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Toon of the Week

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Quote's of the Week


“One man’s trash is another man’s gold.”
- Robbie Loomis, Jeff Gordon’s crew chief, noting that teammate Johnson won.

"I told the guys, 'Let me know if I've got this thing.' Shortly thereafter, I heard screaming and yelling, so I figured that was good enough."
- Jimmie Johnson after winning the pole at Lowes Motor Speedway

“They keep making the cars more alike, the tracks more alike, and they’re doing their best to make the drivers more alike and then they wonder why nobody can pass anybody.”
-Bobby Allison

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from Carol
Hi, Momma,  just read your report for today and had to laugh at the quote from Mr. Smith on the Kurt Busch vs. Greg Biffle issue.  He said that Kurt had "misjudged" the distance between the nose of his car and the tail-end of Biffle's car.  Is that anything like the "wardrobe malfunction" we saw at the Super Bowl this year?  Aren't people getting overly creative in dreaming up excuses and other ways to say "I screwed up?"  Thanks for letting me vent and for your newsletters.  They're great!
 
Carol
Rusty Wallace's #1 fan! (other than his momma and his wife and kids)

from Bob
My Two Cents Worth
Todd Berger -- TR Staff

I cannot for the life of me stop saying “The Winston.”  If they just called it “The Nextel,” I’d probably be fine.  But if the powers that be insist on a 27-word title for the event, then I am just going to have to call it The Winston for a while longer.

"So many overpaid PR guys, so many poor ideas! Why not something like 'NASCAR Winner's Challenge' or something. Tying into sponsors is fraught with issues, like keeping under drinking age drivers out of the Busch thing no matter how many poles they win! The height of stupidity is the 'Bridgestone Open Wheel Racing Series Champ Car Powered by Ford and Using JC Whitney Parts and Leftover Lola and Reynard Cars' racing series!"

I was watching that new reality show NASCAR-360 after the race, and I had a thought.  “Who on earth farts on their wife’s head in a limo on what is to be a national television show?”  It’s disrespectful and it’s gross.

"Who was Harvick's manager who put him up to that! It's like having Jimmy Spencer as a diversity group keynote speaker. I get pretty tired of his self important on track antics, and his aggressive attitude off track puts him high on the 'love to hate' list. Just because he's in Dale's car, doesn't mean he deserves or ever will get the respect and status Earnhardt earned.  EVERYTHING on this show seems to put both of them forward as spoiled brats that have no skills, values, respect or sense of propriety. They deserve each other, but I gotta prediction . . . when his career starts down, so will the marriage . . . if not before. I give it/them five years!"

Truex Jr. stalked the 25 team Marines car until on the last lap, Hamilton Jr. washed up the track into a lapped car, and Truex Jr. drove to victory lane. After the race, all Bobby had to do was be humble and congratulate Truex Jr. Instead, Hamilton made a snotty remark about Jeff Purvis. And to top it off, we got to see his wife have a hissy fit on the pit box, swearing so clearly that Ray Charles could have seen it.

"Yeah, I agree these whining tantrums are not Semper Fi material, and he seems to be taking charm lessons from Harvick, Johnny Sauter and Spencer. I admire his skill and passion, but if he expects to go up to Cup, he'll (actually both of them!) will need to improve. side thought - How does Roush get all the gentlemen while Childers gets the brats?"

Edwards and his spotter had miscommunications resulting in Carl being passed for the lead and ultimately losing the race.  Afterwards, with anger only towards himself, Edwards would say that this was his single most embarrassing moment in a racecar.  He seems like a classy kid. (He’s a cousin of Ken Schrader’s, which may explain some things).

"And a Roush driver! That's to say nothing of being robbed by NASCAR which refused to live up to their 'field is frozen' albeit OOPS yellow light! But then again, why should he be surprised? As said, he's a Roush driver! NASCAR seems to delight in punishing Jack's boys. Their arbitrary rulings cost Martin and Kenseth championships, and even after leaving the stable, Musgrave still seems to have been victimized, losing a race (and the truck championship as a result!) last year. They are so free with fines and points docking when you're wrong, but why not give a few bonus points back when they make errors?"

Sorry for the rants, but you hit some good chords.
Cheers, Bob

from Tom
Wow!!  the 43 is starting in front of Jr...guess the only thing more embarrassing would be if the 45 passes all the Earnhardt cars too! But it is time for Petty Enterprises to make a come back...but very doubtful. There are a million to one odds that neither of the Petty cars will be running on the lead lap at the end of the race..  Well we do need to congratulate Jeff Green on a top ten starting position..even if he doesn't make it all way around the track before the engine blows!  And look at Tony Stewart..hell he only has 4 cars he can hit this week...and the announcers booth, he has hit about everything else, well, except for the flagman !
Pops

from Larry
(sorry momma, but Dale E was one of the worst whiners!)
 
The true definition of a "whine cellar":  The Bodines, Rusty Wallace, and Jeff Gordon dinkin' Miller Lite in the basement together!  Dale Earnhardt wasn't a whiner.......he just said things "the way they were"!
 
Larry Lange
Bits and Pieces

Bag of ice thrown from car caused yellow officials confirm at 5:46PM/05/31/04

A driver in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 was apparently attempting to cause an intentional caution when the a bag of ice hit several cars on Lap 349 of 400, Nextel Cup Series director John Darby said.

Darby said the bag of ice came from a car in the field, but that the car could not be identified with certainty from video replay of the incident. The ploy worked, as NASCAR threw the caution.

Causing an intentional caution is prohibited by NASCAR rules.
BAM Racing owner says NC test track "horrible idea"

There has been debate on whether it is a good or bad idea for the sate of North Carolina to lay out $15 million to construct a test track near the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

BAM Racing owner Beth Ann Morgenthau says it's a bad idea.

"It's a horrible idea from a number of standpoints," she said. "The main thing is many race teams are lobbying NASCAR to cut back on testing. Right now, a team can test at any non-Cup facility and it doesn't count against them. That would be a reason for the state to build the facility but, in my opinion, there is going to be less and less of that kind of testing. There needs to be less and less of that kind of testing. The sport needs to be moving more toward getting rid of testing altogether."
NASCAR looking to buy Canadian Series

Rumours are rampant that the CASCAR Super Series -- Canada's top stock car racing sanctioning body -- is in negotiations with NASCAR to sell its events, including races at the Toronto and Vancouver Molson Indys.

Reports of the sale were being spread this past weekend at Lowes Motor Speedway.

If the sale were to be completed, it is expected that NASCAR would rename the series NASCAR North and lump it in with its two other regional racing series -- Busch North and Grand National West.

CASCAR spokesman Richard Coughlin said there have been talks, but denied that a sale is imminent.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Junior's lead shrinks

Dale Earnhardt Jr. saw his lead over Jimmie Johnson in the Nextel Cup standings trimmed to five points after Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Johnson won the race for the second consecutive year. Junior finished sixth, but that really wasn't bad because it was on a 1 ½-mile track.

Mile-and-a- half tracks are troublesome for Earnhardt.

"It's obvious to me we are struggling at the 1.5-mile tracks," he said. "We did get a win at Atlanta. I don't know what the difference is between Atlanta and Kansas and Homestead and tracks like that.

"We can run good at Atlanta and go to Texas and we're just off a little bit there and we seem to be able to get a top five even though we're struggling a little bit. But we'll go to Kansas or Homestead or

Vegas or California and we're just not hooked up. The car is just not competitive at all. We're trying our hardest to remedy that."

Earnhardt admits he was fortunate to finish sixth and maintain his points lead.

"It wasn't a good day for us," Earnhardt said.

"We struggled with the handling all day. We were really a 10th-place car. We were lucky to get a couple spot there at the end. We didn't lose a whole lot (35 points) to (Johnson) and we leave with the points lead. That is important. (Lowe's) is his racetrack. He does good here."
Stewart And Wallace May Be In Trouble?: Tony Stewart may be in trouble with NASCAR for an incident in Saturday's Busch race: Stewart's car was sponsored by rocker Kid Rock, who bills himself as "American Bad Ass," from the title of his first hit single. Stewart's car had Kid Rock painted on the quarterpanel and "American Bad Ass" on the hood, but NASCAR officials made Stewart tape over the offending song title. However during the first pit stop Stewart ordered his crew to pull off the tape, which the crew did. Rusty Wallace may also be in trouble with NASCAR for running an extra lap Saturday after NASCAR ended practice.
Michael Waltrip to expand ownership role: Michael Waltrip will expand his ownership role with five Nextel Cup races later this year. Waltrip will run Kenny Wallace in the No. 00, with Aaron's as the sponsor, starting with the Pepsi 400 on July 3. Joe Garone will be the crew chief for the team, which has acquired cars and engines from Dale Earnhardt Inc. Waltrip finished a season-best second Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600. . . Goodyear Going Soft With Daytona?: Goodyear conducted a tire test last week at Daytona to determine what tire compound NASCAR will use for next year's Daytona 500. "We wanted to improve the wear of the tire for Daytona," says Stu Grant, Goodyear's general manager of worldwide racing. "It may be a little softer than what we're using now, but we're going to wait and see what the rules are for 2005, and we'll react after discussing it with NASCAR. A new tire also could be introduced for Darlington and Bristol next year. . . .
Richard Childress Racing is growing again: The latest plans include a 40,000-square foot engine shop that is expected to be completed by November. - FOXSports Tony Stewart, NASCAR's "American Bad Ass:?" Stewart apparently won again. The temperamental former driver champion has gotten away with some normally penalized language, made lewd gestures at Rusty Wallace and had several on-track bumping incidents without NASCAR sanction. Saturday he ran in the Busch race in a car owned by Cup driver Kevin Harvick and sponsored by recording artist Kid Rock. The car hood bore an image of Kid Rock's bare back with a tattoo containing the words "American Bad A--." NASCAR officials taped over the logo on the rear deck lid on Friday (Stewart pulled it off) but allowed the hood logo to go uncensored. - The St. Petersburg Times Waltrip looking to move on? Another driver whose name is suddenly being mentioned by rival car owners is Michael Waltrip, who has been having a tough season but is a two-time Daytona 500 winner. The DEI sponsorship situation is up in the air, with Waltrip's NAPA sponsorship up for renewal. Waltrip is apparently on the wanted list by some rival car owners for his marketability. Elsewhere at DEI, Martin Truex Jr., who has been remarkably successful in DEI's Busch car and who has developed a tight relationship with Dale Earnhardt Jr., is being pushed to step up to a full Cup ride next season. Crew Chief Slugger Labbe admitted - "The rumor mill is kicking up. But NAPA is behind us 100 percent, and Michael is our driver. We're focused on winning races, and I want to give Michael his first downforce win, and we're cutting bodies off each week. We're not going to bring inferior stuff to the track. Whatever happens happens, but we're going to do the best we can to win races and make sure Michael and NAPA are happy."(Winston Salem Journal) Robbie's Mom doing better: Robbie Loomis, crew chief for the #24 DuPont Chevy driven by Jeff Gordon: "My mom just called, and she's had a real good day. She actually told my sister to leave the hospital, so I like the sound of that." Loomis missed Nextel Cup practice and qualifying Thursday to comfort his ailing mother in Daytona Beach, Fla., where she has been hospitalized for several weeks while being treated for several blood clots and complications with the pancreas. He returned for practice Saturday but blamed himself for Gordon's surprising struggles Sunday. "It was a horrible night," Loomis said. "I take full responsibility because I haven't had my head in the game here lately."(Richmond Times Dispatch) ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ The Biffle Rumor Expands: The hottest property is Greg Biffle, whose all-star run-in with Roush Racing teammate Kurt Busch triggered a him-or-me outburst; he appears ready to leave Roush at the end of the season. Biffle is under consideration for rides with Richard Childress, DEI, Chip Ganassi and Ray Evernham, according to sources.(Winston Salem Journal)
Inspections Not Fair? One Cup car owner, who preferred not to be named, says it would be interesting for TV to set up cameras in the NASCAR inspection bay, because he says he's skeptical that every car gets a fair shake: "Some cars they don't even put half the body templates on."(Winston Salem Journal) ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ More Races for Kenny in the #00: Michael Waltrip will expand his ownership role with five Nextel Cup races later this year. Waltrip will run Kenny Wallace in the No. 00, with Aaron's as the sponsor, starting with the Pepsi 400 on July 3. Joe Garone will be the crew chief for the team, which has acquired cars and engines from Dale Earnhardt Inc. Waltrip finished a season-best second Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600.(FoxSports/Sporting News) Hold your head up high

It's been an awful season for Michael Waltrip, but he was second Sunday. 

So maybe he'll be a little more visible this week after climbing six spots in the standings to 24th.

"I just don't think there are a lot of people in this world who can run second in a NASCAR Nextel Cup race," Waltrip said. "I know I have the talent and ability to do the job.

"It's so easy for me to get down on myself. It's just my personality. But it's nice to be reaffirmed. Jamie (McMurray) and I were talking before the race and he said, 'Dude, I never see you anymore.' And I said, "Well, when I'm 30th in the points, I try to hide from everybody.' And so maybe I can raise my head up and look around some this week."
Drivers complain about scoring

Drivers are starting to complain about NASCAR spending too many laps under caution sorting out scoring. Each time the caution flag comes out, it takes on average at least five laps to sort out the scoring. Many teams continue pushing for NASCAR to drop the lucky dog rule, which allows a lap-down car to make up a lap. Some drivers are suggesting NASCAR, when a yellow flag comes out, to revert scoring back to the previous green flag lap, in order to cut down on all the extra caution flag laps needed for scoring.

At Sears Point and Watkins Glen road courses, some crews worry, the extra caution laps could be interminable.
All-Star race ratings fall

FX's airing of last Saturday night's Nextel Cup All-Star Challenge earned a 3.6 Nielsen cable rating, a 3 percent decrease from last year's 3.7. The telecast averaged 4.8 million viewers, down 2 percent from 4.9 million in '03.
HIGHS AND LOWES
Johnson revels in dominant win: Gordon seeks answers in dismal outing

Lowe's won Thursday. Lowe's won Saturday, Lowe's won Sunday.

The Memorial Day weekend at the speedway once known as Charlotte, now known as, what else, Lowe's Motor Speedway, was an advertising festival for the home improvement chain.

The races were about the only thing not actually named for Lowe’s.

Jimmie Johnson won the 600 mile commercial Sunday in dominating fashion.

As Johnson said after the race, “The employees (and) owners at Lowe’s have got to be freaking out right about now.”

Coincidence? Of course.

It would take a pretty big stretch to believe that somehow NASCAR’s officials are in collusion with the home-improvement warehouse.

In fact, with the exception of recent lawsuit settlement, it would be hard to believe that NASCAR’s officials would be in collusion with Speedway Motorsports Inc., the owner of the speedway — that seemingly enjoys pitting itself against the France family’s favorite publicly traded son, International Speedway Corporation

Besides, how would the Home Depot feel if word got out. Home Depot is after all, officially, “NASCAR’s Home Improvement Warehouse.” Home Depot, with Tony Stewart driving its billboard, won the previous Cup points race at Lowes.

Yeah, that'd probably go over well.

The biggest reason Kyle Busch, winner of Saturday's Busch race and Johnson won was the fact that their respective teams aim for the weekend. They devote special attention to the races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and part of the reason is the name in the track’s title.

They wanted to look good in front of corporate types. And in that they can say "mission accomplished".
 
Johnson joins Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Neil Bonnett and Buddy Baker as the only back-to-back winners of the Nextel Cup Series' longest race, Johnson led 334 of 400 laps. His first-place occupation ranked one lap behind Jim Paschal's 1967 record for the 600-mile marathon and 1 mile ahead of the longest listed distance in any of the other 35 races on the 2004 schedule.

Yet Johnson's crew chief felt one element still was lacking.

Practice.

"He wants to come back and test for the fall race!" Johnson said, smiling in disbelief at crew chief Chad Knaus following the supreme skunking. "I told him you're crazy!"

Nope, Knaus playfully retorted, just typically seeking perfection.

"I want to make sure when we get back in the final 10 races that we're prepared," he said.

The week didn't start off well for the Hendrick Motorsports team as Johnson got caught up in that early crash in the all-star race and had to pack it in, before his rivals got a chance to see what he really had for them.

"The thing that hurt me in the all-star race was that car was just as competitive as this one," Knaus said. "It would have been cool to win that race."

On the other end of the scale is fellow teammate Jeff Gordon, the man who hand-picked Johnson. Gordon had a dismal showing and probably spent monday morning trying to figure out why.

"Typically that doesn't happen," said Knaus, who talks frequently with team crew chief Robbie Loomis. "The guys do a great job of preparing both cars equally.

"But there has been a lot of stuff going on over there. Robbie has been going through a trying time with his mother (who is seriously ill), and Jeff mentoring one of the key crew-members on that team who lost his father this week. They've gone through a lot of drama, and they might have just gotten a little off kilter.

"But I can promise you one thing, it won't last. Jeff Gordon can drive a race car, and Robbie Loomis can set it up."

Compounding the mystery is that the cars Gordon and Johnson drive each week are prepared in the same shop at Hendrick Motorsports.

Gordon's car never got hooked up to the 1.5-mile track and was seven laps off the pace.

Gordon was not in a wreck. There was no severe mechanical problem. The car just would not run.

"It was really frustrating, but more than that, it was just a handful," Gordon said after finishing 30th. "I was just holding on trying to keep control of it."

One of Gordon's biggest problems was the lack of caution periods during the daylight segment of the race. The first 160 (of 400) laps were all green-flag racing.

"We needed a caution really bad and we didn't get it," he said. "We needed big, big adjustments and we just didn't get a chance to do that that. Once the track cooled down, we were better."

It was 10 years ago this year that Gordon scored his first career victory in this prestigious NASCAR race that ignited his superstar stock car career. On Sunday night, he looked more like a rookie than a four-time NASCAR Cup champion.

Loomis missed Nextel Cup practice and qualifying Thursday to comfort his ailing mother in Daytona Beach, Fla., where she has been hospitalized for several weeks while being treated for several blood clots and complications with the pancreas. He returned for practice Saturday but blamed himself for Gordon's surprising struggles Sunday.

"It was a horrible night," Loomis said. "I take full responsibility because I haven't had my head in the game here lately."

Gordon said that Loomis' absence wasn't a factor because he was on hand for Saturday's final rounds of practice.

"But I can tell you I'm not a fan of day practice for a night race," Gordon said.

"However, we win together and, we lose together."

It was such a frustrating night that Gordon even missed pit road one time. "One car didn't see me and it looked like he was going to run into the back of me," he said. "That just made our night that much more enjoyable."

Loomis did finally receive some good news after the 600 miles of misery.

His mother, Sallie, called from Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach to say she was feeling better. She has been fighting a range of illnesses for several weeks.

"She actually told my sister to leave the hospital," he said. "I like the sound of that."

"This is easy to [put] behind," Robbie Loomis said after Gordon finished 30th in the Coca-Cola 600. "My mom just called, and she's had a real good day. She actually told my sister to leave the hospital, so I like the sound of that.

Loomis vowed to return for the Oct.16 race at the Concord, N.C., track with the same setup as Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, who has two victories and five consecutive top-10s at the 1.5-mile oval.

It's obvious Sunday that Gordon and Johnson had different setups -- very different.

"If he (Johnson) won with my setup, he needs to get a gold star," Gordon said with a laugh. "We don't normally have the same setups, but I want to go back and compare to see if we can figure out where we were off and where they were at."

Loomis took it one step further.

"I can tell you when we come back here in October, we're going to have the No. 48 car's setup on the car," he said.

Said Gordon: "That looks like it makes good sense."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

On Track: Knaus, Johnson see their plan playing out for '04 Cup
By Mike Mulhern
JOURNAL REPORTER
CONCORD

Each season there are usually one or maybe two crew chiefs who rise to the top of the heap.

Last year, Robbie Reiser took Matt Kenseth to the championship, and Matt Borland helped Ryan Newman to eight victories.

But when it comes to a purely cerebral crew chief, there may be no better than Chad Knaus. His pairing with fellow crew chief Robby Loomis is excellent. And the two follow perfectly in the footsteps of the great Ray Evernham.

Knaus' work with driver Jimmie Johnson has been brilliant since their first season, 2002, when they almost won the NASCAR championship.

Last season, Johnson and Knaus came up 90 points short in their second championship hunt.

And as June opens this season, they're only five points behind leader Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Johnson has been remarkably cool and loose throughout; seemingly unaware of just how big a star he's become. Yes, he's got that New York City apartment with buddy Jeff Gordon. Yes, he learning how to play host for Regis and Kelly. Yes, he now knows his way around Barcelona, and, yes, he's got a fistful of business cards from curious (and hungry) Formula One executives. And, yes, if he can crank that hip personality up about 1,000 volts, maybe there's more Hollywood in his future.

And Johnson is doing a pretty good at his night job too.

"It really was a lot of fun," Johnson said after Sunday night's dominating Coca-Cola 600 victory. "But in some cases, it's almost better to be second or third trying to move forward. When you're up front you have the bulls-eye. There's a lot more pressure leading the race, and leading that much of it.

"Luckily, we didn't make any mistakes in the pits or on the car. In my first 600, we led a lot of the race, but I slid through my pit stall."

With Sunday's victory following second-place finishes at Richmond and California, Johnson and Knaus are on a roll heading to Dover, this week's tour stop, where they swept both races in 2002.

"Racing right now is so circumstantial - you have to be in the right place at the right time, and have the right car, have the right pit call," Knaus said. "Everything has to go your way to win a race in Cup competition. It's so, so difficult out there these days, because there are 10 or 15 cars every week that can win. And if you try to go out there and win every week and battle these guys tooth and nail every single week, you're going to burn yourself out.

"So we don't try to win every week. We try to finish in the top 10, and then when the situation arises where we can try to take the victory, that's what we try to do.

"Before we started 2003, we decided to pace ourselves throughout the whole season and make sure at the end of the season we'd have enough strength in the team and everyone rested enough and enough cars available that we could make a really strong, hard charge for the championship.

"So the new (26-10) points system is actually playing into our system we put in place last year.

"We weren't able to accomplish it last year. Hopefully, this year, it will work out for us.

"The key now is that we don't feel a whole lot of pressure. We don't have to be leading the points right now, all we have to do is be in the top 10 after the first 26 races. That takes a lot of pressure off us. It allows us to get aggressive when we want to get aggressive.

"It allows us to make calls we might normally make, and then it also brings the reality that we don't need to do some things that we might do otherwise that will put us in a position to lose a lot of points. So it is really playing out pretty well for us.

"I am really, really intense about everything. The perfect weekend is still something I want to achieve, but we haven't been able to do yet. I want to qualify on the pole, win each practice, and win the race. That's a goal in my career, something I got from Ray Evernham.

"But the balance Jimmie brings to me is that he does a good job, saying, 'Look, right now we don't have what we need, but we will keep working on it and get what we need and be there at the end.'

"That is one thing we have worked on together, and I think that is something other drivers and crew chiefs don't have. Maybe they are both aggressive, both of them are too easy going. The pairing Rick Hendrick did with us is pretty amazing. I think it is a good fit and that has got a lot to do with it.

"I'll be honest with you - I am the most fortunate person in the world. I work for the best race team in Cup competition. I have the best driver in Cup competition. I've got the best team. I've got the best sponsor."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Remembering Racing's Most Tragic Irony
TONY FABRIZIO
Published: May 29, 2004
 
CONCORD, N.C. - Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 marks several anniversaries. It's the 35th anniversary of Richard Childress Racing, the 20th anniversary of Hendrick Motorsports and the 10th anniversary of Jeff Gordon's first victory.
There's another that bears remembering: It's the 40th anniversary of NASCAR's most tragic irony.

It happened on Lap 7 of the 1964 World 600. Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson tangled coming out of the second turn. Jarrett's car hit the inside wall, breaking the gas tank open and bursting into flames. Edward Glenn ``Fireball'' Roberts couldn't avoid the wreck in his lavender Holmon and Moody Ford. He, too, hit the inside wall, and then he hit Jarrett.

The purple Ford flipped and erupted into flames, trapping the driver inside. Jarrett rushed to the scene, but by the time he pulled Roberts from the car and helped him remove his uniform, Roberts had suffered burns over 75 percent of his body.

The most popular stock car driver of the era - and still the greatest race driver ever to come out of Florida - Roberts died five weeks later of complications. He is buried a mile from Daytona International Speedway, site of his greatest successes.

``For all practical purposes, he was our first superstar,'' Richard Petty recalled this week. ``He even went to Le Mans. The worst thing is, he was getting ready to quit. He had a job as a spokesman for a beer company. He was going to start using his [public relations] talents more than his driving talents.''

Roberts was born in Tavares and did most of his growing up in Apopka before his family moved to Daytona. He got his nickname not from his exploits behind the wheel, but as a hard-throwing sandlot pitcher.

He wanted to play football, and at 6-foot-2, 195 pounds, he had the size. But asthma pushed him in another direction, and fast cars were his second love.

Roberts wasn't anything special on the dirt tracks that dominated the circuit in the 1950s, but as more speedways were built in the late '50s and early '60s, he came into his own.

``He was just really good on asphalt - there was something that clicked there,'' remembered Humpy Wheeler, the longtime Lowe's Motor Speedway president who worked for Firestone in the 1960s. ``He was probably the best asphalt driver that we had at the time.''

Daytona's First King

Roberts finished second in NASCAR's first superspeedway race, the Southern 500 at Darlington in 1950. He went on to win 33 races, including three of the first five Firecracker 250/400s at Daytona and the 1962 Daytona 500.

He never won a championship, but the championship didn't mean much in that era, and Fireball avoided the short- track races that only paid $700 or $800 to win. He raced for money, and he raced to win.

Petty remembers.

``Basically, I was just getting started, so I didn't get to race with him all that much,'' he said. ``He mostly ran the big speedways, which was where the money was. On the short tracks, he wasn't there, and on the big tracks, he was gone.''

Roberts' best years were with Henry ``Smokey'' Yunick, the legendary Daytona mechanic whose ``Best Damn Garage In Town'' produced some of the most innovative race cars of the time. It was in Yunick's black and gold Pontiac that Roberts swept the 1962 Speed Weeks at Daytona, winning the 500 pole, a qualifying race, an all-star race and the main event.

Yunick, who died a few years ago, always regarded Roberts as his greatest driver, and he had several good ones.

``He was a private person,'' Yunick once told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. ``Not many people ever really knew him. He was lighthearted on the outside, serious inside. He planned each race carefully. He went over each race lap by lap. Y'know, he studied each driver carefully. He knew more about them than they knew about themselves.''

Racing's Dark Time

Roberts' fatal crash came a few months after two-time defending NASCAR Grand National champion Joe Weatherly was killed at Riverside, Calif. The two fatalities were part of the bloodiest period in racing history.

Only a week after the 600, Dave McDonald and popular Indy and Formula One driver Eddie Sachs were killed in the Indianapolis 500. Jimmy Pardue died later that year at Charlotte during a tire test. Billy Wade, who helped pull Pardue's body from the wreckage, died a few months later testing tires at Daytona.

The problem was that speeds had moved far beyond the capabilities of the tires and other safety mechanisms.

``No. 1, the rear-engine car came in at Indianapolis, and they had the poor driver sitting there in a gasoline or methanol bathtub,'' Wheeler said. ``And stock cars were using paper- thin bodies and running so much faster. Gosh, that period from 1964-67, you go back and look at some of the pole speeds. They were running as fast some places as they are now.''

At the time of Roberts' death, drivers didn't wear flameproof driving suits. NASCAR had just started requiring them to dip whatever they wore - a uniform or jeans and a T-shirt - in a solution of boric acid and other ingredients to make them fire retardant.

But Roberts didn't dip his clothing because the chemicals caused his asthma to flare up. Making it worse, he wore a tailored uniform with zippers that was hard to get off. Much of the burning he suffered was around his arms and legs.

The spate of racing tragedies in the mid '60s did spark a flurry of safety improvements. Gas tanks were lined with rubber fuel cells to prevent ruptures. Tires were improved and equipped with safety liners. Flame-retardant suits were made mandatory. There was even talk about ``soft walls,'' although that didn't come in for another 30 years.

Sadly, the improvements were too late for Fireball Roberts.

``That name drew a lot of fans that weren't race fans,'' Petty said, breaking into a smile. ``They said, `OK, he must be a hotshot driver.' But the deal was, he went out and did it.''

Well, that's all for today.  Until the next time, I remain,
YourMomma
"Don't come here and grumble about going too fast.  Get the hell out of the race car if you've got feathers on your legs or butt.  Put a kerosene rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up there and eat that candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt – 1998

"It's nothin' personal, it's just racin'
-Dale Earnhardt Sr.
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