I am guessing all this reminiscing about those songs are the result of Coastal Jack’s segment last week about the Columbia Speedway late-model race in May, 1964, and the discussion thereafter about LeeRoy Yarbrough. I an odd sort of way, I guess I was closer to LeeRoy at that point in time than I was to any other race driver as I did spend a lot to time around LeeRoy and his wife Gloria when they lived in the Eau Claire neighborhood of Columbia.  That was in 1964, the year I graduated High School, the year of the race Coastal Jack talked about, and the year LeeRoy actually drove for me in three races.  I like the sound of that statement and often conveniently leave out the part about those three races being in slot cars.

I have memories of so many races at The Historic Columbia Speedway where the outcome was determined coming off turn four to the line.  Most times it was two cars racing for that win, but I remember several times when two, three, or four would come off four nose to tail and two abreast.  You could pretty well count on a wreck if Ralph Earnhardt was running anywhere but first in that rundown.  But those, as they say were the days.  Columbia, Savannah, Augusta, Newberry, all dirt tracks where Rapid Roy would have had a tough time winning races.  But those are memories for the ages.  No videos of those races, and, thanks to NASCAR, we don’t even have written records of those events.  What I do have is a memory of so many of those events and unless there was something really spectacular or different about the event, I have learned that my memories are all running together now, for the most part.  Wish I had that bottle Jim sang about and I could just open it and relive every day just as if it were happening now.  Sort of like a good “Ground Hog Day”, you know the movie where Bill Murray woke up every morning only to relive the same day over and over and over.

Then as I was watching the Cup race from Michigan Sunday, I happened to think back to the first Cup race run there in June of 1969, June 15, 1969, to be exact.  So, 45 years ago, if my math is correct, and believe me, the way I am with math, you had better check it for yourself.  I could remember turning in on the radio for that race because we had heard so much hype about the two-mile long track with the sweeping turns and the racing was promised to be really good.  Even here in Columbia, our newspaper was giving the race some good coverage.  How could they not, with such folks as David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, James Hylton, LeeRoy Yarbrough, all then living in South Carolina.   I remember I was really revved up to hear that race.

The race was certainly exciting with what I thought I had remembered as almost lap by lap lead changes.  I went back and pulled out my Greg Fielden “Forty Years of Stock Car Racing” and looked up the information.  The race was full of lead changes; in fact, the lead changed hands 35 times at the start-finish line between nine drivers.  A little more competitive than the event I watched Sunday.  The track was new to the circuit and it did not disappoint.  Benny Phillips, even then a premier motorsports writer, wrote after the race “If they gave an Oscar for Stock Car Racing’s most thrilling event, then the Motor State 500 would take the lead by leaps and bounds”.

The last lap was a shoot out of epic proportions between Cale Yarborough and LeeRoy Yarbrough.  I don’t recall who was announcing the event, but I do recall the excitement in his voice as he described that last lap.  Cale and LeeRoy took the white flag side by side and raced that way until going into turn three when LeeRoy gave it all he had and drove hard into the turn when his Junior Johnson Mercury began to fishtail and slapped the wall after connecting with Cale’s car.  It was some finish to see.  LeeRoy gathered it back but could only manage fourth place as David Pearson and Richard Petty slipped by LeeRoy as he bounced along the wall.  I can still remember my friends and I catching our collective breaths when that checkered flag fell.  NASCAR is getting some of those exciting finishes back these days, but Sunday wasn’t especially one of them. But I don’t fault them, because the racing was fair and there was no green-white-checkered finish arranged by a late bogus caution flag for debris.  Now, having said that, I understand from a friend who was at the race, that over the last 20 laps, there was quite a bit of the same type debris NASCAR has thrown the flag for so many times this year, not to mention the piece that flew off the number 3 with just a few laps to go.  Now all the conspiracy theorist are up in arms that NASCAR is doing all it can to ensure a seventh championship for Jimmie Johnson.  Not sure how I feel about that theory although I do believe NASCAR can, and does, manipulate many of the race outcomes to suit their particular needs at the time.  Think about that.  Is there anyone out there, no counting those who refuse to accept reason, who does not believe the Danica Patrick pole at the Daytona 500 was not manipulated?  Anyone who doesn’t believe the number 3 on the pole this year was not manipulated?  Believe what you want but having seen some of the inner workings of NASCAR over the years, I know how it operates.

So much for what has turned out to be a History Minute, unintentionally but so it is.  Let’s talk a little about the future.  And, again, the conversation last week about the slot car racing brings this to mind.  Have any of you seen the Google “driverless” car?  No, I am not talking about the 18 M&Ms car when Kyle is hot; I am talking about the little car that they are actually putting on the highways now and driving around without a driver. A remote control if you will automobile.  Can you imagine, say 50 years from now, when the drivers in NASCAR stand where the spotters do these days and remotely control these cars?  Just imagining in my mind of such a fiasco is worth a hearty laugh.  But it could happen. Would make for some interesting wrecks if anything like the slot car days.

Oh, and did any of you read the interview with Humphy Wheeler last week where he says there are too many “pretty boys” in NASCAR these days?  Is that not what we have been saying for quite some time?   Just think about Cousin Carl, Matt Kenseth, Biffle, Kyle Busch, and several of the other big timers.  Goes back to what I talked about last week in the Legendtorial.  Those who think they are above the sport, as well as above the fans.  So many of those drivers need a course in Richard Petty’s way to treat fans.  The sport was growing in the heyday of Petty, Yarborough, the Allisons, Pearson, Bobby Isaac, and more, building on a foundation laid by the Flock boys, Bill Blair, Jimmie Lewallen, and build upon by Big Bill France.  It was a solid foundation for sure.   Bill, Jr., did a great job of marketing with Winston and racing was growing by leaps and bounds and fans were buying all the tickets available for every race.  Drivers were accessible. Drivers were the common men who just happened to drive racecars.  It sure isn’t that way today!!

I guess I am lamenting the fact that I didn’t, in fact, couldn’t save those times in a bottle.  These days, Bad, Bad Leroy Brown would be in jail for causing problems and Rapid Roy would be censored for having anything to do with cigarettes.  I am noticing crowds are growing a little bit this year and the racing seems to be better than it has been in the last five or six years.  In reality, though, if you think about Rousch, Hendrick, Gibbs, and Childress being the main players, with maybe a little consideration for Stewart Haas, we have a very small minority of owners who are controlling it all.  Frankly, with the power of Rick Hendrick, he could probably take over NASCAR without a fuss, but that is a topic for another Legendtorial.

If I could save time in a bottle, I would save every day ‘til eternity passes away just to spend them doing what I’m doing. I hope you all each have your own bottle of memories that you will uncork from time to time just to remember how it was when we really had some great drivers out there.