Ed seemed a grizzled and grouchy 76 when I met him for the first time a quarter of a century ago. Along with Woody and Poole, a guy with amazing institutional knowledge and no patience for foolish questions or evasive answers. NASCAR -- and motorsports in general -- had a ton of guys like that many years ago, professionals who knew more than what the PR shills were spinning. Now it's dwindled to almost nothing, and definitely nobody who remembers when the racing was great and the money was lousy.
He had no love lost for anyone who screwed the public out of their hard-earned cash, be it Tony George, Brian Z. or Bruton. He skewered them all with equal gusto.
I'm certain every beat has a few guys who scare the crap out of the newbies, and Hinton was one of those. Atlanta's media center had photogs and deadline in the same space, and Ed had enough of the louder than normal chatter one post-race evening to snarl a few choice words at a group of camera guys, which almost set off media on media violence before calmer heads prevailed. But Hinton made his point, and the room was morgue like for the rest of the night. I was too frightened to get up from my chair, lest it scrape on the floor and incur another Hinton outburst.
Until he warmed up to you, he had no use for you, which to be honest, is the mark of a guy laser focused on his own job. I got lucky because when he bought a cabin in the north Georgia mountains, he sought me out to chat about my experiences. Then he made a point to call me by name every time we crossed paths. Even though I wasn't ever at his level of national prominence, we talked about lots of topics during endless rain delays and Goodyear tire fiascos.
I just brought his name up in the racing thread a few posts ago. And spent today at the NHRA event in Bradenton as a spectator before I got the text that he was off to the next adventure.
RIP, Ed. The legend can lay down his pen.
