I have been writing a Racing History Minute this week for each date, September 1st through the 7th in which I recall Southern 500 races from the first through the 1983 race, the last Southern 500 run on Labor Day before moving it to the Sunday before, and finally, in a move by NASCAR for which I hold them in contempt of the fan, to the Saturday night of Mothers Day weekend. Each day, when I sit down to write, I remember incidents that happened in that infield over the years I spent there, some of which I have related in those Forum posts. Two I have not related there, but which stick in my memory for reasons I can’t explain other than the humor I derived from those episodes.
The first involves the man who was cooking a huge pot of grits. For our non-Southern listeners, grits is/are a Southern delight we enjoy for breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, butter, but NEVER WITH SUGAR. Anyway, this guy started cooking these grits on a camp stove in a pot much bigger than I believed the camp stove could handle, but he had both burners going. Somewhere near 4:00 a.m., he loudly announced to the infield that the grits were ready. While he had no specifically intended audience, several people came over and he filled paper plates (Southerners don’t eat grits from a bowl) with his steaming delight. We were parked about 20 yards away from this guy but I didn’t venture over to accept grits from this stranger who was obviously very inebriated. I was about 13 or 14 at the time.
By roughly 6:00 a.m., he had fed probably 30 to 40 folks, but still had plenty of grits left in this huge pot. Thus began the loud announcement “last call for grits, I’m gonna
pour them out”. Over and over again this guy was bellowing at the top of his lungs, and believe me he had some huge mouth as you could surely hear him from the third turn encampment to at least downtown Darlington. The “I’m gonna pour them out” mantra went unto for more than an hour, with the announcement at least every thirty seconds. Finally this lady, probably somewhere near 50 years old, came out of a camping trailer with a pot in her hands. She walked over to the guy, now with a spoon in one hand stirring grits and a bottle of what I later learned was Jim Beam in the other, and held out the pot. I didn’t hear what she said but she apparently asked for a pot of grits. Our cook, smiling broadly, dipped the lady’s pot in the grits, and pulled it out with grits dripping down the sides. He handed it to her with a huge smile. The lady took the pot and poured those hot grits over the head of the cook. She then screamed at him, “pour the grits out now or I’ll pour the rest on you”. The guy was screaming, obviously in pain as the grits were hot! I saw him later in the day and his face was red, not blistered, but red where the grits had burned him. I started to ask him if he had any left, but I wasn’t so brave in those days. Not sure I’m that brave even today.
The other episode was in the early sixties, I want to say 1962 but I can’t be certain. We were parked in our usual spot next to the third turn fence and parked right beside us was a young man, probably 28 or 29, with several of his buddies. He was driving a new Pontiac and was a loud and rowdy fan of Fireball Roberts who also drove a Pontiac then. The young man and his buddies began to consume massive quantities of beer. They had three large ice chests but I never saw any food in them, only beer. I was fascinated as I watched these guys become more and more unruly, but they were nice to me. They were talking racing with me and I could always do that. However, by late Sunday evening, it was more and more difficult to understand what they were saying. I do recall that it was still early by may standards when all four of the guys went to sleep, two inside the car and two in sleeping bags between their car and ours.
The next morning when I got up with the sun, all four of the guys were still asleep. One by one, three of them woke up and stumbled off to the infield rest rooms (which to describe is another story all to itself). The one sleeping in the back seat never moved. As I sat there watching him I was beginning to wonder if he was dead. When the other three came back, they tried to wake the guy up but he wouldn’t budge. One of the buddies said “he’s still breathing, leaving him alone”.
The race started at 11:00 a.m. back then and almost on the stroke of the clock the cars roared to life. Parade laps over, the race began. I was up against the fence watching, as I always was, but somewhere around 60 laps I went to the back of Uncle Bobby’s car to get a Coke from the ice chest and noticed Rip Van Race Fan was still sound asleep. Not too long after my visit to the ice chest, I hear this noise coming from behind me and turn to see the sleepy head climbing out of the Pontiac and on to the truck to see the race. He was yelling, at the top of his volume range, “Go Fireball, come on Fireball”. Problem was Fireball was already out of the race, unknown to the fan. After yelling for Fireball for five minutes and no sign of Fireball on the track, the guy yells “where the hell is Fireball”. One of his buddies relayed the bad news that Fireball was out of the race. The guy got down off the trunk and climbed back into the back seat of the Pontiac and went back to sleep. Those guys left with more than 100 laps left in the race. Thinking back, I believe they were more party fans than race fans. But that is a funny memory for me.
Now let us fast forward several years to this weekend’s races, Nationwide in Atlanta Saturday night, Camping World Truck Series in Canada on Sunday and the Sunday night Cup Race in Atlanta. I watched all three and would offer these observations. Remember, these are MY observations and you may not agree. I don’t intend to speak for you but I do hope all of you will let us know what you thought of the race.
As for the Nationwide race Saturday, it was a good race, somewhat competitive and a real let down for Kyle Busch who had shown he had a strong car, only to be overcome by a hard charging Kevin Harvick. Nothing really spectacular about that race, but it was competitive, if not for the lead all night, certainly for other positions. I like the cars that run, the Camaros and Mustangs. The Toyota, of course, unable to field a Prius, must run the same car as in Cup. That doesn’t sit well with me, but then all of you know my feelings about the Toyota cars.
Going to the road course in Mosport was a good pre-amble to the Cup race. A road course is always exciting and to have the Camping World Truck series there made for exact interest. I thought it was a very competitive race and showed, once more in my opinion, that racing on road courses are not only competitive, but also very exciting. We have discussed before how we feel the truck series is the closest thing today’s fan has to “old school” and that was reiterated for sure on the last lap Sunday.
There is sure to be much discussion about Chase Elliott “dumping” Ty Dillon on the last turn of the last lap. But he wasn’t the only one dumping other drivers. Ask Max Papis. But this is how I saw it; Chase wanted to win, Ty wanted to win. Chase dove to the inside, Ty came down to block him and to run the proper line through the turn and they hit and Chase came out ahead. Sure, Ty and his crew were not happy and I can’t really blame them and there has been plenty of talk from my friends in social media concerning the “dirty driving” of Chase Elliott. Remember how in February that same talk was about Kyle Larson? I must admit that I would have issues with me, myself, doing something like Chase did. Just ask Johnny Mallonee, but then again, that may have been one primary reason I never made it as a race driver.
Sunday night’s Cup race? Well, I thought it was a great race, and probably one of the most competitive of the year, although definitely full of surprises. Goodyear apparently got the tire issue right and gave us some good side by side racing although I find fault with that “outside lane on the restart” problem. How about the incident that go all the Hendrick cars? How about Brad K apparently missing the Chase this year? How about Kyle Busch clinching his Chase position? How about Jeff Gordon again being on “the bubble” heading into Richmond? Frankly, I don’t see Jeff pulling it out this year. And how about Clint Bowyer? Leading the points going into Richmond? He should make it an interesting Chase, to say the least.
I thought Kyle Busch’s interview in Victory Lane was the finest he has ever given. I especially liked the part when he pointed first to the stands and then to the camera to thank all the fans in both places for making it possible for him to race. I never could get a good view of the stands so I’m not sure what the crowd was but I couldn’t help but draw on all my past Atlanta visits as I looked at the clock as I headed for bed seeing it was 11:30. I said to myself as I put my head on the pillow that “it would be at least 3:00 a.m. before those fans could get out of that place. Sure made my pillow feel even better.
So, tonight I had recalled memories of past Labor Day weekends and talked about the races from 2013. I do know this for certain. It’s Labor Day, 2013, and I’m going out to cut the grass. Guess I’ll push the lawn mower around in an egg-shaped oval direction and pretend the little 6 horse power engine is really a big block V-8 from the sixties. “Go Fireball”!!!!!!
