They Said What?!

   "If you kin't write about this, you kin't write about nuthin'."
   This was the astute assessment of drawling Lee Petty, patriarch of the famous stock car racing family, after his near dead-heat victory over Johnny Beauchamp in the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959.
   It was an outcome that wasn't  proclaimed officially until three days later.
   On Feb. 22, NASCAR founder/president  Bill France  Sr., peering intently at the finish line from a position just under the flagstand, initially declared that Beauchamp had edged Petty by inches.  In the  rush to get the new 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway completed and opened, France and his associates had thought of most everything but a photo finish camera like those used in horse and grayhound racing.  Such a device never had been needed for a major auto race.
   Many others, including members of the press, felt Petty had won, and said so.  France then declared the finishing order unofficial until photos and movies taken from various angles could be studied.
   "Big Bill milked it for all he could," recalls a smiling Richard Petty, destined to win seven Daytona 500s among his 200 victories while rolling to seven championships.  "It was brilliant on his part.  Instead of just getting a story in the papers and on TV and radio on Monday morning about the race, he got coverage for three days.  People all across the country were talking about the new speedway and the Daytona 500.
   "Bill finally named daddy the winner on Wednesday, so he really got four days of extra exposure, 'cause the story was printed and aired on Thursday."
   Lee Petty's "kin't" quote  has become a part of NASCAR's lore. Even now, as the 50th running of the Daytona 500 looms on Sunday (Feb. 17), it's still being written about, as you can see.
   The sport's greatest race--and its related events--have produced a rich lode of other memorable quotes.  Following, in chronological order, are some that I remember best:    

   "Spend it, I reckon."
   --1960, Junior Johnson on what he would do with his $8,000 share of the winner's purse, after discovering the phenomenon of the aerodynamic draft and driving an underpowered Ray Fox-owned Chevrolet to victory over faster Pontiacs.

   "Investigation revealed the protest was made on hearsay and was groundless and is hereby denied."
   --1962, Big Bill France after runnerup Richard Petty's crew alleged that the team of winning driver Fireball Roberts and crew chief Smokey Yunich had more than six crewmen over the wall while pitting.

   "There's no defense that I know of against the slingshot pass."
   --1969, runnerup Chargin' Charlie Glotzbach, after being passed for the win on the last lap by LeeRoy Yarbrough.

  "Yeah, I know, I'm in it."
   --1976, David Pearson, the sport's calm, cool "Silver Fox," responding to a frantic radio call from his Wood Brothers pit that there was a wreck off Turn 4 during the last lap.

"You want me to smile, too?"
   --1976, Pearson, posing for photographers in Victory Lane with his battered car.  Pearson motored his mashed-up machine to the finish line at about 5 mph to take the checkered flag after crashing in the tri-oval homestretch with Richard Petty.

   "It was like sitting in front of a blowtorch."
   --1977, Bobby Wawak, after a crash, then a fire caused by a broken fuel line.  Wawak, who suffered severe burns to his hands, leaped out of his car onto the grass off Turn 4 while the vehicle was still going about 40 mph.

   "It makes me so mad I could just spit."
   --1977, Buddy Baker, after a crash with Indy Car driver Salt Walther sidelined Baker's powerful car.

   "Don't tell me genes ain't got nothing to do with it."
   --1979, Donnie Allison, after seeing third-generation driver Kyle Petty win the ARCA 200 in his very first start.  Allison watched the race from atop the Petty team's transporter with his pal, Cale Yarborough.  Ironically, the two were to be in VERY close proximity again just a week later.

   "All I know is that I suddenly found Cale Yarborough's nose pounding on my fists."
   --1979, Bobby Allison, on the fight that developed off Turn 3 matching he and brother Donnie against Cale Yarborough.  Donnie and Cale had crashed on the last lap while battling for the lead, giving victory to Richard Petty, who had been in third place, almost a mile behind.  Bobby stopped to check on Donnie and the ruckus began.

   "Bobby bowed up like a cat and I swung at him."
   --1979, Yarborough, describing the start of the fight.

   "It wasn't a fair fight.  I used both hands."
   --1979, Yarborough, on what he initially termed "A scuffle."

   "You couldn't castrate Dale Earnhardt with a chainsaw."
   --1980, Yarborough, on Earnhardt's daring last lap move off Turn 2 to take the lead and win the Busch Clash.

   "Earnhardt has more nerve than a sore tooth."
   --1980, Buddy Baker, on his rival's Busch Clash maneuver.

   "It was like Saturday night in Junior Wong's kitchen."
   --1980, Buddy Baker, describing the radio conversation between he and crew chief Waddell Wilson, arguing and jabbering over whether or not to slow down to conserve fuel in the final laps.  Baker didn't, and wound up winning the 500 after 20 years of trying, much to the delight of his pal, Wong, owner and chief chef of a Chinese restaurant in Charlotte. 

    "If anyone had ever told me I'd win this race and this much money ($185,000), why, I'd have told them they weren't nothing but a big old liar."
   --1985, Bill Elliott, who had failed to make the 500 field in his first two tries in 1977 and '79.

   "I'm proud to say that he's mine."
   --1988, 500 winner Bobby Allison, on his son, Davey, the runnerup by two car lengths.

   "I didn't want to think of it as my dad in front of me.  I wanted that car to finish second."
   --1988, Davey Allison.

   "If they could've got the car fixed, I'd have gone back in the race."
   --1988, Richard Petty, scoffing at a CBS-TV reporter's suggestion that a horrid crash in the 500  would lead to Petty's immediate retirement.  "The King " continued to race through the 1992 season.

   "I won the Daytona 500?!  Oh, thank God!  I'm not dreaming am I?  This is the Daytona 500 ain't it?!"
   --1989, Darrell Waltrip, after making a gamble on fuel pay off, going the last 53 laps, or 132.5 miles, without taking on gasoline.  Others were getting 50 laps or less on their fuel.

   "I'd like to see that gas tank."
   --1989, Earnhardt, skeptical of Waltrip's great fuel mileage.

   "I ran over something in front of the chicken bone grandstands (backstretch)."
   --1990, Earnhardt, who had to slow a mile from the checkered flag while leading after cutting the right rear tire on a sharp piece of metal off another car.

   "He caught the car quickly.  That's a tribute to Dale Earnhardt.  Not many drivers could have done that with a tire shredding apart."
   --1990, Derrike Cope, who took the lead as Earnhardt slowed.  Cope raced on to triumph, scoring one of the biggest upsets in NASCAR history.

   "Sometimes I close my eyes and I can still feel the sun shining on my face in Victory Lane."
   --Almost every year, Cope at Daytona 500 time, recalling his stunning win.

   "I was the meat in the middle of the sandwich."
   --1992, Mark Martin, describing how he saw a 14-car crash developing off Turn 2 that took eight top drivers out of contention.

   "It was bigger than Mule Day."
   --1994 winner Sterling Marlin, who made the 500 his first Winston Cup victory in his 297th start, describing the hero's welcome he was given upon returning the next day to his hometown, Columbia, Tenn.

   "There was a whole army of supporters at the airport.  There were six police cars and a limo.  A friend of mine had his ol' hearse out there, half of which was painted up like my race car and half like Darrell Waltrip's car.  We took off through town with the hearse leading.  Horns and sirens were blowing.  I guess a lot of people thought it really was a funeral procession, 'cause they pulled off the road."
   --1994, Marlin, futher describing the euphoria in Columbia.

   "The sirens wailed all the way to our house.  When all the cars pulled off onto our road, it got pretty wild.  We about had a stampede.  The racket scared our cows and they were running, tripping all over each other."
  --1994, Paula Marlin, Sterling's wife, adding to the colorful tale.

   "It's a stump-puller."
   --1995, Marlin, on the engine, built by Runt Pittman, that powered him to a second straight 500 victory.

   "I've finally got that damn monkey off my back!"
   --1998, Dale Earnhardt, pulling a stuffed monkey from inside the chest portion of his uniform and throwing it to the press box floor after scoring a 500 victory that had eluded him for two decades.  He previously had been the race's runnerup four times.

   "Year after year, there were not many things that ate that man's insides out.  But losing this race over and over, you could see it on his face.  And inside of me, that started the desire to win the Daytona 500."
   --2004, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had just made his quest become a reality.

   "I don't know how you make the Daytona 500 into a cologne unless it smells like burning gas."
   --2006, Matt Kenseth, commenting about the product upon its introduction.

   Finally, and sadly, and out of sequence, there is this from NASCAR president Mike Helton in 2001, about 90 minutes after a last-lap crash in a race which produced a 1-2 finish for Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., both driving cars owned and fielded by the latter's father:
   "This is the toughest thing I've ever had to say.  We have lost Dale Earnhardt."