Not all of racings characters occupy the drivers seat. Larry Nuber was one of the original commentators on ESPN when they took on auto racing as part of their programming.

After a couple of chance meetings with a young man named Peter Cozzolino I was able to get Larrys contact information. Peter was, like Jeff Gordon, a project of Larrys. He took heat over the years for showing partiality to those he was helping or managing but as an Indiana resident, he promoted their names and accomplishments around Indiana and the surrounding areas.

In a past life, I have done two short stints as co-host of racing radio shows, first at WSFW in Seneca Falls, NY and later at KMAJ in Topeka, KS. WSFW didnt want a show that was little more than giving the results and setting the scene for the upcoming weekend at the local tracks. So, big league racing was incorporated into the local racing and we began to search for interesting personalities to interview on air.

I decided to ask Larry if he would grant an on air interview and he agreed. The first time I figured the interview would be maybe 15 minutes if we could come up with enough questions to keep it interesting. He turned out to be a master at the on air stuff. He had interesting responses to the initial mundane questions we asked that created further, more interesting questions.

At the first break, I asked Larry if he could stick around through the break and answer some more questions and he readily agreed. We started again and went through a couple more breaks doing the same thing and he continued to hang with us. In what seemed like 10 or 15 minutes we had chewed up the greater portion of our hour.

It was a great surprise to us working the show and we kept looking for great people like Larry to interview.

I would call him from time to time looking for inside information as I continued writing for racing trade papers. In 1998 I moved from the Fingerlakes of Western New York State to take a job in Topeka, KS. I was bored early one spring and went to a car show. While there I ran into a fellow named Ken Blair, who was co-promoter of Thunderhill Speedway in Mayetta, KS. I conned Ken into letting me write stories for the track during the season and shortly after that conned him into approaching KMAJ radio in Topeka to do a weekly radio show and they agreed.

I believe I had Larry on air two or three times while at KMAJ. He was always available and always provided a great interview. Over most of that time I never met him but had seen him on TV numerous times and we would exchange emails from time to time. It was a surprise to me, then, walking around the pit area at the Syracuse, NY fairgrounds during one Super Dirt Week to see that curly red hair on a guy driving a golf cart across the pit area. Based on the red curly hair alone I was convinced it was Larry and ran after the cart. Sure enough, it was Larry. And sure enough, he talked with me as long as I wanted to talk to him. Looking back, I wonder if I wasnt more of a nuisance to him than a colleague who wrote and talked about racing.

Larry had a large forum at ESPN. Guys like him with that large forum are the guys we love to love or love to hate. Thats just the way it is in racing. We are rabid about the business and about the characters and Larry was one of them.

He was sometimes a controversial character although I didnt know it at the time. What I knew then and I know now is he never, ever refused to do an interview when I would call him. He trusted me enough to give me his cell phone number and that was probably a mistake on his part. The last interview I had with him I could not get him at his office phone, which is where I usually called him. So, I called his cell phone and he answered. I asked him if he wanted to put the interview off because he was in the process of moving stuff into a new office. While he admitted that he was busy he nevertheless spent about a half hour on the radio with Ken Blair and me.

I cant say we were friends because we knew each other only on air and had just that one brief meeting at Syracuse but he made me feel like we were friends.

After leaving Topeka in April 2000 and returning to the northeast I was watching a NASCAR race in June. After returning from a break the announcers became very somber and said something to the effect that, We have lost another member of the racing family. Larry Nuber was found in his home on June 8 deceased. He apparently had a stroke while working at home.

This was an unbelievable shock to me and I am sure to a lot of other people. For those of us fifty-somethings it was just too early.

In addition to bringing racing to ESPN that included USAC, NASCAR and CART races, he also brought Wynn Oil Company into ASA racing. Wynn Oil Company said at the time of his death, Larry was one the most esteemed and dearest members of the Wynn's family. . . His knowledge of the Motorsports industry was uniquely comprehensive, and his ability to perform the multitude of various details that comprise the sponsorship of racing teams, circuits, events, and the promotional merchandising that is an essential component of the implementation of any of those efforts, was recognized to be absolutely unparalleled in the sport.

Their press release went on to say, . . . Larry possessed a personal energy, positive outlook, and human compassion that made working with him not only an extreme pleasure, but actually personally uplifting. He genuinely cared about the people he dealt with, the relevance of every task he undertook, and the goal of making each day produce meaningful results. Those qualities were evident in everything he did every day we have known him. No individual in our organization excelled at their work functions at a level of professionalism that was any higher than Larry Nuber's. And, as we all know, no one loved the sport of racing more passionately than Larry did.

Perhaps that is the real reason he was always willing to do an interview. He certainly increased the quality of the shows he interviewed on. The last contact we had followed a televised ASA race. The winner, whom I do not even remember, was giving his post-victory interview on camera and in comes an arm with a Wynns hat in the hand and then a brief on camera glympse of that curly red hair as he replaced the drivers hat with the Wynns hat. I sat down at my computer and emailed some goofy remark about being on TV and making sure the driver had a Wynns hat. His reply was, Yep. Thats my job, Leo. He followed this with a smiley face. Even when I had nothing to offer him in the way of exposure he treated me like he knew me.

RIP. Larry, and thanks for giving us rabid fans more choices in racing than we ever knew we might have.