That top-10 is a who's who. Just imagine what you'd be willing to pay to see those ten drivers in their prime hash it out. Thanks, Tim, for another great look back. And we thought a buck for a program was highway robbery!!!
Thank you, Billy, for the enlightening information ragarding the state of today's insurance regulations and how it relates to the display of automobiles.
Tim, remember in the early years when they used to take the cars out of the museum on Labor Day morning and parade them down Darlington's frontstretch before the Southern 500? Jim Reed's blue '59 Chevy, Mantz's '50 Plymouth, Little Joe's black & red #8 Merc, Buck's Olds 88, Fireball's lavender #22, Ray Fox's #3 Junior Johnson Mystery Chevy, etc., etc. all appeared, cranked up and running.
I thought my heart would burst when my buddy, Frank and I saw that procession of cars on Labor Day morning 1966. As Chase has alluded... wonder how many of those cars and the others, as well as display items have been "relocated?"
And, you're right, Tim... it's a crime of the first magnitude to have removed Little Joe's name. ISC should be ashamed of itself.
When folks like Tim Leeming and myself started visiting it, the place was called the Joe Weatherly Stock Car Museum. Today it is called the Darlington Raceway Stock Car Museum and today's Florence Morning News has a story about it.
Darlington: This museums a wreck
A smashed Waltrip car, your cheatin parts and more at Darlington Raceway Stock Car Museum
Posted: Thursday, May 9, 2013 6:00 am | Updated: 6:46 am, Thu May 9, 2013.
MARK A. HASELDEN, Morning News mhaselden@florencenews.com
DARLINGTON, S.C. In about a decade of seeing visitors come and go through the Darlington Raceway Stock Car Museum, Vicky Sanders has noticed one constant.
Invariably, most people leave the place talking about one exhibit in particular.
Everybody wants to talk about Darrell Waltrips wrecked car, said Sanders, who manages the Darlington Raceway shop and the attached museum.
Some might see wrecked as a bit of an understatement. Waltrips 1991 Chevy Lumina looks like it went through some kind of car shredder. Most of its sheet metal exterior is missing and broken hoses and various sundry parts are visible from back to front.
And Waltrip walked away.
It happened at the 1991 Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Waltrip and Joe Ruttman made contact on the 121st lap. Both cars skidded onto the infield. While Ruttmans car eventually came to a relatively uneventful stop, Waltrips vehicle started a barrel roll. It rolled over eight times before coming to a rest as basically the heap of pulverized metal that sits in the museum today.
One look at the car, though, and it becomes fairly obvious how Waltrip, who these days serves as a color commentator on Foxs NASCAR race broadcasts, came out alive and largely unscathed. The steel roll cage protecting the cockpit is scarred up a bit, but its intact.
Its a ... Matador!
Visitors from all over the U.S., and the world, for that matter, come through the museum each year. The museum is kind of display this week during Race Week at Darlington while the Bojanges Southern 500 is beind held but its a treat for race fans and others year round.
And Waltrips car, while possibly the most eye-catching exhibit there, is far from the only interesting piece in the building.
Its not the only car, either.
The first car visitors see is the 1950 Plymouth driven by Johnny Mantz in winning the 1950 Southern 500.
One of the most recent additions is another Waltrip special, his No. 17 Tide-sponsored Chevrolet. Another is an AMC Matador driven by legendary NASCAR driver Bobby Allison. Allison won NASCAR events in a Matador four times, including twice at Darlington in the 1975 Rebel 500 and later the same year in the Southern 500. Allison also won the 125-mile Daytona qualifying race in February of that year with the Matador.
In the very back of the museum is another car many race fans today remember quite well the 1985 Ford Thunderbird Bill Elliott drove to Victory Lane at the Southern 500. The win was Elliotts third in the Big Four Winston Cup races that year (he also won the Daytona 500 and the Winston 500) and earned him a $1 million bonus from the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
More than cars
There are plenty more cars to admire, but the vehicles themselves arent the only things in the museum. Sanders said one of the more interesting exhibits for her is a case filled with illegal parts that have been confiscated over the years, including a nitrous oxide canister, a digital ignition system (illegal in NASCAR), an illegal flywheel and many other things.
Drivers have had a lot of ways to try to gain an edge, Sanders said.
Before getting to Elliotts car, visitors pass through the National Motorsports Press Association Stock Car Hall of Fame. Hanging throughout are hall members portraits drawn by Florence artist Jeanne Barnes, who has made her reputation over the years with her renderings of drivers and NASCAR-related scenes.
The museum originally was called the Joe Weatherly Stock Car Museum, named after one of the sports more colorful drivers in its early years. According to information from Darlington Raceway, Weatherly came up with the idea of the museum after visiting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. The facility was officially dedicated on May 2, 1965. The name of the museum was changed after renovation and expansion in 2003.
Link below to photos from the museum:
http://www.scnow.com/gallery/collection_41527bd8-b74f-11e2-b485-0019bb30f31a.html
Quite a different outcome than the Penske appeal. Perhaps it was Joe Gibbs' good fortune to have Mr. Housby on his appeals panel - a former car owner who once fielded Plymouths for Pete Hamilton and Ramo Stott.
That would have been in 2000, Jimmy - 13 years ago. I always figured Jeremy would be a "marked man" after that! Can't believe 13 years have passed since that one.
Victory lane is always a strange place when an auto manufacturer is the race sponsor and a different maker is the race winner. Been in those victory lanes a number of times. Always weird.
No, it wasn't the Southern 500, it was the then "Spring" Darlington race - the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 in March 2003 when Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch put on a finish worthy of any of the preceding Spring "Rebel" races at Darlington. Must be getting old. Couldn't believe 10 years has already passed. You might want to mute the sound and just enjoy the visuals.
Poor Bub Strickler of Timberville, Va. made 20 career GN starts and was involved in a yellow flag in most of them. At Rockingham's 1966 Peach Blossom 500, Bub had already caused several cautions due to spins and had been warned by NASCAR that he'd be parked if he caused another yellow. They need not have worried. The late Mr. Strickler's final yellow that day crashed him out of the race on his own.
