Thanks, Chase. For the life of me I can't recall if I was at this race or not. I was living in Wilson, NC at the time, drove from there to Martinsville a number of times and saw many of Ray's Martinsville wins.... but this one I'm thinking not.
Thanks, Robert. Didn't know the old RJR HQ had been sold.
In 1981, when I became Manager of Wrangler NASCAR Special Events, one of my first trips was a few miles west of my office in Greensboro, NC on I-40 to meet with T. Wayne Robertson at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in Winston-Salem, NC. "T. Wayne" at the time headed up the Winston part of RJR Special Events under Ralph Seagraves. T. Wayne would take the top special events post when Ralph retired, heading up the newly formed Sports Marketing Enterprises division of RJR.
During that 1981 visit to RJR corporate HQ, I noticed every desk in every office had a red nameplate-like sign with white lettering that read, "Thank You for Smoking."
I asked T.Wayne if I could get one one of those desk plaques and a week or so later one arrived at my office. At the time I was a 3-pack-a-day smoker and continued that habit from age age 17-60, forty-three years of corrupting my sinuses, destroying my gums, leaving me short of breath and all the other wonderful things associated with smoking.
It's now been a little over six years since I quit. I'm not some non-smoking evangelist (my dad spent 48 years in the cigarette business and my father-in-law raised tobacco) , but it is good again to taste my food without a half shaker of salt and to no longer sniffle all winter.
We're all pretty familiar with the story of RJR/Winston coming to NASCAR stock car racing around 1970 and what happened at all levels when they left.
Just in case you missed it... in a sign of the times... RJR announced last week it was banning smoking in its offices where every desk one sported the "Thank You for Smoking" sign.
As the 1960s era Bob Dylan song stated... "The times they are a changing."
Camel cigarette maker Reynolds bans smoking from offices
Bloomberg 
By
The No. 2 cigarette maker in the country has told its employees that it will no longer permit smoking inside its office buildings starting next year.
Reynolds American Inc. RAI, +0.81% the maker of Camel cigarettes, previously allowed employees to light up at their desks or offices, in conference rooms, hallways and elevators, but had banned smoking from its manufacturing facility, cafeteria and fitness center, according to Reynolds spokesman David Howard.
Reynolds is planning to build separate facilities for employees who want to smoke inside, Howard said. The smoking ban goes into effect Jan. 1, 2015, and applies to all office buildings across the U.S. including subsidiaries, but doesnt include smokeless tobacco products such as e-cigarettes.
We believe its the right thing to do and the right time to do it, Howard told MarketWatch. It will better accommodate both non-smokers and smokers who work in and visit our facilities.
Howard also cited data from health organizations reflecting a smaller population of smokers.
Reynolds has 5,200 employees and about 20% are smokers, according to Howard.
Thanks to RR member, TMC-Chase for forwarding this tweet from Doug Rice showing the refurbished Tim Richmond/Raymond Beadle/Old Milwaukee #27 and Dale Earnhardt/Rod Osterlund/Wrangler Jeans #2 on display at the GoodGuys show at Charlottte:
An item in this morning's Charlotte paper caught my eye that rekindled many memories... some pleasant, some not:
NASCAR history on display
Next weekends Goodguys Southeastern Nationals at Charlotte Motor Speedway will feature a stock car collection driven by some of the biggest icons in motorsports.
The centerpiece of the display is a restored 1981 No. 2 Wrangler Pontiac from the Rod Osterlund racing stables, which has not been on public display in more than 25 years. The familiar blue-and-yellow Wrangler Pontiac was driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Sr.
The event runs Oct. 24-26. General admission is $18, $6 for kids ages 7 to 12. Parking is $5. For more information, call 925-838-9876.
Utter: 704-358-5113; Twitter: @jim_utter.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/10/22/5260399/stewart-haas-racing-teams-swap.html#storylink=cpy
Photo by Statsman
This car, along with all the other Osterlund Pontiacs prepared for Dale Earnhardt for 1981 passed into the possession of Jim Stacy in Summer 1981 when he purchased Rod Osterlund's team. The story, unfortunately doesn't mention the car owner or how the owner came into possession.
The 1963 Hill's directory for Wilson, NC showed Wilson County Speedway on U.S. 301, but also mentioned a micro midget track in a display ad for Bill's Drive-In. When I got to Wilson in 1970, Bill's had become Bill's BBQ & Chicken Restaurant and there was no sign of a micro midget track on the premises.
In the 1963 Hill's Directory for Wilson, NC, I found a display ad for Dixie Supply Co. , the sponsor of our 1955 Chevy at Wilson County Speedway.
When looking for information on location of old race tracks, you might also try Hill's Directory .
I was already familiar with this tool because the directory HQ for many years were located on Clay Street in Richmond, Va.
The Hill Directory Company of Richmond (now Hill-Donnelly) published huge bound business to business volumes selling for $25-$40 or so primarily for sale to businesses utilizing them as sales prospecting tools.
The Hill's Directories are sort of a glorified combo of yellow page display and classified ads, business listings and residential listings. There are categories for Amusements (which sometimes include racetracks) and all other imaginable categories. I especially enjoy looking at the display ads for garages, car dealers and grocery stores.
These directories were produced for many years on a yearly basis. Many University Archives have editions that can be searched on line. In North Carolina, a number of the various North Carolina University Archives of the Hill's Directories starting back in the 1920s have been lumped together at a single site:
http://www.digitalnc.org/collections/city-directories/
Eric Cardona... you'll even find a Raeford, NC directory for one year. There are years of Fayetteville directories to keep you busy looking for racetrack listings.
The University of Virginia Library also has an archive of Hill's Directories.
You'll have to have a heck of a lot of patience to navigate through these directories, but you might find a gem of a ghost track or garage.
You can also enter the search terms Hill's Directory and the city or county into a search engine and see what pops up.
Oh, I watched the Silver Fox lay back in big speedway races.... but never at the tail end of the field behind everybody. I also watched him blister the pants off folks on the short dirt tracks where he was a master.
