Did your local, weekly track give the winning driver a jacket? These were often presented by some manufacturer for a big race win at the local track.
I remember when it seemed that everybody who was cool around the track wore either:
1) a Wynn's Friction Proofing Jacket (and the winner got a little decal)
2) a Bardahl jacket
3) a Bell Helmets jacket
Dale Earnhardt had gotten one of those Bell jackets for winning a race at either Concord or Metrolina and it was all he wanted to wear in cool weather. After going a round with Dale one day when he came out of the truck wearing the Bell jacket instead a Wrangler jacket, he finally told me he hated our Wrangler jacket because it had elastic sleeves that pinched and his Bell jacket had knit "baseball" sleeves.
By the next week we had made Wrangler jackets with knit "baseball" sleeves like the one Dale is wearing below:
Every now and again Dale would still appear in the red Bell helmets jacket. I don't know if he did it to irritate me or because it reminded him of an important short track win at a local track where he became a "name."
I guess in this time of everybody having sponsors, a Wynn's or Bardahl jacket seems pretty tame, but it used to be a really, really big deal to get one. Those guys wearing the Wynn's and Bardahl jackets seemed pretty special.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
