Cody Dinsmore

Georgia Racing History – Tim Flock

Posted by Cody º June 19, 2013 º Articles | Cody Dinsmore | Commentary º 0 comments

By Cody Dinsmore
Tim Flock, the youngest of the “Fabulous Flock Brothers” was born in Fort Payne Alabama in May of 1924. Although he came from a family of 9, he only had three other stock car racing siblings – Bob, Fonty and sister Ethyl, that would later race. Their mother was a ‘wing-walker’ and their father was a cab driver. The Flocks also had another brother, Carl, that was a speedboat racer. In the mid 30′s Fonty and Bob would Read On!

Bill Elliott Racing History – The Final Chapter (2001-present)

Posted by Cody º May 22, 2013 º Articles | Cody Dinsmore | Commentary º 0 comments

Last week, on my segment, I talked about Bill Elliott’s brave move from his family team at the end of 1991 to Junior Johnson’s team in 92. He had a great year, winning 5 races, 4 of which were won consecutively, but lost that year’s championship by 10 points. That would be his best year for about 10 years. He only earned one more cup win, giving Junior Johnson his last victory as a car owner in 1994 in the Southern 500. From 1995-2000, Elliott ventured out on his own – driving his self-owned #94 McDonalds Ford. While it first seemed to be the perfect option, it turned sour. Bill went winless from September of 94 all the way into the new millennium. This led to a series of meetings with Jeff Gordon’s championship crew chief, Ray Evernham in 2000. Ray was chosen by Dodge to be the leader of a new team to bring Dodge back into the sport they once dominated, but hadn’t won a race since the late 1970′s. Read On!

Bill Elliott Racing History 1992-2000

Posted by jeff º May 18, 2013 º Articles | Cody Dinsmore | Commentary º 0 comments

By Cody Dinsmore

When we last talked, Winston Cup Champion and NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver was planning to leave his family-based and Melling owned race team. The move would be the biggest in his career yet. With Coors Brewing Company leaving the #9, and being in a slump during the past couple of seasons, Bill thought change was needed going into the 1992 season.

Several driver/sponsor combinations were being switched up for the 92′ season. One big announcement in particular was “The King”, Richard Petty was to compete in his last season as an owner. Geoff Bodine, who for two seasons drove Junior Johnson’s famous #11 was leaving to compete on WWII Veteran, Bud Moore’s legendary #15. Therefore, a seat in Johnson’s Budweiser Thunderbird was now vacant with Elliott being a top driver, looking for a top ride. So, a deal was struck on January 2nd, 1992 for a three-season contract for Bill to drive the #11 Ford. I’m sure that the Coors executives weren’t too happy about the Most Popular Driver switching to their competitor. Read On!

Bill Elliott 1986-1991 – The Ending of an Era

Posted by Cody º May 12, 2013 º Articles | Cody Dinsmore | Commentary º 0 comments

By Cody Dinsmore

When we left off last week, Bill Elliott was at one of the biggest times of the year – winning 11 races and 11 poles in 1985 in addition to the $1,000,000 bonus from series sponsor, Winston. He was also named Most Popular Driver for the second consecutive year and Eljer’s Driver of the Year. Sure, it was an awesome year for a guy who had just been racing the full schedule for his 3rd season, but a heart-breaking part failure at the season finale at Riverside cost him that year’s Winston Cup. Still looking optimistic for 1986, the Elliott’s now were trying to worry about a championship. Their mind-set for the previous years were to just win races. In 1985, that’s exactly what they done. Now they were going to be more smarter about how they run. The only thing was…the other manufacturers. On the 1985 schedule, there were 28 races – 14 were won by Fords, the other 14 had Chevrolet’s in victory lane. Notice there were no Oldsmobile wins, nor Buick or Pontiac. Therefore, GM had to do something to keep up with the aerodynamic wonders of the Thunderbird. For the 1986 models of the Chevrolet Monte Carlo and the Pontiac Grand Prix were basically the same as the previous year, but with a huge ‘bubble-back’ glass. The front end was also changed to make the cars more aerodynamic. For the other 2 GM products, Buick, and Olds , cars were radically re-designed and looked much smaller than the others. Many teams switched to the smaller-looking cars to experiment. Read On!

Bill Elliott’s Coors Days 1984 – 1985

Posted by jeff º May 1, 2013 º Articles | Cody Dinsmore | Commentary º 0 comments

By Cody Dinsmore

Last time you heard a ‘Georgia Racing History’ segment, it was about how Harry Melling really helped the Elliott Race Team and brought Bill his first pole, win and first full-time season. For this segment, I will continue on with the history of Bill Elliott and talk about the 1984 and 85′ season, including his Winston Million.

In the latter part of the 1983, Coors Brewery had met with Harry Melling and Bill about a possible sponsorship. They drew up an 8-year contract with the first primary sponsored race being the 1984 Daytona 500. However, a small Coors decal had been placed on the quarter panel for the last handful of races in 1983, including his first career win at the Winston Western Read On!

Bill Elliot’s First Career Cup Start

Posted by Cody º April 10, 2013 º Articles | Cody Dinsmore | Commentary º 2 comments

By Cody Dinsmore

Just this past weekend, Bill Elliott’s son, Chase, made his debut in one of the three top level divisions of NASCAR, the Camping World Truck series. I did not watch the race, so I can’t give a report, but I can say that he qualified 8th, and finished 6th, at a track he’s never raced at – The Legendary Martinsville Speedway. Although Chase is currently running Read On!

The History of Lakewood Speedway

Posted by Cody º April 5, 2013 º Articles | Cody Dinsmore | Commentary º 5 comments

By Cody Dinsmore

In 1875, while the state of Georgia was still in the “reconstruction” phase after Sherman practically burned down the majority of the state just 11 years before, a place called Lakewood was built. It’s purpose was to provide water from the man-made lake to most of the Atlanta area. It wasn’t until around 1915 Read On!