your right. Mario might have to get on the list also. He won in lots of different types of cars.
Hey go to facebook, check out Charles Red Farmer he has some real neat old photos there. Plus a picture of his new dirt car just finished in June. He still races every Sat night.
Oh yes Tony would be there...also Richie Evans, Bentley Warren, might even have to put Geoff Bodine on that list. What about Ray Hedrick?
As my weekend friends stop by the old shop fora cold drink, the talk seems to come around to who was thebest to ever drive a race car.
In no certian order my thoughts always go out to The King, AJ Foyt, Al Unser, Bobby Allison, Red Farmer, Ramo Stott, the list goes on. Notice that Dale SR. is never on my list. It isnot that I don't respect all the he did but for the younger fan he is the only one they know.
The guys that could go from sprinters to stock cars and win in both will always rank high on my list.
Now I really fire up my buddies when I tell them that if a few drivers had not have died way to early Dale Sr. would just be a driver crashing a bunch and running 15th.
What if Robbie Moroso, Davey Allision, Allan K, Richie Panch, Adam Petty, Tim Richmond, Tim Steele, Neil Bonnett, and others could have reached theirplace in racing.
Another big one would be what if Bobby Allision and Jr. Johnson could have stayed together for 15 years---records would have been set that no one could touch. Or had Bobby stayed with Holman Moody.
These topics always lead to several cold beverages, lots of swearing, and a few old guys having a walk through history.
Mike Ashley
Does anyone remember the night at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock GA when Buck and Jody Riddley ran a 10 lap match race to see who would get a ride in Kenny Childress'sBlack Diamond Coal#12 Grand National Carfor thefall Atlanta 500 at the speedway. Buck won and got the ride. As I remember they flipped a coin to see who wouldstart on the inside and the race was on. This had to be in the late 70's or very early 80's. It was while the track was paved. Mike Ashley
Matt Kenseth is a class act. I sure hope the best for himwhat in ever direction life leads.
Who knows he may just get out of the rat race on the Cup side and go help his son race, now that something to talk about.
Mike Ashley
Hey several years ago Richard Petty had to have stomach surgery, could it have been due to the dogs?
He did go to Martinsville a few hundred times and lived in the area. Plus he was never known to eat the healthy stuff.
Mike Ashley
For those of us that got into the racing business many moons ago we were all helped by Mr. Earl Parker with the Champion Spark Plug Company. Earl did not care if you were one of the racers with zero dollars or the Wood Brothers he never turned down anyone. Earl would always read your spark plugs, give good advice, and always make sure you had all the spark plugs you could use. On more than one occasion Earl would give us plugs to take back home to supply the local racers also. He traveled to every race on the Grand National schedule and even took in the Late Model Sprotsman races when his schedule allowed. The man lived in motels and at race tracks. The good Lord broke the mold after he made Earl Parker.
There were other companies that always helped such as Moog, Permatex, and never forget how many of us left the race tracks with all of our dump cans full of racing gas. The tow truck ran good on that stuff.
Another good one was Ben Arnold after he quit driving he worked for Echlin, Ben was another one that always helped. He made sure we had new dist. and plug wires. Ben would take your dist. home with him and always bring it back better than it was.
Hey just remembering the good old days and just a few of the fine folks that made the sport a real pleasure to be in.
After 16 years of racing a family owned car all over Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Missippi we went to Atlanta Speedway ( Atlanta had two speedway races by inviation only to the top 5 cars from eight of the southern states for an all star race in the fall.)
A few of the changes from then until now.
Our beverage cooler was bigger than our tool box, and the tool box could be carried by one healthy boy. Unlike the pit boxes of today that will not even fit in the back of a pickup truck and cost over 80K.
We all (four of us) traveled to AMS in the cab of a 1966 Chevorlet pickup pulling the racecar on our home built tralier with a single row tire rack and all 8 of our spare wheels.
Today the crew flys in and the transport driver brings the big rig in.
My Mom sent enough food for all of us to eat for all three days we were there. A ham, brownies, two loafs of Marietta bread and mayo. Today the team chef prepairs hot meals for the team.
After the 300 mile race in Atlanta on the big track, we left drove to Rome GA took the windows out changed to dirt tires, changed the front springs and ran the 30 lap main on Sunday night on dirt. Got up Monday morning and went to work on our construction jobs. Today team flys home, driver flys in personal jet home everyone is off until Wednesday.
It sure was more fun back in the day.
Mike Ashley, Rome GA
Not wanting to sound like a real jerk, everytime big money, and girls who chase big money get involved things will get screwed up and the little guy will get left out in the cold (or out of the starting field). I have a really great daughter who has risen to the top in her sports career (basketball), she made her on way begining in high school, then playing college ball, now coaching in division 1 college level. With that being said there is places for women in racing in the drivers seat, owners, crew positions, but they must be earned not bought.
The top 35 starting postions being a given stinks anyway you go about it. NASCAR will never get back its heart and soul that it has sold out to corporate America.
Being part of a racing family begining in 1951 what has happened to starting the fastest 43 cars that show up on a given day.
Oh well we can't go back in time but NASCAR could make things right by going back to some of the old rule books.
Mike Ashley, Rome GA
