Don't know what happened, but I've never thought the Sprint Cup gals could hold a candle to the old Miss Winstons or Linda Vaughn and Winky Louise (my all-time favorite, who married the Green Bay Packers' Jerry Kramer) in their red spangled leotard as Miss Firebird or the RaceStoppers as pointed out by William Horrell. PattyKay, it would have been hard to miss the face of the girl trying to peek into the victory lane tv camera looking totally lost in the first years of Nextel/Sprint. Either she wasn't well trained or didn't know what she was doing. Not like the Winston women. I was hired as Manager, Wrangler NASCAR Special Events by Bob Odear, the RJR man who started the Winston program. Bob actually married the first Miss Winston, Marilyn Green. After they married, Marilyn started a modeling agency that provided all future Miss Winstons. So, we knew a lot about the Miss Winston program. My favorite Miss Winston had to be Margaret Claud, probably because I used to fly to the races with her and accompanied her later when she moonlighted for me as Miss Wrangler at Tractor Pulls and SuperCross events. She was super nice and TOTALLY professional. I remember a Miss Winston named Penny about the same time who could put down more cold beer than any of us (though she was the only one I ever met who socialized). I got to be around Patti Petty alot when I worked with Kyle at 7-Eleven and CITGO. Another super nice person. I remember some years after Lennie Pond had lost his ride with Ranier and was selling cars in Colonial Heights, Va. he lost his wife. When Lennie, a former Talladega winner and Rookie of the Year showed up at North Wilkesboro, just about everybody but Patti ignored him. She went out of her way to invite Lennie to sit in her van, etc. It's those little things that the fans never see that make SOME of the racing community really special. I know in addition to Kyle and Jeff, both Derrike Cope and Andy Petree married former Miss Winstons. Then there were also the Skoal Bandit girls and those sleazy Hooters girls around the Kulwicki deal that NASCAR wouldn't let in the track for a long time. I think some of the worst I ever saw were those Tuflon girls around Bobby Allison at Daytona for that fake product that never paid for their car sponsorship. The greatest description I ever read of a track beauty queen was Tom Wolfe's description in The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson of Miss Firebird at North Wilkesboro in the prerace parade. Wolfe's description of Miss Firebird's honeydew legs and the catcalls from the good ole boys in the Wilkesboro stands in their winklepicker shoes is absolutely classic. That collection of stories that appeared in Esquire Magazine and was later made into the movie with Jeff Bridges can be found in the book Kandy Kolored Metalflake Streamline Baby in most libraries.
--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
Maggie
