Question of the Day for March 23, 2011

Who introduced you to stock car racing, at what age, and what are some of your first memories of attending races? Multipart question here, but with some of the stories I've heard from around the site and at events I've attended, will make some very interesting reading. It was my Uncle Bobby for me, at a very young age, but I've told that story many times. Let's hear yours. Please share. I can't wait to start reading them all. May lead to a book!! I always did want to be a writer.


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What a change! It's been awhile since I've checked in and I'm quite surprised. It may take me awhile to figure it our but first look it's really great.


updated by @tim-leeming: 03/12/17 12:01:40PM

My father introduced me to stock car racing back in the late '40s/early '50s - dirt track in Albany, GA, called Suicide Circle. I guess he began taking me there when I was about 6 years old.Once it gets in your bloodstream, it just never goes away. Some of the drivers I still remember are Eddie McDonald, Harvey Jones, Gober Sosebee (1 race), Aubrey Holley, Sam McQuagg. Most of the same drivers raced at Valdosta 75 Speedway (late '50s/early '60s), Valdosta, GA,where I witnessed Cale Yarborough get his 1st Grand National win around '65 or '66. My first experience seeing asphalt racing was the Atlanta 500 in 1960 - had never seen race cars go that fast before. I also remember seeing my first race on the Daytona track in '63 - the D500 when Marvin Panch got hurt in a practice accident and Tiny Lund drove Panch's Holman/Moody Ford to victory. I was a huge Fireball Roberts (#22 Pontiac)fan in those days and couldn't believe those '63 fastback Fords had finished 1-2-3-4-5 that day. Those were the "good ole days" of stock car racing when "stock cars" were really stock cars.

When I was 6 my grandfather took me to my first race in 1958 for the only Grand National Race ever ran at the Salisbury Super Speedway. He did not have the money to buy tickets for all of us so we sat on the train tracks across Hwy. 29 from the track to watch the race. Lee Petty won. I can still see the cars going around the track and the dust in the air. It was a great day for a six year old in 1958 and I have been hooked since then.

The company mom and dad worked for recieved free tickets for the weekly races. So we went to see them. That was in 1969. The race track was New Asheville Speedway. I was a boy of 10. The thing I remembered about the night was that Tommy Houston came in late that night and did not get to practice or qualify. He started in the back of the field and worked his way up the the lead and won the race.The flash of cars running under the lights,the sounds of the tires squeeling going into the corners,and the smell of racing fuel,squeeling tires and the roar of the crowd, this boy of 10 was hooked for life.Before the year was over we were going to Asheville on Friday nights,Hickory on Saturdays,and Harris on Sundays.

I became a fan after watching the 1962 Southern 500on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Shortly after listening to the 1963 Daytona 500 on radio, my dad told me he had a surprise for me. When I saw an ad for the Hillsboro NASCAR GN race in the local paper the next day, I knew what the surprise was. 13 days later, we were in the stands for my first race. We alsoattended the Spring race at Martinsville and the Fall race at Hillsboro in 1963 and both Darlington races in 1964 before my dad lost interest because of the many factory boycotts. My only racing trips were to local shows at the old Rockingham dirt track and Bowman Gray Stadium in the mid to late sixties. I finally returned to the major league in 1968 with the Spring race at Maryinsville. I have many fond memories of my racing experiences including seeing Richard Petty win race number 100 at Bowman Gray !

1946 Auto Racing, Raleigh Fairgrounds, Sam Nunis was the promoter.

1948Modified Stock Cars,Hillsboro NC . A bunch of fellow workers got together and went, I was "hooked" from then on.

Little Joe won.

Fonty Flock wrecked.

Had been following Indy 500 and some NASCAR events on the radio and in spring 1964, at age 15,had my father drop me off early on Sunday at the Richmond, VA fairgrounds 1/2-mile dirt track for the Richmond 250 NASCAR Grand National race, all alone with $5 in my pocket. Well, it took the entire $5 to buy a bleacher seat in turn 4 and I was hooked for life the first time Tiny Lund came through that turn in practice in his #55 orange '64 Ford kicking up a roostertail of dirt. When famed announcer Ray Melton gave his pace lap spiel about clapping hands and stomping feet to send the drivers on their way, he warned those of us in the turn 4 bleachers that we better not stomp our feet. This may be the only NASCAR race in history that started on Sunday afternoon and finished under the lights on TUESDAY night after a monsoon. Before the rain, Richard Petty fresh off his first Daytona 500 winin his 426 hemi Plymouth and Billy Wade drivingBud Moore's Mercuryfollowing Richmond hero and frequent winner (as well as track promoter Paul Sawyer's partner) Joe Weatherly's untimely Riverside death, ran side by side for lap after lap. After the rain delay I walked a mile to find an open drug store that let me use their phone to call my dad to come pick me up. I looked like a wet hamster, but I was back Tuesday night to see David Pearson take the checkers in Cotton Owens' white and red Dodge #6. That began a lifetime love of racing that later included part ownership of a dirt '55 Chevy and a later career in motorsports, including working at that same Richmond track as Director of Media Relations for ten years and having signed Dale Earnhardt to his first personal services contract. Along the way, I attended many races with my good friend, Frank and never missed a Friday night show at Richmond's Southside Speedway or later a Saturday night event at Wilson County (NC) Speedway.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

My father took me to a very interesting place - Frankie's Forest Park, in Dayton Ohio, in 1952. I was at the tender age of FIVE. Frankie's was an amusement park with a 1/5th mile asphalt race track, and, to this day, it was the only track I've ever seen where you could ride a roller coaster and watch the race - from above.

We entered the track late, so we ended up sitting down front. In the first race, one of those neat pre-war Ford Coupes slammed into the guardrail and flipped right in front of me, landing right on the roof. I left. They found me in the top row of the grandstands sitting on some woman's lap. True story. Naturally, I was forever hooked after that !

It wasn't someONE, but both my dad and grandpa. They didn't really introduce it to me, sort of. It was November of 2003, when I was just seven years old, my family and my grandparents went to the local Cici's pizza for supper and on the big screen, they had the season finale on. I don't even remember if I watched any of it except for the last lap. And being that Hometown Hero, Bill Elliott was leading, both my grandpa and dad were happy about it until they got all disappointed when he blew the tire on the last lap. I can remember it vividly. And since that was the season finale, I couldn't watch again until February. For Christmas, I got a Nascar computer game, so I quickly learned the drivers and the tracks. And came the Daytona 500 weekend, I got a small Ricky Rudd car, so slowly, I was getting turned to the side of Stock Car Racing. And that weekend, I happened to be sick, so I had the whole weekend to sit on the couch and watch TV. At the start of the 2004 Daytona 500, my dad was quietly pulling for Tony Stewart (So eventually I did too) I remember mostly during the last 50 laps, when it was a duel against Tony and Dale Earnhardt Jr. I remember when the commentators were saying "He did it, just like his dad" so I figured that for every Jr, there had to have been a Sr. The next two weeks I witnessed Matt Kenseth and the newcomer Kasey Kahne, duel it out for some close finishes at both the last Rockingham race and in Las Vegas. And ever since then...I've been a fan for life!!-Cody

Don't know how exactly how old I was but my mom took me and my brother with her to watch daddy race at the old Rockingham Speedway dirt track from the time my brother could walk, he is 2 1/2 years younger than me. Didn't see my first Grand National race until 1967 when dad carried me with him to Charlotte, I can still hear the sound Smokey's Chevelle made with Curtis Turner behind the wheel. Sounded like a bumble bee compared to the other cars.

I went to my first race at Palm Beach Speedway (Florida) in 1952. At that time Palm Beach was a 1/2 mile oiled dirt track. It was a NASCAR Modified/Sportsman event. I went with a neighbor from South Bay, Fla. Shorty Shiver, who had a 1940 Ford Modified race car. John Ellison was the driver. I thought that I had died and gone to heaven. What a sight to see all of those race cars power sliding through the turns and the sound and the smell was something I had never witnessed before. I was hooked. I kept attending the races with my Father and Motherof and onuntil 1955 when I was a co-builder of a NASCAR Amateur car. A 1935 Ford coupe. It was wrecked the first time out and was destroyed. I started driving in 1956 and continued until 1977 until it got just too expensive to run for me. But I enjoyed every minute of it.

My Uncles introduced me to NASCAR and local dirt track racing in the very early 70's. My first NASCAR race will always be special. Leading up to the race my Uncle Chris would read every newspaper he could find looking for any news about the upcoming National 500 at Charlotte. He would read the articals and show his excitement with his changing tones, especially if the artical was about David Pearson or the Woods Brothers. The morning of the race we packed food and drinks and headed off the Charlotte. All the way there he would re-live past races and tell me of stories he grew up with. As we stood in line to get tickets he balenced a large foam cooler full of his beer and repeatedlly told me, "If something happens and you need to stop, get off the steps or these fools will run over you." The seating wasn't reservered then on the back straight a way and it was first come to the best seats.

The ticket booth openned at 8:00 and we were at the window, bought our tickets ($8.00) and took our place in line at the gate and within a few minutes the gates were opened and we races up the steps to claim our seats. It was then that Uncle Chris dropped his cooler and beer and ice covered the steps. He tried to stop but was caught in the flow and was pushed up the steps, leaving his beer behind for any who were brave enough to stop and gather the free suds.

When the race was over, I couldn't hear, I was badly sunburned and I was so tired I wondered if I would make it to the car for the trip home. I was miserable. But somewhere in all the misfortune a seed was planted. One that has continue to grow and still fills me with excitement, joy and the passion that I live for. I owe Uncle Chris more than he knows.

Great question, thanks for the memories.

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