August 29, 1954 - Lee Petty Conquers Corbin

August 29, 1954: In the only Grand National / Cup race in Kentucky until NASCAR went to Sparta's Kentucky Speedway in 2011, Lee Petty wins a 200-lap, 100-mile race on the half-mile, dirt Corbin Speedway.

As was the case with many early NASCAR races, details of the Corbin race are pretty sketchy. Future Petty driver, Jim Paschal, won the pole but ended up with a 19th place finish in the 21-car field. The rest of the starting lineup and lap leaders remain lost to history.

Photo courtesy of John "IndyBigJohn" Potts

Hershel McGriff finished second. The seemingly ageless McGriff raced in the first Southern 500 at Darlington in 1950, drove a limited number of races for Petty Enterprises in 1973-74, and still made occasional starts as recently as a couple of years ago.

Eric Crawford wrote in his 2011 column for the Louisville Courier Journal:

Only two drivers, Petty and McGriff, finished on the lead lap. Twelve of the 21 starters were running at the end. The third driver out of the race was Jim Paschal, who blew a gasket on the 29th lap after winning the pole at 65.789 mph.

Paul Jones of Corbin was a driver himself but didn't take part in the Grand National race that day. He ran in the preliminary race, won by Vermillion, then found an advantageous perch to watch from the pits, out of the overflow crowd in the grandstand.

“It was packed, I'll tell you,” Jones said. “Standing room only. Some of us drivers were acting as hosts, I guess you would call us, to the drivers who came in. And we were in awe of the big names. It was like a major league ball club coming to visit.

In an interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader that year, [flagman Eddie] Poynter called the race “the greatest thing since peppermint candy around here.”

No doubt it was. But it failed to garner a single mention in either of the state's largest newspapers, the Herald-Leader or The Courier-Journal.

Photo courtesy of John "IndyBigJohn" Potts

In 2011, writer Mark Story penned a solid story about the Corbin GN race - and was even able to include a few personal memories from those who participated in it. Key excerpts include:

When Junior, Smoke, the Busch brothers and their Sprint Cup contemporaries take the green flag Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway, it will not be the first "Cup" race run in the commonwealth.

The memory is largely lost to the mists of history, but NASCAR's highest series has run in Kentucky once before. On Aug. 29, 1954, a field of 21 drivers — including four that would one day be named among the 50 greatest NASCAR drivers of all time — lined up on the half-mile dirt track that was then the Corbin Speedway.

An hour and 35 minutes later, Lee Petty — yep, that Lee Petty, father of The King — made a dramatic pass of Hershel McGriff and guided his No. 42 Petty Engineering Chrysler to victory in the 200-lap race.

In 1954, legends-in-the-making like Lee Petty, Buck Baker and McGriff came to race in Kentucky yet the state's main newspapers didn't give them even one paragraph.

Had you purchased the Aug. 29, 1954, Courier-Journal, you would have read about the "youth, grit and late-warming putter" that led a new golfer, chap by the name of Palmer, to the National Amateur Championship.

From the same day's Lexington Herald you would've read — I kid you not — stories on trap shooting and pro wrestling.

There was not one word in either paper about the Grand National Series, as NASCAR's elite division was then known.

It was an Oldsmobile owned by Frank Christian that Hershel McGriff drove to second place.

Actually, McGriff says, there were two 1954 Oldsmobiles in use by his team that year: The one he raced and the one that pulled his race-car from track to track.

"That's why you didn't want to tear up the front of your (race) car," McGriff said in 2004. If you did, "you couldn't get it back on the tow-bar" to pull.

Before a suspension problem knocked Ralph Liguori's Dodge out of the Corbin race, the driver from New York City spent the days leading up to the event sleeping in a local Nash dealership.

"For the life of me, I can't remember the guy's name, but he was a real neat guy," Liguori said in 2004. "Let me sleep and work right there."

In the current era, the business of NASCAR can overshadow the racing. Kentucky Speedway's decade-long pursuit of a Cup race has been one of the commonwealth's predominant sports stories of the 21st Century.

How Corbin, 1954, got a big-league race seems lost in the past.

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing sanctioned its first race in 1948. [Buz] McKim, the NASCAR historian, says that early in its existence the organization ran its top league in some unlikely locales.

"It raced once in North Dakota. Once in Oklahoma," McKim said in 2004. "It went to several tracks in the Midwest for one-shot deals."

There is not a specific answer, he says, to how NASCAR's big league came to Corbin.

We're left to the locals to fill in the blanks. Poynter, the race's flag man, said in 2004 that the connection that brought stock-car's big league to little Corbin was Bub King, a local driver.

King ran NASCAR events at both Daytona Beach and Darlington and the contacts he made eventually led to the Grand National Series coming to Kentucky, Poynter said.

"Bub just knew some NASCAR people," added Allen Dizney, the unofficial "historian" of Corbin, in 2004. "That was the connection."

The feel and flavor of Lee Petty's win in Corbin are also all but lost to the ages.

NASCAR can give you the race results. Of the 21 drivers, only Petty and McGriff finished on the lead lap. Jim Paschal laid down a 65.789 mph qualifying lap to claim the pole. The average speed of the race was a scalding 63.08 mph.

The four drivers in the field — Petty, McGriff, Buck Baker and Herb Thomas — who would go on to be named among the 50 Greatest NASCAR drivers of all time finished 1-2-3-4 in Corbin.

Petty earned a cool $1,000 for winning at Corbin; McGriff got $650 for coming in second. Everyone who finished below 10th got $25.

In 2004, I tracked down two drivers who drove in the race.

I asked Liguori what he remembers about the race in Corbin.
"I think I had one of my better days," he says.

You finished 16th of 21.
"I guess I had one of my bad days," he said, laughing.

Next, I called McGriff, a remarkable racing figure who raced as a driver well into his 70s.

What do your remember about Corbin?
Pause."I seem to remember the name Corbin," he said. "Where is it exactly?"

Southeast Kentucky.
"Oh."

Remember anything at all about the race?
"Well ... not really. It's been 50 years, that's a lot of races ago ..."

You finished second to Lee Petty.
"Then I finished behind a real good driver."

Kentucky driver Bub King - who apparently knew whose hand to shake, whose number to call, and whose knee to bow to land the one and only Grand National / Cup race in the commonwealth until the series debuted at Kentucky Speedway in 2011.

Credit: IndyBigJohn at TrackForum.com

Tim Branstetter

Tim Branstetter

Tim Branstetter

Tim Branstetter included these memories in an article he wrote for Corbin's Times Tribune in July 2011:

On Aug. 29, 1954, 20 drivers chased Lee Petty around the half-mile dirt track at Corbin Speedway for 200 laps. Corbin resident Allen Dizney was parked in the infield with his jeep that was painted up and ready to clean up any wrecks.

“It was an unusual service truck,” Dizney said. “It was a 4-wheel drive jeep and it was all fixed up with lights on it.”

That jeep didn’t get used much during the NASCAR race.

“They never really wrecked,” Dizney said. “They weren’t going fast enough to tear up cars. They only ran about 60 mph.”

Dizney didn’t have to do much work during the race, but he wasn’t getting paid either.

“We didn’t get paid nothing,” he said. “It was a volunteer thing. Just a city thing. I never made a dime, but I enjoyed it very much.”

Bub King was a NASCAR driver from Corbin and was the biggest reason that Corbin was able to host the event.

“Bub worked at it and got it done,” Dizney said. “We were tickled to death with it. Everyone was excited to have a NASCAR race.”

When asked if he was a friend of King’s, Dizney replied, “He was a friend of everybody. He was just a local boy like the rest of us. He was in the service and then got into racing.”

Dizney was a Petty fan, but he made it clear who he was cheering for during the race at Corbin Speedway.

“I was hollering for Bub (King) and Dick (Vermillion), he said. “They were local boys. I liked Petty, but that was on a national scale.”

Petty ended up winning the race, while Vermillion finished in 14th place and King finished in 18th place.

Petty won the race by passing Hershel McGriff on the last lap and Dizney decided to congratulate him after the race.

“I introduced myself to Petty after the race,” he said. “He was real cordial and very nice to me. He was checking the oil in his car.”

While tonight’s race at Kentucky Speedway will be exciting for the fans and leave its mark on NASCAR history, Dizney didn’t think anything about making history when he watched as Petty took home $1,000 for winning the first NASCAR race in Kentucky.

“It was just a race,” Dizney said. “It was just something that happened. We wasn’t trying to make history. At the time it was just an automobile race. It was just a race with some guys that we had read about in the paper.”

McGriff claimed $650 for second place, while Buck Baker took $450 for third and Herb Thomas won $350 for fourth place. Vermillion and King won $25 each. - See more at: http://thetimestribune.com/sports/x614902764/Corbin-hosted-NASCAR-first/#sthash.L31UOHGE.dpuf

Corbin resident Allen Dizney was parked in the infield with his jeep that was painted up and ready to clean up any wrecks.

That jeep didn’t get used much during the NASCAR race.

“They never really wrecked,” Dizney said. “They weren’t going fast enough to tear up cars. They only ran about 60 mph.”

Dizney didn’t have to do much work during the race, but he wasn’t getting paid either.

“We didn’t get paid nothing,” he said. “It was a volunteer thing. Just a city thing. I never made a dime, but I enjoyed it very much.”

Dizney was a Petty fan, but he made it clear who he was cheering for during the race at Corbin Speedway.

“I was hollering for Bub (King) and Dick (Vermillion), he said. “They were local boys. I liked Petty, but that was on a national scale.”

Petty ended up winning the race, while Vermillion finished in 14th place and King finished in 18th place.

Petty won the race by passing Hershel McGriff on the last lap and Dizney decided to congratulate him after the race.

“I introduced myself to Petty after the race,” he said. “He was real cordial and very nice to me. He was checking the oil in his car.”

“It was just a race,” Dizney said. “It was just something that happened. We wasn’t trying to make history. At the time it was just an automobile race. It was just a race with some guys that we had read about in the paper.”

I'm unsure why essentially all media outlets opted not to cover Corbin's GN race. Perhaps it was because the series only made the one stop and the track had no year-to-year opportunity to build momentum. Perhaps the state was preoccupied with its other passions such as horses and hoops. Or perhaps its because over time, Corbin became better known as the original home of Colonel Harlan Sanders and his Kentucky Fried Chicken vs. Lee Petty's victory.

Source: New York Times

Sometime after the 1954 race on the half-mile, dirt track, Corbin was re-designed into a paved, quarter-mile track. Though its gone through some tough stretches, the Eastern Kentucky track still operates today.

 

Information posted by the track's news director and arguably its greatest evangelist of its history, John "IndyBigJohn" Potts, can be read on the track's website and Facebook page.

TMC

The Schaefer Hall of Fame rides in Kentucky

Third and final in the series.

As has been well established, Kentucky Speedway had its share of problems with its inaugural Quaker State 400 Cup race - the overwhelming majority of which were self-inflicted. But as the old saying proclaims "the show must go on". The race was held, the stands were packed, and the Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor represented admirably. Actually, the race weekend was quite a patriotic affair. We had rednecks and white trash celebrating in the bluegrass state.

After withstanding morning thunderstorms south and east of the track before our arrival, we rolled in Friday afternoon and soon rolled out the barrel - or at least a few cans from it. Before unloading vehicles or setting up a canopy, we wanted to kick off our weekend as always do - with a celebratory Schaefer. To great times, great friends, great beer and a great parking spot!

Once we got our stuff set-up and the first one down, we inducted our first new Schaefer Ring of Honor member of the weekend. He was from Minot by-cracky North Dakota and was ecstatic about the Schaefer experience.

SHOFer Philly gave him a Schaefer Ring of Honor shirt, and he agreed to Schaefervangelize the folks back home. He now represents the only SROH member from the Dakotas. (Now that I think about it, he is the only person I've ever met from North Dakota.)

We had some super nice folks tailgating immediately across from us. They offered us burgers to eat and use of their Nationwide tickets to watch Cup qualifying. (They wanted us to return the tickets so they could use them for the Nationwide race and asked that we leave them in the bed of their truck. Nice and trusting folks - hard to find these days.) This guy from Vermont was tailgating with them.

As with our new North Dakota bud, he may be the only person I've ever met from Vermont. Except for Ben & Jerry. However, I really haven't met them. I've just overpaid for their ice cream.

After sampling his Schaefer, he paused, pondered, and then said softly "yes, this is a beer that tastes like its meant to come from a can". We took it as a compliment.

As a contrast to the über subdued Vermont guy, we also encountered a drunk, loud, foul-mouthed chick from Florida by way of Ohio and Missouri. After getting mouthy with us about Schaefer, we extended an offering to share one with us. I pulled 2 beers from the cooler still in the six-pack ringer - one for her and one for me. She smiled, sipped, and then cackled loudly about the greatness of Schaefer and then her "fondness" for Carl Edwards. After she had her one Schaefer (on top of everything else she'd been swilling), she provided perhaps the most...uh, um...interesting autograph on our Schaefer banner.

As blogged earlier this week, we left the track as the Nationwide race began. We stopped by Longnecks Sports Grill in Wilder, KY - about 45 minutes from the track. Longnecks was a pretty neat place with good pizza and wings, cold buckets of Bud (sadly no Schaefer), and nice TVs featuring the Nationwide race and the Cincinnati Reds game.

After dinner, we soldiered on to the bustling metropolis of Ripley, Ohio - population 1,745 per the 2000 U.S. census. The brother-in-law of SHOFer Philly and nephew of SHOFer Uncle D, John and his wife hosted us in their 125 year-old farm house. Though it was about 90 minutes away from the track, it was free, better than camping, different than a hotel, and added an element of class not normally experienced by the SHOFers. Its probably the closest the Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor will ever come to staying at a bed-and-breakfast on a race weekend.

Then it was race day! On a slightly foggy Saturday morning, we loaded back into John's Suburban and make our trek back to the track. Along the way, we had a neat view of the Ohio River - and then we saw a nuclear power plant. It was a bit like traveling through Springfield in The Simpsons.

After beating The Man to get our top-shelf parking spot, we set about establishing our Schaefer Racing Domicile.

It was then time to formally induct John as our newest member of the Schaefer Ring of Honor. His providing of housing for us, driving us to and fro, and immediately enjoying Schaefer made him a most deserving candidate. His induction also earned him a new SROH nickname: "Port-a-John"

Kentucky is primarily known for three things: basketball, horse racing and bourbon. I'm too short to play hoops, and I'm too fat to be a jockey. So I opted to commemorate our race trip with a shot of Kentucky's own Maker's Mark for each of our Schaefer crew.

Presenting the 2011 Kentucky Speedway Schaefer Racing Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor - with a can of Schaefer and a Dixie cup shot of Makers. Schaa-loot! Ooooh-wheee! Shudder head to toe.

L to R: Will The Thrill, SHOF TMC, SROH Rick, SROH Chet,
SHOF Uncle Dave, SHOF Philly and SROH Port-A-John

While the drunk chick provided the most profane (and entertaining?) signature on our banner, Port-A-John provided the most creative.

Once the Schaefer commencement and SROH induction ceremony was completed, Uncle Dave was ready to get to work. He executed his core competency for us - manning the grill. He delivered some grilled pizzas and later some exceptional brats.

In addition to earning his way into the SROH, Port-A-John was also awarded the traditional, race-weekend, rookie stripe for attending his first-ever NASCAR race.

After all the ceremonial crap was done, he finally wanted to just simply sit down, crack a cold Schaef, and wait for Uncle Dave to serve more food.

These two guys from Tacoma, Washington - Rob and Mike I think are their names - now unquestionably represent the most westward chapter of the ring of honor. SHOFer Philly had a single shirt left to award. He gave it one of them and encouraged them to share the Schaef experience ... and the shirt ... with others.

Clarksville Chris climbed aboard the SROH. He is a friend of SROH member Rick, and I met him during our visit to the Stanley Tools hospitality tent and garage tour.

This guy is from Altoona, Pennsylvania. As Schaefer began to move away from its Brooklyn roots, it built a modern brewing facility in Allentown, PA in the early 1970s. Allentown isn't Altoona, but this guy is closer to the origins of Schaef than we are.

Quite frankly, I don't remember where this next guy is from. By this time of the day, we'd welcomed many folks into the SROH - and renewed our own commitment to the SHOF and SROH many times over. So I did well to remember the track where we were, where I parked and my seat location - much less the hometown of a middle-aged dude holding a Schaefer bucket. I did appreciate, however, his commitment to old school with his Winston Cup Series cap.

I can't remember this guy's name either. But he and his wife found us right before we tore down our tailgating gear to head to the race. As I recall, he said he is from Ohio, has had plenty of Schaefer in his day, and couldn't believe we had it. So he had another one. His wife? She was a margarita-drinking, anti-beer snob.

Many folks returned home with war stories of slow traffic, rotten parking, long bathroom lines, and concession outages. Some will return for year two - others wouldn't step foot on the property if you paid them.

As for us, we had a grand time. We met a ton of cool, new, weekend friends. We shared the Schaef freely. The Schaefer Ring of Honor was expanded greatly to include states such as Vermont, North Dakota, Washington, etc. Will we return? Time will tell. Provide the tickets and a cooler of cold Schaefer though, and I'll bet our decision could be made rather quickly.

TMC

Kentucky: The tour and the race

Over 10 years. The ownership, management, local residents and fans of Kentucky Speedway waited over 10 years to finally land its coveted Cup date. It took a change of ownership and and an agreement by a bunch of lawyers to stand down before it could happen. But both events happened, the Cup date was granted, and Darrell Waltrip got so giddy over the whole deal that on more than one occasion I'm quite sure he nearly pee'd himself.

New track owner Bruton Smith - who is not exactly a wallflower owner/promoter - gushed that the race would be the biggest event of the year. When the weekend was done, he was kind of right with his prediction. He likely hosted the biggest STORY of the season. Sadly, the weekend will be remembered for ridiculous traffic jams, a lack of parking, a breakdown of communications and commitment by track management and staff, and a complete abdication of responsibility by those in charge (e.g. Bruton joking about the snafus on pre-race shows, Bruton blaming I-71's condition and width, press releases stating the track "regretted" the situation).

Despite all the perimeter noise, the inaugural Quaker State 400 Cup race was run. And representatives of the Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor were there to christen the event.

We arrived on Friday afternoon - primarily just to get a feel for the vibe of the crowd, scout some parking, tour the souvenir trailers, enjoy a Schaefer ... and maybe a second, etc. While roaming through the various sponsor exhibits, we spotted a replica of the car Michael Waltrip planned to race. It was skinned to pay tribute to Darrell Waltrip's first Cup win at Nashville Speedway in 1975. When qualifying was rained out, however, Mikey was left on the outside looking in.

Schafer HOFer Uncle Dave was excited to find the Robby Gordon souvenir trailer. I'm not quite sure why. Uncle Dave may well be the last fan ol' Robby has. I kind of expected Robby's souvenirs could fit comfortably inside a pull-behind U-Haul trailer.

In the early to mid 90s, Kyle Petty had some incredibly dominant runs at Rockingham Speedway - especially when sponsored by Mello Yello. After all these years, I think I finally found the answer. He was racing with organic fuel maaannnn. (reference to Cars 2 for those who don't get it).

I was fortunate enough to land a hospitality pass with Stanley Tools through Rick - who was recently inducted into the Schaefer Ring of Honor in May at Charlotte Motor Speedway. As we walked towards the hospitality tent, I snapped this photo of the Marcos Ambrose / Stanley show car.

As we settled in with a nice lunch, one of the Stanley guys announced some prize giveaways. "The first person to show me a photo of the Stanley race car wins a prize." I jumped up with a WHOO, showed him the pic on my Blackberry, and just like that earned myself a soft-sided Stanley tool "box" or bag. Shortly thereafter, they had drawings for garage tours. I had been told we could visit the pits, but the garage tour was an extra. Sure enough, I went two for two as my name was drawn to visit the garage.

Before heading down for our tour, Marcos Ambrose dropped by the tent to ask a few questions. He answered such inquiring-minds-want-to-know questions as "what is your favorite pre-race meal?", "will you put Kyle Busch in the wall for us?", "what is your favorite TV show?", etc. I got the privilege of asking one, and mine went something like this: In the 2-car drafting tandem at Daytona, you seemed to draft better with your pushing A.J. than when he tried to push you. Was that because of the differences in the cars or your individual driving and drafting styles? Unlike the other ones, he started his response with "well, that's a great question mate..." before explaining the answer as a little bit of both.

After Ambrose left, it was time for our walking tour of the garage. I'm guessing we were supposed to keep a healthy distance away from the individual garage bays. But I couldn't help myself. I wanted to get a couple of close-up shots - especially of the Richard Petty Motorsports Fords.

Here is the Porter Cable #9 raced at Kentucky by Marcos Ambrose...

And here is the famed #43. The Valvoline Ford of The Dinger, A.J. Allmendinger.

After roaming a bit more around the bays and seeing a few cars go through technical inspection, our group headed for hauler row. I lagged back a bit when I got to the Best Buy trailer. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Allmendinger, The King, Robbie Loomis, Dale Inman, or someone else of vital importance I might recognize. Not seeing them, I still made myself at home a bit. Having a Schaefer in hand is a bit like being a V.I.P. - it gets you into interesting places with meaningful people. Don't believe me? Check out the expression on the dude's face in the white shorts. I'm quite certain he's thinking "Are you kidding me? I had to surrender my first born to get a hot pass - yet this guy just strolls in with nothing more than a Schaefer?" Yeah buddy, deal with it.

Although I didn't see anyone of vital importance at the Best Buy hauler, I did spot one quasi-celeb. Look again at the above photo - over the left shoulder of the guy whose back is to me with a #7 shirt and blue shoes. Recognize him? Its Paul Menard, sideburns and all.

Allmendinger's trailer - still in its Best Buy colors vs. the 1-off Valvoline sponsor for the weekend - was sandwiched between the haulers of Menard and Juan Montoya. With those two flanking the RPM hauler, it was amazing the 43 didn't get wrecked while being unloaded!

As we wrapped up our tour of the garage and headed for pit road, we passed by a booth where a radio broadcast was taking place. When I walked by, I heard the announcer say "we're glad to have Jerry Carrol here with us", and I paused.

Carroll built Kentucky Speedway and lobbied for years for a Cup event. The lobbying later turned into a lawsuit against NASCAR. As long as the lawsuit continued, Carrol had about as much a chance of landing a Cup date as drivers named Regan and Ragan could each win a race and in the same season.

Wait - check that. Regan and Ragan both have won races this season, and Kentucky did get its Cup date. So miracles do happen. But of course, it required Carroll's selling of the track and getting the lawsuit withdrawn to make it happen.

A view of the upper portion of pit road. Look carefully near the center of the picture, and you may be able to see the pit board for the 43 team.

A view of the start-finish line with the grandstands, suites and Indiana Tower behind it.

After completing our tour, I returned to the hospitality area. I downed a water, cracked a beer and said so long to some of the folks I'd met at my table. Not long after I returned to our own tailgating site, SROH Rick called me to say they were going to have more drawings. Knowing I'd already won the toolbox and garage tour, I figured my luck was exhausted and/or was ineligible for more. Apparently not. A couple of hours later, he returned along with the guys from the table with more swag - some of it autographed by Marcos. They told me my name had been drawn again, but I had to be present to win. So *oof* - a swing and a miss for me. Sure, it stung. But I'd been lucky, I was thankful for the freebies I already won, and there was no sense crying over missed opportunities or autographed swag.

It was now race time! With qualifying rained out, the field was set by practice speeds. As such, Allmendinger started about half-way through the field. He is shown here leading out the second pack of cars for a couple of pace laps.

Sadly, that's about as well as the 43 car would run all night. The team was off its game from the time they unloaded. I call it the Valvoline curse. Don't get me wrong - I appreciate the company's partial sponsorship of Richard Petty Motorsports. But it seems anytime the 43 is skinned in Valvoline colors, the car runs horribly. He ran the same scheme at Vegas in 2010 when I was there - similar type of result.

The race was pretty uneventful. Kyle Busch set the pace early - with his only significant challenge in the early stages coming from brother Kurt. In the mid-laps of the race, Brad Keselowki put the blue deuce out front for an extended segment. Yet we knew the 18 was still very much in the thick of things. Sure enough, as the race hit its three-quarters mark or so and the cars cycled through green-flag pit stops, KyBu's Toyota returned to point.

The finish. Sorry for the blurriness of the cars. A Blackberry 3.2 megapixel camera isn't quite up to par with a Nikon. But that is indeed Kyle Busch winning with David Reutimann in second and Jimmie Johnson in third.

Kyle is no question a polarizing guy. Many, many people still boo him. He does have some passionate fans - though I suspect most have just crawled aboard his winning bandwagon. But you have to give the guy his due. He sets 'em up and knocks 'em down - trucks, Nationwide, Cup. He can win them all on any given weekend. And I don't think anyone can match him on burnouts.

One of these days, I half-way expect him to pull a Chris Angel stunt. Light 'em up, create a tire smokescreen, and disappear into thin air before the smoke clears.

Once the checkers fell and the burnout smoke cleared, SROH member Chet and I made a beeline for the car. We had made the decision to drive throughout the night back to middle Tennessee rather than staying somewhere overnight. We made it as far as Louisville before the weekend caught up to us: road stare, excessive yawning and hunger.

Just as is often needed during a long race, it was time for a green-flag pit stop. Waffle House! Say it with me: Waffle House!

Yep. Nothing soothes the stomach and wakes the soul quite like an All Star at 2AM.

Next: The Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor celebrate and induct many new members.

TMC

A POSITIVE Kentucky parking story

I continue to read with amazement all the stories of horrific traffic and parking at Kentucky. Its even more amazing to me because we were there and had minimal problems at worst.

I plan to post a handful of blogs about the race in the days to come, but I'll start with the number one issue of the race weekend: traffic and parking. Yep, a whole blog devoted to the heart-pounding theme of ... traffic. Yet, this entry has a good vibe to it vs. the rotten one many experienced.

We arrived at Kentucky Speedway on Friday around 1PM. Schaefer Ring of Honor member Chet and I arrived from the south/Louisville direction. The rest of our crew came from the north/Cincinnati side.

I got off I-71 at exit 55 (one of 2 exits for the speedway) and waited about 15 minutes for our Schaefer HOFers to arrive. Once they caught up to us, it was easy money rolling into the track. As a matter of fact, we drove all the way up to the front of the track and parked.

We set up a canopy, cracked a Schaef (or two or...), met a lot of great folks around us from places as varied as North Dakota and Vermont, and toured the souvenir trailers and special exhibits.

The Nationwide race was not in our plans. We mainly used Friday as our scouting expedition - determine the right exit, spot a lot, enjoy some fun, and then leave. As the race began, we slipped out against the flow of traffic - again back to the mile marker 55 end with no problem. As we turned north on I-71 and headed towards Cincy, it was quite apparent there was a problem. Just as reported, cars were lined up on I-71 trying to get off at exit 57. Interestingly, no consistent pattern of traffic seemed to be going the extra 2 miles to exit 55.

Because we were staying about 90 minutes away from the track, we made the decision to leave my car parked overnight. I locked my doors, loaded a bit of our gear in the big ol' GMC Suburban, said a quick prayer that my car would be in the same spot and condition Saturday morning, and left the speedway property.

We got back to the track around 10:00 Saturday morning. As we approached exit 57, the interstate was already backing up about a mile and a half. We stayed in the left lane & buzzed down to exit 55 where pretty much no one was coming in - including from the south/Louisville direction! Just as with Friday, we turned on Speedway Boulevard and drove about a half-mile in. Then it got a bit interesting.

One of our planned objectives Friday was to find a desired lot for Saturday. Two realities, however, negated that objective.

• One, the temperature was hot on Friday, and we had Schaefer. So roaming around looking for future parking simply became a non-starter..
  
• Two we knew we had to avoid exit 57 and anything near it at all costs. We really didn't care where to park on Saturday as long as it wasn't on that side of the track.

So as we crept along on Speedway Blvd. Saturday, we still didn't know the best place to park. The desirable place to park was where we were Friday - right behind the Kentucky Tower grandstands and where my park was (hopefully) still parked.

SHOFer Philly got out of the Suburban and started walking as he tried to scout us a place. Options were minimal because all the good lots we saw were for reserved camping - not general parking. Like a Star Wars tractor beam, however, we were beginning to get pulled up the hill with a high likelihood of us being routed to the wrong side of the track.

Philly called to say the cops weren't going to let us go back where we had been unless we had a parking pass (which we didn't). So the decision was made to turn around because we were not going near that exit 57 mess.

After getting to the road leading to where my car was (hopefully) parked, we told a cop we needed to turn around, but he said "no". So we took it up a notch and said all we wanted to do was loop back. Again, a firm "no" was the reply. Finally, a second cop said "c'mon, c'mon, turn it around and GO! Let's move!"

Our crew let Chet and me out of the truck quickly so we could walk to my car and move it to wherever we were going to park.

After no more than 20 paces or so, I heard "honk honk" as our Suburban zoomed past the two of us! I said "well, I'll be a sonuva..." under my breath because I immediately knew what had happened. Sure enough, a short walk later we found our guys parked even closer than we had been Friday - just about 50 yards from my car.

Philly said as they were trying to turn around, he noticed the cops already had turned back to focus on in-bound traffic. He said to his brother-in-law who was driving "if you have any stones, you'll hammer it RIGHT NOW".

When the dust settled, we went from exit 55 to being parked in about 45 minutes. We were 20 yards away from port-a-johns without long lines, 100 yards from hospitality village, and only about 1,000 feet from the front gate!

See the blue and checkered flag canopies next to each other? That was our spot.

After the race ended, we had all planned to meet back at the truck, fire up the grill and wait out the madness. But when Chet and I got back, the rest of our boys were already gone! My phone rang, and Philly said the road was empty so they struck while the iron was hot. They headed for mile marker 55 - not 57 - and said they had no problem getting out and turning back north towards Cincy.

We weren't quite that fortunate, but it still only took maybe 45-60 minutes to get to (you guessed it) mile marker 55 on-ramp. From there, it was smooth sailing all the way back to Tennessee. I opened my front door at 4AM CT Sunday - 250 miles away from the track. Sadly, many folks didn't get off speedway property until 3AM ET ... or later.

Why in the world they didn't re-route more traffic to 55 - before and the race is beyond me. It was so underutilized compared to 57 - at least it seemed that way at the time of our two arrivals. I feel for those folks who sat for hours - both Fri and Sat - both before and after the race.

In our case, however, it was better to be lucky than good - though I think we had some of both going. Will I go back? Well, the jury is still out. While we were both lucky and good this year, I'm not so boastful as to believe we could pull of the same coup a year from now. Besides, we were there for a race which wasn't a great one in its own rights. But we'll see.

More race stories to follow...

TMC

2011 Cup dates: The times they are a'changing

With apologies to Bob Dylan who I'm most certain has never attended a NASCAR race...

However, I would love to be a fly on the wall if a conversation ever takes place between Bob Dylan and Ward Burton...

The 2011 Cup schedule hasn't been officially released yet as I type this entry. Yet, many changes have already been announced, tracks have published press releases about their 2011 calendars, and tracks have definitely started separating fans from their wallets for 2011 tickets.

A few thoughts about the changes announced so far.

Are we still in Kansas Toto?

Not only are we still in Kansas Dorothy, but now we're going there TWICE. What? Just two years ago, I dropped by the Kansas City track and the adjoining mall on a non-race weekday while in the area on business. I could find no one having interest in the track or races and NO STORES selling track merch - including the track itself. A security guy wouldn't let me look around, wasn't interested in how long I'd been a fan, had no suggestions on where to get track swag, etc.

The only reasons this track has not only one but now two dates are (1) ISC owns the track (2) Sprint is headquartered in nearby Overland Park and (3) ISC and NASCAR will likely pad their coffers from the casino being built nearby. Otherwise, this track would not have staying power on the schedule.

California Dreaming

Kansas City's gain is California's loss. So now Auto Club Speedway is down to one race, but that's one race too many. The Michigan-cloned track has been received luke-warmly pretty much from the time it opened. To be fair, NASCAR L.A. isn't Hollywood and Vine. Its not Beverly Hills. Its not red carpet. Its the friggin' desert. Its an industrial park.
When Roger Penske built the track, he and NASCAR clearly thought they'd get the eyeballs and consumers of southern California as well as tens of thousands of folks from neighboring southwestern states. NASCAR believed it to be such a can't-miss venture they had their incestuously related company, ISC, buy out the Cap'n. The Daytona brass also thumbed their nose at five decades of tradition by moving the Southern 500 2,500 miles away. What they naively underestimated was A-list movie stars not willing to be caught dead slumming in Fontana, thousands of hard-core traditionalist fans who gave up NASCAR in response to the loss of the Southern 500, and the disinterest of Californians in the track once the bloom was off the rose. So to minimize the damage and salvage something, ACS is back to one date and Kansas gets its second. For the record, the sho-nuff Southern 500 still hasn't returned.

Did Atlanta get burned again?

Atlanta Motor Speedway (originally known as Atlanta International Raceway) has hosted two Grand National/Cup races since opening in 1960. Prior to its opening, the famed Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta hosted an annual race from 1951 through 1959. Several of NASCAR's pioneers were from or lived in Atlanta and nearby areas including Raymond Parks, Red Vogt, Lloyd Seay, Roy Hall, and Tim and Fonty Flock.

Speedway Motorsports and NASCAR announced this week Atlanta will lose a Cup date in 2011. To be honest, this change doesn't bother me greatly for a few reasons. Don't get me wrong - I hate to see the tradition of two races get cut to one. And there's no question Atlanta has had exponentially far more incredible speeds, races, and finishes than tracks such as California, Kansas City, Chicagoland, and Vegas combined. Yet, a few points about their losing a date:

• When NASCAR and track owners left Wilkesboro and The Rock, folks howled through letters to the editor, t-shirts, posters at races televised on ESPN, etc. Today, we have an endless supply of social media outlets to vent and rant. Yet, I haven't seen a huge hue and cry about the Atlanta to Kentucky swap. Plus, Wilkesboro and Rockingham lost both of their races whereas Atlanta gets to keep at least one of theirs.
  
• With NASCAR's expansion from the south to the midwest, Texas, and far west the last 15-20 years, perhaps I'm just immune to the loss of yet another southern race.
  
• Rotten weather - frequent rain, unpredictable temperatures, and even snow for their March races and raw autumn cold for their November dates often plagued Atlanta.
• Reconfiguration of the track - If Bruton Smith built his condos, suites, massive stands, and other infrastructure and amenity improvements while retaining the traditional oval track, I think I'd enjoy Atlanta much more. Clearly the Charlotte-clone design is faster than the original oval - and fastest of all Cup tracks. But its still a clone. Today, we have Dover, Darlington, Martinsville, and New Hampshire as our only remaining pure ovals. If Atlanta went away, I could see similar racing at Charlotte or Texas.
  
• Excess seating capacity - Atlanta ramped up its seating for the 1992 Cup season finale. Richard Petty's final race was the 1992 Hooters 500, and everyone wanted to be there. Also, an even more compelling reason existed to buy tickets - a championship battle. Five drivers - Davey Allison, Bill Elliott, Alan Kulwicki, Kyle Petty, and Harry Gant - all had a mathematical chance of winning the Cup. All of the drivers had a sizable fan following - but none larger than Elliott from nearby Dawsonville, GA - all of whom seemed to be there that day. The track must have had monster revenue that day, and SMI feasted off the NASCAR crest over the next decade during the Earnhardt primetime and Gordon's rise. But the expanded seating, re-designed track, and Atlanta race buzz turned out not be sustainable once Earnhardt was gone and Atlanta no longer the season-ending race.
  

Kentucky Thunder

Atlanta's loss makes for a Lucky Kentucky. I've driven by Kentucky Speedway on my way home from Cincinnati, and its going to be easily accessible for fans. The enthusiasm shown by fans for the Nationwide races should carry over and expand significantly with the arrival of the Cup haulers.


Darrell Waltrip - who lives in Tennessee but is from Owensboro, KY - has been a tireless (and presumably paid) advocate for the track. He has heavily lobbied for the track as deserving of a Cup date. And say what you will about Bruton Smith. He worked with NASCAR to get a Cup date when the previous ownership group could not.

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride...well there was that one time

With the first significant Cup schedule shuffle in about seven or eight years, Nashville is once again the outside looking in. The once-divorced Nashville remains a perennial bridesmaid, however, rather than a second-time bride.

The blame for Nashville's not having a Cup date can be laid at the feet of one organization - the Metro Nashville fair board for decisions made in the mid 1980s. Those questionable decisions have continued for about another 25 years. Nashville lost both of its Cup dates after 1984 because of back-room, good ol' boy politics and short-sightedness of economics. Because the fair board couldn't see beyond the end of its nose to work with the track's leaseholder/race promoters, the city of Nashville backed NASCAR into a corner. As a result, *poof* the Daytona suits pulled Nashville's two dates.

Once NASCAR left Nashville with a dropped jaw and a mouthful of dust, the sport exploded in popularity. The sport suddenly was flush with new fans, new drivers, new sponsors, and - most important - new races in new markets. Nashville was the forgotten city.

Denis McGlynn and the fine folks from Dover have tried mightily to change NASCAR's opinion about Cup returning to middle Tennessee. Like Kentucky, they built a fine superspeedway near Nashville to replace the aging fairground short track.

But sadly, the ship has sailed. NASCAR has clearly shown its interest in future growth is not in the deep south. Plus, committed passionate Nashville-area NASCAR fans will drive or fly to the races if the races won't come to them. Middle Tennessee fans are heavily represented at Talladega, Atlanta, Daytona, Charlotte, and Bristol. So while I'd love to have a Cup race in my own back yard, I continue to be resigned to the fact it won't happen - or certainly no time soon.

TMC