Only as old as you feel

By DAVID GREEN

How about that Hershel McGriff? Eighty-one years young and still going, the 13th-place finisher in Sunday's Camping World West Series race at Portland International Raceway -- the oldest driver to compete in a NASCAR touring series event.

But not by all that much. After all, it was only two years ago that James Hylton, at 72, came very close indeed to qualifying for the Daytona 500. And at 74, he was entered in the Great American Race once again this year.

And anybody who does not recognize the name Charles "Red" Farmer should not, in my opinion, be permitted to call him or herself a NASCAR fan. We don't even know for sure how old Red is, but it's my understanding that when he ran his first race, in 1948 at Opa-locka Speedway near Miami, where he lived then, he was 16. That would make him 77 this year.

However old he is, Red beat up on some of the current Cup stars, winning a heat race and finishing eighth in the feature in the 2005 Prelude to the Dream at Tony Stewart's Eldora Speedway, and I once watched him beat the late, great Dale Earnhardt in a match race at Talladega Short Track. Red still races at TST.

Bobby Allison -- one of Red's colleagues in the famous "Alabama Gang" -- won the Daytona 500 at age 50 in 1988, just a few months before the crash at Pocono ended his career. Harry Gant had some of his greatest Cup Series success after turning 50.

About 12 years ago, "the racing farmer," Johnny Johnson of West Burlington, Iowa, got his first victory in the old NASCAR Busch All-Star Series for dirt late models -- at age 60.

I guess one reason I'm writing this is because of the attention 59-year-old Tom Watson got for his performance in the British Open this past weekend. Another is my participation in vintage stock car racing with the Kentucky Vintage Racing Association.

Most pertinently, though, I'm closer in age to all those guys -- even Hershel -- than I am to Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, and I feel compelled, in this youth-obsessed society, to brag on the old dogs a little bit.

Keep on keepin' on, boys!