Old School NASCAR Moments

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Post 1 , not so old
Post 2 "old school."

Much to my chagrin, the local classic rock station has started playing a little bit of Lenny Kravitz, such as "Are You Gonna Go My Way." Know when that came out? 1993.

Maybe saying that's "not so old" is just our way of convincing ourselves that we aren't, either.

Anyhow, this thread needs some short trackin'.

 
20 years ago today, Geoff Bodine wins the Miller Genuine Draft 500 at Pocono


38 years ago today, Benny Parsons wins the Nashville 420 at Nashville
 
The term old school to me is ridiculous. People say, "I like old school this and old school that and old school was better". A couple of weeks ago I had a 28 year old tell me that he really liked the old school way of doing things like it was when he was a teenager. When he was a teenager was old school? Yeah right. I just grinned and moved on.
 
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Old school racers weren't as cool at least they didnt get the attention of todays racing (note not my personal opinion, just a commentary on the times).

Personally old school to me (and it is subjective) was living in a mill village and seeing a race car. Even a mill hand could race back then.

Knowing where a gas station was (late 1960s and 1970s) that garaged a race car. They would run the station in the day, changing customer tires and oil, and massage the race cars at night.

Your local short track hero lived nearby, probably ran a garage and was one of the greatest masters of invention that you would ever meet.

In the 60 and 70s racing was the old textile leagues. Great and uncouthly cool. God, the limited late models in the mid 70s were turning lap times comparable to todays super late models.

I never saw that pictured # 71 nova race, but I saw many like it. Those fat tires and speed off the corners was beautiful as I anything I have ever known. The smell of raw racing gas and the rubber filled my senses, they were loud and shook the earth.

I woke up on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday thinking about Saturday night.
There was no internet, so I would write run downs down, and track the points personally just to know the complete standings.

If I could leave a thought to younger readers I would say to cherish your own old school personal history. I got to see Butch Lindley, Jack Ingram, Harry Gant, and Kulwicki while they were not as well known. But I didnt get to see Fireball and Smokey Yunich or see the real Donnie Mactavish story (one better than the tragic final event). I didnt get see Indy when the cars were most beastly.

But there will always be new moments destined to be "old school" by a younger generation. Go get em, I wish I could do it all over again.

And I had to add some pictures about the grit of Petty, all the drivers were bigger than life to me, but as a boy he was my favorite .
 
Laughing at the "Old School" terms and how we all see it a little different. Pics are great and the thread is what we need more of( JMO)
I'm 50 years young and what I deem old school is late 60's early 70's racing. A sat. night at Greenville or, Asheville hoping to get close enough to talk with Jack Ingram, Robert Pressley Tommy Houston just to name a few.My son sees pics of Davey, Dale and Bill and thinks thats old school. With that in mind I visited my father(he worked in Nascar with a small team) and asked him some questions about the sport. Thats when I realized his old school version would be far different from mine, and so on it goes.
Big picture here is enjoy. Cherish those memories spent with family and friends watching a sport you really enjoy. As our new generation would call it #goodtimes
 
Laughing at the "Old School" terms and how we all see it a little different. Pics are great and the thread is what we need more of( JMO)
I'm 50 years young and what I deem old school is late 60's early 70's racing. A sat. night at Greenville or, Asheville hoping to get close enough to talk with Jack Ingram, Robert Pressley Tommy Houston just to name a few.My son sees pics of Davey, Dale and Bill and thinks thats old school. With that in mind I visited my father(he worked in Nascar with a small team) and asked him some questions about the sport. Thats when I realized his old school version would be far different from mine, and so on it goes.
Big picture here is enjoy. Cherish those memories spent with family and friends watching a sport you really enjoy. As our new generation would call it #goodtimes

Jack in them fast old brown #11s, those were great times. That paint scheme is iconic as any to me, doesn't get any better.
I am sure that the simple and probably crude look didn't inspire many, but Jack was just so consistently great, had to be there to fully appreciate I suppose. Everytime he showed up, he was fast and very difficult to beat. I am so glad they voted him into the Nascar HoF. I still like the simple plane jane paint jobs, #78 scheme is probably my favorite current one.

Davey...while young for that generation was old school. I think Bobby made him learn that way. He used to run an old ugly camaro (#23 I think). It looked like a dinosaur and I always thought an Allison could afford more. The competition had beautifully built Laughlin, Dillion offsets, Howe, Port City etc built pieces. Davey was fast too, his cars just looked they were a generation behind.

But I think Bobby had a plan he was putting Davey through a racing boot camp. Teaching him to be resilient, resourceful, and a master of improvisation, to have all those tough attributes that a driver like Ingram had. I never heard Bobby talk about much about that, but thats the way it looked to me, and it was brilliant and it worked out to perfection, Davey was great and ready when he started running in the Winston Cup Series.

That was old school, now a kid had better know how to be a great public speaker, to shake hands and be at ease around the elites. Racing is still hard, and you still have to do it on the track, but the social skills mean a lot more today. I miss when it was based more on pure talent alone.
 
"The Sand Barrier" Professionally done in color by GM's Pontiac division
one hell of a wreck @7:30, race starts @ 14:00



In this film, which is back in the early days the "500" miles was part of the drama. Besides having a fast car, it also had to survive the distance. Even though a car might be 10 minutes ahead of second, there was always the chance it would blow up and they frequently did just that.
 
Davey...while young for that generation was old school. I think Bobby made him learn that way. He used to run an old ugly camaro (#23 I think). It looked like a dinosaur and I always thought an Allison could afford more. The competition had beautifully built Laughlin, Dillion offsets, Howe, Port City etc built pieces. Davey was fast too, his cars just looked they were a generation behind.

But I think Bobby had a plan he was putting Davey through a racing boot camp. Teaching him to be resilient, resourceful, and a master of improvisation, to have all those tough attributes that a driver like Ingram had. I never heard Bobby talk about much about that, but thats the way it looked to me, and it was brilliant and it worked out to perfection, Davey was great and ready when he started running in the Winston Cup Series.

That was old school, now a kid had better know how to be a great public speaker, to shake hands and be at ease around the elites. Racing is still hard, and you still have to do it on the track, but the social skills mean a lot more today. I miss when it was based more on pure talent alone.


When I worked at Ford, we did some work for the Ford race teams.
One was the 28, when we talked with them of course Robert Yates was all horsepower horsepower ect.
But Davey sat down with us, looked at the data and wanted to understand just what it meant and how it applied to the car.

We all got Davey Allison jackets for the work .
Just weeks latter Davey was killed. I still have the jacket but it actually hurts for me to wear it and have only worn it twice.
 
Jack in them fast old brown #11s, those were great times. That paint scheme is iconic as any to me, doesn't get any better.
I am sure that the simple and probably crude look didn't inspire many, but Jack was just so consistently great, had to be there to fully appreciate I suppose. Everytime he showed up, he was fast and very difficult to beat. I am so glad they voted him into the Nascar HoF. I still like the simple plane jane paint jobs, #78 scheme is probably my favorite current one.

Davey...while young for that generation was old school. I think Bobby made him learn that way. He used to run an old ugly camaro (#23 I think). It looked like a dinosaur and I always thought an Allison could afford more. The competition had beautifully built Laughlin, Dillion offsets, Howe, Port City etc built pieces. Davey was fast too, his cars just looked they were a generation behind.

But I think Bobby had a plan he was putting Davey through a racing boot camp. Teaching him to be resilient, resourceful, and a master of improvisation, to have all those tough attributes that a driver like Ingram had. I never heard Bobby talk about much about that, but thats the way it looked to me, and it was brilliant and it worked out to perfection, Davey was great and ready when he started running in the Winston Cup Series.

That was old school, now a kid had better know how to be a great public speaker, to shake hands and be at ease around the elites. Racing is still hard, and you still have to do it on the track, but the social skills mean a lot more today. I miss when it was based more on pure talent alone.
Jack 's sponsor then was Buck Stove. perfect for him. Tough durable and hard to beat. The crowd would go crazy when they opened the back strech gates and that car rolled in.
 
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