Forum Activity for @dave-fulton

Win the Lottery, Help the Kids, Help the Drivers

General

When watching news accounts of big lottery winners, my wife and I have often commented that if we won, we'd like to help others in need, as well as have some fun for ourselves.

Joe Denette seems to have followed that model by first making a sizable donation to assist research for Autistic children via Hermie Sadler, then starting a NASCAR team and now employing a recently unemployed and popular driver.

Hornaday's jackpot is new ride for 2012

By D.C. Williams

Correspondent

Daytona Beach News-Journal
February 24, 2012

DAYTONA BEACH -- How does one go from an ardent but unemployed NASCAR fan to a full-time Camping World Truck Series team owner?

Win a lottery.

How does an unemployed four-time NASCAR Truck Series champion get a ride for 2012?

Hook up with the guy who won the lottery.

Though Ron Hornaday compiled 51 wins in 300 starts since his first Truck Series start in 1995, the series' winningest driver would in 2011 face the stark prospect of being without a ride for 2012.

It was at about 2/3 of the way into the 2011 Truck Series schedule when he realized owner Kevin Harvick, with whom Hornaday scored two of his four championships, would close the Kevin Harvick Inc. truck race shop at season's end.

"We had hints of it in the middle of the year about what was going down, but he never did say much about it," the grizzled 53-year-old veteran said. "Then about seven races from the end, Kevin gave me a buzz and said, 'We're closing the shop at the end of the year.' "

"I thought that was pretty cool instead of him going down there and just closing the doors. On top of that, he and Delana helped about 100-or-so employees find jobs."

Hornaday, though, was on his own.

Two weeks before the season's final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Hornaday and Hermie Sadler talked at Texas Motor Speedway, afterward striking a handshake deal for the former to drive in 2012 for Joe Denette Motorsports.

Sadler met team owner Joe Denette in 2009 shortly after Denette banked a $47.8 million cash-buyout share of a multistate Mega Millions jackpot, later handing Sadler a $250,000 donation for the Hermie and Elliott Sadler Charitable Foundation, which raises awareness and promotes research of autism.

Not long afterward, Denette decided to become a NASCAR team owner and leaned on his newfound friend, Sadler, to help build the enterprise.

After spending the 2011 season getting accustomed to the ways of NASCAR with rookie Jason White at the wheel of the team's Chevrolet truck, in which he'd finish 15th in points, Denette and Hornaday closed the 2011 season by signing a one-year, 2012-season contract at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Dropping Hornaday's familiar No. 33 in favor of Denette's favorite number, Hornaday has a busy schedule today at Daytona International Speedway. Hornaday will be in Denette's No. 9 Anderson's Maple Syrup Chevrolet for Truck Series qualifying at 4:05 p.m. and the race at 7:30 p.m.

"Qualifying and racing all in one day will make for a lot of hustling, but that's not so bad," Hornaday said. "We might as well get used to it; we've got a bunch of those two-day deals this year."

Will Denette's good vibrations and Hornaday's ability to score championships combine to provide both Hornaday and Chevrolet something neither has previously achieved at Daytona: a win in today's NextEra Energy Resources 250 at Daytona?

"Well, we certainly hope so," Hornaday said. "We'd like to bring Chevrolet its first truck win on a superspeedway."

updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

SPECIAL DELIVERY FOR DAVE FULTON

General

No toes stepped on here, Robin. I would have hated to have been in TV Quiz show Tuesday night answering racing question, though!

SPECIAL DELIVERY FOR DAVE FULTON

General

Sorry for the late response, Tim. Didn't take your correction as anything but that and was glad you made it. You would think I would have known better having followed Little Joe and worked with his car owner, Bud Moore. I have looked really hard to find a Legend error so I could make a tongue in cheek correction, but Legend errors are darned hard to find - other than his not realizing that he won't pick up enough debris on cold tires to spin out in his driveway!

Now, you failed to mention that I also immediately asked on the same chat after your correction if Rex White wasn't the 1961 champ (of course it is/was Ned Jarrett - Rex won in 1960) and was immediately (and rightfully so) corrected by another member.

You really didn't need to apologize when you have nothing for which to apologize, but I appreciate your kind remarks.

All I ask, with all my heart, is that none of you tell my wife I was wrong twice within a one minute span!

Martinsville Find Nets $3.5 Million!

General

OK... this is not a racing story, but it does have its origins in Martinsville, Virginia. For all of you who have never forgiven your mom for throwing out your comic collection, or like me, gave them all to a young relative, you better not read any further.

This is the last respite from racing story I plan to post with the 500 around the corner.

Holy smokes: Childhood comic collection draws $3.5M
Man finds Action Comics No. 1, other prized issues in aunt's basement.

This copy of Action Comics No. 1 sold for $299,000

By Jamie Stengle
Associated Press
Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012

DALLAS The bulk of a man's childhood comic book collection that included many of the most prized issues ever published sold at auction Wednesday for about $3.5 million.

A copy of Detective Comics No. 27, which sold for 10 cents in 1939 and features the debut of Batman, got the top bid at the New York City auction Wednesday. It sold for about $523,000, including a buyer's premium, said Lon Allen, managing director of comics for Heritage Auctions, the Dallas-based auction house overseeing the sale.

"This really has its place in the history of great comic book collections," said Allen, who added that the auction was high energy, with "a bunch of applause at a couple of the top lots."

Action Comics No. 1, a 1938 issue featuring the first appearance of Superman, sold for about $299,000; Batman No. 1, from 1940, sold for about $275,000; and Captain America No. 2, a 1941 issue with a frightened Adolf Hitler on the cover, brought in about $114,000, Allen said.

Among the 345 well-preserved comics bought decades ago by the Virginia boy with a remarkable knack for picking winners were 44 of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide's top 100 issues from comics' golden age.

"It was amazing seeing what they went for," said Michael Rorrer, who discovered his great uncle Billy Wright's collection last year while cleaning out his great aunt's house in Martinsville, Va ., following her death.

Opening up a basement closet, Rorrer found the neatly stacked comics that had belonged to Wright, who died in 1994 at age 66.

"This is just one of those collections that all the guys in the business think don't exist anymore," Allen said.

Experts say the collection is remarkable not only for the number of rare books, but also because the comics were kept in such good condition for half a century by the man who bought them in his childhood.

"The scope of this collection is, from a historian's perspective, dizzying," said J.C. Vaughn, associate publisher of Overstreet.

Allen said 80 of the lesser-valued comics from the collection will be sold in an online auction Friday that's expected to bring in about $100,000.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/23/3037079/holy-smokes-childhood-comic-collection.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy

updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

February 23: A big day for Petty winning history

Stock Car Racing History

Little know fact about the Wood Brothers' winning car at Richmond for Kyle in 1986. That car was a Hutcherson-Pagan built car purchased by the Woods from PETTY ENTERPRISES!

The final time that former Petty Enterprises car ever ran, Dale Jarrett was in it for the Wood Brothers leading at Bristol when a wheel broke. The resulting crash totaled the car.

February 23: A big day for Petty winning history

Stock Car Racing History

Here's a pretty good piece about Kyle that ran in the Richmond paper this past September (FYI. KP's sister Lisa lives in Richmond married to former Late Model Sportsman driver, Charlie Luck) .

Credit: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Kyle Petty started 829 races on NASCAR's top circuit, fifth all-time in NASCAR history. He won eight races and had 173 top-10 finishes.

With plenty to do, Kyle Petty happily keeps moving forward

By: Paul Woody

Richmond Times Dispatch
September 09, 2011

For many, Kyle Petty is a guy on television, SPEED TV mostly, who talks and talks and talks about racing.

Some might be aware that "Petty" is a name that has some history in NASCAR, but they're not exactly sure what that history is.

Anyway, this Kyle Petty guy, well he sure can talk and he seems to know what he's talking about. And, he certainly seems to be having fun.

Time passes. Things change. The Petty name once was the name in NASCAR. Lee Petty started the dynasty. Lee's son Richard, still known as The King to his devoted fans, won 200 races, the most in NASCAR history.

Kyle, 51, is Richard's son, Lee's grandson, and was no slouch behind the wheel either. Kyle started 829 races on NASCAR's top circuit, fifth all-time in NASCAR history.

In a career that stretched from 1979 through 2008, Kyle won eight times, had 52 top-five finishes and 173 top-10 finishes.

"My joke is that when I was racing, everyone knew me as Richard Petty's son," Kyle said. "Now, people know me as a guy on television. They still don't know I ever drove.

"But, yeah, I drove a long time for a lot of different people and did a lot of different stuff."

Petty drove for established teams, helped a team running a part-time schedule go full-time, helped start a team, started his own team and eventually merged his team with his father's team at Petty Enterprises.

The man got around.

As is evident from his television work, Petty can talk about all he learned from being around racing.

"I never dreamed of doing TV," he said. "Why or how I got here, I don't know. I guess they figured I run my mouth enough they thought I could sit in front of a camera and run my mouth."

Some athletes start to talk as their careers ebb and the possibility of a television career emerges. Petty always talked. He was, and is, among the most gregarious people ever involved in NASCAR.

He will talk at length on racing and on the extensive media coverage racing receives now compared to when he drove. He will hold forth on his family's distinguished racing history. He will talk at length on Victory Junction Gang Camp.

He does not shy away from talking of one of the great tragedies in his life, the death of his son Adam in a racing accident during a practice at the track in Loudoun, N.H. Adam was a fourth-generation Petty driver. He was 19.

"I don't think any parent ever gets over it," Petty said. "It skews your perspective on life. You're little and you have parents and grandparents. You watch an old tree die and a new tree's born. You watch your grandparents pass away and you know your parents are the next ones and you're in line and it's your children after that.

"It's just the circle of life, to quote 'The Lion King.' So, when the circle is broken and it's out of order, it makes you question what else is out of order. Things you value, tenets you've held your whole life to be true and cast in stone are not true."

Kyle and Patti Petty have two other children, a son, Austin, 29, who runs Victory Junction Gang Camp, and daughter Montgomery Lee, who is married to budding country-music singer Randy Montana.

The Pettys had no intention of letting Adam's memory fade. In his honor, they started the Victory Junction Gang Camp in Randleman, N.C. The camp occupies 84 acres, land donated by Richard and Lynda Petty, Adam's grandparents.

Victory Junction Gang Camp is for children with chronic or serious illnesses, and provides them the opportunity to swim, play, fish and ride horses. Every child who comes to the camp comes free of charge.

When he's not on television or radio Petty also does "Inside NASCAR" for Showtime and a radio show on Monday nights on Performance Racing Network Petty is raising money for Victory Junction.

"It takes about $5.5 million per year to operate," he said. "The camp goes year-round. We have about 60 full-time employees, and in the summers, we have about 140-150 employees.

"When we started it, most everybody said there would be no way we'd be able to raise that much money, no way people would support it. But when you think about it, we were in the fundraising business. We just raised money to race cars. If you're already in the business of going in and asking for money and showing the potential of their dollar buy, it fell right into what we already did."

Petty will keep doing what he's doing. One day, he might even be talking about a fifth- or sixth-generation Petty driver. You never know.

Petty does know one valuable lesson he learned from racing.

"Last week was last week," he said. "Next week, there's another race. No matter what went on last week or five months or five years or 15 years ago, I can't change that. It's past.

"You have to keep moving forward. You can keep moving forward and be miserable or move forward and have fun.

"I always try to have fun."

February 23: A big day for Petty winning history

Stock Car Racing History

I well remember the Winston patch getting slapped on before Kyle got out of the car that day. That is curious and I can't explain why one wouldn't have been visible on his uniform - after all, we did sell a few Winstons in 7-Eleven. And, yep, that's me grinning next to Glen Wood and wearing a Winston cap for the photo. It was COLD!

February 23: A big day for Petty winning history

Stock Car Racing History

Can't say I was there for the King's 1964 Daytona win (wish I had been, but I did watch him later that year twice in Richmond on the dirt).

Saw the 1975 win at Richmond by the King.

I did have the honor to be in the victory lane in the photo above with Kyle Petty and the Wood Brothers at Richmond in 1986, the day of the famed Earnhardt/DW crash. (In the video that's me with a mustache in Victory Lane behind Pattie with the red 7-Eleven coat & hat).

Bill Jr. Statue Unveiled at Daytona

General

Speedway unveils statue of Bill France Jr.

By DINAH VOYLES PULVER

Daytona Beach News-Journal
February 23, 2012 12:15 AM

The France family, from left, Jim, Betty Jane, Brian and Lesa France Kennedy pose for photos during the unveiling of a Bill France Jr. statue at Daytona International Speedway on Wednesday. (N-J | Peter Bauer)

From the classic look of determination on his face to the tips of his beloved tasseled loafers, friends and family agree a sculpture of the late Bill France Jr. unveiled Wednesday at Daytona International Speedway perfectly captured the racing icon.

When family members whisked away a white cloth to reveal the sculpture of the man who built NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation into a racing dynasty, emotion rippled across the crowd that included family, friends and former associates.

It was Jim France's first look at the sculpture of his brother. It took his breath away.

The sculptor, John Lajba, captured his brother's expression perfectly, France said. "I've seen that expression a thousand times."

The sculpture was built to 162 percent of the size of the 6-foot, 5-inch height of the former president of the International Speedway president and NASCAR chairman. France died in June 2007 after building the stock car racing company his father started into one of the country's most popular sports and dramatically expanding the company's holdings.

The sculpture stands on a pedestal in front of the Speedway's Ticket and Tours office, just down the sidewalk from sculptures of his parents, Bill Sr. and Anne, and driver Dale Earnhardt, all created by Lajba. The artist also creates the annual Harley J. Earl Daytona 500 trophy.

The roar of race cars practicing on the track provided a backdrop for Wednesday's ceremony.

A committee of community leaders, put together by Mayor Glenn Ritchey, started planning the sculpture more than a year ago, raising private donations to pay for it. Committee members included Speedway President Joie Chitwood, former Speedway President John Graham, and Joe Petrock and Joe Cameron. Petrock and Cameron are members of the Checkered Flag Committee, a group of local business leaders who serve as volunteer goodwill ambassadors during Speedway events.

On Wednesday, Chitwood called the sculpture "phenomenal."

"You can almost hear the words coming out of his mouth," Chitwood said.

France's widow, Betty Jane France, thanked Ritchey and the others for making the sculpture happen. She said a painting that hung in her husband's dressing room showed a young boy looking at himself in a mirror and seeing the reflection of himself as a mature young man.

Both that painting and the sculpture capture that part of her husband that "was always looking to the future," she said.

While working on the sculpture in his Nebraska studio almost daily for a year, Lajba relied most heavily on a photo of France sitting on the track at the Speedway, he said. "He had this expression like what's in store for the future."

The artist said he worked to put the faces of France's personality into the piece, including kindness, leadership and his "ruggedly handsome character."

As the crowd dispersed Wednesday afternoon, Geri McMullin walked up and quietly slipped a piece of "Bit-o-Honey" candy onto the base of the sculpture.

"It was his favorite candy," explained McMullin, France's executive assistant for 25 years. Even after he grew ill and wasn't supposed to eat it, she said he'd still sneak a piece every now and then.

The sculpture seems so lifelike, McMullin said, the piece of "Bit-o-Honey just seemed appropriate.

updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

Most Popular Drivers 1969

Stock Car Racing History

Thanks for posting, Dennis.

Five great drivers.