I’m sure several of you have already read the post of “A NASCAR Hall of Fame Kind of Day” with all the responses from those who attended and comments from those who did not attend but took time to read the post. Several fine pictures were posted on the website and there is a video posted under the Forum Post. If you are listening, or reading this later, you may want to check out all that has been posted there. It will give you a true fan’s view of what a day at the Hall of Fame may be like for you. This Legendtorial is not really a report of what our group did at the Hall of Fame, but more inclined to let you know how it is to be with a group of like-minded individuals for a day of real fellowship as Dave Fulton likes to say. It was truly that.

The intent of this Legendtorial is not so much to sing the praises of the Hall of Fame, although I believe it worthy of the music, but rather to address the “birds of a feather” topic. There were ten of us who made the trip August 22nd and while we had an awesome time visiting Chocolate Myers in the Sirius Radio NASCAR Studio, and an even more awesome time checking out all the exhibits in the hall, the real pleasure was the sharing of stories from some pretty incredible folks,

Included in our group were Randy Myers, Bill Blair, Jr., Dennis Andrews, Dave Fulton and Robin Agner, all of whom have been involved on the inside of racing. Randy and Bill were involved from the early days. Dennis and Robin were involved in the 60s, 70s, and 80s,. Dave was involved from the late 60s officially but has always been a fan. We all gathered for lunch, albeit in a restaurant just a little less noisy than the first lap at full speed at Daytona, where the very best of memories were shared. None of us could hear everything that was said, but even at that, we had quite an experience in the history of the sport. That was true throughout the tour of the Hall. Bill Blair pointed out how the windshield in one of the early cars was held in place by spare valve guides as he went on to explain how the early racers used anything and everything around the shop to make things work. No, it was not high-tech, but it sure was interesting.

So, all of we “birds of a feather” had a really great time and shared a lot of memories and a lot of stories. We must find a way to record conversations such as we had at lunch for it is in those conversations that we have first hand knowledge of what it was like in the earliest days of NASCAR, or, in fact, even before NASCAR was born. I am assuming that those of us gathered here tonight for the show are “birds of a feather” and based upon such assumption, I am guessing there are several of you hoping we will do that trip again as a group. Let me assure you that will happen. I can say, with relative certainty, that we will be planning another “official RacersReunion” trip. Not sure how soon that will be, but I’m thinking we need to consider making this event at the very least an annual event. How about you folks giving us some feed back on that?

Now let’s go on to an issue Dave raised in a Forum post regarding the Charlotte television station delaying coverage of the Bristol race in deference to an NFL preseason game. I was in Asheville and didn’t get to turn the television on until about lap 290 but when we did turn on the television, the channel that was supposed to carry the race was “blacked out” on Direct TV. My brother-in-law, ever the technical expert in such matters, immediately found the race on another Direct channel. So I did get to watch the better part of the last half. But the issue Dave raises is how a Charlotte, NC local channel can delay race coverage for a pre-season NFL game. As I have already stated about the new NASCAR television package which includes NBC coverage, our local NBC affiliate in Columbia can find more ways to pre-empt scheduled programming with meaningless junk than you can imagine. I can already see races being pre-empted for the tiddlywinks tournament from Helvecia, Finland. Believe me, our local NBC channel causes me to entertain thoughts of blocking it on my television so I don’t have to put up with the programming. But, then, I’m not a big fan of NBC for anything anyway. But that’s another issue altogether.

Bottom line on Dave’s post is that there he was in Charlotte, the hub of NASCAR racing teams, and also the home of Bruton Smith who owns both Charlotte Motor Speedway and Bristol, and the race he wanted to watch with his grandsons was joined after a meaningless pre-season NFL game. There is something about that issue that rubs me the wrong way, but then remember I have absolutely no interest in the National Football League. I spent too many years too deeply involved in the workings of professional football to have any respect for the game or the people involved. Coach Gibbs notwithstanding.

Oh, and speaking of Gibbs, and JGR, what the heck is wrong with Kasey Kahne? While I do respect his attitude that there is a way to win and a way to wreck someone, I was shocked, amazed, and disgusted that he didn’t show Matt Kenseth that he meant business with what he said after Watkins Glen. We all know that Matt Kenseth would have put Kahne through the wall if the roles were reversed. Kasey had at least five good shots to put Kenseth in the wall and the one time he was rubbing him coming out of the turn, all he had to do was push him on up a little and rub the side of that Toyota against the wall. Guess I’m going to have to send Johnny Mallonee up to Mooresville to give Kahne “cage rattling” lessons. After the race, Kasey said he had the best car. It is a shame that the best car finishes second when it would have been so easy to bump and run. Kasey may think that by cutting Matt that break that Matt will repay him someday. Who wants to take odds on that?

As for Bristol, what I did get to see was good racing for the most part. Having said that, I am still of the opinion that the track is not the same as it once was. The concrete “sucks”. It is, for all intents and purposes, a one groove track or a one and half groove track. When I went to Bristol the first time in 1962 it was almost flat, asphalt, and the stands had the appearance of concrete poured on the side of a mountain. There, in my opinion, is where the concrete should have stayed. Maybe Dover is a good place for concrete, but I just don’t buy that for Bristol. Bet you Dale, Sr. would rather have it asphalt than concrete. I have no desire to return to Bristol. My last time there was 1964, a long time ago, and I would rather have those memories of some great racing.

When Ann and I were coming back from our weekend in Asheville, we were coming down I-26 on Sunday afternoon, several obvious race fans were passing us with their stickers and flags displayed. Surprisingly, the majority were either Tony Stewart of Jimmie Johnson fans. I saw very expensive motor homes, small camping trailers, all different makes of cars, and one Pontiac Firebird from the late 70s towing an old U-haul trailer painted over with white paint and sporting huge numbers on the trailer, the numbers being 14. I couldn’t help but think back to my trips to Bristol in the sixties. We had to negotiate twisty mountain two lane roads in a seven hour trip. That trip from Bristol to Columbia is now made on Interstate Highways in about four hours. Maybe that’s progress. At least it’s a faster trip. But, you know what? It took our little group as long to tour the Hall of Fame as the trip from Bristol to Columbia would take and I am betting our group of ten received much more satisfaction from the day than those fans traveling I-26 Sunday did at the Bristol raceThe stands at Bristol looked pretty good, not full, but pretty good. I am thinking the hearts of the ten “birds of a feather” who flocked together in Charlotte on August 22nd were, and still are, much fuller. It was a “Hall of Fame Kind of Day.”