World 600 Qualifying + Waylon Jennings + Beer = Grandstand Riot

We know the stories of the famous music gatherings at Georgia racetracks in Hampton and Macon as well as the riot resulting in deaths from the Hell's Angels security guards at a California road course concert.

A lot of folks forget the more recent near-riot at Charlotte Motor Speedway following 1980 World 600 Pole Day Qualifying.

Humpy had booked Waylon Jennings (who was hot as a firecracker) for a post Pole Day concert.

I'm sure we have RR members who were there in person, on one side of the fence or the other. I was not at the 1980 world 600 Pole Day and evening festivities.

As related to me by the late Joe Whitlock, the post qualifying grandstand crowd, fueled by suds and Outlaw music, almost did what no race car had done at Charlotte - knock down the front stretch fence.

The incident was significant enough that it even made newspapers north of the border. The clip below is from the May 23, 1980 Montreal Gazette .

Things went a little smoother when the redneck flower children gathered at CMS in 1974. Here's a clip of Black Oak Arkansas performing at the Speedway. From the aerial shot, I'd say the crowd, estimated in excess of 200,000, was pretty respectable at this outdoor event promoted by Charlotte's BIG WAYS Radio .

And just to irritate the powers that be in NASCAR's ivory tower, here's some real political incorrectness that day in 1974 at Charlotte Motor Speedway as Black Oak Arkansas performed "DIXIE" and Rebel battle flags were unfurled during AUGUST JAM. This remains the largest concert ever staged in North Carolina with attendance estimated over 200,000.

Playing were the Allman Brothers Band, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Foghat, Black Oak Arkansas, the Marshall Tucker Band, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Grinderswitch, PFM and others.

Well, well, events at CMS back in the day that I actually missed. Wonder how that happened?

Was Delma Cowart involved in the middle of it all? He never won a race - but he never lost a party.

And I post this  Spartanburg Herald article for you Dave. One, because it references the "riot". Two, because you'll likely be able to visualize Bud Moore's reaction when Bobby Allison suggested Bud should build a Chevrolet.

And to think, about 6 weeks later Waylon's music was promoted on the sides of Sterling Marlin's D.K. Ulrich Monte Carlo at Nashville. Ol' P.T. Barnum was right - there's no such thing as bad publicity.

From JC Hayes collection

I can just picture Bud Moore swallowing two plugs of tobacco upon Bobby Alison suggesting a switch from Ford to Chevy!

And you're right about Delma Cowart, Chase. Delma + Piano = Party!

All-Star Flashback: The Clown Was Shut Down In Showdown

The stars come out tonight in Charlotte. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com

The late Joe Weatherly was NASCARs original Clown Prince, a driver who loved to have a great time and went to great lengths to make sure everyone around him enjoyed themselves as well.

Delma Cowart was the most recent driver to wear the Clown crown. The Savannah, Ga., native ran his first race in the division now known as Sprint Cup at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1981. He ran 21 races over an eight-year span before an incident during the NASCAR All-Star race in the mid-1990s ended his Cup career.

It was a vintage Delma Cowart affair.

He showed up to run the preliminary race now known as the Sprint Showdown.

His engine blew in practice, and his crew spent the whole afternoon trying to make the repairs.

They finished their work just as prayer was said and the National Anthem sung. The only thing missing: the required NASCAR inspection.

They said, Gentleman, start your engines, so I cranked mine up in the garage area, said Cowart, 67. I hopped in it and drove by the tech shed, but it was locked up.

He figured, What the heck? so he pulled onto the track and started racing. He ran about four laps before NASCAR officials black-flagged him off the track.

They were raising cain with my crew chief, and after the race they called me to the trailer for a little conversation, Cowart said. It was kind of a warm conversation. They said I should have known better.

I told them I didnt think theyd mind.

Told hed be fined $5,000, he paused and said, Make it $5,000,000 because I aint giving you a dime.

His days as a NASCAR driver were over for Cowart, who now works as a construction contractor, building swimming pools and installing septic tanks in his hometown.

But hes far from forgotten on the NASCAR circuit. Most of the good Delma Cowart stories carry a dateline of Daytona Beach.

Cowart made four starts in the circuits premier race, the Daytona 500, but he was better known for his Speedweeks parties than his performance on the track.

Atlanta Motor Speedway president Ed Clark remembers one year at Daytona, when he spent most of Speed Weeks sick in bed with the flu. Unfortunately for him, his bed was right over the hotel bar, where Cowart was spending most of his nights playing the piano and entertaining the audience. The whole bed was rocking, Clark said. I couldnt sleep.

After several years away from the track, Cowart was once again allowed to enter the garage. Mostly he comes to reminisce and to line up some Cup drivers for charity events he ram-rods around Savannah. He said the same man who once banned him, NASCAR president Mike Helton, signed the pass that now gets him in the track.

I asked Mike if hed gone brain dead when he signed for me, Cowart said. He just grinned and said he must have slipped up.

He said that age 67 he still enjoys himself, whatever hes doing.

You hear people say that if theyd known they were going to live that long theyd have taken better care of themselves, he said. The way I look at it, if Id known I was going to live this long Id have run a little harder into the corner at some of those short tracks.

Interesting thread....learned about Delma Cowart, and I do like Waylon....didn't know that his name was ever on a car!

Waylon's name was apparently going to be on the side of Gary Baker's car for the 1980 Nashville 420. Unsure if Gary DNQ'd or withdrew, but either way Waylon's name ended up on the side of Sterling's car instead. From Star-News

Gary Baker DID have Waylon's name on his #4 G.C. Spencer-owned Olds car at Daytona that year. He raced - and wrecked - in the 125-mile Q twin and took out rookie Kyle Petty in the process. (Pick it up around 9:30 mark.)

Gary did OK for himself long-term though. Tax lawyer for Waylon. Owned parts of Nashville Speedway and Bristol for a while. And more recently partnered with Mike Curb to buy Brewco Motorsports and rebrand it as Baker Curb Racing.

Here is a pic  David Allio shot of Baker and Sterling at the 1980 Nashville race - one of whom had Waylon as the sponsor and the other who actually carried his name.

The Holiday Inn in Riverside, California where all the racers stayed had a house band that played an absolutely amazing version of Waylon's Good Hearted Woman. A lot of us kind of considered it our own personal anthem because of all the grief we put our wives through while we were off racing. I'll tell you this... you haven't seen dancing unless you've seen Buddy Parrott dance to Good Hearted Woman in Riverside!

Ironically, Waylon (and Willie) were recording at a studio in the Nashville area owned by an acquaintance of my wife, the late Tompall Glaser, another outlaw.

This version may not be as good as the one done by the Riverside Holiday Inn House band, but it's a none too shabby version of our racer's anthem:

And the archives of David Allio come through again. Here is Waylon's name going up in smoke as Gary Baker breaks loose.

Turns out Delma Cowart could wreck Sportsman cars at Daytona just as good as he wrecked the Cup cars:

Got that right. Delma was the driver that plowed into Joe Frasson in the 1979 Sportsman race.