CONCORD, N.C. — One of the most iconic crew chiefs in NASCAR history, the late Harry Hyde, was named the recipient of the esteemed Smokey Yunick Award prior to Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The Smokey Yunick Award, named after the legendary mechanic and innovator Henry “Smokey” Yunick, was instituted in 1997 to recognize an individual from humble beginnings who demonstrated exceptional innovation and made a major impact in the world of motorsports. Yunick passed away in 2001, and Charlotte Motor Speedway has continued the award in his memory.
Hyde joins a lengthy list of NASCAR greats who have received the honor, including Ralph Moody, Ray Evernham, Dale Inman, Richard Childress, Rick Hendrick, Waddell Wilson, Larry McReynolds and Ernie Elliott.
Hendrick Motorsports team owner Rick Hendrick was presented with the award on Hyde’s behalf by Speedway Motorsports President and CEO Marcus Smith before the seventh running of the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte.
Immortalized by Hollywood as the inspiration for the Harry Hogge character in the 1990 hit film “Days of Thunder,” Hyde developed a reputation for success in NASCAR’s ranks long before actor Robert Duvall portrayed Hyde’s old-school, no-nonsense mentality before a global audience.
The Brownsville, Kentucky, native honed his skills as a mechanic when, after he enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 16 in 1941, Hyde was injured while fighting in World War II. His injuries forced a shift in responsibility to repairing jeeps and trucks for the Army, which put Hyde’s remarkable level of mechanical aptitude on display.
Years of post-war success as a small-time midwest crew chief prompted NASCAR team owner Nord Krauskopf to offer Hyde a job with his race team in 1965. Five years later, Hyde and driver Bobby Isaac won 11 races and the 1970 NASCAR Cup Series championship – Hyde’s crowning achievement in a NASCAR career that spanned 27 seasons.
In addition to winning 36 races with Isaac, Hyde’s ingenuity guided legends including Buddy Baker, Neil Bonnett and Dave Marcis to the winner’s circle. Six years of winless results and part-time jobs came to an end in 1984, when Rick Hendrick created All-Star Racing – renamed Hendrick Motorsports a year later – and hired Hyde as the team’s first crew chief.
Operating out of a much smaller shop than the behemoth from which Hendrick now operates, Hyde and Geoff Bodine shocked the sport by winning three races in the team’s debut season.
“Harry was an innovator who’d work for nothing to get back in racing,” Hendrick recalled on Sunday. “When we started, we had five people, two were volunteers and one was Harry’s cousin. To see the things he did back then, the innovative ways to build a car, he did some things people would never try and he was a great coach.
“He was an unbelievable innovator, he was good with sponsors, he was funny, he was a comedian and he’d take a hammer to you if he didn’t like you. We wouldn’t be here today, seriously, without Harry. I’m honored to accept this for him.”
Hendrick made the seismic shift to a two-car team in 1986 – bucking the conventional trend of running one car – and paired young hotshot Tim Richmond with the grizzled Hyde. The pairing started slow before Richmond acquiesced to Hyde’s instructions on how to approach a race – managing the car instead of going full-bore from the start – and the two rattled off seven wins in the final 17 races of 1986.
“This award is so neat to me because it celebrates the trailblazers of racing, people who did things at a time when we didn’t have all this (technology),” Smith said. “It’s very important to remember and celebrate the heroes before us, like Harry, who helped (Hendrick) become who they are today.”
Never known as a man who kowtowed to anyone in his industry, Hyde’s genius as a strategist, manager and innovator cemented his place in NASCAR history and firmly established the legendary crew chief as a fitting recipient of an award named for one of his contemporaries.