lug nut copy sent to Buz Mckin

Subject: Charlotte Museum lug nutsBuz McKimNASCAR Hall of Fame historian.BuzAfter watching you on the hall of fame show last week, which I enjoyed you were asked about bogus items you have for display and you said you didn’t know of any. As it turns out you do have, it is the lug nut tool donated by Ray Fox.Fox had nothing to do with making the first tool or gluing on the lug nuts other being in the same building with me when I was working on it.The original tool I built had no strap around it as I wanted to keep it as light as possibleHe only knew the magnets came from Sears is because of all the trips I made there finding the right strength to hold the lug nuts in and still release them on the studs and was never used in a race as I know of, because I was the tire changer. The car belonged to Richard Howard and was driven by Freddie Lorenzen. Fox was building the engines and I was working on the car.The problem was getting the tool out of the way after putting the lug nuts on that is where the glue came in. I am alone in the shop about 3 in the morning trying the tool out with a bungee cord around my neck to pull the tool out of the way by just releasing it but when I did it came back and hit me in the chest knocking the wind out of me. Ready to call it a day I started picking up all the lug nuts I had scattered on the floor and found I had run over a tube of 3M trim cement with the creeper stool wheel and some of the wayward lug nuts were in the glue and when I tried to pick then up they snapped back to the floor, then I started working on drying time, I had tried plastic clips and double sided tape before, but it didn’t work, this was the answer.We had run the race in Charlotte in October and the next race we were looking at was Rockingham but Richard didn’t get the deal he wanted so we weren’t going but the pit crew race was there and I knew once the glue was used everyone would copy it and would be of no value to me so I went to my old friend Mario Rossi who had Bobby Allison driving for him with Don Lawrence as his crew chief. I told Rossi they could win the pit crew contest and it would cost $100 per second thatthey won by, I collected $200 my total pay, now Fox want’s to take credit for it of course I am in good company I’ve heard him try to take credit for things Smokey and Junior did, but I’ll bet $100,000 my story is true.Attached are two letters from Don Naman from the Talladega museum where he put a wheel on display in 1988 I’m sure he checked it out. I got the old style wheel from Cotton Owens and the text was done by Gene Granger.Over the years I have heard several stories about where the glue on lug nuts came from but didn’t say much about it, but now some one is trying to take credit for in the new museum and that isn’t right.I had several call’s and emails after the program aired from people who knew the truth and I don’t want my kids,grandkids, and friends thinking I am or have lied to them. I don’t care about being in the museum but I don’t want someone else taking credit for my work.ThanksJohn Green209 56th ave nN, Myrtle Beach SC29582843-902-2686

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