Editor’s Note: In a nod to our 90 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 — 2009
News: Move over Jeff Gordon. There is another four-time champion in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series as Jimmie Johnson made history by claiming his fourth-straight series championship with a fifth-place finish in Sunday’s Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“I’m excited to be a four-time champion and share that position with him,” Johnson said of Gordon. “The fact that we were able to do ours in consecutive years, which has never been done before, somehow links me in a way to the greats that l haven’t had a chance to race against. So on many. many levels this fourth is extremely special to me.
“I don’t think Jeff saw it, Rick (Hendrick) saw it, none of us really knew what would come from all of this. It’s been a wild ride. I saw Jeff tonight, and I’m like, ‘Could you ever have imagined we’d be here?’ and he was like, ‘Not a chance.’ So we’re both kind of taken aback by where things have turned out.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunities he’s given me, Rick has given me, and it’ll be fun trying to see who can get to the fifth championship first.”
While Johnson was able to celebrate the championship with his crew chief Chad Knaus, his crew and fellow teammates Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., one man missing from the championship celebration was team owner Rick Hendrick.
The team owner flew back to Charlotte over the weekend for a family emergency as his 29-year-old niece, Alesha Gainey, awaited a liver transplant.
Winners: Kyle Busch needed only to start Saturday’s Ford 300 to clinch the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver wanted to do it in style.
So he went out and blew away the field, leading seven times for 73 laps to earn two more significant NASCAR milestones. It was Busch’s 30th career Nationwide Series victory in 173 races and his ninth triumph this season. It’s his 20th NASCAR victory this season counting Camping World Truck Series, Nationwide and Sprint Cup. He also owns a NASCAR Camping World Series win and two CRA late-model triumphs.
“What an awesome race,” Busch said. “It was such a fun deal. I’m glad I was able to hold them off and win this thing.
“It’s big to win 20 races in a single season, but the big accomplishment someday is to win 200. To win 20 races in a season will get you there much sooner. I’ve won with four different crew chiefs this year. It’s not easy to win in any division in this sport when you are racing against the best in this sport, so this is a big deal. It’s a big deal to have 20 wins this year. It says a lot about the people who have surrounded themselves around me and have helped me this season.”
30 Years Ago — 1994
News: North Carolina· speedway owner Bruton Smith announced Monday plans to build a $75 million superspeedway capable of holding NASCAR races in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
Smith, the owner of Charlotte Motor Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway, had been considering both the North Texas area and the St. Louis region for his racing facilities. He said he was still considering four sites in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, but would not reveal specific locations.
Smith said he had received strong showings of support from both the Dallas-Ft. Worth and St. Louis areas. But he chose the North Texas region because the weather was better, several other track promoters had announced plans to build near St. Louis and that the top specific sites he had investigated were all in Texas.
“There are a number of great sites we have under consideration in the Dallas-Ft. Worth market and the response we have received from everyone here has been phenomenal,” said Smith. “We are looking for a minimum 1,500-acre tract of land on which to build the speedway and its related facilities and we have been amazed to find such large tracts of land available inside a metropolitan area. Typically, you have to look far outside a city to find such a site.”
Winners: Surprise. Shock. Upset. Those words summarize the 100-lap midget victory by “Flash” Jordan Hermansader in the 54th annual USAC Copenhagen-Skoal National and Western States Grand Prix Thanksgiving evening at the quarter-mile, clay Bakers- field Speedway. He became the 36th different winner of the prestigious midget racing event that began in 1934 at Gilmore Stadium in Hollywood.
Hermansader, a 5-year midget racing veteran, drove in only 12 races this season when he scored his greatest triumph convincingly by leading all 100 circuits. He celebrated his 22nd birthday 3 days earlier.
Hermansader collected $4,000 of the $19,265 purse posted by race organizers Cary Agajanian and Ben Foote.
Starting on the pole as fastest qualifier in the 24-car field, Hermansader stretched his lead to almost half a lap by lap 30. He drove a Beast/ Van Dyne owned by his parents, Brian and Penny Hermansader, and won by half a straightaway.
“Happy Thanksgiving everyone,” the elated winner yelled to the crowd of 5,753 upon climbing from his car. “If I only win one time a year and this is the race it’s great. I’ve made this race a couple of times (he finished eighth last year) and I know how prestigious it is. This means a lot to me. My Beast worked really good. (Builder) Bob East helped us with the chassis. It was fast and easy to drive.”
60 Years Ago— 1964
News: Despite pressure from the 3,500-member National Chrysler-Plymouth Dealer Council, Bill France, president of NASCAR, is standing pat on the controversial stock car racing rules for 1965.
The NASCAR rules, which have not been published in final form as yet, outlaw the Chrysler hemispherical combustion changer head engines and Ford’s Hi-Rise engines. Other rule changes established two wheelbases for racing on the big speedways and on the short tracks, and allow internal engine modifications providing dis-placement is kept to seven liters or 427 cubic inches.
The rule announcement, which put Chrysler in a position of complete unpreparedness for the new season, provoked a formal withdrawal from NASCAR races by Chrysler unless the rules were changed or suspended for a 12-month period.
On the other hand, Ford, which lost to Chrysler in many prestigious races, lauded the rules and even went so far as to indicate that the rival USAC circuit should follow suit. USAC has announced they would go with unchanged rules in 1965, which will permit the hemi and hi-rise engines to run.
Winners: A pleasant, early-graying 36-year-old Texan stole a page out of the auto racing history book being written by a fellow Lone Star gentleman who has clinched the National Championship, and drove his Bill Forbes rear engined Offy to victory in the 14th annual Bobby Ball 200-mile Memorial race at Phoenix Int’l Raceway.
Lloyd Ruby from Wichita Falls, steady campaigner on the USAC Championship trail for many years, but a winner in the big cars only once before — at Milwaukee in 1961, sped for 200 miles faster than any man has ever done it before on a mile track and pocketed $10,726 for his efforts.
Averaging 107.73 mph for the grind, Ruby let A.J. Foyt, leader for the first six laps, and Parnelli Jones, who led the next 132, wear themselves out in a sizzling duel, before taking over to lead the balance of the event.
Rodger Ward finished second and Don Branson was third.