NASCAR Pole Position | October - November 2022

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FOR THE RECORD

RUSTY

FAST RELIEF

WALLACE

Bayley Currey on Alka-Seltzer’s return to NASCAR

NASCAR HOME TRACKS

EVERGREEN

YO, PARKER!

SPEEDWAY

Catching up with NASCAR’s multidimensional talent

NASCAR LEGEND

FIREBALL

ROBERTS BEHIND THE SCENES WITH DALE JR.’S

DIRTY MO

MEDIA

ELLIOTT // LARSON // HAMLIN

Across the Board

Bringing NASCAR families back to the kitchen table P. 10

My Favorites

Rajah Caruth: one of NASCAR’s most promising racers P. 14

VICTORY LANE HAS NEVER LOOKED COOLER

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R U O Y P PICK U

E T I R O FAV

L A E M E C RA D E R E V I L E HAVE IT D

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OCTOBERNOVEMBER

43

ERIC

20 06

Green Flag

08

The Speedy Bear Brigade

10

Across the Board

11

Show Us Your Stuff: Chase Holden

12

Favorite Finds

13

Health & Wellness: Todd Gilliland

Presented by Alka Seltzer

Presented by Slo-Niacin 14

My Favorites with Rajah Caruth

15

NASCAR Pets

16

NASCAR Home Tracks: Evergreen Speedway

JONES

26

32

17

Craftsman’s Comeback

18

Never to be Forgotten

20

Dirty Mo Media: A Powerhouse in Motorsports

26

Luke Bryan Dishes on His Partnership with Jockey

28

Forney Holiday Gift Guide

30

Freedom Warranty Teams Up with Spencer Boyd

32

NASCAR Drivers Posterized

POLE POSITION 2022

48

Bayley Currey Talks New Sponsorship

52

Parker Kligerman Q&A

54

Senior Salute: Rusty Wallace

Presented by Prevagen 58

Backstory: Rex White

60

Legend Profile: Fireball Roberts

Presented by K-Seal

Presented by Hempvana 62

Blast from the Past: 1994

Presented by Jockey

64

Tyler Reddick Q&A

Racing Jobs

36

68

Retro Rewind

42

Corey LaJoie Q&A

72

Did You Know?

D I E TA R Y S U P P L E M E N T

02

48

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GREEN FLAG

NASCAR UNVEILS 75TH ANNIVERSARY LOGO Next season will mark the 75th anniversary of NACAR. With this major milestone, NASCAR unveiled a commemorative logo to mark what will be a year-long celebration.

The diamond in the center of the logo has five stripes representing the five different logos throughout NASCAR history.

The stripes feature colors pulled from

the previous logos’ primary hues (red in the 1948 logo, yellow in 1956 and blue in 1964).

“As much as it is a reflection of the fairly unique and rich history of our past, we really want it to be symbolic of where we are today as a sport and as a brand, and where we expect it to go in the future,” NASCAR chief marketing officer Peter Jung told Adweek.

NASCAR All-Star Race Moves to North Wilkesboro Speedway for 2023

SPEEDWAY MOTORSPORTS AND NASCAR announced that, as part of NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season, the NASCAR All-Star Race will be held at historic North Wilkesboro Speedway in 2023, capping off a three-day event weekend at one of stock car racing’s most storied venues, May 19-21, 2023.

“Motorsports are critical to North Carolina’s history, culture and economy, and our investments have helped to get the engines running again in places that needed revival,” said Gov. Roy Cooper.

“North Wilkesboro Speedway is back and better than ever, and the All-Star Race will take it to new heights.”

North Wilkesboro, then a dirt track, hosted its first race in May of 1947.

Over the next five decades, the 0.625-mile circuit hosted 93 NASCAR

NASCAR DRIVE EXPANDS

LOGANO REUPS WITH PENSKE

CELEBRATE IN NASHVILLE

Cup Series races – its list of winners a

FOR THE FIRST TIME,

JOEY LOGANO AND TEAM

AS AN EVENTFUL RACING

Dale Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough and

NASCAR fans can view every

Penske have reached an

season enters its final turn,

hometown hero Benny Parsons. Next

lap of NASCAR Cup Series races

agreement on a long-term

NASCAR recently announced

year, the 39th running of the NASCAR

from inside the cockpit of any

contract extension.

its Champion’s Week

All-Star Race will mark the first Cup

celebration will return to

Series event at North Wilkesboro

Nashville – Nov. 30 to Dec. 1.

Speedway since 1996.

car in the race.

Live in-car camera streams

“Over the last 10 years, Joey has become such an

for the entire NASCAR Cup

important part of Team

Series field are available for

Penske and we know he will

Dec. 1 at the Music City Center

free as part of NASCAR Drive,

continue to be a leader and a

to formally crown this season’s

the sanctioning body’s hub for

winner with the No. 22 Ford

NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR

live race-day video and real-

team well into the future,”

Xfinity Series and NASCAR

time stats and information

said Roger Penske. “Joey is a

Camping World Truck Series

hosted on NASCAR.com and

great champion of our sport

champions.

within the NASCAR Mobile App.

and we are proud of how he

The full-field in-car camera

continues to produce for our

personalities and celebrities will

streams will remain a free,

team and represent all of

take over downtown Nashville

ad-supported offering for the

our partners, including Shell,

for the third year to celebrate

remainder of the season.

Pennzoil and Ford.”

an unforgettable season.

06

POLE POSITION 2022

The NASCAR Awards will be

Fellow drivers, industry

variable who’s who of NASCAR royalty, including Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip,

NASCAR CHARITY

SPEED BEARS

The NASCAR Foundation’s Speedy Bear Brigade Powered by Kaulig Giving is bringing smiles to children’s hospitals across the United States and Mexico. “Speedy Bears” were delivered to children in hospitals with events that culminated on National Teddy Bear Day. NASCAR-themed teddy bears named

deliver cheer and positivity to children in hospitals everywhere.”

This year’s efforts mark the biggest to date with nearly 70 hospitals participating in race markets across the United States and Mexico. The initiative culminated on National Teddy Bear Day on Friday, September 9.

“We’re honored to team up with The NASCAR Foundation to deliver cheer, positivity, and comfort to children in hospitals across the country through the Speedy Bear Brigade program,” said Matt Kaulig, team owner of Kaulig Racing and founder of Kaulig Giving. “Our partnership with The NASCAR Foundation continues to grow on and off the track and is a priority for us. All of us share the incredible goal of impacting the communities we love by helping children in need live happier, healthier lives.”

NASCAR fans are encouraged to join the Speedy Bear Brigade by making a $25 donation to The NASCAR Foundation to sponsor a Speedy Bear and send an inspirational message to a child in the hospital. As an additional incentive, Kaulig Giving will match all contributions made at NASCARfoundation.org up to $25,000.

‘Speedy Bear’ were delivered to children in hospitals across the United States and Mexico as The NASCAR Foundation and Kaulig Giving joined together for the sixth annual “Speedy Bear Brigade”.

This year’s program expanded into Mexico bringing the cumulative total to more than 8,000 Speedy Bears delivered over six years to help comfort children during their hospital stays.

The NASCAR Foundation’s Speedy Bear Brigade began delivering Speedy Bears to children in August with stops in Monterrey, Mexico and Charlotte, North Carolina. NASCAR volunteers assisted with the deliveries, including representatives from the NASCAR Mexico Series who joined efforts for the first time.

“We are thrilled that our Speedy Bear Brigade continues to grow and impact more children each year,” said Nichole Krieger, The NASCAR Foundation executive director. “Support from donors like Kaulig Giving, the NASCAR Mexico Series and all of our wonderful NASCAR fans are so important in making this program a success as we help

LOCATIONS SUPPORTED BY THE NASCAR FOUNDATION’S SPEEDY BEAR BRIGADE POWERED BY KAULIG GIVING INCLUDE: AKRON, OHIO

CONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

DARLINGTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

Akron Children’s Hospital Children’s of Alabama

BRASELTON, GEORGIA

Northeast Georgia Medical Center CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

McLeod Children’s Hospital

DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA

Halifax Health

Hemby Children’s Hospital and Levine Children’s Hosptial

HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA

CLEVELAND, OHIO

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

Cleveland Clinic

08

Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital

POLE POSITION 2022

Homestead Hospital

Riley Children’s Hospital

JACKSON, MICHIGAN

Henry Ford Allegiance Health LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

Nationwide Children’s Hospital MONTERREY, MEXICO

Hospital Materno Infantil de Alta Especialidad NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

Monroe Carell Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt PHOENIX, ARIZONA

Phoenix Children’s Hospital

POCONO, PENNSYLVANIA

Lehigh Valley Health Network RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

Children’s Hospital at VCU ROCHESTER, NEW YORK

Golisano Children’s Hospital SEBRING, FLORIDA

AdventHealth Sebring SHAWNEE MISSION, KANSAS

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nascar gaming

Officially Licensed NASCAR™ Across the Board® Games!

Handcrafted Wood Games Made in St. Louis, Missouri!

farkle & racing game Now Available!

BOARD GAME GOES FROM

HORSES TO HORSEPOWER

T

o some, developing and

manufacturing a board game might be fun. For Kim McDaniel, it’s a way of life.

In 2007, McDaniel and her husband, Ryan, created Across The Board in their garage. The idea stemmed from playing a horse racing board game at Ryan’s mom’s house after a family gathering. While the couple enjoyed the game, Ryan believed he could do it better.

The vision with Across The Board was to handcraft board games, and the dream was to one day have it licensed by the Kentucky Derby. In 2012, the couple moved to its current workshop to start its adventure.

Sadly, in 2013, Ryan was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer and passed away in May 2015. He never saw his game get licensed by the Kentucky Derby.

Kim McDaniel persevered. In the spring of 2016, she traveled to a sports licensing show in Las Vegas. She met with people in charge and the game became licensed by Churchill Downs, and was sold at the 2016 Kentucky Derby and online.

“This was his creation and we’re finding different ways to reach more individuals to see his dream come true,” McDaniel said.

Currently, Across The Board has approximately 20 different games. Among them are two NASCAR games, and one of those is modeled after the Kentucky Derby game. The other is Farkle.

• The McDaniels

Scan the QR Code to Order Now!

To get NASCAR’s approval, McDaniel went to the same sports licensing show in Las Vegas in January 2022. Immediately, NASCAR liked the concept.

“We think Across the Board has a lot in common with the NASCAR customer,” McDaniel said. “We are made in America, which I know is important to the NASCAR demographic. It’s a fun game and there’s nothing out in the market like it.

“We thought it was a really good fit that we’re trying to bring families back around the kitchen tables to play games together. It’s a great game for tailgating, and NASCAR fans are known for tailgating.”

The rules for the game are quite simple. It’s played with a deck of cards and dice. There are 11 numbered race cars slotted on the board. All the cards are dealt to the players, which McDaniel said up to 20 players can play. After that, the players roll the dice and the first four numbers that are rolled are disqualified. Anyone who is holding the number of the cars that were disqualified pays to the pot. When rolling the dice, the number that the dice equals moves forward one spot.

Then, the remaining cars will race against one another to the finish line and whatever card(s) you have in your hand is the car number that the player is rooting for. Once the first car hits the finish line, whoever holds those cards will split the pot.

CURRENTLY, THE GAME IS SOLD ON THE ACROSS THE BOARD WEBSITE ACROSSTHEBOARDGAME.COM, AND IT WILL SOON BE SOLD ON OTHER WHOLESALERS’ WEBSITES.

AcrossTheBoardGame.com

NASCAR COLLECTIBLES

SHOW YOUR STUFF

THE RETRO COLLECTION OF GARAGE GUYS’ CHASE HOLDEN You’ve seen him on Garage Guys NASCAR Race Preview Show, you’ve seen him on Bringing Winston Back, and now you get to see his own personal collection. These are the most prized NASCAR possessions of Chase Holden, one half of the duo known as the Garage Guys.

You’ve heard them on their podcasts, they’ve taken the online community by storm. Now you can see what kind of memorabilia inspires them to carry their NASCAR fandom onto the Internet and into your eyes and ears.

“This hat is my favorite cap I own and my

“These hats are legendary. I’ve only worn

most cherished due to the fact that Dale Jarrett wore this after winning the first race I ever attended. That race was the 1998 Winston 500. I was only 5 years old and it started my love and excitement for racing.“

them a few times but the story is that both of these came from Junior Johnson’s personal collection. Once I got validation of that, these were put away in a special place and only worn on special occasions.”

THIS TEE IS ONE OF THE RECENT ONES I’VE ADDED TO my collection. Something about space and race cars is cool to me and this tee has put itself in the RARE category going for over $600 on eBay. I was fortunate to get an incredible deal on this one and glad I finally own what I call “The Tony Planets Tee”

$10 OFF YOUR FIRST

“As a young boy, the Mac Tonight car was

“This framed poster needs no introduc-

my favorite and through the years that car has earned its spot as my all time fav.

Once I started collecting Vintage NASCAR tees, this was the first one I had to find. “

tion. From the moment you see Tim Richmond and Neil Bonnett you know what’s up. I still can’t believe I own an original copy of it sometimes.”

PHOTOGRAPHY: CHASE HOLDEN

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Health & Wellness Tips from Todd Gilliland

NASCAR Cup Series driver Todd Gilliland has endured his ups and downs as a rookie in NASCAR’s premier division. However, one constant has been his desire to be at the top of his game both physically and mentally. Discover five health and wellness tips from Gilliland – in his own words. BY JARED TURNER Work Out Regularly: The physical side is

and, really, all weekend, especially during the summer. So, really, I’d say at the beginning of the week I just drink a lot of water.

Work Out with Others: Overall, working out in a group is way better for me, at least, just being able to push myself and really just kind of using others as a measuring stick. Everyone’s different, but it’s good to have somebody to push you.

Give Yourself a Mental Edge: When you think you’re more prepared than the next guy – whether you really are or not – it’s going to give you a little bit of an advantage. You’ve got to be able to get confidence from somewhere, whether it’s having fast cars or trying to be in the best shape possible.

one thing I’ve definitely been working on a lot more this year. Actually, kind of over the last year-and-a-half now, I’ve been working out with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Riley Herbst. It’s kind of like CrossFit in a way. We do a lot of weightlifting, a lot of running, a lot of intervals. I’d say it’s kind of a little bit of everything.

Devote at Least One Day a Week to Running:

We probably try and run six to eight miles each Thursday. That’s kind of fun for me.

I was never much of a runner growing up or anything like that.

Drink Lots of Water: The hydration part is definitely a lot tougher in the Cup Series with just how short the weeks are, and you lose a lot of water on a Sunday

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MY FAVORITES

MY FAVORITES WITH

Rajah Caruth

Rajah Caruth is one of NASCAR’s most promising up-and-coming racers. The 20-year-old from our nation’s capital started racing online in 2018 and quickly took his talents from a video screen to the race track.

Now a member of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program, he’s on a fast trajectory to success. He’s competing part time in both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, all while chasing a championship in the ARCA Menards Series.

BY JOSEPH WOLKIN

WHAT IS YOUR GO-TO DRINK? I LOVE CHOCOLATE. I’m a NESQUIK guy.

14

POLE POSITION 2022

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PIECE OF RACING MEMORABILIA?

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE ACTOR?

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOD?

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE RESTAURANT?

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE?

THE LATE

MY DIE-CAST

Chadwick Boseman

I’LL SAY

FOR BREAKFAST, I

NEED FOR SPEED.

chocolate chip

like First Watch.

collection. I have a

because of not only

cookies or pasta. I’m

Then, there’s

very extensive die-

his roles on the

a plain guy and I eat

these two

cast collection. I have

screen, but what

like a child.

restaurants in

a few hundred.

he did off the

the Concord

screen. He’s

area called

did a lot for

Louis’ and A.J.’s.

the Black

I like those

community.

places a lot.

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NASCAR PETS

7/15/22 4:31 PM

The More the Merrier for the Bueschers

BY JARED TURNER

It’s pretty common in the NASCAR world for drivers to be dog parents. For Cup Series driver Chris Buescher, however, one dog just isn’t enough.

He and his wife, Emma, are the proud parents of three canines: an 8-yearold Golden Retriever named Cooper, a 7-year-old Labrador mix named Addi and a 4-year-old Terrier/Mini Poodle mix named Dozer.

The Bueschers also have a 6-year-old, 15-pound cat named Badin after Badin Lake in North Carolina, where Emma grew up. In addition to the animals that Chris and Emma own and raise together, Emma has fostered several hundred rescue animals over the past decade.

“Both of us had dogs growing up,” said Chris, driver of the No. 17 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford. “She had Labs growing up, and my family had Great Pyrenees and another mutt. We’ve always had dogs. We had always been limited to smaller numbers by our more reasonable parents. Emma and

I kind of just went off the deep end. Our numbers are probably a bit too high, but we still enjoy it.”

Thankfully, the Bueschers’ animals for the most part manage to coexist peacefully.

“We have a small farm now, so they have plenty of room to run and swim,” Chris said. “We’ve got a pond out front.

So they get to be very active and very free for a lot of the day. That’s something that’s been really nice as we’ve been able to get more established on the farm, and out of the neighborhood we were in not too many years ago.

With that has come more farm animals.”

And more responsibilities, which often preclude Emma from traveling with Chris to his NASCAR events.

“It is a big time commitment, and it is hard to move around, with the animals always needing care,” Chris said. “Some of our farm animals you can leave unattended for a couple days at a time, but we don’t have that option with the dogs.”

POLE POSITION MAG.COM

15

NASCAR HOME TRACKS

Evergreen Speedway

Located at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, Washington, Evergreen Speedway has been a cornerstone of NASCAR racing in the Northwest since the former horse racing track was paved in the mid-1960s.

“Evergreen Speedway is the fast, affordable, friendly place to go,” said Doug Hobbs, who has managed the facility since 2011. “Our primary goal is to sell the fun and the excitement of coming to an event live.

“We are a rain-or-shine program,” Hobbs added. “We have 10 different home classes and eight of those 10 can run in the rain. Even if we have five or six classes running, we know at least four are going to be able to put on a show for the fans. Another thing is we have a covered grandstand to make sure the people are out of the elements if it’s too hot or if there is some rain.”

EVERGREEN SPEEDWAY HOSTS MORE THAN 100 EVENTS A YEAR.

VISIT EVERGREENSPEEDWAY.COM FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS

STORIED HISTORY

MULTIPLE LAYOUTS

IN AUGUST, THE ARCA MENARDS SERIES

EVERGREEN SPEEDWAY FEATURES MULTIPLE

RUN ANNUALLY DURING THE THIRD

West made its 60th visit to Evergreen Speedway.

track configurations, including five-eighths-mile and

weekend of July, the Summer Showdown is

three-eighths-mile ovals.

Evergreen Speedway’s headline race.

“The history and heritage of Evergreen started many decades ago,” Hobbs said.

MARQUEE EVENT

“The three-eighths-mile track is predominantly for

“That is a race that draws a lot of attention

“During the Motorcraft 500 years in the

our weekly series – our NASCAR street stocks, NASCAR

from pro late model drivers and super late model

1980s and early ’90s, fans got to see a lot of

mini stocks, NASCAR pro lates and then our INEX

drivers from throughout the West and Canada,”

Cup Series drivers who would come out and

Legends also run that track. We create a little bit of a

Hobbs said. “It’s one of the larger purses for

participate. The Truck Series was here from

road course for our hornet classes. Our winged sprint

short tracks in America. The super lates run for

1995 to 2000, and we are trying very hard to

cars primarily run the three-eighths track and then we

a minimum of a $25,000-to-win purse. The pro

get that back again.”

use a fifth-mile for our junior hornets,” Hobbs explained.

lates are either $10,000 or $15,000 to win.”

16

POLE POSITION 2022

WORDS: KEITH WALTZ, PHOTOGRAPHY: ALAN HAINES AND EVERGREEN SPEEDWAY

SPONSORED UP

CRAFTSMAN RETURNS AS NASCAR TRUCK SERIES TITLE SPONSOR IN 2023 NASCAR and Stanley Black & Decker, the world’s largest tool company and a leader in outdoor equipment, announced American tool icon CRAFTSMAN will return as the title sponsor of the NASCAR Truck Series beginning in 2023. After serving as the series’ title sponsor from its inception in 1995 to 2008, the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series will make its homecoming at Daytona International Speedway on February 17, 2023.

In addition to the Truck Series title sponsorship, Stanley Black & Decker will further expand its presence in the sport, entering into a multi-year partnership designating the company and its iconic brands as the “Official Tools Partner of NASCAR” and “Official Tools” of all NASCAR-owned and operated tracks.

“We celebrate the return of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series with our customers, distribution partners and employees,” said Doug Redpath, President of Hand Tools,

Accessories and Storage for Stanley Black & Decker. “From proud homeowners and homebuilders to auto enthusiasts and master mechanics, CRAFTSMAN has been the brand generations have trusted to get the job done. The Truck Series represents authentic, bold and proud drivers and fans, which embody the same characteristics of our CRAFTSMAN brand. We look forward to our return in Daytona in 2023 to reunite with our loyal fans as we begin this new chapter in NASCAR history.”

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series title sponsorship includes exclusive brand integrations on vehicles, crew uniforms, tracks and more in addition to the branding of the Triple Truck Challenge and Championship Race entitlement. It will also serve as a platform to support the launch of new products, amplify seasonal promotions, and highlight the many ways CRAFTSMAN is building pride.

NASCAR HISTORY

T O N T ON E B U

N E T T O G R FO G

Over the years, many competitors have left their marks on the sport through perseverance, dedication, desire and even antics, and each of them deserves to be remembered as a part of NASCAR history.

BY BEN WHITE BRUTON SMITH: Founder of Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Speedway Motorsports empire, Bruton Smith was a visionary who contributed heavily to the growth of stock car racing over the past 75 years.

NEIL “SOAPY” CASTLES: A regular on NASCAR’s Cup Series from 1957 to 1976, Neil “Soapy” Castles entered 498 races during his career. He never celebrated a victory but finished in the top 10 178 times.

JOHN ANDRETTI: During a career from 1993 through one race in 2010, John Andretti started 393 Cup Series events and went to Victory Lane twice – at Daytona in 1997 and Martinsville in 1999.

FONTY FLOCK: An avid NASCAR campaigner from 1949 through 1957, Fonty Flock won 19 races in 154 starts. His biggest victory came in the 1952 Southern 500 at legendary Darlington Raceway.

HERB THOMAS: During a 10-year timespan, Herb Thomas collected 48 wins in 229 starts and earned three Cup Series championships. Starting in 1949, he amassed 122 top-five finishes and earned 39 poles.

NELSON STACY: Between 1952 and 1965, Nelson Stacy won four races, including the 1961 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway and the 1962 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

FRANK MUNDAY: Only in NASCAR for five years, Frank Munday was one of the sport’s most colorful characters and one of its sharpest dressers. He won races in Columbia, South Carolina; Martinsville, Virginia; and Mobile, Alabama, during 1951.

BUDDY ARRINGTON: From 1964 to 1988, Buddy Arrington campaigned Plymouths and Dodges in 560 Cup Series races but never went to Victory Lane.

His best finish was a fourth at Virginia’s Langley Speedway in 1965.

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PHOTOGRAPHY: NASCAR ARCHIVES & RESEARCH CENTER

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DALE JR.’S DIRTY MO MEDIA

A POWERHOUSE IN MOTORSPORTS INFORMATION & ENTERTAINMENT

BY JARED TURNER

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is most well-known as a retired NASCAR Hall of Fame race car driver, a NASCAR on NBC race announcer and a NASCAR Xfinity Series team owner.

Not as widely known but nevertheless growing in notoriety is Earnhardt’s media production company, Dirty Mo Media, that debuted in 2013 after operating in its earliest years as Dirty Mo Radio.

Today, Dirty Mo Media – named after Earnhardt and a group of his Mooresville, North Carolina-area friends who dubbed themselves the “Dirty Mo Posse” in the late ’90s and early 2000s – is a powerhouse in the world of motorsports information and entertainment.

Self-proclaimed “creators of bold, original content,” the small team of less than 15 people at Dirty Mo Media is generating the kind of cutting-edge programming that makes listeners want to tune in and leaves many hungry for more. This is evident in part from a rapidly expanding audience on social media where Dirty Mo

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Media boasts more than 286,000 YouTube subscribers, more than 170,000 Facebook followers, over 102,000 Instagram followers and 127,000-plus Twitter followers.

“I’m proud of the content, and I enjoy working with the team,” Earnhardt said.

“We’ve got some talented individuals who work at Dirty Mo Media, and seeing them produce and create is very rewarding. Overall, it’s been great watching the company grow and seeing employees grow with it.”

The mastermind behind Dirty Mo Media and its flagship program, “The Dale Jr. Download” podcast, is Mike Davis. Earnhardt’s longtime road manager and now the managing director of the Dale Earnhardt Jr. Brand, Davis is the founder of Dirty Mo Media – a concept inspired by Davis’ vision for a content platform that would be a representation of not only Earnhardt the driver but also Earnhardt the person.

Prior to the establishment of Dirty Mo

Media, “Dirty Mo” was a brand all in itself that focused on the lifestyle side of Earnhardt. For example, in the early 2000s, Earnhardt drove race cars and had merchandise created with a “Dirty Mo Posse” theme. The “MTV Cribs” documentary TV show even filmed multiple episodes on Earnhardt’s Mooresville property, which he called “Dirty Mo Acres.” Still lacking, though, was a formal marketing platform for “Dirty Mo.” “Dale Jr. had a big fan base, and we felt an obligation as a brand team that we needed to feed the beast,” Davis said.

“You’ve gotta feed the beast with content and updates. He was still sort of early in his Hendrick (Motorsports) career, frankly. There was just a responsibility we felt to put Dale Jr. out there the best we can. You’ve got this big popular brand, and it can be mishandled, it can be mispresented, so it needed some strategy.”

Out of this desire came the formation of Dirty Mo Radio, which Davis and

Q&A with Dale Jr.

How much input do you personally have on the content/topics discussed on each episode of “The Dale Jr. Download” and other programming within the wheelhouse of Dirty Mo Media?

■ On The Download, I have a lot of input. I wouldn’t claim 100 percent of the input, because I like to hear Mike’s ideas and opinions about the show as well as the producers’ suggestions. It’s a very creative team around me, so I like hearing ideas on topics, guests and so forth. As for the other shows, I generally stay out of it because, like The Download, authenticity is important. I want “Door Bumper Clear” to be the truest version of itself and the same for “Speed Street,” “Next Level,” “Video Jorts” and anything else we do.

Earnhardt later rebranded as Dirty Mo Media.

“We called it Dirty Mo Radio because we didn’t know any other name, frankly, but there was never a time when it was on traditional radio as we know it,” Davis said. “It was always a podcast. After a couple of years – maybe we were a little slow to it – but we finally woke up one morning and went, ‘Oh yeah, it’s not really radio we’re doing here, so maybe we should just change the name while we still can.’”

Earnhardt, who is in his sixth year of co-hosting “The Dale Jr. Download” alongside Davis, was not an active participate in the show during its first four years of existence. Instead, the podcast was co-hosted by Davis and national radio personality Taylor Zarzour. Earnhardt’s only role in The Download was recording an audio clip on his cell phone after each race and sending it to Davis for inclusion in the podcast. Zarzour and Davis would then provide commentary on Earnhardt’s remarks, which he would typically record several hours after the race ended.

“I had been traveling with Dale for years, and I always thought his best insight was not the postrace television interview, but it was when we were back home and maybe drinking a beer on the porch, and now he’s really sort of decompressed and he’s processing things,” Davis said.

“Drivers are never really in their right mind when they get out of the race car. … There was a value when you got things sort of settled down and you’re back in North Carolina sitting on your porch or whatever. That was always really cool insight.”

It wasn’t until 2016, when Earnhardt missed the second half of the PHOTOGRAPHY: DIRTY MO MEDIA

The guest list for “The Dale Jr. Download” is basically a who’s who in NASCAR, but some of your best shows have been with family members and lesser-known people in the sport. What’s been your most memorable podcast to date, and who would you like to have on the podcast that you haven’t been able get or haven’t invited yet?

■ I get asked that a lot, and it’s never easy to answer. I’ll put it to you this way: If someone is on the show, you can believe I wanted them there. We don’t have guests just for the sake of having them. I would just as soon do a whole podcast with just Mike and I than have a guest on who we weren’t naturally curious about. As for who we want in the future, let’s just say there’s a long list. There are also guests who’ve sat at the table that I want back.

How did you become so comfortable behind the microphone in a podcaststyle format? Did you listen to other podcasts or did it just come natural?

■ I think it probably has more to do with seat time, reps. I didn’t listen to podcasts before doing my own. In looking back, I probably used the podcast to decide if I wanted to pursue a career in broadcasting. The practice of articulating thoughts into a microphone in a clear and concise way isn’t easy, and so like anything else, it requires doing it a lot and owning your mistakes.

You take a much more buttoned-down approach with “The Dale Jr. Download” than you do with your duties at NBC, obviously. How do you manage to change your approach to suit what you’re doing in the moment?

■ My NBC boss tells me, “The way you are on the podcast is the way I want you in the booth.” It’s different, of course, because it’s hard not to be at your most comfortable when you’re inside your own building. But going back to your authenticity question, I try to be real on the podcast and in the booth. It’s easier that way.

What advice would you give to someone who’s looking to start a podcast?

■ Be yourself, know the identity of your show before you start it and don’t measure your podcast’s success by comparing it to anyone else’s. A buddy of mine who hosts a very successful podcast told me that a long time ago when I got into the podcast game, and all of it’s true.

POLE POSITION MAG.COM

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DIRTY MO MEDIA NASCAR Cup Series season while sidelined with a conMo Media has provided NASCAR’s 15-time most popular cussion, that the third-generation race car driver and driver with a platform that’s different but impactful just two-time Daytona 500 winner began making live apthe same. pearances on “The Dale Jr. Download.” With lots of infor“I’d like to think we are documenting history with a lot mation circulating about his health, he wanted to provide of the content we make, and not just with The Download,” his supporters with an unfiltered perspective.

Earnhardt said. “We did two seasons (of ‘Lost Speedways’) for Peacock, and I’m proud of that. We documented “It was a really good mechanism in which Dale could the return to North Wilkesboro with the ‘Roots & Revival’ tell his fan base exactly what was going on, and it felt series on YouTube. good,” Davis said. “It felt good for him, it felt right. It’s “Obviously, The Download has evolved into a bit of a something he could control. But you know Dale: He’s very historical show with as many past racers we’ve had on. I candid. He’s honest. There’s never any overproduction have no idea if any of this constitutes as giving back, but with him. I mean, he wears his emotions on his sleeve. if on any level it does, I am grateful for that.”

That’s a lot of his value: his authenticity. That was the Episodes of “The Dale Jr. Download” and “Door Bumper first time Dale realized, ‘Oh, there could be a future using Clear” have captured particularly robust audiences and this sort of platform and this mechanism in which to are routinely ranked among the top 25 Apple Sports podcommunicate.’” casts. An August episode of The Download with special While the guest list for “The Dale Jr. Download” over guest Ty Gibbs reached the top 10. the last few years represents a who’s who in the world of “We are very happy with where both shows are,” Damotorsports, Davis believes it’s the presence of the show’s vis said. “If you want to ask me what I’m more namesake that takes it to another level. proud of, it’s ‘Door Bumper Clear,’ because “If we’re doing a podcast, what’s way it has no business getting the numbers more important than who the guest it gets, because it doesn’t have a Dale is, is Dale Jr.’s opinion about things,” Jr. on that show every week. But he said. “I know that we have a they’ve earned every listener, guest every week, but I don’t every download, everything that think we have to, frankly. You they’ve got, and there’s a lot of know what we need every ‘Door Bumper Clear’ fans.” week? Dale. That’s the only Majors – the spotter for Cup thing we need – Dale. Everything else is just accessories, Series driver Brad Keselowski including the guest. and one of the three spotter co“Now, the identity of the show hosts of “Door Bumper Clear” – is DALE JR. ON HIS WORK WITH largely depends on Dale Jr. and the a longtime personal friend of Earn“THE DALE JR. DOWNLOAD” & hardt (the two met through iRacing conversation that happens at the ta“LOST SPEEDWAYS” ble with whomever we have at the table, more than 20 years ago) and served as but Dale Jr. being able to express opinions, Earnhardt’s spotter for more than 10 years. vent, rant, solidify things, clarify things – that is “Door Bumper Clear” – which debuted in 2016 way more important to me when it comes to ‘The Dale Jr. and bills itself on the Dirty Mo Media website as “the Download’ than anything else.” go-to podcast for the edgy race fan” – has morphed into While The Download is Dirty Mo Media’s longest-runa fan-favorite largely because of the co-hosts’ openness ning show, it’s by no means the company’s only programand straightforward approach. Griffin, in particular, isn’t ming. Dirty Mo Media also produces “Door Bumper Clear” afraid to express highly opinioned viewpoints on a range (a podcast co-hosted by Casey Boat and NASCAR spotters of NASCAR-related subjects.

T.J. Majors, Brett Griffin and Freddie Kraft), “Speed Street” “Me and Brett are kind of the opposite,” Majors said. (a podcast co-hosted by IndyCar driver Conor Daly and “I’m kind of the quiet company guy. I don’t say a whole lot comedian Joey Mulinaro) and several other podcasts and to get things wound up. He’ll say the things I won’t say. video series.

“They say the edgy stuff, but a lot of times they’re not Included among Dirty Mo Media’s video portfolio is wrong. It’s just tough topics. They’re not wrong about “Lost Speedways, a Peacock Original” that visits abanthem, but no one really ever wants to say anything about doned speedways and takes an exploratory look at racing them. I try not to get too involved or in-depth with it. cathedrals of the past. More recently, Dirty Mo Media There’s definitely times when I’m cringing a little bit.” released a six-part “Roots & Revival” video series focused Over on “The Dale Jr. Download” – which is recorded on Earnhardt returning to late model racing at North every Tuesday at the Bojangles Studio in Mooresville – Wilkesboro Speedway.

Earnhardt and Davis also aren’t afraid to tackle touchy While Earnhardt has given back to the sport in numersubjects and even have downright uncomfortable conous ways, perhaps most notably through his roles with versations at times with their guests.

NBC, JR Motorsports and the Dale Jr. Foundation, Dirty For example, in an episode filmed back in December,

I’D LIKE TO THINK WE ARE DOCUMENTING HISTORY WITH A LOT OF THE CONTENT WE MAKE.

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• Mike Davis (pictured above) is the mastermind and founder of Dirty Mo Media. With Dirty Mo Media, Davis sought to connect fans with the Dale Earnhardt Jr. he knew outside of the race car.

Davis broadcasts alongside Dale as the co-host of “The Dale Jr. Download”.

Earnhardt and Kevin Harvick talked through a misunderstanding they’d had with each other for several years. On another episode, Earnhardt spoke at length with stepbrother Kerry about Kerry’s complicated relationship with their father, the late seven-time Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt.

How important is candid discussion to Earnhardt Jr.’s ultimate goal for the podcast and Dirty Mo Media in general?

“It’s incredibly important – probably the most important,” Earnhardt said. “I wouldn’t know how to have a manufactured conversation, and I wouldn’t expect any of our podcast hosts to know either.”

There’s even been the occasional moment on The Download when Earnhardt and Davis have disagreed passionately on-air. But it’s the strong rapport and friendship they’ve built that allow them to have such honest, colorful dialogue.

“Mike’s been a key part of my brand team and business for a long time,” Earnhardt said. “Let’s see, we’re going on almost 20 years. We’ve grown close. I’d like to think that whatever Mike and I do on the podcast is because we feel safe to be ourselves, even if that means disagreeing occasionally. I wouldn’t say that happens often.”

And when it does, it’s all in keeping with the vision that Davis and Earnhardt cast for Dirty Mo Media from the beginning.

“What we’re trying to do here is give Dale Jr. a portal where he can express himself and fans and listeners can hear him,” Davis said. “That doesn’t mean that fans and listeners will agree with him 100 percent of the time – or agree with me. I don’t think we’re under any such delusion that that’s what we’re trying to do. It’s just to be authentic and let people have access to Dale that otherwise they wouldn’t have.”

PHOTOGRAPHY: DIRTY MO MEDIA

DIRTY MO MEDIA

DIRTY MO MEDIA’S LINEUP DOOR BUMPER CLEAR

SPEED STREET

In its seventh year, “Door Bum-

newest podcasts, “Speed Street” became part of the Dale Earnhardt Jr.-owned media production company this summer. Available for consumption every Wednesday, the show is co-hosted by second-generation race car driver and full-time NTT IndyCar Series competitor Conor Daly who is joined on set by comedian and impressionist Joey Mulinaro. Together, the two good friends engage in a wide-ranging, colorful conversation that often touches on various types of motorsports, including IndyCar, NASCAR and Formula 1. “I like talking about racing, I like being real about it,” Daly said. “I don’t like sugarcoating anything.”

One of Dirty Mo Media’s

per Clear” is a popular podcast hosted by veteran NASCAR spotters Brett Griffin, T.J. Majors and Freddie Kraft, along with industry insider Casey Boat.

Whether it’s recapping the previous weekend’s Cup Series race, reacting to the latest rumors swirling around the sport or engaging in friendly but spirited debate, “Door Bumper Clear” is the quintessential landing place for listeners seeking a comedic, bold and transparent take on all things NASCAR. The podcast also features a steady diet of well-known guests, who don’t mind speaking their mind and being as open and honest about their thoughts and feelings as the show’s outspoken co-hosts.

THE DALE JR. DOWNLOAD NASCAR’S 15-TIME MOST POPULAR DRIVER TURNED NBC BROADCASTER DALE EARNHARDT JR. connects racing’s past and present on a one-of-a-kind podcast produced by Dirty Mo Media. Earnhardt and co-host Mike Davis sit down in studio with former racers, current drivers and popular media personalities who all have intriguing histories and interesting stories to tell. These conversations in combination with personal insights from Earnhardt give listeners a front-row seat to the third-generation racer’s unscripted and passionate take on the sport in which he grew up. New episodes of the podcast drop every Tuesday. New episodes of the cut-down TV version are available beginning Thursdays on NBC’s streaming platform, Peacock.

THE BURTON CONTINUUM A 10-part nonfiction narrative billed by Dirty Mo Media as its most transparent podcast series, The Burton Continuum takes a behind-the-scenes look at the careers of up-and-coming NASCAR drivers Harrison and Jeb Burton – second-generation cousins who are following in the footsteps of their more well-known fathers, Jeff and Ward Burton.

This episodic series pulls back the curtain on their struggles and chronicles the emotional challenges that families can experience when racing against each other in the ultra-competitive world of NASCAR. This isn’t Jeb Burton versus Harrison Burton. It’s Jeb and Harrison versus the sport’s cutthroat nature and the pressures of continuing a family legacy.

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NEXT LEVEL WITH ANDREW KURLAND On this original YouTube video series and podcast, Arizona triathlete turned Dirty Mo Media host Andrew Kurland goes up close and personal with seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson in a series of exclusive sit-down interviews focused on Johnson’s transition to the NTT IndyCar Series, and his preparation leading up to his highly anticipated debut in the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he competed in May. On “Next Level,” Johnson also talks about his family, his struggles adjusting to a new genre of racing and what he hopes to accomplish in this phase of his career.

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The entertainer dishes on his new song, his career and his partnership with JOCKEY

BY JARED TURNER

Since taking the world of country music by storm in 2007 with his debut album “I’ll Stay Me” featuring the hit single “All My Friends Say,” Leesburg, Georgia, native Luke Bryan has won more than 50 major music awards while packing out stadiums and dominating the airwaves of country radio.

Bryan, who like so many others got his start in the industry by playing the local bar scene across the southeast and club scene around Nashville, Tennessee, saw his career finally take off after several years of struggling to be recognized or sign with a major record label.

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Bryan recently took a few minutes to chat with NASCAR Pole Position about his newest song release, his relationship with the JOCKEY clothing brand and NASCAR.

WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR YOUR NEW SONG, “COUNTRY ON”?

I didn’t write this song but when I heard it, I felt the message was perfect for our world right now. It touched on a lot of important people who make everyday living happen for so many.

IN “COUNTRY ON,” YOU REFERENCED FIREMEN, THE BOYS AND GIRLS IN BLUE AND SOLDIERS. THOSE GROUPS RESONATE STRONGLY IN THE NASCAR COMMUNITY. WHAT DO THEY MEAN TO YOU? I was brought up to respect and honor these men and women who put themselves on the line for us daily – strangers they don’t even know. That speaks volumes to me, and hopefully to all of us.

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YOU ALSO MENTIONED BIG-RIG DRIVERS IN “COUNTRY ON.” HOW ABOUT A SHOUT-OUT TO THE GUYS AND GALS WHO DRIVE THE HAULERS FOR NASCAR TEAMS WEEK-IN AND WEEK-OUT. No doubt, it takes every person on these teams to make a race even happen. Similar for me on my Raised Up Right Tour. We need those truck drivers to get our set and gear to the next stop so we can deliver a great experience for our fans.

READERS OF NASCAR POLE POSITION KNOW YOU COLLABORATE WITH JOCKEY. WE ALSO UNDERSTAND YOU ARE WORKING WITH JOCKEY ON ONE OF THEIR NEW APPAREL LINES. CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THAT PROCESS? This has been a fun one. JOCKEY Outdoors, I PHOTOGRAPHY: JOCKEY

JOCKEY OUTDOORS Bryan also answered a few questions specifically related to the new JOCKEY Outdoors apparel line and his affection for all things outdoors. Check it out.

can’t think of anything more fitting for my brand. I am very vocal about my love for being outdoors, so that and teaming up with a company like JOCKEY seemed perfect. We have worked side by side in creating a line that I am very proud of. The quality and the details just blew me away. Excited to get this going with them.

JOCKEY IS VERY PROUD OF ITS MADE IN AMERICA COLLECTION. WHAT DOES “MADE IN AMERICA” MEAN TO YOU? It is a way of life, freedom and something I don’t take lightly.

WE KNOW SOME GUYS ARE NOT GREAT AT BUYING CLOTHES, SO CAN YOU GIVE THEM THE LUKE BRYAN JOCKEY OUTFIT SELECTION? WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THEY BUY? The pants are amazing, and then team it up with the Henley – done deal.

OK, ONE MORE NASCAR-RELATED QUESTION: WHEN YOU THINK OF A NASCAR FAN, WHAT TYPE OF CHARACTERISTICS AND QUALITIES COME TO MIND? Fun and loyal to the core.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO LAUNCH THIS LINE WITH JOCKEY? When my partners at JOCKEY first brought this up, it was an easy “yes” for me. One, they are just a wonderful company with values that align with mine.

And two, I have always been an advocate for the love of outdoors, so it was a no-brainer. Once I got my hands on the product and felt the quality, I became even more fired up for this to show up in the stores.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE JOCKEY OUTDOORS PIECES? That’s a toss-up between the pants and the Henley, but then there’s also the fishing shirt, which I’m always gonna look for a reason to wear. I’m clearly not good at deciding on this one!

WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THE OUTDOORS? I love how it allows me to just step back from the non-stop hustle of my professional life and take time for myself. And it’s even better when I get to be outdoors with my boys. Many song ideas come when I’m by a fishing spot or in a deer stand.

OUTDOOR PASTIMES SUCH AS HUNTING AND FISHING SERVE AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE CONSERVATION OF THE GREAT OUTDOORS AND WILDLIFE HABITATS. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT TO YOU AS AN AVID OUTDOORSMAN? I think we have to preserve it and be aware in order to pass down this way of life to the next generations. I fully believe it helps form who you can be in this world.

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TRACKING SUCCESS WITH NASCAR’S SPENCER BOYD W

hen up-and-coming NASCAR

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Miller is the CEO of Freedom Warranty, a fast-growing company that manages vehicle service contracts sold mostly through auto dealerships, insurance agencies, and repair shops.

“I am a huge NASCAR fan, and when Spencer pitched the idea of me becoming a sponsor, I was thrilled,” said Miller. “I get sponsorship offers for all kinds of things but being a part of this racing franchise is exciting. What really sold me was Spencer’s personality and enthusiasm. That was the closer.

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emblazoned with the Freedom Warranty brand.

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• NASCAR driver Spencer Boyd and Freedom Warranty CEO Chris Miller trackside at Talledega.

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POLE POSITION 2022

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REDDICK

DRIVER Q&A When Tyler Reddick made the jump to the NASCAR Cup Series ahead of the 2020 season, expectations were high at Richard Childress Racing. After all, he was coming off consecutive championships in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for two different teams.

As it turned out, Reddick didn’t record his first Cup Series victory until the halfway point of his third full-time season – his 92nd overall Cup Series start, which came at the famed Road America. It wasn’t long ago that the California native struggled at getting around road courses, but after putting in the time and effort, he realized it was very possible his first win could come when turning left and right.

Just nine days following Reddick’s first Cup Series win, he informed Richard Childress Racing that he wouldn’t return for the 2024 season, as RCR extended its option for the 2023 season.

Soon, the young star will drive a Toyota for 23XI Racing, co-owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan.

Before that, though, Reddick has unfinished business with RCR, believing the sky is the limit for his No. 8 team, a group that includes many of the same team members he’s worked with since 2019 in the Xfinity Series. And a Cup Series championship, while some think might be unrealistic with RCR, is a possibility.

THIS IS YOUR THIRD YEAR IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES. FROM YOUR ROOKIE SEASON TO NOW, HOW HAVE YOU FOUND YOUR FOOTING AT THE TOP LEVEL OF THE SPORT? This year, it’s been just about executing what we’ve worked on the last two full seasons. Last year, we started to consistently come into our own and the first year was very hit or miss. This new car threw everyone for a loop at first and it’s obvious the teams are starting to dial it in and figure it out.

36

POLE POSITION 2022

WITH

TYLER REDDICK

We’re right where we need to be.

Most weekends, we’re an adjustment or one little thing away from being able to win consistently.

REFLECTING BACK ON ROAD AMERICA, HOW BIG WAS IT TO FINALLY GET YOUR FIRST VICTORY? It was huge. It was what I felt the story of our year had been, we just put a day together. When we have the speed, we can go win a race and Road America was the day where we did that. It was a very straight forward race, and we didn’t have a lot of curveballs thrown our way. The strategy played out straight forward. We executed and got the job done, like I thought we’ve already been able to do. It was just a matter of executing for a full race.

TAKE ME BACK TO THAT BATTLE FOR THE LEAD WITH CHASE ELLIOTT. FOR A GUY WHO IS KNOWN FOR HIS ROAD RACING EXPERTISE, HOW SPECIAL WAS IT TO OUTDUEL HIM? That was cool. We ran there last year and were in a bad spot and had to go after stage points. I felt like our pace was good enough to run with (Elliott).

Circumstances put us where we were, so I was hungry and motivated to come back to Road America and not be chasing stage points, so we could go after the overall win. We were able to do that, and we won.

YOU HAD A LOT OF SUCCESS QUICKLY IN THE XFINITY SERIES. THE FIRST FULL YEAR, YOU WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP. It wasn’t a very successful year, but we won the championship. I had a couple of good races that year.

BUT DID YOU THINK SUCCESS IN THE CUP SERIES WOULD COME QUICKER? Based on how Kansas went, my second start, when we ran top 10, in a way, yeah. I thought it was going to come a little bit quicker. But the more you spend more time in it, the more you realize, we’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s very different to go win a Cup race than it is an Xfinity race. You’ve got to be good at everything, and in the Xfinity Series, you can get away with being a little off.

Cup Series racing is a lot different than that. We had to piece it together.

We had a number of opportunities to go out and win races in those first WORDS: DUSTIN ALBINO PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

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DRIVER Q&A two full-time years. We just didn’t execute in those moments and made a mistake or didn’t capitalize on the moment. We had opportunities before Road America, we just didn’t put a whole day together.

NINE DAYS AFTER THE ROAD AMERICA WIN, YOU ANNOUNCED YOU WERE GOING TO 23XI. HOW LONG HAD THAT BEEN IN THE WORKS? Quite a while. Myself and RCR were working on trying to get to a good place and I’d been talking to Denny (Hamlin) about this very casually. It just seemed like things kind of happened.

WHEN YOU LOOKED AT YOUR VIABLE OPTIONS FOR 2024, WHAT STOOD OUT ABOUT 23XI? The people, the mindset. You have guys like Michael Jordan. Curtis Polk, Steve Lauletta, who I worked with at Chip Ganassi Racing. You have a lot of very smart minds working together and wanting to do things differently, do things their own way.

There’s good people there, as there is at RCR. With where they’re wanting to go and take things and they made it very clear that they wanted me to be a part of that very badly. It made me excited.

“WE’RE RIGHT WHERE WE NEED TO BE”

WHEN YOU TOLD YOUR TEAM, A LOT OF THESE GUYS HAVE BEEN WITH YOU SINCE YOU WON YOUR SECOND CHAMPIONSHIP IN THE XFINITY SERIES, HOW TOUGH OF A CONVERSATION WAS THAT? T Y L E R R E D D I C K O N TH E N O. 8 TE A M It was difficult, but it’s part of this sport. I’ve been doing this for a number of years now, but a lot of the people I work with have been doing this a lot longer than that. They’ve seen it, been a part of it, so it’s one of those things.

And with the way that our world is changing, it’s become even harder to keep things under the radar. You try to keep things under the radar and the next thing you know, the next day, everyone pretty much knows about it. It’s the way our world works. It was not an easy conversation, but they believe in me, and I believe in them.

We all knew that we could go out and still do great things together and had a huge opportunity in front of us. We did that at Indy and we dang near did it at a number of tracks after that.

We’ve had good speed at Pocono, Michigan, and have been so close to putting it all together but little things changing can be the difference in one spot in winning or losing.

BETWEEN THE REST OF THIS YEAR AND 2023, WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS ACHIEVABLE WITH RCR? It’s very hard to say. It’s going to be a matter of showing up with the right mindset every week and executing as we have been on the good days. We still have some bumps in the road.

It’s hard to say. If we put a ceiling on it, we’ll cap ourselves and as we continue to learn about this car and things change in the garage with what teams are learning, the possibilities are endless for us. We’re very hungry because we know how hard it was to win that first race. We’re willing to put in the work, whether we come off a win or 40th to go out and win the next week again.

38

POLE POSITION 2022

• Tyler Reddick and girlfriend Alexa De Leon with their son, Beau, on Indy’s yard of bricks.

• Beau Reddick waves the checkered flag at Indy.

PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

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DRIVER Q&A

Q&A with

COREY

LAJOIE

‘I CAN BE A RACEWINNING DRIVER’

BY JARED TURNER

T

he son of a two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series cham-

pion, Corey LaJoie has had racing in his blood from birth. But unlike his father, Randy, who won 15 times in NASCAR’s upper levels, Corey LaJoie has yet to go to Victory Lane in a national series race.

He came painfully close in July, though, battling Chase Elliott for the win on the final lap of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway before getting squeezed into the wall by the 2020 Cup Series champion. Despite the disappointing outcome, LaJoie showed the NASCAR world that he can contend for race wins when he’s equipped with a competitive car.

In a wide-ranging interview with NASCAR Pole Position Magazine, LaJoie discussed life growing up in a well-known racer’s family, his near victory at Atlanta, his best buddies in the sport and much more.

WHAT MEMORIES DO YOU HAVE OF YOUR DAD’S TIME IN NASCAR? I’ve got a lot of memories from those times. We would load up every year and after school was out (for summer), we would jump in the motorhome and for two-and-a-half straight months, we’d go to St. Louis (World Wide Technology Raceway), we’d go to Niagara Falls when dad was racing Watkins Glen, we’d go all over. So a lot of my best childhood memories were following dad around the circuit.

ANY PARTICULAR RACES STAND OUT? For me growing up as a kid watching my dad, the results didn’t change anything. We were just excited to see dad come home or be at the race track playing with all our other kid buddies. You didn’t really care win, lose or draw where your dad finished.

WAS WATCHING YOUR DAD RACE WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO PURSUE THIS CAREER? There was a moment when I was probably 5 or 6 (years old) in the garage after a Darlington race, and I remember seeing all the cars sandblasted and smelling the rubber and fuel, and that was when I got bit by the bug and realized that it was pretty cool. I didn’t really put all my eggs into that basket until I was 16 or 17 years old and really committed, as opposed to trying to chase baseball or whatever sport through high school. That’s when I really leaned in to try to make it as a race car driver.

42

POLE POSITION 2022

HAVE YOU REPLAYED THE LAST LAP OF THE JULY ATLANTA RACE IN YOUR HEAD? ANYTHING YOU WOULD’VE DONE DIFFERENTLY? I’ve replayed it, but I don’t lose any sleep over it. I’ve replayed it enough that I would do something different next time around. It just comes from having more opportunities to race for a win when you race against those guys that do it every week. Those guys know where to position themselves at the right moments to get a win.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME? It’s all situational, man. You’ve gotta take the runs when you can get them, you’ve got to get back to the lead as soon as you can get back to the lead to put yourself in a defensive position, especially at a superspeedway.

DO YOU HAVE FRIENDS IN THE GARAGE? I’m buddies with Joey (Logano) and Bubba (Wallace), but beyond that, the only person you really hang with no matter who you are or what your profession is, is who your lady likes to hang out with.

Luckily, my wife and Joey’s wife get along. Probably my best friend is Ryan Flores, who does a podcast (“Stacking Pennies”) with me.

He changes tires for Ryan Blaney. Beyond that, my 2-year-old and my 2-month-old are occupying a lot of my time right now, so I don’t get to hang out with a lot of other people.

PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

OTHER THAN YOUR DAD, WHO ELSE IN THE SPORT DID YOU ADMIRE GROWING UP? You always look up to and revere the guys that came before you, especially the ones you looked up to as a kid. For me, Ricky Rudd was one of those guys. Kyle Petty was one of those guys, and I was lucky enough for him to come on my podcast this week. Kevin Harvick also. And Jimmie Johnson, for what he’s done for me in my career to help me get to where I’m at as well as just setting the bar so high in terms of how good he is, let alone how good he was to the fans, is something I’m aspiring to be. But there’s only one Jimmie Johnson.

YOU WROTE A LETTER TO RICK HENDRICK EXPRESSING YOUR INTEREST IN BEING JIMMIE’S REPLACEMENT IN THE NO. 48. WHAT DID THAT LETTER TELL US ABOUT YOU? Well, if you don’t ask, the answer is always no. Obviously, I didn’t expect to be on the list of who Rick would consider to fill Jimmie Johnson’s shoes, but I can assure you he wasn’t going to call me up, anyway. But at least it cultivated some energy and a little bit of traffic to let him know I wasn’t scared to maybe make an ass out of myself.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU DIDN’T INCLUDE IN THAT LETTER THAT YOU THINK YOU SHOULD HAVE? Man, I touched a lot of aspects. It was a front-and-three-quartersof-the-back-length letter just saying that with the right people

CUP SERIES

around me and the right tools to get the most of my potential, I feel like I could be one of the best, because I feel like I’ve proven it against guys like (Kyle) Larson, Blaney, Chase and Bubba and those guys when we were growing up, but our careers have taken different paths. I still feel like in the right opportunity with the right people that I can be a race-winning driver. I don’t think I’m a generational talent by any means.

DID YOU GET ANY FEEDBACK ON THE LETTER? Not directly, but I run Hendrick engines now, and we get (lease) Hendrick pit crews, so it wasn’t for naught.

WHEN YOU FLY COMMERCIAL, DO YOU GENERALLY FLY FIRSTCLASS OR GO FOR THE CHEAP SEATS? I’ve got an unpopular opinion. I like to lay my head up against the back of the seat, and you can’t do that in first-class. So I don’t mind being in economy class.

WHAT CELEBRITIES OUTSIDE OF MOTORSPORTS WOULD YOU LIKE TO MEET? Tim Tebow is my all-time favorite guy. I’d love to be able to meet him and helmet swap with him or something like that.

IF YOU COULD PERSONALLY RESURRECT ONE OLD CUP SERIES TRACK, WHAT TRACK WOULD IT BE? Rockingham. I won three late model races there. I love that spot.

It’s wore out, it’s fast, it’s high-banked, close to home, and I’ve had some success there.

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DRIVER Q&A

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Q&A WITH BAYLEY CURREY

LEARNING & BUILDING,

ONE RACE AT A TIME

BY JOSEPH WOLKIN

Bayley Currey is one of the most determined drivers in the NASCAR Xfinity Series garage. Throughout the trials and tribulations of becoming a full-time competitor, he hasn’t given up.

For years, Currey has battled for each and every opportunity he’s had in NASCAR. While he hasn’t driven for a large team, this year marks a turning point for the Texas native. He’s competing full time for JD Motorsports in the team’s flagship No. 4 car. The move is a culmination of years of relationship building and showing he can get the job done in lesser equipment.

Now, for the first time, Currey has a corporate sponsor in Alka-Seltzer, bringing the company back to NASCAR after almost two decades.

48

POLE POSITION 2022

IN WHAT AREAS HAVE YOU DONE WELL THIS YEAR? I’ve learned a lot and stayed calm until the end. I’m trying to get in the top 20 in the drivers’ points, and that’s a big payout at the end of the year. We want to get the bonus money for TV in the top 30 in owners’ points. That’s been big.

We’re trying to be more consistent and there at the end of races, and that’s been the big thing for me. When you’re only running a handful of races, you’re going as hard as you can every lap. Being able to have the security of having a ride for the next week has really helped my race craft, letting me calm down and letting the race play out fully so I can be there at the end.

WHAT MAKES A DRIVER SUCCESSFUL IN A SITUATION LIKE THE ONE YOU’RE IN? It’s taking it week-by-week, learning as much as you can each week. We talk about the race car PHOTOGRAPHY: JD MOTORSPORT, JOHN LUONGO PHOTGRAPHY

all week and what we can change to be a little bit better. You have to go out there and give it your all every week. Me and the guys at the shop work really hard all week to put the best car out there that we can.

I feel like it’s been showing. I’ve been in the series for a while now, so it helps to have that experience. If you go to some of these places like road courses, which I haven’t raced at much, it makes it harder. I haven’t been good at qualifying at places like that, but during the race, I learn as much as I can to be there at the end.

HOW DIFFERENT OF A MENTALITY IS IT TO HAVE CONSISTENCY WITH THE SAME TEAM? It’s huge. When you can build on something with a single group the whole year, that’s huge. That’s one of the advantages the bigger teams have when they have the same guy all year. They build with that group and they build throughout the year. It makes everything better. Working with the same group all year has been cool and it’s been a confidence boost.

HOW DID YOUR ALKA-SELTZER SPONSORSHIP COME TOGETHER? Once it came around, A.E. Engine got together with our vice president of marketing, Tony Priscaro, and they got me into some of the meetings. We talked about the paint scheme, changed this or that, and it looked good. We’ve had appearances and things at the race track that I have to do besides driving the race car. It’s been cool to be part of this process, having not done anything quite like that before. It’s cool to see that side of it and how big companies make it worth their time and money to be part of our team.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED WHILE REPRESENTING SUCH A LARGE BRAND? You have to be able to go in a million different directions. At Pocono, we did an autograph session.

Then, we went to the Alka-Seltzer tent to hand out products, then the trailer, talking with some people from Alka-Seltzer who were at the race track and answering a bunch of questions. I still had to find time to go calm down and get ready for the race. We did a big Zoom meeting with the folks from Alka-Seltzer and went over the race with them. It was fun and neat to have people not in NASCAR and answer their questions. I love talking about racing, so whenever that stuff comes up, I love doing it.

IS THERE EXTRA PRESSURE BRINGING A COMPANY BACK INTO THE SPORT? I wouldn’t say pressure, but it’s a privilege. Normally, when a company leaves, they’re gone. It’s been really cool to bring them back and show them what we’re all about.

DO EXPECTATIONS INCREASE WHEN YOU GET A SPONSORSHIP DEAL LIKE THIS? Honestly, no. I go out there and try as hard as I can every week, whether the car is blank red or if we have Alka-Seltzer or Hy-Vee on the car. We always go out there and try to do the best job we can as a team. You always want to do better than the last time and keep moving forward.

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO WORK WITH TEAM OWNER JOHNNY DAVIS? It’s definitely cool working with Johnny. I first went to talk to Johnny in 2018 at Homestead and told him I wanted to drive one of his cars. I didn’t have much experience, only running a handful of Xfinity Series races that year. It obviously didn’t work out then, but we always kept in touch. It’s really cool that it worked out the way it did and for me to drive for him full time in the No. 4 car. I’m very thankful for Johnny for the opportunity he’s given me.

POLE POSITION MAG.COM

49

A U S T I N H I L L | R I C H A R D C H I L D R E S S R A C I N G | N O. 21 C H E V R O L E T C A M A R O

S X N

A

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PARKER H E N D E R S O N M O T O R S P O R T S // N O .7 5 C H E V R O L E T S I LV E R A D O

DRIVER Q&A

Q&A with

PARKER

KLIGERMAN

VETERAN RACER JUGGLES DRIVING & BROADCASTING

BY JARED TURNER

P

arker Kligerman is a man of multiple talents. A part-time

driver for Henderson Motorsports in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and a pit reporter/analyst for NASCAR on NBC, Kligerman has in recent years become as comfortable talking about race cars as driving them.

Not that either job has been a cakewalk for the affable 32-year-old. Once regarded as one of the sport’s up-and-comers, Kligerman has endured a bumpy road while logging nearly 200 starts among NASCAR’s three major stock car series.

Since bursting onto the national scene by capturing the pole for his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race in 2009, Kligerman has enjoyed some additional success – the most notable being three Truck Series wins – but the road has also been spattered with setbacks and disappointments that have precluded him from achieving his ultimate dream of going full-time NASCAR Cup Series racing.

But while Kligerman hasn’t reached the pinnacle as a driver, he arguably has reached it as a broadcaster over the last few years. In an interview with NASCAR Pole Position, Kligerman discussed the challenges of wearing multiple professional hats, some key moments in his career, his goals for the future and more.

52

POLE POSITION 2022

PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

WHAT’S BEEN THE BIGGEST ADJUSTMENT TO LIFE AS A BROADCASTER? The anxiety of being on camera in front of millions of people is one thing. I know a lot of people think I sort of naturally stepped into it, but I definitely fought a lot of that early on. I think one of the things that’s made me more comfortable is learning that TV is really about your preparation, especially live TV. It’s about knowing the topic that you’re presenting about – thoroughly. And that way, you feel like there’s nothing that can be thrown at you that you wouldn’t know.

WHAT’S THE MAIN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING INTERVIEWED ON TV AND BEING THE INTERVIEWER? When you’re on the driver’s side where you’re responding to a question, it’s about providing an answer that suits you. It’s very much about what you want to convey as a personality on whatever topic you’re talking about, whereas when you’re holding the mic, it’s key to really lean into not having a bias, being very impartial and making sure what you’re asking is in the best interests of the broadcast and the viewers.

WHAT’S THE KEY TO BEING SUCCESSFUL ON THOSE WEEKENDS WHEN YOU’RE BOTH BROADCASTING AND DRIVING? It’s hard. At Darlington last year, I did the truck race during the day in like a thousand-degree heat and finished fifth and then we went and did the longest broadcast of the year, which is the Southern 500. By the third stage on pit road, I had to pound an energy drink because I didn’t think I was going to make it to the end. They’re like 6,000-calorie days, and on top of that, there’s no time to eat, so you basically burn about 6,000 calories and don’t eat the whole time. So it’s pretty crazy stuff.

I think mentally you just have to be able to compartmentalize and have almost like a folder system. When you’re in the driving capacity, you open that folder. And then when you get done, you close that folder and move to the next one. But it goes back to preparation.

Those are the weekends that on the TV side, I go almost overboard during the week to get as much information as I possibly can for the series that I’m covering. That’s really the key to making it work.

YOU WON THE POLE FOR YOUR XFINITY SERIES DEBUT, DRIVING FOR TEAM PENSKE. WHAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF YOUR CAREER? At that time, I was focused on being in Cup, and I thought it was going to happen about the next week, basically, after winning the pole for the first race. I was like, “This isn’t so hard. This is easy.” I think the big turning point for me or inflection point in my career was separating from Penske in mid-2012.

HAVE YOU GIVEN UP ON LANDING A FULL-TIME CUP SERIES RIDE IN THE FUTURE OR DOES THAT REMAIN A GOAL? Age-wise, no doubt in my mind, there’s runway. This isn’t football.

You don’t need to be 21 years old. So that sort of opens up that thinking sometimes, and I like to look at it, but I’m also realistic to say I would need some really big things to happen, and that means winning. Going and winning, I think, just changes the conversation toward the chance that it happens, and if you’re not winning, I don’t think it happens.

Am I at peace? Probably not. But I’m also someone who just wants to be able to know that I’ve given it my all and that I left nothing on the table and tried to make it happen. And if it doesn’t, so be it. Most of all right now, I just want to make sure I give my all to what I’m doing.

SENIOR SALUTE

PRESENTED BY

Rusty Wallace A FIERCE COMPETITOR

BY BEN WHITE

Rusty Wallace, a 2013 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee, is enjoying life and having fun as he reflects on a career that’s nothing short of amazing. A second-generation racer, Wallace began driving race cars as a teenager near his Fenton, Missouri, home in the early 1970s, and by 1980 he was driving in NASCAR’s Cup Series for one of the most iconic team owners in motorsports history.

In this interview with NASCAR Pole Position, the 1989 NASCAR Cup Series champion looks back on some highlights from a half-century of success in both American Speed Association and NASCAR Cup Series competition.

You won numerous ASA races before Roger Penske offered you a Cup Series Chevrolet to drive at Atlanta in 1980, and you finished second to Dale Earnhardt in your first Cup Series start. How amazed were you by that?

Obviously, I was blown away about the opportunity. I was racing the short tracks, running the ASA stuff. It just so happened that Don Miller (a Penske associate) lived in St. Louis. I called Don and asked him to come out and watch us race. He asked Roger to take a look at me. Roger told me he had a 1980 Chevrolet Caprice that was a brand new Banjo Matthews (built) car sitting ready to go. He said he would give it a whirl and let me do it.

We put it together in Roger’s Indy car shop and those guys didn’t like that at all. It was a major distraction. The car was around these beautiful Indy cars and there was this rough around the edges stock car, but we put it all together.

You ran the Cup Series for car owner Cliff Stewart in 1984 and 1985, and then drove

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POLE POSITION 2022

for Raymond Beadle from 1986 to 1990. Your first win came at Bristol with Beadle in 1986.

Tell us about that.

Cliff Stewart gave me my first break in the Cup Serie in 1984 and got me involved in the sport, which I’ll always be grateful for. In my heart, I knew if I was going to win any race as my first, Bristol was the one that made the most sense. I just finished winning at Winchester, Indiana, and that was a good track for me, a lot like Bristol. I’m like, “Wow. I had a whole different driving style than most drivers then.” I would enter the corner, diamond the corner, roll through it and come off the corner, so much so that it got the attention of Leonard Wood. Leonard and the Wood Brothers team saw me run this line I was taking and evidently honed right in on me.

Then after the race was over, I’ll never forget, after I won, I came down pit road and the first person to meet me at the car and stick his hand inside the car to give

me a high-five was Leonard with a big ole congratulations. Who would have believed that many years later in 2013 that he and I would be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame together in the same class.

Can you put into words what winning the 1989 Cup Series championship means to you?

Winning the 1989 Cup Series championship was the most important thing that happened in my career. My parents were there at Atlanta that day and my brother Kenny was there. We had to overcome some loose lug nuts and things like that, but we had a real rocket ship of a car. We finally locked that title up and I said, “My God, after all these years, I’m a NASCAR champion. I just can’t believe it.”

So I hopped out of that car and hopped on top of that hood and hopped off to the ground there on pit road after the race.

Earnhardt won the race and we finished 15th, but we had the title. It was just so gratifying and so humbling, and it was just a sense of, “We finally made it and put a period on top of it.” So for my family, for me and for my wife Patti and everybody, we were finally there. I will never forget that day. It was just so exciting.

What was the most rewarding result of that championship?

All kinds of things were happening.

I am literally walking off of pit road with the championship trophy in my PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

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hands with Don Miller walking beside me and still dressed in my dirty uniform and Junior Johnson walks up to me and says, “I want to talk with you. I want you to drive my car.” What an unbelievable offer, you know? That could have happened very easily. I could have jumped in his car.

Miller Brewing Co. called also. We flew up and talked with them and Don Miller said, “I don’t know. Penske is just sitting there. I think he’s ready to get back into it.” We went all in. Roger said, “Let’s start the team, you have enough experience now. We’re going to divide this thing up and build a building and get after it.”

So I have one of the most world famous international superstar car owners on one side and an amazing car owner in Junior Johnson on the other. So what do I do, you know? Roger gave me an offer to give me part ownership of the team, and this was absolutely a legitimate deal. With Roger, I was awarded 24 percent ownership and Don (Miller) was given 24 percent ownership. Then, you fast-forward to when I retired in 2005 and Roger said he needed to own it himself.

He paid Don and myself a large amount of money for our percentages. We appreciated that and appreciated what happened and the career was over. He’s still one of our best friends and a great guy. That’s how it happened. Roger Penske is a straight up individual and always has been. I would feel comfortable with anything I would ever do with him, plain and simple. He is an absolute class act as a person and in business.

Who would you say you were the closest to as far as competitors during your driving career?

I had the most fun with the late Dick Trickle. He taught me so much when I was racing against him in ASA. I could call him

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anytime I needed advice. He never lied to me at all. When I was really at the top of my game, he would call me on occasion but not nearly as much as I would call him. I would tell him every single set-up I had in my car, every air-pressure setting, everything. We both knew that to be successful, you had to know the race car.

I tell people this all the time, “You’ve got to know the race car.” I have to be my own onboard computer. I have to take everyone’s help, no doubt about that. But I have to know it. I can’t just sit here and say, “I don’t know, just make my car go fast so I can drive it.”

So yeah, Trickle was one of my very best friends. We laughed together, we drank hard together, we raced hard together, we won like a son of a gun together. We just had a wonderful time together, whether we were on the track together at Pensacola, Florida; Macon, Georgia; Mobile, Alabama; Jackson, Mississippi; the Minnesota State Fair; or racing all around the Midwest or down South, we were best buddies until the day he died.

You collected a total of 55 wins during your Cup Series career, 37 with Penske and 18 with Beadle.

Are you satisfied with that number?

I was very, very happy to get 55 wins in the Cup Series. That’s a big number. I think I’m 11th on the all-time win list. I hate that I fell out of the top 10. I think it was Kevin Harvick with 60 victories, which is fine. To have 55 wins is a big number and I’m proud of that.

It has a special ring to it. It’s got a better ring than 52 wins. It even sounds better than 56 wins. (Laughter) It rolls off your tongue better than other numbers.

Was there a driver or drivers you really enjoyed racing against in the Cup Series or other divisions of racing?

I really loved racing against Ricky Rudd on the road courses in the Cup Series. Ricky was so good at them throughout his career. Obviously, when Dale Earnhardt Sr. was so popular, every time I beat him, I felt like I really accomplished something. So I always wanted to beat Earnhardt. But people also knew we were great friends. We went on a bunch of vacations together in the Bahamas. Our wives enjoyed a great friendship.

Another guy that I really enjoyed racing against was Mark Martin. Mark and I grew up together on the ASA circuit. It didn’t have as much to do with how he competed against me in the Cup Series. It’s really how our careers got us into the Cup Series. I knew how successful he was before he got to Cup with all those amazing race cars that he and his father and their helpers built.

What would you like to be remembered for?

I just want to be remembered as someone with a great deal of integrity and someone who really cared for the sport. I would also like to be remembered as someone who wanted to grow the sport. As far as someone on the race track, I want to be remembered as someone who was a fierce competitor.

PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

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BACKSTORY

PRESENTED BY

NO CHALLENGE TOO TOUGH REX WHITE: A CHAMPION IN LIFE AND ON THE TRACK

BY BEN WHITE

R

ex White, the 1960 NASCAR Cup Series champion, faced

many adverse situations during his nine-year NASCAR career.

But each time difficulty came his way, White would define the problem and then find a way to overcome it.

Born Aug. 17, 1929, in Taylorsville, North Carolina, White was diagnosed with polio at an early age. He had no choice but to adjust as the disease left one leg and foot withered.

White learned to drive a neighbor’s truck in the farm fields around his family home at age 6. Two years later, he began working on the family’s Model-T Ford when repairs were needed.

He eventually left school and moved to the Washington, D.C., area where he found work as a cook and later as a service station attendant.

His life soon took its biggest turn.

“A guy came by and put a poster in the window of the gas station advertising stock car races at West Lanham (Maryland) Speedway,” White said. “I looked at that poster for quite some time and didn’t have the money to go. I finally scraped enough together to get a ticket. That was in 1951.”

Over time, White built his own race car in that service station and began winning races at the track. He eventually became so good he consistently won races everywhere he entered, and he began racing in NASCAR’s premier division.

Between 1956 and 1964, White collected 28 NASCAR Cup Series wins and 36 pole positions, winning more races in that time span than any other driver and finishing among the top five in nearly half of his 233 starts.

White was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998

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and he is a member of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame and the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame. In 2015, he was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

White remembers his first wins at Latham Speedway most of all. He got a checkered flag and a small trophy and gave them to the NASCAR Hall of Fame just before his name was added.

“This was on Friday night,” White said.

“On Saturday night, I went to Manassas, Virginia, won the heat, semi and the feature. On Sunday, I went to Marlboro, Maryland, and won the feature and the heat race there. To have three race wins in one weekend, and that’s the start of your career, that’s a pretty good deal.”

White even had to skirt the rules a bit to win some races early in his career.

“At Lanham was a NASCAR race and at Manassas, Virginia, that was an outlaw race, a different club,” White said. “I didn’t want to jeopardize my NASCAR license, so I changed my name to Johnny Neylon. So I raced at Manassas, Virginia, and Marlboro, Maryland, under Johnny Neylon. Well, the Evening Star in Washington, D.C., printed an article saying, ‘Neylon Wins Race at Manassas, Virginia.’ (Laughter) Bill Clagett was the NASCAR representative in Baltimore, Maryland, so when I went to sign in at Lanham the next Friday night, he said, ‘What name are you going to use tonight?’”

PHOTOGRAPHY: NASCAR ARCHIVES & RESEARCH CENTER

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LEGEND PROFILE

PRESENTED BY

NASCAR Legend: Fireball Roberts

Glenn “Fireball” Roberts won 33 NASCAR Cup Series races from 1950 through May 1964. His biggest victories came in the 1958 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway and the 1962 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

BY BEN WHITE

Born in Tavares, Florida, on Jan. 29, 1929, Roberts was raised in the small town of Apopka, Florida. As a teenager, he became interested in playing baseball. He tried out for the position of pitcher for the Zellwood Mud Hens, an American Legion baseball team, and easily made the squad. His ability for throwing fast earned him the nickname, “Fireball.”

With World War II ending in 1945, many men sought ways to find adventure when they returned home. A new pastime known as stock car racing sprang up around the South among moonshiners and mechanics, and Roberts felt the sport was definitely for him.

He attended the University of Florida in 1947 and began racing on small dirt bullrings on weekends. He won a 150-mile race on the Beach and Road Course in Daytona Beach, Florida, during 1948, his first victory in NASCAR competition.

When the newly built Darlington Raceway opened for the Labor Day running of the inaugural Southern 500 in 1950, Roberts finished a surprising second among 70 drivers behind race winner Johnny Mantz. He had already won a 100-mile NASCAR Strictly Stock race, the equivalent of today’s Cup Series, two weeks earlier on Aug. 13 in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

Roberts went on to become a superstar and drove for the top car owners of the 1950s and early 1960s, such as Pete DePaolo, Smokey Yunick, Jim Stephens and Holman Moody.

Roberts died on July 2, 1964, from injuries suffered in a multi-car crash at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24.

“He was a man first, competitor second and teacher third.”

–RICHARD PETTY

BEST SEASON

22

IN 1957, ROBERTS WON EIGHT NASCAR CUP SERIES

races while driving for team owner Pete DePaolo.

Roberts recorded 27 top-10 finishes in his famed redand-white No. 22 Ford. He also logged four pole positions in 52 starts that season and led 1,414 laps.

RECORD SETTER OVER A PERIOD OF 13-AND-A-HALF SEASONS

in NASCAR’s premier division, Roberts entered 206 races and won 33 times, recording 93 top-five finishes, 122 top-10 results and 32 pole positions. His average start was 7.8 with an average finish of 13.2. He was considered a top contender throughout his illustrious driving career.

EDUCATED DETERMINED

ARTICULATE

HANDSOME SMART

POPULAR KNOWN FOR ROBERTS WAS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR drivers of the 1950s and early 1960s. Many NASCAR fans who saw him race compare his allure to the late Dale Earnhardt. When Roberts passed away in 1964, the sport was deeply shaken just as it was when Earnhardt died in 2001.

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PHOTOGRAPHY: NASCAR ARCHIVES & RESEARCH CENTER

SEASON REWIND

Earnhardt Gets Title No. 7 – 1994

BY BEN WHITE

In 1994, Dale Earnhardt and Richard Childress Racing of Welcome, North Carolina, emerged triumphant and collected the coveted NASCAR Cup Series championship after logging four wins, 25 top-10 finishes and two pole positions in 31 starts.

PRESENTED BY

BEST DRIVER RUSTY WALLACE,

DATE

LOCATION

driver of the No. 2 Ford for

Feb. 20

Daytona Int’l Speedway

Sterling Marlin

Team Penske, won eight

Feb. 27

Rockingham Speedway

Rusty Wallace

Mar. 6

Richmond Raceway

Cup Series races, logging 17 top-five finishes and 20 top-10 results in 31

Dale Earnhardt

Fenton, Missouri, native

Dale Earnhardt

suffered three engine

Apr. 17

North Wilkesboro Speedway Terry Labonte

failures and major crashes

Apr. 24

Martinsville Speedway

May 1

Talladega Superspeedway

May 15

Sonoma Raceway

Ernie Irvan

resulted in relatively

May 29 Charlotte Motor Speedway

Jeff Gordon

minor injuries. The only

June 5

championship of Wallace’s

June 12 Pocono Raceway

at Daytona and Talladega further hampered his title hopes, but miraculously

Rusty Wallace Dale Earnhardt

Dover Motor Speedway

Rusty Wallace Rusty Wallace

June 19 Michigan Int’l Speedway

Rusty Wallace

July 2

Daytona Int’l Speedway

Jimmy Spencer

July 10

New Hampshire Motor Speedway Ricky Rudd

BEST RACE

July 17

Pocono Raceway

ON AUG. 6, JEFF

July 24

Talladega Superspeedway

Gordon, driving the No.

Aug. 6

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, won the

Geoff Bodine

Aug. 14 Watkins Glen International

Jimmy Spencer Jeff Gordon Mark Martin

Aug. 21 Michigan Int’l Speedway

Geoff Bodine

at Indianapolis Motor

Aug. 27 Bristol Motor Speedway

Rusty Wallace

Speedway after starting

Sept. 4

Darlington Raceway

Bill Elliott

third in the 43-car field.

Sept. 10 Richmond Raceway

Terry Labonte

Sept. 18 Dover Motor Speedway

Rusty Wallace

Sept. 25 Martinsville Speedway

Rusty Wallace

inaugural Brickyard 400

POLE POSITION 2022

Ernie Irvan

Bristol Motor Speedway

owner Raymond Beadle.

62

Ernie Irvan

Mar. 13 Atlanta Motor Speedway Apr. 10

came in 1989 with team

tona 500 song he had been singing since first coming to the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway in 1979.

Once again, he finished the 500 without a win. He ended up seventh behind winner Sterling Marlin.

Still, the Kannapolis, North Carolina, native was determined to make it a great season, and why not? He was NASCAR’s defending Cup Series champion with the same team owner in Richard Childress, the same team in RCR and the same pit crew led by crew chief Andy Petree.

Earnhardt scored his first victory of the season in the fifth race at Darlington Raceway and followed that with a win the next week at Bristol Motor Speedway. His season felt like a carbon copy of 1993 and had that championship feel. He took the point with the win at Bristol and the season looked promising.

Earnhardt was second in points for eight weeks through the 400-mile race at Daytona but returned to the lead and stayed there the remainder of the year.

At Michigan International Speedway in August, Earnhardt was involved in a two-car crash with Todd Bodine. Ironically, it was the first time since July 1986 at Daytona that he hadn’t finished a Cup Series race due to a crash on the track.

A final victory at Rockingham Speedway in October iced Earnhardt’s seventh-career championship. Mark Martin, driver of the Roush Racing Ford, finished second in points to Earnhardt for the second time.

WINNER

Mar. 27 Darlington Raceway

starts. However, the

26-year Cup Series career

The season began with Earnhardt singing the same Day-

SEASON RECAP

The native of Vallejo, California, and longtime Indiana resident led 93

Oct. 2

North Wilkesboro Speedway Geoff Bodine

en route to the second

Oct. 9

Charlotte Motor Speedway

NASCAR Cup Series

Oct. 23

Rockingham Speedway

victory of his career.

Oct. 30

Phoenix Raceway

of the race’s 160 laps

Gordon went on to win five times at the famed

Dale Jarrett Dale Earnhardt Terry Labonte

Nov. 13 Atlanta Motor Speedway

Mark Martin

Brickyard, his last victory there coming in 2014.

PRESIDENT

Bill Clinton

TOP CARS

N O . 1 AT T H E B O X O F F I C E

DALE EARNHARDT’S

The Lion King

1994 No. 3 Richard

NO. 1 SONG

Childress Racing Chevrolet

“The Sign” by Ace of Base

with four wins, 20 topfive finishes, 25 top-10 results and two pole positions.

Driving the No. 6 Roush Racing Ford, Mark Martin had two wins, 15 topfive results, 20 top-10 showings and one pole position.

P O P C U LT U R E

The police chase of a white Ford Bronco carrying O.J. Simpson captivated a nationwide television audience.

1994

GALLON OF GAS

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RACING JOBS

MAINTAINING THE TRACK CHRIS BAYNE KEEPS DAYTONA IN TIP-TOP SHAPE

BY BEN WHITE

C

hris Bayne, senior director of

facility operations for Daytona International Speedway, knows everything there is to know about fencing, concrete, wiring, roofing, asphalt, cable, seating and steel. In other words, anything and everything that keeps a mammoth speedway looking pristine and functioning perfectly.

The native of Halifax County, Virginia, didn’t set out to make speedway maintenance his career path. A personal decision sent him from North Carolina to Florida where he spent a great deal of time outside the famed 2.5-mile superspeedway before fate moved him inside the track to oversee the maintenance process for most of the past 20 years.

“I’ve been in this sport going on 35 years,” Bayne said. “I worked with Morgan-McClure Racing when Ernie Irvan was driving for them back in the early 1990s. When Ernie went to drive for Robert Yates Racing (in 1993) I went there as well. I was with the show car department and merchandising with RYR. During the offseason, I worked in the engine teardown room and also transported cars to wind tunnels.

“When I was working with Ernie, I met my wife here in Daytona and I left Robert Yates Racing and took a job with Americrown to get my foot in the door with ISC (International Speedway Corp.) and NASCAR back in the day. I ended up moving to Daytona.

We were married in 1995 and I took a job in the maintenance department at the track. Then, I moved over to the events part of the business with Americrown. I worked there for eight years. I’ve been with track operations here at Daytona for 18 years now.”

As time progressed, Bayne became in charge of keeping every aspect of Daytona International Speedway

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Chris Bayne SENIOR DIRECTOR OF FACILITY OPERATIONS DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

operations moving forward. When fans are watching race cars battle at nearly 200 mph, that means he and his staff have everything under control.

“My job is to try and make it look easy,” Bayne said. “I have to be prepared for anything that comes up during an event. Daytona is so different from any other race track, such as having to think about climate control when those at other race tracks aren’t doing anything in the wintertime.

“We have cars on the track 280 or more days a year.”

While Bayne keeps close tabs on what is needed at Daytona, he also assists the crews at Talladega Superspeedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“We have everything regionalized,” Bayne said. “I help to support Daytona, Homestead and Talladega and I will also send my guys to those tracks.”

Bayne has patched potholes with plastic car body filler, replaced 200 feet of fencing in record time so races could be restarted and washed the track surface with laundry detergent after a jet dryer was struck by a race car. There are simply too many occurrences to list but in the end, the races have been completed and fans never knew the difficulties at hand.

“It’s about planning for the worst, hoping for the best and having all of the right stuff on hand,” Bayne said.

“If something were to happen twice in one race, you have to have the right stuff on hand and the right people in the right spot to get it done. And trust me, it’s not just about me.

“Most of the time, it’s the people I work with. This is not for most people because of the time it takes you away from your family, especially at Daytona. But this is what I threw my leg across so I’m going to ride it to the end.”

RACING JOBS

A NUMBERS MAN

PATTERSON’S EXPERTISE HELPS POWER HENDRICK CARS

BY BEN WHITE

Gary Patterson, a development engineer for Hendrick Motorsports, has

Gary Patterson DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER HENDRICK MOTORSPORT

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loved engines since his childhood days of riding in his grandfather’s car.

“My first vivid memory was when I was 4 years old, and I was standing on the back seat of my grandfather’s 1960 Studebaker Golden Hawk,” Patterson said. “He had increased the boost from where the factory had set it at three or four psi to 12 psi. His fuel pump wouldn’t keep up with the carburetor. The fuel would stop flowing when it went on high boost.

“He and my dad were in the front seat trying to diagnose the problem. My grandfather would hit the gas and the back end of the car would break loose at 60 miles per hour and go swerving down the highway. This was the coolest thing ever, especially because of the love I had for my grandfather and my dad in that moment with those sounds and the smells of fuel and the exhilaration I was feeling. It changed me.”

The native of Berwick, Nova Scotia, graduated from Technical University of Nova Scotia with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1991. Engines – working on them and studying them – eventually paved a path toward NASCAR. “It took a couple of phases,” Patterson said. “I love engines, I love cars and I love racing. I also received a master’s degree of applied sciences in thermal dynamics in engine development in 1994 when I was at the university and did teach when I was there for two years through 1996. That got me noticed in 2003

by General Motors. I moved to Pontiac, Michigan, and worked in powertrain technology, doing work with their engine development group. I worked as a combustion system development engineer and visited Joe Gibbs Racing, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Richard Childress Racing regularly.”

Through that venture, Patterson was part of a team that designed and built a $30 million facility in Michigan to measure friction and test the valve trains of GM race engines. In 2009, he moved to Indy car racing while continuing to offer support to NASCAR teams. An Austrian based company, AVL North America, hired him to develop race engines and production engines involving millions of high-speed megahertz measurements per second, per channel.

In 2015, Patterson worked with Richard Childress Racing in developing a valve train measurement system. He eventually joined RCR as a fulltime employee at ECR Engines. It was his first direct employment with a NASCAR team.

In 2018, he moved to Roush Yates Engines as an engine development engineer and recently joined the engine department at Hendrick Motorsports in the same capacity. His job is to manage engine data provided by dynamometers and then process calculations more efficiently.

“That’s pretty squarely in my wheelhouse and I’ve been doing that for a long time,” Patterson said. “The end result is to help provide much more automated data processing so at the end of the test, good decisions will be made more quickly to develop engines faster.”

Patterson enjoys his new role and brings a wealth of technical knowledge for developing winning engines to the table.

“I enjoy working with great people in a great team atmosphere,” Patterson said. “Everyone helps each other. It’s really a good environment at Hendrick Motorsports and good leadership for encouraging that sort of teamwork.”

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STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO

An Unexpected Opportunity

FATE LEADS LABONTE TO SECOND CUP SERIES TITLE

BY BEN WHITE

T

here are times in a driver’s career when surprise moves occur and

keep them from possible retirement. Such a resurgence happened to Terry Labonte and led to a second NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Labonte’s Cup Series career began when team owner Billy Hagan entered him in only five races in 1978. The Louisiana businessman hired the young wheelman from Corpus Christi, Texas, to drive in local short-track events where the two found success that led to multiple track championships.

Hagan skipped the usual route of working through the various divisions of NASCAR and fast-tracked his future star right to the sanctioning body’s premier series. By September 1980, the 23-year-old Labonte had his first Cup Series win at the tough 1.366-mile Darlington Raceway.

Labonte learned fast, collecting three more wins and his first Cup Series championship in 1984, with two additional victories coming

68

POLE POSITION 2022

in 1985 and 1986. In 1987, he left Hagan’s operation to replace Darrell Waltrip at Junior Johnson and Associates, considered the top team of the 1980s. He remained there through 1989 but could only muster four wins and no championships.

Cale Yarborough and Waltrip each won three Cup Series titles with Johnson, but Labonte didn’t enjoy the same success and moved to Richard Jackson’s team in 1990.

Labonte found himself back with Hagan from 1991 to 1993. The magic of the past wasn’t there, however, and it seemed his career might be over. That is until Labonte received a surprise phone call from crew chief Gary DeHart at Hendrick Motorsports. Labonte was offered the opportunity to replace Ricky Rudd, who was leaving to start his own team.

Labonte and DeHart won three times in their first season together. In 1995, the team won three more races, including the fall event at Bristol Motor Speedway after being crashed by Dale Earnhardt just before reaching the checkered flag. Labonte’s badly damaged yellow, red and white No. 5 Chevrolet was wheeled into Victory Lane with its hood raised almost to where Labonte couldn’t see to drive.

Even though he logged only two victories in 1996, Labonte earned his second Cup Series championship. He and younger brother Bobby Labonte were able to perform a dual victory lap during the season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Bobby Labonte won the race for Joe Gibbs Racing and Terry Labonte claimed the championship.

Terry Labonte enjoyed a second chance at continuing his career with Hendrick Motorsports.

“It was the opportunity of a lifetime,” the two-time champion said. “When I walked into Hendrick Motorsports I thought, ‘Oh my goodness. You can win a championship here.’

I was just so thankful to be driving for Hendrick Motorsports.

“It took 12 years to get the second championship. The first championship in 1984 meant everything to me, but I appreciated the second one even more because I realized just how tough it was to win it. People have asked me if I would do anything differently and I say no. I wouldn’t change a thing. I can honestly say I had a great career.”

PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

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A.J. FOYT DOMINATES NASCAR’S BIGGEST RACE

BY BEN WHITE

W

hen race fans hear the name A.J. Foyt, there’s usually an immediate

association with open-wheel, Indy car racing, especially since the Texas native is a four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.

In addition, Foyt won the 24 Hours of Daytona twice, went to Victory Lane at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and claimed seven Indy car national championships.

What those fans may not realize is that the iconic driver also entered 128 NASCAR Cup Series races from 1961 through 1997. He won three times at Daytona International Speedway, twice at Ontario Motor Speedway and once each at Riverside International Raceway and Atlanta Motor Speedway for team owners Ray Nichels, Jack Bowsher and Glen Wood.

Foyt’s greatest NASCAR victory came in the 1972 Daytona 500 while driving the famed maroon-and-white No. 21 Mercury for Wood Brothers Racing.

That day, Foyt led 167 of the race’s 200 laps with his closest competition coming from Richard Petty in the No. 43 Petty Enterprises Dodge. Petty’s engine suffered a burned valve after leading 31 laps and could not challenge at the end. Bobby Allison was credited with leading two laps in Richard Howard’s No. 12 Chevrolet to make up the three lap leaders in the race.

Foyt gained the top spot from Allison during the sixth lap and battled Petty throughout the 3 hour and 5 minute race. Foyt’s Mercury and its engine, built by crew chief Leonard Wood, was truly the class of the field, in part

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due to a factory withdrawal among Ford, Chrysler and General Motors due to a rules dispute with NASCAR. Foyt crossed under the checkered flag two laps ahead of the No. 6 Cotton Owens-owned Dodge driven by Charlie Glotzbach.

Foyt admitted he became bored during the race after an early skirmish with Petty set the stage early but didn’t materialize.

“When it’s close, you drive heads up all day,” Foyt said, according to Greg Fielden’s “40 Years of Stock Car Racing” book series. “I’d just as soon race all day like Richard Petty did there at the start. This may have looked easy but it wasn’t. I had two or three close calls out there today.”

At the time of Foyt’s Daytona 500 victory, he had only won three Indianapolis 500s. The fourth Indy 500 victory didn’t come until five years later in one of Foyt’s own Gilmore Racing Specials equipped with an A. J. Foyt Enterprises Coyote V-8 engine.

“I’ve won at Indy three times and I’ve won Le Mans. I’ve always wanted to win the Daytona 500 because I feel it’s the greatest stock car race in the world,” Foyt said.

PHOTOGRAPHY: NASCAR ARCHIVES & RESEARCH CENTER

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FAST FACTS

DID YOU KNOW?

Wow Your Friends with These NASCAR Facts and Figures NASCAR POLE POSITION

AN OFFICIALLY LICENSED PUBLICATION OF NASCAR 23110 STATE ROAD 54, SUITE 293 LUTZ, FL 33549 EMAIL: INFO@AE-ENGINE.COM WEB: POLEPOSITIONMAG.COM; AE-ENGINE.COM

THE CREW

PUBLISHER: CRAIG BARONCELLI COMMERCIAL VICE PRESIDENT: DAVID WATSON DIRECTORS: MARK MORALES, ROWLAND GEORGE, ARNOUT KOK CONTENT CREATIVE DIRECTOR: JOE RABUCK DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR: NICOLE COOPER DIGITAL CONTENT DIRECTOR: JOSH MULL EXECUTIVE EDITOR: ERIC ESTEPP COPY EDITOR: KEITH WALTZ CONTRIBUTORS: JARED TURNER, KEITH WALTZ, BEN WHITE, JOSEPH WOLKIN, JERRY BONKOWSKI, DUSTIN ALBINO SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATORS: AIDAN ANDERSEN, ETHAN ANDERSEN, SHOGUN SPECIAL THANKS TO: ANDREW ENGEL (NASCAR)

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PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. (OH YEAH!)

BY BEN WHITE Ronald Reagan was the first U.S. president to attend a NASCAR race when he visited Daytona International Speedway on July 4, 1984. That day, Richard Petty collected his 200th Cup Series victory.

The final NASCAR Cup Series start for Richard Childress as a driver came in the 1981 Talladega 500, won by rookie driver Ron Bouchard. Childress drove his own No. 3 Chevrolet.

During the 1996 season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bobby Labonte won the race while his older brother, Terry, won the championship.

It is the only time a driver and his sibling have won the race and the championship at the same time.

Bobby Labonte won the 2000 Cup Series championship for Joe Gibbs Racing. Brother Terry Labonte also drove in four races for JGR following the release of Jason Leffler in 2005.

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Cale Yarborough’s No. 28 Harry Ranier Racing Hardee’s paint scheme was the last to be lettered with paint as opposed to being decaled for competition in NASCAR Cup Series racing.

The last top-10 finish for Richard Petty came on Aug. 11, 1991, on the road course at Watkins Glen International. Petty drove the No. 43 Petty Enterprises Pontiac to a ninthplace result.

NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Waddell Wilson built the engine for the fastest Daytona 500 winner. In 1980, Buddy Baker topped the prestigious event at an average speed of 177.602 mph.

Six drivers have won four NASCAR Cup Series races in a row – Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, Harry Gant, Bill Elliott, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon.

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PHOTOGRAPHY: NASCAR ARCHIVES & RESEARCH CENTER

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