Forum Activity for @tmc-chase

October 21, 1979 - Richard wins Rockingham

Stock Car Racing History

Originally posted by me as part of my Richard Petty 200 Wins blog series here:

https://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-21-this-day-in-petty-history.html

Keep those comments, cards, letters, and money orders coming!

1979 - Richard Petty wins his 190th career Grand National race in the American 500 at Rockingham. He also takes over the points lead over Darrell Waltrip in his pursuit of his seventh NASCAR Grand National / Winston Cup title.

Bobby W., fellow member at Racers Reunion , remembers...

For that year's Rockingham race, me and friends simply bought $8.00 general admission tickets for the backstretch stands. Those tickets only allowed access to the first 10 rows of stands. But after the race was about 100 laps in, we could wander anywhere and watch from the upper sections - which we did. Richard was driving a '79 Monte Carlo, took the lead early, and blistered the field again. I was lucky. I was convinced the sun rose and set over Level Cross, and I got to see Richard in his prime. Good times!

The comments from rookie Joe Millikan were interesting. Millikan grew up in Randleman, NC and worked in the shop for Petty Enterprises for several years. In the mid to late 70s, Petty Enterprises fielded an #04 STP Dodge Charger for Millikan in Late Model Sportsman races at Daytona and Talladega.

Joe won a couple of those events, and his performance in the Petty-built Dodges helped tee him up for a Cup rookie-of-the-year run with L.G. DeWitt. As it turns out, however, Millikan had the bad fortune to be a Cup rookie in the same season as a a guy named Dale Earnhardt.

Petty left Rockingham leading in the championship battle by eight points over Waltrip. Richard was almost 230 points behind Waltrip two months earlier.

TMC

updated by @tmc-chase: 10/21/20 08:15:47AM

Ken Rush

General

When I saw this post, I paused for a second. The name was vaguely familiar, but I wasn't sure why. After reading through some of the nice comments about Ken Rush, I went to Racing Reference to see if anything re-kindled my thought. Sure enough, there it was. Ken drove over half his 50 convertible series starts and about a third of his 56 Grand National starts for Julian 'J.H.' Petty. Like PKL, I wasn't familiar with Ken's career beyond the Petty racing connection. But its still time to grieve when another one of his era passes.

October 17, 1971 - Petty wins Delaware 500

Stock Car Racing History

One of the story lines headed into the fall 1971 Dover race was the return of Fred Lorenzen to Ray Nichels' STP team.

After quitting Nichels' team in the summer following the Talladega race, he was hurt at Darlington in a one-off ride with the Wood Brothers. Apparently, Freddy decided to make nice with Ray and drive the remaining big races down the home stretch of the season: Dover, Rockingham and Texas.

But after qualifying 31st and finishing 21st after suffering engine problems, Lorenzen must have realized his first instinct was the right one. He left the STP team again, and he didn't race again the rest of the 1971 season.- Spartanburg Herald

October 17, 1971 - Petty wins Delaware 500

Stock Car Racing History

Originally posted by me as part of my Richard Petty's 200 Wins series here:

https://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-17-this-day-in-petty-history.html

1971 - Richard wins his 137th career race in the Delaware 500 at Dover. Bobby Allison had the race wrapped-up, but he broke a wheel stud and needed an extended pit stop to repair it. A wheel stud cost him the victory. When is the last time anyone recalls that happening?

Richard had his own "oh crap!" moment with 25 laps to go. He spun by himself off the track - but he gathered it back up, never lost the lead, and went on to win the race. I'd love to see video of that incident. Dover is a 1-mile track but its tight along the bottom. I'm curious how the King managed to loop it without crashing the car.

[ RacersReunion member ] Brian '200WINZ' Hauck remembers:

I remember getting up early race morning, and the weather was kind of crappy. My father was on the fence about going. It was hard at 16 years old to try to NOT throw a hissy fit, but the old man was swayed into making the drive. Bobby Allison owned the race, but Richard came on at the end for the win. I was impressed by the blinding STP red on Fred Lorenzen's #99 and how easy it was to spot anywhere on the track! Little did I know that day! After the race, they opened the cross-over gate, and I headed to victory lane just as the crew was pulling out the 43. I managed to grab the photo and then jumped pit wall to follow the car around to the garage area for a photo. I raced to the press box which was located at the top of the grandstands at the start/finish line. Just as I got there, Richard had made his way to the bottom of the steps, and I snapped his photo! Thank God my father understood what racing and Richard Petty meant to me! He patiently waited for me to run around taking pictures. Because of him, I have been able to document some of the best times of my life! My pop stayed true to racing to the very end - always talking about the last weekend's race. Once I became old enough to drive myself to the races, Pop stayed at home and watched them on TV. And because of my Dad, I was able to get to know the Petty family personally which has been a dream come true for me! I know in my heart he felt a deep satisfaction watching me watch races! Thanks Pop, I miss you dearly...R.I.P.

TMC

updated by @tmc-chase: 10/17/20 01:30:26PM

President Obama Enroute to Wilkes County, NC via Bus - Where's Junior Johnson?

General

Dover part 2: The view from the garage

Current NASCAR

Originally posted by me at my blog here:

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/10/dover-part-2-cold-pass-access-was-hot.html

Part 2 of a [non-committed mumble] part series on a great trip to Dover International Speedway from September 29 - October 2.

I was introduced to racing as a 9 year-old kid at a late model sportsman race at Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway in the early 70s. The bug bit me that night, and I'm as fascinated by it today as I was then. I'm older, fatter, and more skeptical. My favorite driver has been retired for 20 years. And the costs to attend today far exceed what they did then (especially when (1) my parents or uncle paid for my ticket back then and (2) I didn't have any Schaefer expenses as a 9 year-old.)

One aspect of racing I really enjoyed in my teen years was going into the garage/pit areas before or after a race. The opportunity didn't present itself often, but it was so eye-opening when it did. Because of how seldom I've had the chance to tour the garage - then and now - I always appreciate and walk around with a dropped jaw at all the action.

At Dover, we were fortunate to have Cold Pass credentials provided to us. We pretty much had free reign of the Nationwide and Cup garages up until 1 hour before qualifying and race starts and pit access during the events.

We got to the track too early Saturday morning to tour the Cup garage. But no problem - over to the Nationwide garage we went.

As part of my on-going blog series about each of Richard Petty's 200 wins, I've reached out where I can to folks with first-hand accounts of the days at Petty Enterprises. One of the individuals I've had the fortune of trading messages with is Mike Beam. In the late 70s, Mike was the crew chief for late model sportsman legend Butch Lindley. He was hired by the King as crew chief for Kyle as his Cup career began in the early 1980s. Over the next 30 years, he was crew chief for many Cup drivers. Today, he is the crew chief for Carl Edwards in the Nationwide series. (TMC edit: and of course a Racers Reunion member)

Mike reconciled who I was after telling him I was 'toomuchcountry'. He then gave me several minutes of his time to talk about Lindley, getting hired by Petty Enterprises, the challenge of setting Carl's car for a green track after overnight rains, model car building, etc. Then rightfully so, he had to get back to work. I'm sure he used the great set-up tips I gave him because later that afternoon, Carl's #60 Ford DOMINATED the Nationwide race.

After parting ways from Mike, we roamed around a bit more, watched tech inspection, met the ageless Morgan Shepherd, and talked to the crew from the Jimmy Means-owned Nationwide team. Before Means began a multi-decade as a journeyman Cup driver, he came from Alabama to win the late model championship at Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway in 1974.

As we circled back to Edwards' hauler, I spotted Jeff 'Hollywood' Hammond. Only word of advice I gave him (or at least wanted to): lose that Boogity guy...please.

After seeing pretty much all there was to see, we realized the Cup garage was now open. So we strolled from the Nationwide garage housed just below turns 3 and 4 to the Cup garage which is located just below turns 1 and 2.

I wanted to make a bee line for the Best Buy Racing hauler of A.J. Allmendinger with the hope of meeting The King again. Just as we arrived, Dale Inman walked out of the back door of the hauler. Everyone should know who Dale is - but I suppose some don't. Dale Inman is:

• Richard Petty's cousin
• Richard's crew chief for all of his seven championships
• the only eight-time NASCAR Grand National/Cup champion by serving as crew chief for Terry Labonte's first championship
• a veteran of the United States Army, and
• a member of the 2012 class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

I had with me an 8x10 enlargement of a photo I took at Charlotte in 1992. In the photo, Richard's 43 is being pushed to the starting line alongside eventual Cup champion Alan Kulwicki's Ford. Dale took the time to ask where I took the photo, studied it a bit and autographed it for me.

He then realized Robbie Loomis was part of the contingent pushing the car in the photo. I told him it was indeed Robbie, and I was hoping to get his autograph on the photo too. Dale went into the hauler and asked Robbie to come out to see my photo. As with Dale, Robbie studied it, laughed about how much younger he was then, and signed it for me.

Just one more autograph was needed to complete the three I wanted - The King. Dale then told us Richard had gone back to North Carolina to take his wife home. Unfortunately for us, he didn't plan to return. Oh well, c'est la vie . But Dale continued to chat with us. He challenged us to guess his age. He posed for a couple of photos with our crew.


He gave me the opportunity to ask a few questions about the old days. We discussed Julian Petty (Lee Petty's brother, Richard's uncle, and a NASCAR driver/owner in his own right). We rattled off a few names from the past of Petty Enterprises including Bob Welborn, Tiny Lund, Buck Baker, Gwyn Staley, Red Myler, etc. I tried to remember if Welborn had driven a third Petty car in the inaugural 1960 World 600 (it was actually Bobby Johns). But Dale noted he couldn't remember because "the Army had me then" and wasn't at the first 600.

He finally and cordially let us know it was time to go to work. He climbed aboard the hauler to watch qualifying for the Nationwide race. Fifty years in this sport - and there he was still watching lap times, track nuances, etc.


After parting ways with Inman, the four of us set out in the Cup garage area. Unlike the spacious bays of the Neon Garage at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Dover has a single, covered, tightly-packed garage area. Half the teams are on one side, and the other half is on the opposite side. In the middle of the garage is a pass-through area where NASCAR set up one of its three technical inspection areas.

Like the amateur NASCAR paparazzi we were, the four of us set out snapping pictures willy-nilly, kept our eyes open for possible driver sightings, and maintained our inner radar for Cup cars around us in the hope we weren't run over as the cars were rolled to the tech stations.




After spending a good bit of time in the garage, we spotted Coke 400 winning driver David Ragan. Thinking he may be one of many drivers to walk through the same area, we held our spot for a moment. Shortly thereafter, I spotted Paul, the PR rep for Best Buy Racing and driver A.J. Allmendinger. We had traded messages prior to the race, and he knew I was interested in meeting A.J. Saturday. As Paul and A.J. headed for the 43 hauler, I walked along and nabbed an autograph.

I enjoy taking multiple photos, but I prefer to be behind the camera vs. in front of it. But one photo-op I wanted was to have my picture made with A.J. However, he went in the hauler to change to his driver uni and get his mind right for Cup qualifying. As a neat, runner-up gesture, Paul took my pic next to the 43 and tweeted it to his followers.

Before long, Cup qualifying was scheduled to begin, and an NASCAR official let me know my Cold Pass no longer worked in the 'hot' garage. So off to pit road we headed to watch a bit of qualifying.

The Richard Petty Motorsports teams get ready to qualify...

A.J. Allmendinger's 43 Ford shortly before A.J. ripped off a lap to qualify seventh.

The #9 Stanley Ford of Marcos Ambrose. If only that cat with the camera would get out of the away . Oh wait ... that's SROH member 200WINZ walking around like he owns the joint!

With 200WINZ getting up close and personal on pit road as qualifying took place, he was able to nab some great photos such as these:


I walked back and forth, up and down pit road just to take in the sights. Finally, I just settled in around the RPM cars as they nudged forward one car at a time as the cars with slower practice times banked their qualifying speeds. The fine folks at DingerWorld were kind enough to put in a good word for me with A.J. and Lynne Allmendinger in case our paths crossed. Sure enough, as I was walking behind the pit wall watching the 43 inch down pit road, I was fortunate to spot Lynne. I called her name, and told her nothing more than 'My name is toomuchcountry.' Sure enough, she knew who I was based on the pre-race message from DingerWorld. Lynne could not have been nicer.


Then it was time to get the party started. With only a few cars in front of him left to qualify, A.J. belted in, the crew readied him for his lap, and the tension of those around him seemed to escalate. As the 43 hit the track, a few key folks took an obvious interest in his lap:

• Paul (aka @Best_Buy_Racing on Twitter) - PR rep for Best Buy
• Lynne Allmendinger - A.J.'s wife
• Robert Miller (talking to Lynne) - VP of Business Development for Richard Petty Motorsports

With qualifying completed, we slipped up to the stands to watch Edwards decimate the field in the Nationwide race.

To be continued...

TMC
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:04:08PM

How Will They Restrict at Daytona & Talladega with No Carburetors?

General

I'm thinking boat anchors and small chutes. But I'm also not the most technically knowledgeable person so I could be off the mark here.

Richard Petty - 200 Wins or Just 199?

General

That gets filed under, "It was the same for everybody." Back then, they did count them, so they count. - That's what she said! And its true. No controversy there. Richard did win a convertible race - but its recorded as a win in that series and not as part of his 200 Grand National / Cup win total.But I do like that you tried to give us a trivia noogie.

updated by @tmc-chase: 05/21/19 09:09:18AM

Dover part 1: The arrival, the King, the races

Current NASCAR

Originally blogged by me here:

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/10/dover-part-1-arrival-king-races.html

I've had the pleasure of attending close to 60 NASCAR Grand National / Winston Cup races. I've got my favorite tracks to go - places such as Bristol, Charlotte and Talladega (well, back in the day).

Over the last 15 years or so, I've enjoyed the opportunity to visit tracks for the first (and probably only) time. I've got the ticket stub, event pin, and Schaefer stories from places such as Texas, Loudon, Indy, Vegas, and Richmond. This year, I was finally able to notch one for Dover.

We had plenty of good times during the extended race-trip weekend. I'll try to focus on the races themselves and the track in this post. From there, well ... I'll see. I've got a few ideas rattling around in my head about how to 'theme' post them. Stay tuned.

Knowing this may well be our only trip to the Monster Mile, fellow Schaefer HOFer Philly and I wanted to do it right. As life-long Petty fans, we had no choice but to sit in the Richard Petty Grandstand.

Representatives of the Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor rolled in at various times Thursday, September 29:

• SROH member 200WINZ from Trenton, NJ (and Dover fan since 1969) rolled into the grounds with his camper Thursday morning.
• SHOFer Uncle Dave from Cleveland, OH trucked 439 miles to the Philadelphia airport to pick up me.
• SHOF co-founder Philly charted a multi-hour, long, interstate drive from Charlotte, NC, and
• yours truly, SHOF co-founder TMC from Middle by-cracky Tennessee flew into Philadelphia airport, donned a Schaefer cap, and thumbed a ride at the curb with Uncle Dave.

The first recognizable sight Uncle Dave and I saw as we entered the campground was the full-flowing, old-school, red-and-blue, 43 flag. We immediately knew where our home was going to be the next 3 days.

WINZ landed an ideal camping spot - right in front of the track and Richard Petty Grandstand. We had a bit of highway noise at night, but we could also hear the roar of the engines from the track as practice sessions took place. An ideal, audial experience.

After shaking hands, settling our gear, celebrating the beginning of race weekend with a cold Schaefer (or two or three), etc., it wasn't long before we wanted to go eat. So off we headed for Sambo's, a local seafood tavern in Leipsic - about 3 miles from the track.

As we arrived, we spotted a familiar silhouette in the shadows of a street light. Sure enough, it was the King, Richard Petty! He and a few others had just finished their dinner. As he is with all his fans, he was gracious enough to stand for a photo-op and offer an autograph. Petty has been retired as a driver for 20 years. I was a fan then and still am today because of his simply stopping long enough to recognize a fan.

After parting ways, it was time for crab cakes, hush puppies, fresh shrimp and crabs, and plenty of cold beer to celebrate our fortuitous timing and good fortune.

Dover opened in 1969, and in some ways I'm not sure the track has changed much since. We were taken aback by some of the old school aspects of the track that remain.

• For instance, we sat near the top of the Richard Petty Grandstands. Near us was a stairway leading out of our section. Yet we had to descend multiple sets of stairs for bathrooms, concessions, and souvenirs. Unlike other tracks who have amenities on every concourse level, all of Dover is lower-level based.
• The bathrooms didn't have soap dispensers - seemingly a standard everywhere these days including just about every dive bar. But Dover didn't have the motion-activated ones or even the hand-operated kind. Instead, each sink literally had a bar of soap . I'm no germophobe, but even that cootie haven freaked me out a bit.
• Thirdly, the garage areas for the Nationwide and Cup teams were tighter than a CFO's cost budget in an Obama economy. I realize Dover was built before the days of tractor trailer haulers. And I understand they have a horse racing 'trotter' track inside the speedway that affects how much expansion the track can do. But it was amazing how close every team was to one another, now little room the teams had to maneuver, and how fans could easily have run over if you didn't keep your head on a swivel.

We spent Saturday morning touring the Nationwide and Cup garage areas. Saturday afternoon, we watched Cup qualifying from pit road and then slipped into the stands to watch Carl Edwards flat-out dominate the 200 lap Nationwide race. Carl's Ford was hooked up to be certain, but the overall racer quality was pitiful. At least 12 start-and-parkers - about 25% of the field - were back on their haulers within a handful of laps. And by lap 100, only 12 cars remained on the lead lap.

Carl in the process of completing his victory back flip...

I'm not exactly sure how many fans the track can accommodate. Probably 120,000 or so. What I do know is that Saturday's Nationwide race couldn't have had more than 12,000 fans - despite being a companion event. Dover has already shuttered three Nationwide tracks it owns: Memphis, Gateway and Nashville. Now it can't even draw a respectable crowd to its one remaining, flagship track.

For the Cup race, the stands were barely half-full - this despite the track's attempt to cover many sections with ad banners. This economy is in trouble. This sport is in trouble. And this track is in trouble.

But we went to Dover to RACE baby - not be a voice of gloom-and-doom about the state of the sport. Despite brisk temps, a fierce wind, and misting rain, we made our way through the gates of Richard Petty Grandstand and settled in.

Our seats were great. I've been to many 1-1/2 mile tracks and short tracks. But Dover is right between them at one-mile in length. The track's banking, limited infield clutter, the one-mile distance, and our seat location made for an ideal setting to take in all of the sights of the race.

Earlier in the week, the weekend forecast was fantastic. Virtually no chance of rain, plenty of sun, and warm temps. The weather geeks nailed it - for Friday and Saturday morning. But after lunch on Saturday through Sunday, wow. Clouds rolled in, temperatures dropped, the wind picked up, and we got a good dose of rain Friday and Saturday nights. Fortunately, we didn't lose either race on Saturday or Sunday to rain - though Sunday's race had two cautions for a light misting shower passing through.

By the time I started earning my own way in this world and had the discretionary income to go racing, my hero's competitive days were behind him. With rare exception, Richard Petty fared poorly in the last few races I got to see in his final few years as a driver. Sadly, the drivers of his teams at Petty Enterprises and more recently Richard Petty Motorsports haven't fared much better when I've been in the stands.

So it was a fantastic, adrenalin-rush day to be there and witness the competitiveness of the legendary 43 with A.J. Allmendinger as the driver. Making the day even more memorable was that first-year RPM driver and Glen winner, Marcos Ambrose, was competing for a top 10 finish most of the day.

Nearing the half-way mark, A.J. was atop the leader board and I was on cloud 9.

A.J.'s spot atop the pylon was even more remarkable because of what happened on lap 7. Denny Hamlin doinked the 43 coming into turn 3. Incredibly, A.J. had the presence of mind to hang the car waaaay to the right and dirt track it through turns 3 and 4. Sure enough, the car bit, A.J. straightened it out, and he later climbed into the #1 spot. I really thought it was the team's day...

Credit: Brian '200WINZ' Hauck

I expected Hamlin's nudge of the 43 would lead to an afternoon of retaliation, collateral damage, etc. In addition, with overnight rains washing rubber off the track, Chasers fighting for precious points, and many drivers auditioning for 2012 sponsors and rides, I thought we would see many wrecks. Instead, cautions were infrequent and mainly for yet-to-be-found debris, a light rain, and single car wall bangers.

Several drivers took turns leading a handful of laps. Their moments up front didn't really matter, however, because the 48 of Jimmie Johnson ran off and led for long stretches of the race. I wasn't happy at all that JJ and Chad Knaus were on their game and headed for victory because:

• Jimmie won both times I went to Loudon.
• He won when I went to Vegas.
• He won the Coke 600 at Charlotte in 2004 - my first time back at Charlotte in seven years.
• He won the only time I went to Darlington in what was then thought to be the final Southern 500.

When the teams pitted for the last time with about 40 laps to go, however, Kurt Busch's team made the right adjustments. He forged ahead of Johnson following the restart and motored away to the win. I'm not the biggest KuBu fan - but he did beat the 48 and that was good enough for me.

To be continued...

TMC
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:04:08PM

Late Model Sportsman

Stock Car Racing History

I'd like to get Rick Houston to contribute here. Rick covered the Busch Series for Winston Cup/NASCAR Scene. In recent years, he tried to make a go of it with his own website Stock Car History Online. He also wrote a book titled Second To None: The History of the Busch Series. With his own site now closed, I'll reach out to Rick to see if he might be interested in joining here.