Warren, we sure did enjoy hearing you on Racing Through History Tuesday night on RacersReunion Radio. Hope you can come back some time and share more there with us one evening. I know that evey single soul who was listening Tuesday night would love to hear more from you.
Some interesting Paul Gose comments posted several years ago on the Morristown, TN TOPIX discussion at this link:
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/morristown-tn/T641T0GI68A7VFR59
In the early 60s, it was my best friend, Frank (we started school together in kindergarten), who accompanied me to the Richmond GN races and really explained many things I didn't understand. We started going to Southside Speedway together in spring of 1965 and joined NASCAR together to build our "Hobby" car that never raced.
We pulled for J.T. Putney, Ray Hendrick and Al Grinnan together.
Frank rode the Greyhound Bus with me to Darlington in 1966 and the Rockingham race trains in '66 and '67. Frank was carrying the other side of the styrofoam cooler of beer in 1967 whose bottom bottom fell out walking up the old inclined asphalt ramp to Bristol's front stretch grandstands.
My first trips to Darlington, Rockingham, Bristol, Beltsville, South Boston, Old Dominion and Langley were made with Frank. After leaving the service, Frank began to teach Journalism in the early 70s at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, while at the same time working as the sports guy on the Siler City, NC newspaper.
As the sports guy, Frank got me pit road race credentials to Rockingham and Charlotte. He came to Wilson and Chantilly to see our Limited Sportsman car race. He was in my wedding in 1973.
When I began managing the Dale Earnhardt/Wrangler Jeans program in 1980 I was able to return the favors to Frank by getting him really good credentials.
Frank moved to Pennsylvania in the 1980s to become Director of Public Relations at Mount St. Marys College in Maryland. When I moved back to Richmond to become Media Relations Director at the Richmond track in 1990, I'd go up to Pennsylvania to visit Frank and go with him to tracks around the Mechanicsburg area like Williams Grove and Silver Spring to see sprint cars for the first time.
Also, in 1990, Frank started coming down to Richmond to help me out on race weekends in the infield media center. I left Richmond after the 1999 season, but Frank still comes down twice a year to help the track. This will be his 24th year running the infield media center there.
I haven't seen Frank in a number of years, but few weeks go by that we are not iin touch.
Since we started attending school together in 1954, we have had only one major disagreement. I thought John Juachiak was the best first baseman for the Richmond Virginians AAA baseball team in the early 60s and he thought Frank Leja was. He also pulled for the New York Yankees and I pulled for the Chicago White Sox.
We've both made many other friends through the years. We both have grandchildren. But, when he or I see news about one of our short track weekly heroes passing, we can be certain the other will get an immediate e-mail. That's what friends do, regardless the distance or the years.
We've never once been nasty with each other, regardless of how strongly we disagree. That's a lesson that could be learned here on our RacersReunion site.
Looks like those Ford engine builders have borrowed some Studebaker engine builder tricks.
NOTEBOOK: ENGINE CHANGE SENDS KESELOWSKI TO REAR
March 22, 2013, Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service , NASCAR.com
![[164476360JH00205_Auto_Club_]](http://www.nascar.com/content/dam/nascar/articles/2013/03/22/main/brad-keselowski-main.jpg/jcr:content/renditions/brad-keselowski-main.jpg.main.png "[164476360JH00205_Auto_Club_]")
Biffle joins 2012 champion at back of field for Auto Club 400
FONTANA, Calif. -- Before Friday's practice session at Auto Club Speedway , Brad Keselowski said it might be a good thing that NASCAR Sprint Cup Series engines are being stressed by higher speeds and high sustained RPMs.
In retrospect, after his No. 2 Penske Racing Ford team changed engines before Friday's qualifying session, Keselowski might want to retract that opinion.
There's no doubt that NASCAR's new Gen-6 race cars are fast. At a two-mile track such as Auto Club, however, sustained speed can create potential problems for the power plants.
"There is no doubt that this car is so fast that we're carrying more speed than we've ever carried pretty much at every track," Keselowski said before practice. "That isn't a bad thing, but it puts a lot of stress on the engines. There's a certain gear ratio we use to dictate what RPM band the cars are in, and, to this point, we've been using last year's model, which has put more stress on the engines with more speed.
"Maybe that's a good thing, too. I don't know. I think it pushes the teams to make their stuff a little better, and that's what this sport is about, constant evolution."
Two hours later, the team was changing engines. Early in the practice session, the engine in Greg Biffle 's No. 16 Ford Fusion had blown, for an engine change in that car, too.
In compliance with NASCAR's one-engine rule, both Keselowski and Biffle must start from the rear of the field on Sunday. The Cup points leader and defending series champion, Keselowski will face a formidable challenge as he attempts to record his fifth straight top-five finish to start the season.
If you happen to buy any one of many different types of lottery tickets in North Carolina - including Power Ball, Mega Millions and numerous scratch off games - your tickets come with an entry code printed on them to enter the LUCKE-Rewards drawings. For each ticket purchase you earn points.
For example, just the one Power Ball ticket my wife bought yesterday from a North Carolina vendor earned her 15 points. Different drawings require different points totals to enter.
I am not shilling for the North Carolina Education Lottery, but merely point this out because one of the drawings this month is for multiple ticket packages to the Charlotte May 2013 race weekend events.
Let's go racing! This month you have the chance to win a pair (2) of tickets to the following races: North Carolina Education Lottery 200 (Friday, May 17th), NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All Star Race (Saturday, May 18th), NASCAR Nationwide Series History 300 (Saturday, May 25th), and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coca Cola 600 (Sunday, May 26th). Eighteen (18) winners will win a pair (2) of tickets to each race.
| Start Date | End Date | Your Entries | Draw Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03/01/2013 12:00AM | 03/31/2013 11:59PM | 0 | 04/03/2013 |
If you are buying lottery tickets in North Carolina, just go to the web site www.Lucke-Zone.com/Rewards and register.
Terrific news, Christy. Thanks for the update.
I don't see one single incidence of gross inconsideration. I will say publicly that I sent Legend a note, but I have never seen him be inconsiderate and have told him that in a separate note. I don't know of anything for which you need to apologize, Tim.
Might be fun if we could get former Busch Series champ, Steve Grissom (who turned down a scholarship to play quarterback at University of Alabama) to come out of retirement and bring his old sponsor from the #31 car.
I bet GoDaddy would have a hard time keeping up with Big Mama!
By the way, I once saw Steve's Dad get mad at a desk clerk when he was trying to check the race team out of a Florence, SC motel on Darlington race day morning. Didn't know one man by himself could rip a check-out counter out of the floor! He could and did!
At least NASCAR continues to accept Timmy's entries. Remember this post I made a year ago?
http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/forum/topics/rjr-winston-would-ve-loved-nascar-driver-timmy-hill
You know Pkl, I thought one of the best crew chief / driver combinations ever, ever in Cup racing was Frankie Stoddard and Jeff Burton at Roush. Then, something happened and it all blew up. Seems to me Jeff has never been so successful since as he was when teamed with Stoddard.
