HARRISBURG, N.C. — Stick around this sport long enough and you’ll see history repeated.
That was our first thought when we learned NASCAR will open its 2022 Cup Series season with a non-points, special event — The Clash at the Coliseum — on a quarter-mile oval inside the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Our mind then raced back to May 19, 1991, at Charlotte Motor Speedway when the Winston Legends race was run on a newly constructed quarter-mile oval with turns connecting the speedway’s frontstretch and pit road. The event featured 22 retired NASCAR drivers competing in former Cup Series race cars.
Here are a few excerpts from Benny Phillips’ race report that appeared in the May 22 issue of National Speed Sport News:
“Elmo Langley gave Cale Yarborough a ‘friendly’ bump on the last lap and won Sunday’s Winston Legends race.
“On a day when the weather was more suited for football than automobile racing, officials managed to squeeze in almost all the events planned. The mercury dropped from 95.5 degrees on Saturday to 52 on Sunday, and rain delayed the start of activities.
“The Legends race, R.J. Reynolds’ version of an old-timers event, was cut short by 10 laps in order to meet the television schedule for The Winston and Winston Open.
“The Legends schedule called for four 10-lap sprint races with a ‘rest period’ between each. They only ran 30. Yarborough was leading on the last lap, and Langley slipped under him going into tum three. He bumped Yarborough coming through turn four, turning him sideways. Langley went on to win.”
Phillips noted that with all of the crashing and banging, it took 25 minutes to complete the first 10 laps. “There wasn’t a car that wasn’t banged up when it was over,” he wrote.
“All they wanted me to do was bring back the steering wheel,” Junior Johnson said after the race. “It was a lot of fun, and I’d do it again.”
“I thought these guys would be a lot more professional than what they were,” Buck Baker said. “I don’t guess time changes anything, does it.”
In retrospect, the inaugural — and only — Winston Legends race was an interesting concept that drew a tremendous amount of attention and had a dramatic finish, but it was not a good race. Only 11 of the 22 starters were running at the checkered flag and seven cars were eliminated due to crash damage.
NASCAR is making a huge gamble by debuting its Next Gen race car on a quarter-mile oval inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The spotlight will be bright and those of us who remember the Winston Legends event can only hope that history doesn’t repeat itself.
• We always enjoy learning about the jobs drivers have had outside of the race car. Such was the case when we recently spoke with third-generation racer Sye Lynch for a feature story that appeared in the November issue of SPEED SPORT Magazine.
“I was a landscaper for a long time; snowplowing in the wintertime. I worked at UPS on the night shift for a while, then I worked at Ultra Lite Brakes for a while as well,” Lynch said. “That was my most recent job. I really enjoyed working with Ultra Lite Brakes because that being my first racing-related job, it gave me a different perspective.
“When you own and operate your own team, you never know, if you have a bad year, you’re not sure the following year can happen. There are so many uncertainties with racing. Having that job made me see there are other sides to racing and I really do appreciate the business end of racing. If I would have continued there, I was hoping to shift into an operational position. I just worked on the floor there, working with machines to actually build the brakes.”
This past season was Lynch’s first under the title of full-time racer as he serves as owner, driver and crew chief of his own sprint car team, Sye Lynch Racing.
• Hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving.