taking the then 14-year-old Mark along.

   “We camped just outside the first turn,” Mark went on.  “When race day came, watching the Daytona 500 was an incredible experience.  It just overwhelmed my dad and me.

   “Before that, we weren’t stock car racing fans.  But when we went back home, dad started building a race car for me.  It was a ’55 Chevy six-cylinder that we planned to run in the street class on area dirt tracks.  The roll bars were made out of heavy water pipe.”

   Mark began racing in 1974 and was so boyish in appearance he had a tough time even getting into the pits at some tracks.

   In 1975 he won a dozen features and the Arkansas state championship for his class.  A career had begun that was to lead to four American Speed Association titles, crowns that eventually would land Martin his ride with Roush.

   Mark scored his first Winston Cup victory in October of 1989 at N.C. Motor Speedway.

   He now counts 39 triumphs, including four this year for Hendrick Motorsports, which he joined at the beginning of the season.  Mark, at age 50 obviously just as talented and savvy on the track as he ever was, is tied for the 2009 lead in wins with Kyle Busch, 26 years his junior.

   A consummate pro, clean driver and all-around gentleman who is admired by his rivals, Martin holds the Nationwide Series record for victories, 49.

   Missing from this remarkable driver’s resume, however, is a championship at NASCAR’s major level.  He has been runner-up in the standings four times, including 1990 when he was edged for the title by Dale Earnhardt by a mere 26 points.  Some observers continue to contend that Martin would have taken the crown that year except for a 46-point penalty ordered by NASCAR officials for an alleged carburetor infraction.  The ruling remains controversial to this day.

   The penalty against Martin and his Roush team was ordered in March of ’90 at Richmond, the very place where Mark will try this weekend to position himself for a championship run.

   I am well aware that journalists ideally are supposed to be impartial.

   However, this is difficult for many when it comes to Mark Martin, especially those of us who have covered his career for so long.

   Nothing against the other drivers contending to make this season’s playoffs, but…

   The driver who first experienced speed as a kid sitting on his daddy’s lap deserves to make The Chase.

   Beyond this, Mark Martin deserves to win the Sprint Cup championship.

   If such a storybook development happens, Mark can dedicate the title to the memory of his father.

   Julian Martin lost his life on Aug. 8, 1998, near Great Basin National Park in Nevada in a private plane crash that also claimed Mark’s stepmom and half-sister.

Now, it's see you in September at fast Georgia speedway

So now Atlanta Motor Speedway gets a September date.

The Pep Boys Auto 500 is scheduled at the 1.54-mile track on Sept. 6.

That’s the Labor Day weekend date that was held from 1950-2003 by Darlington Raceway for the staging of the storied Southern 500. It’s a date that still should belong to the South Carolina track. However, that contention isn’t the gist of this column.

Since the opening of the Georgia superspeedway in 1961, NASCAR has scheduled the track’s second big time races each season in June, July, August, October and November.

And now September.

Why such shuffling at the facility which for many years was known as Atlanta International Raceway?

Officials at AMS lobbied to escape the November date because of often foul weather conditions that late in the autumn. Never mind that holding the season finale gave them the possibility of hosting the Sprint Cup Series’ championship-deciding event. They got their wish in 2002 when the final race was move to Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida and Atlanta was given a weekend in October.

Last year they sought, and received, relief from racing in October, in part to avoid conflicts with Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference football, Atlanta Falcons NFL football and the possibility of the Atlanta Braves being in baseball’s playoffs. Hence, this year’s Pep Boys 500-miler on the day-before-Labor Day.

The long-ago summertime shows at the speedway located south of Atlanta near Hampton, Ga., produced some memorable winners and incidents.

The earliest of the track’s “second time around” races was held on June 7, 1964.

Ned Jarrett, destined to win two championships and 50 races en route to several halls of fame, took the checkered flag. Driving a Ford fielded by colorful car-owner/crew chief Bondy Long, Jarrett finished four laps ahead of runner-up Richard Petty.

The race was marred by a savage crash by Doug Cooper. A tire blew on Cooper’s Ford on the 43rd lap, sending him into the guardail. Cooper ripped up 30 posts supporting the railing. Rather than red-flagging the race to a halt for repairs, NASCAR kept the field rolling for 47 laps under caution while the barrier was replaced.

NASCAR held a 250-mile race at the then-new Atlanta speedway on July 9, 1961, having scheduled the event only a week earlier.

According to the great stock car racing historian Greg Fielden, this came about when the U.S. Auto Club pulled its cars and drivers from an Indy-car race set for the speedway, citing “unsafe conditions.” USAC gave Atlanta president/promoter Nelson Weaver only 36 hours' notice before the teams were to check in.

NASCAR founder/president Big Bill France came to Weaver’s rescue and “slid” an event called the Festival 250 into the schedule of what was then known as the Grand National Division.

Fred Lorenzen dodged a 13-car crash on the first lap to triumph, driving a Holman-Moody Ford to a one-lap victory over Bob Welborn.

Fielden relates in his series of books that no drivers were hurt in the big accident. However, a wrecker operator, Robert Higgenbotham, was slightly injured when his vehicle flipped while he was trying to tow away damaged race cars.

From 1987-2000 NASCAR scheduled each year’s final race at the Atlanta track. Moving the finale back to Dixie after holding it in California since 1974, first at the 2-mile Ontario Motor Speedway, then at the Riverside Raceway road course.

Critics had wailed for years that a series born and nurtured in Dixie should have the race possibly determining its champion scheduled in the South.

Several titles were decided at Atlanta. The list:

1988 - Home state favorite Bill Elliott drives conservatively, finishes 11th and captures his only championship by 24 points over Rusty Wallace, who wins the Atlanta Journal 500.

1989 - Wallace finishes 15th in the Journal 500, to beat Dale Earnhardt by 12 points for his only crown.

1990 - Earnhardt finishes third to Mark Martin’s sixth in the Journal 500. Earnhardt takes the fourth of his eventual seven titles by 26 points over Martin.

1992 - Team-owner/driver Alan Kulwicki rallies from 30 points down to leader Davey Allison and beats Bill Elliott by 10 points for the championship, the closest margin in NASCAR history. Kulwicki triumphed by leading one more lap than Elliott for five bonus points. If Elliott had led the most laps, the two would have finished tied in points, and the title would have gone to Elliott on the basis of most victories during the season. Allison seemed to be en route to his first championship, but a wreck not of his making foiled his hopes. Sadly, both Allison and Kulwicki were to lose their lives a few months later in aircraft crashes.

1995 - Jeff Gordon had a tough race with an ill-handling car, but his 32nd place finish was good enough to hold off NAPA 500 winner Dale Earnhardt by 34 points. It was the first of Gordon’s four crowns.

1996 - Driving with a cast on his injured left hand, Terry Labonte managed a fifth place finish to beat Gordon for the title by 37 points. Terry’s brother, Bobby, won the NAPA 500 and the two shared a post-race victory lap together.

1997 - Gordon again experienced trouble, but was able to finish 17th and take the crown by 14 points over Dale Jarrett and 29 over Mark Martin.

Will another championship ever be decided in November at Atlanta Motor Speedway?

Could be if the track’s majority owner, Bruton Smith, gets his way.

Smith is pressing NASCAR hard to have the season finale returned to Georgia in future seasons.

Kelly's 'Thunder' well worth a look

Bobby Allison didn’t want the ride.

    When highly-successful road racing team owner Jack Roush decided to start a NASCAR Winston Cup Series venture in the late 1980s, his first choice as driver was Allison.

    However, Allison, a highly popular veteran who was destined to win 84 races and a championship en route to numerous halls of fame, declined the offer.

    Allison was with the well-established Stavola Brothers operation, and he didn’t want to join a start-up team.

    But Bobby suggested the name of a young driver to Roush:

    Mark Martin.

    How Martin came to Roush’s team, a move that was to make him one of the most beloved drivers among fans in NASCAR history, isn’t widely known.

   The story is revealed in a marvelous new book, “Manmade Thunder” (By Godwin Kelly. Dakini Publishing. 315 pages. $49).

   Kelly has been the motorsports beat writer for the Daytona Beach News-Journal for 27 years.  All the NASCAR knowledge and the contacts he’s made during these almost three decades of reporting comes to the forefront in this book.

   The chapter on Martin is an example.

   Here, with Kelly’s permission, is an excerpt:

   “The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (as the circuit is now known) is all-consuming, exemplified by the first two stops on the coast-to-coast tour.  Since 1982 the series has launched at Daytona International Speedway with the Speed Weeks program — it’s a grueling, two-week ordeal that builds to a Daytona 500 crescendo.  It is a nail-biting, nerve-wracking, anxiety-building sequence of stock car events that can turn men into emotional mush.  There’s single-car qualifying, then two 150-mile qualifying races called the Gatorade duel, and if you make the cut, you get a grid position for the 500…

   “After the 500 in Daytona Beach, Fla., it’s on to the other side of the country, to Fontana, California, where the second race of the season now is positioned on the Sprint Cup schedule.  Five days after spending nearly two weeks in Daytona, the teams and drivers report to Auto Club Speedway for another 500-mile event.  Drivers don’t just sit around the house and watch television between races.  There are commercials to shoot, sponsor events to attend, media obligations to fulfill, and other assorted duties that come with the title of Sprint Cup race driver.  These  fellows in the colorful driver suits are pushed, pulled, summoned, tugged and sometimes dragged to a variety of duties that have absolutely nothing to do with race cars, racetracks or racing.  It is a non-stop grind…

   “Mark Martin made that commitment to racing.  He got on one knee and proposed to the sport as a teenager, then took his vows at the altar of speed as a young man with wild ambitions, but low expectations.  His was a struggle.  He had to prove his worth, validate his credentials, before realizing his dream of becoming a full-time NASCAR driver.  Car owner Jack Roush, who was new to the stock-car racing sport himself,  liked Martin’s work ethic and resiliency.  They joined forces in 1988 and stayed together through thick and thin, joy and despair, until the conclusion of the 2006 season.  Roush talked about the longevity of the partnership, rare in NASCAR Country.
 
 “’I’ve got one brother, and Mark and I are as close personally as my brother and I,’” Kelly says Roush told him in 2006.  “’The fact that we’ve been able to stay in this business 18 years, and Mark has been willing to drive my car and negotiate for continuation of that relationship is my proudest accomplishment…’”

   Kelly then relates how Bobby Allison played such a pivotal role in getting Roush and Martin together.

   Continues Roush in the book:

   “’Of the guys (drivers) I talked to, Mark was the one who was most interested in knowing how often I would test, who would work on and around the car, and how many tires I would buy.  We sat down and in about four hours we talked about the program and how it would work, about my goals and objectives, but never talked about money.  We shook hands.’”

   “And from that moment to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November, 2006, Martin gave Roush his all, every day, 100 percent, nothing left on the table.  After almost two decades of making every Sprint Cup race, Martin was mentally exhausted from the wear and tear of the circuit.  He wanted out—not outright retirement, but to race on his terms.  He didn’t want to be chained to the schedule.  He left Roush and over the 2007-2008 seasons drove for two teams, starting with car owner Bobby Ginn, who sold his operation to Dale Earnhardt Inc. midway through the ’07 campaign.  As fate would have it, Dale Earnhardt Jr. left the team started by his father to drive for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008, so DEI put Martin in the celebrated No. 8 Chevrolet.  “’Those two seasons had major twists and turns,’ Martin said.  “’I’ve always been a straight and narrow guy.  I stayed the course, man.’

   “With his contract running out at DEI, Martin got an exceptional and unexpected offer from car owner Rick Hendrick, who said, ‘Come drive my No. 5 car’ for the 2009 Sprint Cup season.  There would be no part-time schedule.  Martin would have to work all 36 weekends.  He jumped at the opportunity.  “’Me taking two years of a limited schedule has given me a chance to completely recharge my battery and completely have a different mindset on what’s important to me and what I really want to do,’ he said.”

   Kelly noted that Martin, now 50, has posted hall of fame numbers: 39 Sprint Cup victories, including four this season for Hendrick.  He has been the runner-up in points races for the championship four times.  Martin is 12th in the points standings toward making the chase for the Sprint Cup title going into the Sharpie 500 Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. Only the top 12 qualify.

 At the Nationwide Series level (formerly the Busch Series) Martin has scored more victories than any driver in history, 48.

   Kelly had to run, or write, relatively as fast as pole winners to get the big book finished by the deadline given him by the publishing company, which is based in London.

   “I signed to do the deal on Dec. 11 (2008).  The editors wanted it by Father’s Day (June 21),” said Godwin.  “Problem was, that span included Christmas, New Year’s and Speed Weeks at Daytona.  Plus, I had to keep up with my regular duties at the News-Journal.

   “I got a break when NASCAR canceled the usual two weeks of testing at Daytona International Speedway.

   “I banished my wife and two teenage kids from the room where I was writing the book.

   “I got another break by NASCAR having it’s Fan Fest in Daytona, an event that brings the top drivers and other leading figures to to town.

   “This enabled me to talk to about 70 people.

   “One of the best interviews I had was with Kelly Earnhardt, daughter of Dale Sr. and sister of Dale Jr.  She is extremely intelligent and was very forthright.

   “I wrote for three to five hours almost every day once I’d completed the research and got started.  It was a tough deal at times, but I got it done on schedule.”

   “Manmade Thunder” is a BIG book.  It weighs around four pounds.  Its pages are filled with some of the best racing photos I’ve ever seen.

   Sure, it’s pricey at $49, but the pictures, coupled with Godwin Kelly’s prose, make it worth every penny, especially if you collect books on motorsports and/or might be looking early for a Christmas gift for a NASCAR fan.

   Presently, the book is for sale online only.

Plan put Novi inductees Richter, Wheeler at odds

For officials of Charlotte Motor Speedway and NASCAR, it was yet another contentious dispute.

   For members of the media and the few fans who knew about the argument, it was a source of high amusement.

   The fuss was about elephants.

   Yes, elephants.

   It happened in 1995 prior to the track’s October 500-mile race in the Winston Cup Series, now known as Sprint Cup.

   The speedway’s president and general manager, Humpy Wheeler, loved to promote eye-popping prerace shows.

   On this occasion, he was presenting a three-ring circus.  The production, to be staged on the grassy area between the start/finish line and pit road, included aerialist on tight wires and trapezes, a daredevil shot from a cannon, clowns and performing camels, dogs, tigers and elephants.

   NASCAR nixed the latter.

   “No elephants, decreed NASCAR vice president Les Richter.

   “Why not?” demanded Wheeler.

   “They might go berserk and damage the race cars lined up on pit road,” replied Richter.

   It was Wheeler who essentially went berserk.

   Humpy felt this was the thinnest of excuses, ordered only to embarrass the speedway and demonstrate NASCAR’s control over events.

   Track owner Bruton Smith and Wheeler through the years often were at odds with the NASCAR brass, and this was the latest incident.

   Wheeler wouldn’t relent.  “We advertised the elephants, and their show goes on!” he declared.

    Shortly before the ringmaster opened the circus, NASCAR gave in.

   The pachyderms performed.

   Years later a grinning Richter conceded that the sanctioning body issued the elephant ban “just to rattle Humpy’s cage a little bit.”

   So it’s a bit of irony that the sometimes antagonists Richter and Wheeler were among the inductees Wednesday night into the Motorsports Hall Of Fame Of America.

   The black-tie ceremony was held at the Fillmore Theater in Detroit.  The hall and its museum are located in Novi, a suburb just west of city.

   Inductions are held annually in August in conjunction with a major NASCAR race at Michigan International Speedway. The Carfax 400 is scheduled Sunday.

   Wednesday’s other inductees are drag racer Kenny Bernstein, road racer David Hobbs, motorcycle racer Scott Parker, IndyCar driver Al Unser Jr., and the late NASCAR champion Joe Weatherly.

   Both Richter and Wheeler enjoyed colorful careers.

   Richter can lay claim to the rarest of honors.  He’s now a hall-of-famer in two sports, football and and auto racing.

   Les was an All American linebacker in the early 1950s at the University of California, where he graduated as valedictorian of his class.

   After two years in the Army, Richter was selected second overall in the pro football draft.  A team then called the Dallas Texans took Les and then traded him to the L.A. Rams for 11 players, still an NFL record.

   The Rams got the best of the deal.

   Richter was an all-pro eight straight years, often playing both defense and offense.  He also kicked field goals and extra points.

   Richter, now 78, got into auto racing in 1959 as part of a group that bought Riverside Raceway, a road course in Southern California.

   “I’ll never forget the first time I saw the place,” he recalled a few years ago.

“It was just a strip of asphalt twisting over rocky, hilly terrain.  There were coyotes, rattlesnakes and no telling what else around.

   “It took us a while to be taken seriously.  What really enabled the track to take off is when NASCAR’s Wood Brothers, Glen and Leonard, came out west and put Dan Gurney in their car.  Dan probably was the most respected driver in America at the time.

   “Dan drove the Wood boys’ cars to victories in 1964, ’65 and ’66 at Riverside.  Parnelli Jones won for them in ’67 and Gurney again in ’68 to give Glen and Leonard five straight.”

   Richter laughingly recollected a 67,000 mile pickup truck endurance test in 1967 at Riverside involving Chevrolet, Dodge and Ford vehicles.

   “The run was non-stop except for tires, fuel and a change of drivers,” he said.  “Eventually, the drivers on night shifts were getting really bored.

   “So we hired some strippers to come out and hide near the turns.  When the drivers came around the women would jump out and pretend to be hitch-hiking.

   “The trucks were equipped with radios, so you can imagine the conversations that took place.”

   I once asked Richter the toughest football player he ever faced.

   “No doubt about it,” he said.  “Jim Taylor, the Green Bay running back.

   “I tried to tackle him head on, one on one.  He left a bony bulge the size of a peach in my shoulder and it’s still there.”

   Who among NASCAR drivers did Richter see as being as rugged as Jim Taylor?

   “No contest,” replied Richter.  “Dale Earnhardt.  “He would have been a great safety.”

   While president of Riverside Raceway Richter co-founded the International Race Of Champions series (IROC) in 1972.  When the Riverside track closed in 1989 he joined NASCAR as a vice president, working out of the Daytona Beach headquarters.

   Upon retiring from NASCAR, Richter became a vice president of California Speedway at Fontana, and still serves as a consultant.

   No race track in the world ever has gone to the expense of staging prerace shows as the Charlotte speedway did when Wheeler was at its helm.  He left his post there in 2008.

   Each May prior to 600-mile races military units were brought in to show their stuff as a way of commemorating Memorial Day.

   These battle re-enactments invariably were thrilling and sometimes produced humorous incidents.

   Most memorable of the latter to me occurred on May 27, 1984.

   Here’s the tale:

   A country preacher was delivering a “hellfire and brimstone” sermon to his congregation at a small church about two miles from Charlotte Motor Speedway.

   “Lord,” yelled the minister, “if everything I’ve said is true, give us a sign!”

   At this moment a loud explosion thundered over the area, creating such a concussion that the church steeple shook and the windows rattled.

   The story goes that the frightened flock spoke in tongues for two days.

   However, the big boom wasn’t heaven sent.

   It was triggered by artillery men of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, N.C.  The paratroopers had fired a howitzer while re-enacting the invasion of Grenada the previous October.

   Wheeler spent 33 years at the Charlotte track and became widely known as the premier promoter in motorsports.

   “His imagination reaches to infinity,” an associate of Humpy’s once said.  “I’ve heard people say they came to races at Charlotte as much to see what wild thing Humpy would do next as they did to see the races.”

   More seriously, Wheeler is credited with proving that superspeedways could be illuminated for nighttime racing.  He achieved this in 1992 as a means of keeping NASCAR’s all-star race in Charlotte.

   Humpy was especially popular with competitors because he dramatically increased purses and strongly advocated safety measures, such as the “soft barrier.”

   Now 70, Humpy presently operates The Wheeler Company, a Charlotte-based consulting firm he began this year that focuses mainly on professional sports.

   So far he hasn’t suggested the use of elephants to a client.  But it’s still early.

Racing hurt? Earnhardt was hardly only one ready, willing

Ricky Rudd’s race car spun off the fourth turn at Daytona International Speedway, slid into a grassy area and then began flipping violently.

It was a horrifying wreck, taking place in the Busch Clash, a NASCAR special event for the previous season’s pole winners.

After flipping seven times on Feb. 12, 1984, the Ford fielded by Bud Moore appeared to be higher in the air than a power pole. From there it twisted around twice while still airborne and nosed into the ground.

There was great fear for Rudd’s life.

Miraculously, Ricky escaped with serious bruising of almost his entire body, including the face. His eyes were blackened and quickly swelled shut.

There was speculation that Rudd would be sidelined from Winston Cup Series competition for several races.

Not exactly.

Just four days later he was back in a race car, running in a 125-mile qualifying race leading to the Daytona 500.

NASCAR officials were unaware that he competed in that event—and the 500 on Feb. 19 as well—with his eyes taped open!

Rudd finished seventh in both races.

On Feb. 26 Rudd was still hurting badly. His eyes remained so black that someone remarked that “Ricky looks like a raccoon.”

Nevertheless, Rudd, his eyes like slits, not only ran in the Miller 400 at Richmond, the native Virginian won. He overtook Darrell Waltrip and led the final nine laps.

Rudd’s feat of fortitude ranks high among the top “tough man” performances in NASCAR history.

I’m recounting Ricky’s profile in courage and determination as a followup to a blog, or column, I wrote last week about the toughness of the late Dale Earnhardt.

Some readers pointed out that among NASCAR drivers, Earnhardt wasn’t alone in this regard.

They’re right.

One reader wrote in response to cite Richard Petty and Bobby Allison as examples. They are great ones.

Petty once drove several races with a broken bone in his neck. Perhaps showing even more grit, during the early 1970s King Richard ran the Daytona 500 only a few days after having a sizable portion of his stomach removed because of ulcers.

Petty’s doctor forbade him to go to Daytona.

“I’m gonna run and you can’t stop me,” declared Petty.

Allison, making a special appearance, once was injured so badly in a short track race in Wisconsin that he couldn’t get in and out of his NASCAR ride.

So Bobby had what amounted to handles sewn onto his uniform so that two teammates could lift him into the car.

The toughness trait shown by many competitors goes back to the sanctioning body’s earliest years.

Here are some examples I remember:

In May of 1955 Herb Thomas, one of NASCAR’s biggest stars, ran into a deep rut in the dirt track at Charlotte Speedway, a three-quarter-mile oval.

His car began flipping and Thomas was thrown from the vehicle. He suffered serious back injuries, a broken leg, a concussion and deep bruising to both shoulders.

Thomas’ doctors predicted he would be sidelined for six months. Thomas scoffed.

Herb was right.

As racing historian Greg Fielden recounts in his great series of books on NASCAR, Thomas returned to action on Aug. 7 at the Forsyth Fairgrounds in Winston-Salem.

Thomas triumphed in his third race back, winning on Aug. 20 at a one-mile asphalt track in Raleigh.

Then, just as Thomas had predicted from his hospital bed four months earlier, he took stock car racing’s biggest show of all at the time, the Southern 500 at South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway. Driving a Chevrolet, he won the classic for the third in its sixth running.

Unbelievably, compared to what we see in races nowadays, Thomas did it by covering the entire 500 miles without changing tires.

In 1986 Harry Gant was involved in a savage crash with Buddy Arrington during the Miller 500 on June 8 at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania.

Doctors at the track released Gant on the promise that he’d go to a hospital upon arriving back home in Taylorsville, N.C.

However, Gant became in severe pain before he could fly out on a private plane. He was hospitalized in Wilkes-Barre, where it was determined he’d suffered a bruised heart and lungs, other bruise-related injuries and a concussion.

Arrington also sustained a concussion and was hospitalized at Allentown, Pa.

Gant wasn’t released until June 11.

Two days later he was at Michigan International Speedway, where he qualified third for the Miller 400.

Gant, driving the famed “Skoal Bandit” Chevrolet, led quite a bit in the 200-lap race on the 2-mile track. He was ahead as late as Lap 195.

Then, Bill Elliott whipped into first place and edged Harry at the checkered flag by two car lengths.

“Now,” said Leo Jackson, Gant’s team owner and crew chief, “we’ve got broken hearts to go with Harry’s bruised one. But we’re so proud of him. That was a man out there driving today.”

On April 14, 1992, Sterling Marlin crashed in the first turn at Bristol International Raceway during the Valleydale 500 when an oil line broke on his Ford.

His car became a fireball.

“When I felt the heat and saw the flames, I just automatically covered by face and tried not to breathe anything in,” Marlin recalled later. “I hoped the car would hurry up and stop so I could get out of it. It was getting warm.”

Marlin suffered burns to his face, shoulders and inner thighs.

Sterling was hurt so seriously that he was taken to the Vanderbilt University Burn Center in Nashville for treatment.

There, he expressed such determination to start the First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro Speedway on April 21 that his team of doctors reluctantly relented.

Junior Johnson, Marlin’s team owner, had left the decision up to Sterling.

One of the doctors flew in a private plane with Marlin to North Wilkesboro on April 20 so the driver could take a mandatory practice lap.

The plan was for Sterling to run one lap, then the veteran Chargin’ Charlie Glotzbach would take over in a relief role.

On race day, Marlin, essentially wrapped like a mummy, was led to his car on pit road, obviously in much pain.

He gingerly was assisted into the machine.

Marlin ran his one lap, pitted, and just as gently was removed from the cockpit.

He left the race track as soon as possible to fly back to Nashville and the burn center.

Why do injured drivers put themselves through what has to be excruciating torment?

It’s the great importance of earning points toward the NASCAR season championship, or at least a lucrative finish high in the final standings.

Marlin explained:

“It might mean a million dollars (then the champion’s share).

“If we wound up at the end of the season and could have finished real high in the points, well, if I had laid in a hospital bed instead of even trying, I’d have felt awful, both for myself and the team.

“There was never any second thought in my mind about doing it.”

Through the years this mentality among the drivers has led some observers with ties to NASCAR to suggest that its officials need to protect the competitors from themselves.

The idea generally has been to let them discard their two or three worst finishes - or non-starts - when counting points.

The thought has gone nowhere with NASCAR, and it won’t. A few years ago the wife of one driver amusingly assessed the competitors’ obsession with “playing hurt.”

“I’ve lived with my husband for many years,” she said. “And like a lot of the other drivers he’s too lazy to get off the couch to get a glass of water.

“But they’re never hurt too bad to crawl into a race car on Sunday.”