I'm Thankful For...

   Now, upon my 71st  Thanksgiving  Day, I am thankful for a myriad of many, many things.
   Among  them:
   I'm thankful, of course, for family.  My children, Chip and Heather, and the seven grandchildren they have given me.  Also, my sister Barbara, an angel on earth.  And for our immediate loved ones who have gone on, Pappy, Momma, sister Martha and brother Bub.
   I'm thankful for my wonderfully sweet friend Linda, the love of my life.
   I'm thankful for other fine friends, such as fellow motorsports journalists Steve Waid and Bob Moore and others too numerous to name.
   I'm thankful for all the men and women who have and are defending our country in the Armed Services, including late brother Bub, who was a Navy sailor in the Pacific Theater during World War Two.
   I'm thankful for relatively long life and being privileged to write about stock car racing for 50 years.
   For this career, I have several special thanks.
   I'm thankful for Big Bill France, the giant of a deep-voiced man who founded NASCAR in the late 1940s and stood solid as a block of granite to see the sanctioning body from formation to great fruition.  A lesser man couldn't have fended off all the challenges.

   I'm thankful for Big Bill's son, Bill, Jr., who proved just as foresightful and tough as his father, in succeeding him and leading NASCAR to it heights as an internationally popular sport.
   I'm thankful to the oldtime promoters like Enoch Staley, Clay Earles, Joe Littlejohn, Alvin Hawkins, Gene Sluder, Paul Sawyer, Harold Brasington, Bob Colvin and Richard Howard.
   I'm thankful for the pioneer drivers, men such as Lee Petty, Buck Baker, Red Byron, Junior Johnson, Curtis Turner, Herb Thomas,the Flock brothers, Bob, Fonty and Tim, and all the others who raced in rather dangerous conditions for pennies on the dollar compared to what today's stars earn.  They ran mostly for the love of competition and the notoriety.
   I'm thankful for the great winners and others who lost their lives on the track--Dale Earnhardt, Fireball Roberts, Joe Weatherly, Tiny Lund, Neil Bonnett, J.D. McDuffie.  My hope is that they are respectfully remembered forever.
   I'm thankful for getting to cover NASCAR during what I refer to as "The Golden Era," the 1960s,'70s and '80s.  Those decades provided some of the greatest racing, and drivers, the sport ever has known.  The list of the latter includes King Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, the Allison brothers, Bobby and Donnie, Ned Jarrett, Fred Lorenzen, Dick Hutcherson, Buddy Baker, Darrell Waltrip, Geoff Bodine, Terry and Bobby Labonte, Rusty Wallace, Harry Gant, Rex White, Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett, Sterling Marlin, Marvin Panch, Wendell Scott, Ernie Irvan, the indominatble Dave Marcis, Jack Ingram, Sam Ard and deceased drivers Benny Parsons, Bobby Isaac, Jim Paschal, Tim Richmond, Alan Kulwicki and, of course, Earnhardt.
   I'm thankful for the colorful characters who added levity to the era--drivers Dick Brooks, Ken Schrader,  Jabe Thomas and James Hylton, the wise-cracking Grover Cleveland "G.C." Spencer,  team owner Junie Donlavey; crew chief David Ifft; and the brother driver/crew chief combo of Jim and Tommy Vandiver.  Thomas could have had a far more enriching career as a pickpocket.  He was infamous for slipping chicken bones into the driver uniforms of rivals during pre-race introductions.  Hylton once made a bet at Pocono that he would see how SLOW he could qualify.  He ran 40 mpn on a 2.5-mile track.  NASCAR fined him more than he won on the wager.  A promoter said of the Vandivers when they were breaking into racing on Carolina short tracks on Saturday nights, "They either finish first or upside down."
   I'm far beyond thankful to have chronicled the career of Earnhardt, perhaps the most intriguing person other than Billy Graham I've ever met.  He alternately could be cooperative, contrary, funny and warm and then frustratingly cold. There was one constant: Dale Earnhardt always was excitable.  I agree with others more knowledgeable than me in stock car racing that he rates as the greatest driver ever.  There may never be another combination like Earnhardt and his team owner, Richard Childress.
   I'm thankful to have seen the rise of Jeff Gordon as a great NASCAR champion.  From the days, when as a kid, he was driving the Baby Ruth car in what's now the Nationwide Series it was obvious that Jeff was headed to superstardom.
  I'm thankful to all the great team owners who fielded the cars: Petty Enterprises, Holman & Moody, Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Junior Johnson & Associates, the Wood Brothers, Raymond Parks, Leo Jackson, Robert Yates, Harry Ranier, Joe Gibbs Racing, Jack Roush, Roger Penske, Felix Sabates and Walter "Bud" Moore, the World War II hero of the D-Day Invasion of Normandy to free the world from Adolf Hitler's Nazis.  Also, I'm thankful for the talented crew chiefs: Dale Inman, Waddell Wilson, Ray Fox, Ray Evernham, Chad Knaus, Jeff Hammond, Tim Brewer, Harry Hyde, Herb Nab, Leonard Wood, Smokey Yunick, Ernie Elliott, Larry McReynolds, Andy Petree, Kirk Shelmerdine, Gary Nelson, Buddy Parrott, Jake Elder, Richard Broome, ad infinitum.
    I'm thankful to Bruton Smith, who turned Charlotte Motor Speedway into a fan-friendly showplace, and forced other track owners to do the same.
   I'm thankful to the former Charlotte track executive, Humpy Wheeler, whose wild imagination transformed races from just events into spectacular productions.
   I'm far more beyond than thankful for Junior Johnson, and not just because he chose me and Steve Waid to co-author his biography.  Junior had a reputation during his driving career and for some time while he was a greatly-successful team owner, as a rough-and-tumble character.  This traced to his days in the 1950s as a moonshine-producer and legendary hauler.  It's a much undeserved characterization.  Johnson, in fact, is the gentlest, kindest, most generous men I've ever met.
  I'm thankful for common sense NASCAR officials such as Les Richter, Lin Kuchler and the late Dick Beaty, whose "gotcha phrase" when someone was caught cheating was, "Do you want to tell me about it, or do you want me to tell you about it?"  Some choice, huh?
   I'm thankful for Mark Martin.  He is the cosummate professional as a driver and the ultimate gentleman as a human being.  Mark has finished second in the point standings toward the driving championship four times, once because of a controversial penalty that cost him the title.  Next season, ultra-successful team owner Rick Hendrick is providing Mark with a ride that hopefully will bring him that long deserved crown.
   I know, as a journalist, I should be impartial.
   But I'll be very thankful if in 2009 at this time I can be writing about that.
   Finally, if the fog of time and the advance of age has led me to omit someone or a team that deserved mention, I apologize.
   I am thankful to all who are NASAR fans and readers.
   I'll  be thankful if  you have the happiest of holdidays.
   Sincerely,
   Ol' Tom