Forum Activity for @dave-fulton

Iowa Speedway Sold

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This just in:

New Iowa Speedway owners hope to host Sprint Cup race

Featherlite Inc. founder Conrad Clement and his family buy track

By Luke Meredith - Associated Press Tuesday, Jul. 05, 2011

DES MOINES, Iowa Featherlite Inc. founder Conrad Clement and his family have purchased the Iowa Speedway in a sale that officials said won't affect the daily operations of the popular track. Officials announced Tuesday that the Clement family had bought the holding company that owns the five-year-old track, U.S. Motorsports Corp., from the Manatt family effective June 30. Terms were not disclosed. The Manatts, who own a Brooklyn, Iowa-based construction company, have been the primary investors since the track was built in 2006 but had always intended to transfer controlling interest within five years. Track officials said Rusty Wallace will remain a minority owner and that no staff changes are planned. Featherlite, which was founded in 1973 and has been based in Cresco, Iowa, since 1979, makes aluminum trailers. The company employs about 400 people, according to its website, and makes transports for a number of NASCAR teams. "It was our privilege to help build the track five years ago, and like a proud parent, we've enjoyed watching it thrive and grow," said Brad Manatt, the company's president said in a statement. The 0.875-mile track has been a hit with fans in Iowa since it opened. This year, Iowa has four major events on the schedule, including last month's IndyCar race, two NASCAR Nationwide events and a NASCAR trucks series event on July 16. IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard also said last week that he's spoken with track president Jerry Jauron about hosting a doubleheader at Iowa in 2012. "The Clement family has expressed their willingness to invest in the track, its infrastructure and its future," Wallace said. "Together, we can establish Iowa Speedway as one of the Midwest's premier entertainment venues and achieve our ultimate goal - hosting a NASCAR Sprint Cup race." Read more: http://www.thatsracin.com/2011/07/05/68297/iowa-speedway-sold-to-clement.html#ixzz1RHXtu8Y9 in:

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

I just watched some of the Racing Wrecks posted on Facebook by

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Referencing Robbie's post re: Darlington... - 1965 Southern 500 highlights always playup the Cale/Sam McQuagg/Leeroy crash and Ned's huge winning margin. Never much said about the Buren Skeen/Reb Wickersham fatal crash. Quite frankly, I don't like to watch videos or film of fatal crashes like the Don MacTavish crash at Daytona that was played over and over and over. It's a pretty sick feeling, as a lot of you know, to be at the track when a tarp is thrown over a car that has crashed.

Another Change

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Just finished the Daytona 400 telecast and I'm not sure I was ready for the latest change or new thing I saw - and I don't mean out on the track. The racing itself is still different, but so are the pit stops. I'm sure we all remember how sharp it was for speed to be able to carry lug nuts on a wire clinched in your teeth until it became even more fashionable to semi-glue them directly onto the wheel itself. It used to be a joy to watch Junior Johnson swing that jack by the handle until that, too, was outlawed. I used to myself enjoy preparing the sudsy ammonia mix in the pit box for windshield cleaning, then along came tearoffs. Then the size of fuel cells and gas cans shrank and threw out all our previous calculations. But nothing I ever saw before on pit road prepared me for what I saw tonight when crew members were spraying PAM and rubbing bear grease on those rear bumbers. Now that was different. By the way, a question... did they do away with the signature roof or canopy over pit road at Daytona to accommodate the high rise, hotel size pit boxes now in use?
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

Give Lesa France Kennedy Credit

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Oh, yes, PK... correct you are on manufacturing the green stuff, and I don't mean that tri-oval grass that used to be muddy and brown back in the day when David and the King slid through it enroute to that 1976 Daytona finish.

Give Lesa France Kennedy Credit

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I know most of us are pretty quick to point out negatives, but there is one area that Lesa France Kennedy deserves some kudos and that is in the veryapparrent improvements in thephysical looks of the Daytona Speedway plant. I haven't been there onsite since the late1990s, but even then her influence could be seen. It started with some plantings and beautification projects around the tunnel area, which basically had been a bunch of watered down bags of concrete. Infield buildings and restrooms then began to be repainted. But, in my mind, the biggest contrast from the old Daytona to the new Daytona is the white retaining wall (a lot of which came with the addition of the SAFER barrier) that completely surrounds the track today. It's a real different look from the old bland concrete with rust stains streaming down it that we saw at Daytona for years.
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

Where are they today??

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I remember the "rubberized" aprons used by some of the guys. We gave very heavy denim aprons to all the gas guys on all the teams and the Goodyear tire busters.

Where are they today??

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Eddie Jones was working for Osterlund when I met him in 1981, then had a deal building gears for a lot of teams. I also remember him keeping up some LMS cars, I want to say for Darrell??, in theGoodyear Building up at the front corner of CMS about the same time Buddy Parrott was working on those Mark Martin Apache Stove cars out of that same building.

Where are they today??

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Jim... any chance of that being Robert Yates over the engine? DiGard maintains a website at www.digardracing.com that has tons of photos of the #88 Waltrip time period and lots of crew guys shots, including Robert and Mario. Just promise that nobody will show Tim Leeming this photo from the site of DW kissing Bill Gardner. He thinks DW started kissing guys with Brian France at the NASCAR HOF!

Where are they today??

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That's Doyle Ford on the left and the woman reminds an awful lot of Dolly, who was married to Cal and used to score for Dale Earnhardt.

Where are they today??

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Wow, PK... wonder how we'd get Wegman's to head south? I see they now have 6 stores in northern Va., including Fredericksburg, which I assume is now their southernmost store.