Editor’s Note: In a nod to our 91 years of history, each week SPEED SPORT will look back at the top stories from 15, 30 and 60 years ago as told in the pages of National Speed Sport News.
15 Years Ago — 2010
News: There are few men who played as integral a role in NASCAR’s growth as Jim Hunter.
He began his career as a newspaper reporter in the 1960s and worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution before joining NASCAR in the late 1970s to help give the sport some much-needed publicity.
At that time, NASCAR was little more than a regional sport with most of its races in the Carolinas. Hunter believed it could be a big-time sport at a national and international level and his vision ultimately proved correct.
So the news that Hunter had lost his 12-month battle with cancer was akin to the loss of a giant of the sport someone who bridged the gap from Lee Petty, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly and David Pearson to today’s stars — Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch to the stars of the future such as Joey Logano.
It was one year ago that Hunter arrived at Talladega Superspeedway complaining he wasn’t feeling well. Tests determined that he had cancer and despite a valiant effort at recovery; he lost that battle Friday as the sport bad gathered once more at Talladega.
“We are incredibly saddened by the loss of our very dear friend and legendary NASCAR executive Jim Hunter.” said Lesa France Kennedy; the CEO of the International Speedway Corp.
“Throughout his storied career, he not only helped bring the sport of NASCAR to a national level, he also bad a profound influence on the lives of everyone he met. From his days as a PR Director at Talladega Superspeedway to his tenure as president of Darlington Raceway; Hunter was a driving force behind the sport’s growth in popularity. His charm, sharp wit and incredible sense of humor will be remembered by everyone who had the pleasure of meeting him. We’ll also greatly miss his warm smile and sage advice. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Hunter family and his extended NASCAR family.”
Winners: 1·30 Speedway’s Short Track Nationals is never short on drama.
Saturday night’s 23rd annual COMP Cams Short Track Nationals presented by Hoosier Tires championship was no exception, as Brad Sweet added yet another prestigious feather to his cap by taking the $15,000 winner’s share in the 30-lap finale at I-30 Speedway.
Sweet led little more than the final lap for his second Lucas Oil ASCS presented by K&N Filters National victory in as many nights after race-long leader Greg Wilson and Sam Hafertepe, Jr. ran afoul of each other on the white-flag lap to open the door for an opportunistic Sweet.
“They were battling hard for a $15,000 win and got together just enough. I was just barely able to shoot through the gap.” Sweet explained after becoming the 16th different winner in the history of the event.
While Sweet and the Kasey Kahne Racing Ollie’s Bargain Outlets/ Auto Value No. 49 team enjoyed the thrill of what seemed much of the way like an unlikely victory, Ohio’s Wilson endured the pure agony of defeat after pacing the initial 28 circuits around the quarter-mile clay oval.
After winning the pole dash, Wilson led until the 29th circuit when Hafertepe tried to squeeze underneath entering turn three. The pair made contact, both slid up the track and Sweet shot by on the bottom to steal the victory in front of Hafertepe and Wilson, who recovered to salvage podium finishes that neither found easy to stomach.
30 Years Ago — 1995
News: Rudd Performance Motorsports has filed suit against Felix Sabates, SABCO and David Charpentier, one of RPM’s employees. The suits were filed in Iredell County.
Ricky Rudd owns RPM. He is 10th in the Winston Cup standings and a winner of at least one race in each of the last 13 seasons.
Rudd is losing three, maybe four employees at the end of the season. To keep the fourth, Rudd has filed suits against Sabates, labeled a raider by Rudd after he won in Phoenix just 2 weeks ago, and Charpentier, a contract employee Rudd claims is anxious to trade the trust of his word and signature for a few more dollars.
In the suits, Rudd claims that despite knowing contracts existed between RPM and Charpentier, Sabates “solicited and enticed Charpentier to break his contracts through a variety of means, including offers to pay off debts and guarantee loans.”
Rudd’s suit against Charpentier claims breach of contract.
Rudd claims Charpentier, operating as V-Notch Services, had signed successive contracts with RPM to provide engineering and data acquisition services during the 1995 and 1996 seasons.
Rudd’s suits ask for monetary damages and an injunction to prevent Charpentier from working with Sabco and any Sabates-owned operation, or any other race team under the North Carolina Unfair Competition Statutes.
“We don’t want to lose this guy,” said Rudd. “He has been very instrumental in the fact that this team has run up front during its first 2 years of operation.”
Winners: You just knew it had to happen, and it did. Last lap Busch Grand National accidents may not be the norm, but when they happen, they make for memorable finishes.
On Sunday, Dale Jarrett and his new Hudson Technologies Ford Thunderbird were the beneficiaries of just such an incident as they moved from fourth with two laps remaining to the winner’s circle in the inaugural Jiffy Lube Miani 300 here at the new Homestead Motorsport Complex.
As the 200-lap affair headed toward the final green on the 197th tour following its 12th caution period, there was little to choose between Kenny Wallace’s leading Red Dog Thunderbird and the tightly-packed Chevrolet Monte Carlos of Hermie Sadler and Larry Pearson.
For 1.5 miles the trio stayed close with Jarrett just a bit farther back. Then, heading into turn three on lap 198, Sadler went underneath Wallace as Pearson aimed for that same piece of South Florida real estate. Three cars in an area meant for one is an equation that will always result in bad things happening to the participants.
This Sunday was no exception, as Pearson tapped Sadler’s rear bumper, sending him sideways into Wallace as all three slammed together into the wall. That left Jarrett to race back to the flag and the pace car, claiming his third Busch victory of the season, under the yellow flag, in a fitting conclusion to a crash test lasting from the opening green to the final checker.
Likewise benefitting from the action was Tim Fedewa, whose Florida State Seminoles Thunderbird was second and Jason Keller whose was third. Rounding out the top five were Michael Waltrip’s Pennzoil Pontiac and Mark Martin’s Winn-Dixie Ford.
60 Years Ago— 1965
News: Junior Johnson, portly soft-spoken chicken farmer who is almost a legend in NASCAR Grand National racing, has quit active competition.
And there’s no backing off his decision, as Johnson proved when he passed up the Tidewater 300 at Moyock Speedway, the final Grand National event of 1965.
Johnson, who picked up many of his stock car driving techniques outrunning revenooers in the North Carolina hills in the late 1940s, said the decision to quit was made “after the first race this year.”
The 34-year-old Johnson said he had “accomplished about everything I had hoped to as a driver. I’d won on every major speedway and could not have done much better financially.”
Speaking of the financial end of the sport, Johnson said he would continue as owner of a three-car stable with Bobby Isaac handling the driving.
At the same time Herb Nab will remain as Johnson’s chief mechanic.
Johnson said his age was no factor in the decision to retire, nor is he afraid of high-speed racing.
Winners: Narrowly missing a two-car pileup by mere inches, recently crowned United State Auto Club National Driving Champion Mario Andretti tromped on the throttle of his Chevrolet- powered sprint car to capture top honors in the 30-lap main event of the USAC sprint car program Saturday at Ascot Park.
Andretti showed his championship form as he dodged his way past A. J. Foyt and Bobby Unser who crashed in front of him on the seventh lap as the trio raced into the first tum. Foyt spun while leading the race and was hit broadside by Unser who then crashed wildly into the wall. Luckily, there were no injuries as the balance of the 14-car field wormed their way past the stalled racers.
Ned Spath finished second, holding off a determined Johnny Rutherford who finished third, a half a car length behind former California Racing Ass’n champion Bobby Hogle finished fourth and was chased across the finish line by 1963 USAC sprint titlist Roger McCluskey, Billy Wilkerson and Greg Weld. The time was 11:57.06.
By virtue of his third place finish, Rutherford now takes command of the point lead with 496 points to Weld’s 490.5. The national sprint title will be decided this Saturday night at Ascot as the sprints return for another 30-lap go.
