With all the recent talk of "cheating", it seems like the perfect time to bring up the name of Smokey Yunick, and this brief resumé of his life and accomplishments is offered in loving memory of a great man. Beware, as it does contain some rather "colorful" quotes from a very colorful man.
Have you ever answered one of those infernal magazine or Internet quizzes that ask you all sorts of probing questions? I think we probably all have. One of those questions is quite likely to be “If you could have a conversation with one person, living or dead, who would it be?” Most folks reply to that with answers such as “George Washington” or “Jesus” or some great entertainer or world leader. Well, I was a race fan long before I was a wife or mother or grandmother, and the person I think I most regret never having met is Henry “Smokey” Yunick.
I can already see heads shaking and hear some asking, “Who is that?” Well, walk with me down Memory Lane for a bit and I’ll try to tell you all about Smokey, although there really is not enough room on this page to do him justice. To put it concisely, he was quite simply the best auto mechanic that ever held a wrench, and had a mind that was probably right on a par with Albert Einstein.
That’s not only my opinion, gentle readers. If you ask anyone in the NASCAR garage or the Indy garage, you’ll hear the same.
