Running 2023 Motorsports thread

David Pearson. Won the 1966 championship for Cotton Owens, got fired in 1967 in a dispute over who was going to drive the team tow truck, won the 1968 and 1969 championships for Holman-Moody, before coming to the realization NASCAR paid squat for titles. From that point, he concentrated on running just the big money events and ended up with the Wood Brothers in 1972. He won six of 17 races that year, 11 of 18 in 1973 (still the best winning percentage in NASCAR history,) 7 of 19 in 1974, then after a rare bad season, 10 of 22 in 1976.

Ten wins at Darlington. Nine at Michigan. Eight at Daytona. Four at Atlanta. Three at Talladega. The Silver Fox is my driver in his prime.

Plus, who can hate a guy who had a cigarette lighter installed in his Mercury so he could light up a dart during cautions?

 

This. All of this.
I remember writing a column breaking down my all-time Top 10 drivers during the 50th anniversary. Pearson was number one for the reasons you stated. I got all kinds of grief from the Petty fanboys.

 

Great stuff, Maumann. Brings back memories of hanging out, and usually buying, at the magazine stands in the 60s looking at every car magazine. There used to be a ton of them…Car Craft, Cartoons, Hot Rod cartoons, Hot Rod, Motor Trend, all kinds of Drag rags. I subscribed to NHRAs National Dragster from 1965 to about 1985. Didn’t get off on the rear engine TF cars. Car Craft was the best. Used to watch all the NASCAR races on TV in the early 70s, one of the great things about getting cable TV in Calgary!

 

Late wreck in the Trucks Series race at Talladega led to a good old-fashioned donnybrook.

 

Quote of the year candidate right here:

NASCAR on Instagram: "“Why don’t you do burnouts, @ryanblaney10?” #NASCAR #Talladega"

 

I've liked Blaney for a while. As a little-more-than-casual NASCAR follower, I think he can really, really wheel.

 

What are the odds the alleged short track ever actually gets built? Is NASCAR in SoCal gone for good (Colosseum ridiculous not included). From the PE:

The roar of engines at Fontana’s Auto Club Speedway aren’t of stock cars thundering around the track, but of construction equipment tearing that track down.

NASCAR sold the former Auto Club Speedway to Hillwood Development Co., a Dallas-based investor in commercial real estate, for a reported $544 million in February. News of the sale broke just as the final race on the track, the Pala Casino 400, was taking place.

Demolition began on the track on Monday, Oct. 9. Construction workers with heavy equipment started removing asphalt and trees on the site on Tuesday.

Hillwood has partnered with NASCAR on other properties, including the Daytona International Speedway. There, the two companies are redeveloping of 200 acres adjacent to the track.

The 2-mile Auto Club Speedway track opened in 1997. It will reportedly be replaced with a new short track, a half-mile oval, according to track president David Allen, but as of yet, no details, including when construction on it will begin, have been announced.

Inland Empire race fans have been here before: Ontario Motor Speedway closed in 1980 and Riverside International Raceway closed in 1989.

 

I missed this. NASCAR fights are funny, because the drivers tend to be smaller people, easily manhandled by their crews pulling them away and you know that the PR people are probably the fiercest in making sure a fight is broken up.

 

The Jeff Gordon-Jeff Burton slap fest might be the funniest one I remember.

 

I know I probably sound like a broken record, but the NASCAR Las Vegas weekend used to have some of the worst traffic imaginable because the track is located where I-15, North Las Vegas Blvd. and Nellis AFB all meet.

I've missed the start of the race because of traffic -- and had to bitch my way past rent-a-cops to get into the infield because they claimed going through the tunnel in turn 1 was a safety concern. The infield media center at LVMS was gorgeous, a huge panoramic window with perhaps seating for 200. I doubt they ever got half of that at the apex of the sport, so how empt could it be today? Are there a dozen actual media people -- not including PR -- even traveling?

Darlington. Talladega. Martinsville. Bristol. Charlotte. Atlanta. Phoenix. All terrible race day traffic jams that required you to either leave the hotel about the time Bob Pockrass got to the track or need a secret back road/police escort to reach the track.

I looked at today's crowd and couldn't believe the number of empty seats. I'm somewhat glad I covered the sport when it was actually popular because it's really nothing like it used to be, and probably never will be again.

I remember getting from downtown Indianapolis to the Speedway in less than 30 minutes for the 2012 Brickyard 400 in disbelief, and yet that would be SOP now. To have lived and reported through the 1970s to the go-go 1990s and 2000s to the current moribund product is stunning.

 

When covering Talladega, I would pack an extra set of clothes for the summer race and a cooler with sandwiches, cookies and water. Before leaving I’d change out of the swampass clothes, and then enjoy my cooler of goodies while sitting in traffic.