I guess race teams have spied on each other as long as one car has outrun another. In 1986 at the June Michigan race our rookie Derrike Cope's #79 Western Peterbilt team had outqualified rookie Alan Kulwicki's #35 Quincy's Steak House car, placing Cope's T-bird 27th on the grid, ahead of Kulwicki, who started 32nd. We'd all gone back to the truck for a snack and then returned to the car in the garage, which was on jackstands. We'd started talking and heard a squeak. We had a crew member named Erik who we called "Big E" and who stood about 6'-7" tall (he later worked for a number of years at Robert Yates Racing). Well, Erik bends down and looks under Derrike's car and then says,"Whatcha doing down there, boy?" At that point, a creeper with Alan Kulwicki on it slowly emerged from under our car. He had nothing to say and got theheck out of there. Kulwicki was always asking us questions, but never wanting to share any answers of his own. Derrike was very restrained and I admired his composure. A lot of folks called KulwickiUnderdog, some Underbird... personally, we thought hewas a strange bird. Funny thing is that rookie Chet Fillip had outqualified both Cope and Kulwicki posting the 26th fastest time... that's the car Kulwicki should have been under, or maybe he had been.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 04/07/17 09:54:31AM
