It got to the point that his owner wanted to push him harder. With winning now nearly a forgone conclusion, Conklin was up for a little fun. Looking back on this period, Taylor remembers the time his owner ambled and said he wanted him to lap the field. While Taylor protested that he doubted that was realistic, he remained amazed that his senior owner stayed up to date with the latest developments in the racing world. “Even though he was an older guy, he stayed current,” Gary says. “He would call Gary Stanton and find out what the latest stuff was. He was very current. He didn‘t go to the races all that much, but he liked getting that call on Sunday morning that he had won so he could still tell his buddies that he had the baddest stuff in Denver.”
It looked like Taylor had found his groove. He was winning races and titles, and he had truly found a second home in Denver. Then, once again things changed. Harry Conklin decided it was time to hang it up. The silver lining was that now Taylor had truly made a name for himself and was in a far better position to land on his feet. As much as he loved Denver, his racing career was first and foremost on his mind, and to keep his career moving forward he was southbound again.
Finding an open seat in a quality car can be a function of the good or bad fortune of one‘s peers. It turns out that a break for Oklahoma‘s Brady Bacon was beneficial to Taylor as well. Brady would venture from home when an opportunity to race for Kasey Kahne‘s short track team presented itself. For Bacon it led to steady work on the USAC trail and later a chance to sign on as a development driver with Chip Ganassi‘s NASCAR operation. In taking this step he would, by necessity, vacate his ride with long-time family friends Mike and Megan Eubanks.
For Taylor the next lifeline would be a connection with his friend Chris Giddings. Giddings, whose father T.J. had enjoyed a fine career behind the wheel of sprint cars, was involved with the Eubanks‘ Tel-Star racing team. Chris pointed out that the couple had multiple cars, and there might be a chance to find work and race. Little did Gary know that the couple had seen him perform in both a midget and a winged sprint car at Dodge City, Kansas and were impressed.
It still seemed like a longshot. He knew that Mike and Megan were committed to giving up-and-coming drivers from the Tulsa area a shot, and as they explored their options it was natural that they would look at third generation driver Donnie Ray Crawford and promising Matt Sherrell. Crawford had also caught the eye of owner Keith Kunz, who decided to take the young charger to race at the famed Manzanita Speedway, while Mike and Megan tried their luck with Sherrell. That left one car in the garage.
An impressive run on the Arizona oval got the attention of the couple, and they asked Taylor if he would be interested in relocating to Oklahoma and maintaining their race cars and have the chance to drive as well. It was too tempting an offer to turn down. His living arrangements were nearly perfect. “I stayed in their spare bedroom,” he says. “From there I stepped into the kitchen, started the coffee, and walked into the shop and worked on race cars. It was a good gig.
This presented a real chance to take charge of all phases of a racing operation and to learn skills that would serve him well in the future. The original plan was to field a three-car midget team. They would run with the Southern Midget Racing Series, and the team also ventured to Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and competed in Indiana Midget Week with USAC. Gary took the 2007 SMRS title, and at that point the team decided to also focus on winged and traditional 360 sprint car racing. A high-water mark came during the 2008 ASCS Speedweek when Taylor, Gary Wright, and Jason Johnson each won two events. What made it so special was the fact that he had built the cars, set them up, and even drove the rig to the race track.
Things were looking up. Taylor won the 2009 Class A winged division at the Tulsa Shootout and was really excited about racing the ASCS National Tour that year. Lucas Oil had signed on as a sponsor, and that had immediately bumped up the prize money. Then the bottom fell out. The economy tanked, the development deals all dried up, and Brady Bacon needed a place to land.
“Brady is almost a member of the Eubanks family,” Gary says. “And we always told him if he needed a ride we had one for him. That meant I was out, and he was in.” It was a tough deal. There was a bit of a sting there,” he says. “But when you look back you understand. In fact, when I go back and race the Chili Bowl, I stay with Mike and Megan in my old bedroom from the days I worked for them. We‘re all good. It was still a bummer because I felt I was getting my legs under me on the national level.”
While he may have felt his career had taken a blow, he had demonstrated his versatility and the ability to get results. With the ASCS National Tour really gathering steam, a driver of Taylor‘s caliber was in demand. The call came from Olive Branch, Mississippi owner Bobby Sparks. The duo clicked for some wins at West Memphis, Arkansas and Taylor came out front with a memorable win over Jeff Swindell at Magnolia, Mississippi.
It was a tough grind. “We ran ASCS and traveled around,” he recalls, “but it was a pretty brutal year. That was because that year they bumped up all the prize money, so they were averaging 57 cars a race or something like that, so it was really, really tough with their pill draw format. One night you run in the top five, the next night you are in the B-Main because of the way the heat race turned out.” The ultimate bottom line was that after 2009 Taylor and Sparks parted ways.
Reality can sometimes hit with a 10-pound hammer. Suddenly it was obvious that Taylor was going to have to draw upon his other skill set to survive. He found work at BT Machine in Oklahoma; a firm operated by the father of open-wheel driver Tyler Thomas. Rides came here and there, including with Jack Yeley, and he was bumped from a deal by a kid from California named Kyle Larson. Then, in what would become a pattern, just when he least expected it, he got an offer.
“At the end of that year, 2010, I get a random call from a guy named Ronnie Pitts from Little Rock,” Gary recalls. “His son had been racing but was going to retire to become a teacher. So, before they sold all their stuff, they wanted to plug another driver in their car to watch it go around. I ran an ASCS National show and did pretty well, then we went to Cowtown Speedway in Fort Worth and won a race, so he bought all new stuff for the next year. About the same time, I get another phone call from a guy named Joe Zierolf in Louisiana. He had some new sprint car stuff, and someone had given him my name to drive.