Episode 219 -- Larry Pollard on Canada-NC Culture Shock, Richard Childress and Winning with Richard Petty

Larry Pollard might not have the most recognizable name we’ve ever had on the show, but he is a master storyteller after nearly forty years in the NASCAR trenches.

Larry moved from his home in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada to go to work for Richard Childress Racing in its first year with halfway decent sponsorship from Piedmont Airlines and with driver Ricky Rudd behind the wheel.

After just a year or so at RCR, Larry went to work at Petty Enterprises in 1983 … and before the season even started, was named co-crew chief of the legendary operation.

Richard then proceeds to break a nearly two-year winless streak in just the third race with Larry in that role. But if Larry expected to just coast into work at Level Cross the next morning, he had another thing coming!

In our second segment, hosts Rick Houston and Steve Waid take a peek at the March 17, 1983 issue of Grand National Scene.

Richard Petty holds off a hard-charging … but clean … effort by young Bill Elliott to win a rain-split race at Rockingham. Richard and Cale Yarborough … among others … call for races at Rockingham to be shortened from 500 miles to 500 KILOMETERS.

Elmo Langley finds himself unloading his hauler after it catches fire on the way home from The Rock, and while Dale Earnhardt wins the Saturday Budweiser Late Model Sportsman event, both Morgan Shepherd AND Bubba Nissen find HUGE trouble in the race.

There are rumors that Darrell Waltrip and Junior Johnson are fussing and feuding, and that DW might even be leaving his championship-winning team to form his own Winston Cup operation. Plus … eighteen-year-old Bobby Labonte is featured.

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Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Hello. My name is Rick Houston, and welcome to the Scene Bought podcast,
your source for all things NASCAR history, presented by Las Vegas Motor Speedway,
America's racing show place. My dadwas there at my side helping me.
But that's what we did. Heraced. He was a heck of
a racer, just super good driver. So I just kind of got infected

(00:25):
with the disease early. He wassmart than I was, but I was
ripping the edge of what you coulddo and when you couldn't do. Because
I'm from Canada, I didn't knowthat that was just the way it was
supposed to be done. I said, heck no, we'll do this.
We won some races because of itsso we kind of roll in. I
roll in there about nine thirty orso and Nold Richard comes in with a

(00:45):
big hat owner to spit up.And he comes up there and we're all
standing around in front of the car, and he says, yesterday was Rockingham,
today's Level Cross. We start workingat eight o'clock the day NASCAR and
all of us associated anyway, whenNASCAR forget it's past, that's today,
we don't have any future. Hello. Everyone, name Steve Wade and my

(01:11):
name is Rick Houston, and welcometo the Seine Vault Podcast, presented by
Las Vegas Motor Speedway, America's racingshow place and a track that truly cares
about NASCAR history. And last weekwe talked about Matt Kinseth blowing an engine
and finishing last in the two thousandand three Winston Cup season finale at Homestead.

(01:33):
He had clinched the title of theweek before, right, and so
we had kind of wondered if therehad been another champion who had ever finished
dead last in the last race ofa season. I bet we got an
answer, didn't we, in whichhe had also clinched the championship. And
I couldn't think of anybody, Andyou couldn't think of anybody. Well,

(01:53):
Brock Beard from LASCAR Dot Info tothe rescue buddy, how come I'm not
surprised. Brock did a little research, evidently a lot of research, and
he discovered that nineteen fifty four GrandNational champion Lee Petty was credited with a

(02:13):
thirty second place finish in a thirtytwo car field in that year's season finale
at North Wilkesboro, one race afterhe had clinched that year's top. Oh
bye, it back to nineteen fiftyfour. Nineteen fifty four, let's get
broxom applause. That's a mighty goodpiece of research. Lee had qualified third

(02:36):
for that race, but he fellout with a bad hub after completing just
twelve laps. And that race hadbeen scheduled for one hundred and sixty laughs,
but it was called three laps shortof a full distance because of a
very serious rollover involving Lou Figaro,and sadly Lou died the next day because
of the injuries that he had sustained. But official, the championship was the

(03:01):
first of Lee's Grand National career.Now notice I said officially according to the
first volume of Greg Fielding's Forty Yearsof Stock car Racing, and we all
know and loved those books. Leecompeted in eight races at the start of
the nineteen fifty season and was thirdin the point standings, just twenty four

(03:23):
and a half points out of theleague. There was a break in the
schedule that summer and Lee took theopportunity to run a race or two that
were not sanctioned by NASCAR, andBill France Senior said, nope, we
ain't having that, and as aresult, Lee lost all eight hundred and
nine points he had accumulated to thatpoint and basically had to start from scratch.

(03:46):
In late July, he accumulated fourhundred and forty more points than that
year's official champion, Bill Rexford,but was only credited with third place in
the final standings due to the penalty, scoring the most points but not taking
home the champions trophy. Ajan MarkMartin, Mark Martin Line one O.

(04:09):
Bill Francis a revenge, That's whatit was. NASCAR did not play no
when it came to that kind ofthing. Back Steve this week in our
first segment. Larry Pollard might notbe the most recognizable name that we've ever
had here on the show, buthe is a master storyteller. After nearly

(04:32):
forty years in the NASCAR trenches,Larry moved from his home in Victoria,
British Columbia, Canada to go towork for Richard Children's Racing in its first
year with halfway decent sponsorship from PEMNTAirlines and with driver Ricky Rudd behind the
wheel. Now, I've known Larryfor a long time, but if I

(04:55):
knew that he was from Canada.I had forgotten about head too, had
really forgotten about that. I knewit at one time because I've known Larry
for a long time too. Freelyadmit I haven't seen him in quite a
while, but I have known himfor a long time, and I did
not remember Canada at all. Afterjust a year or so at ourcr he

(05:16):
went to work at Petty Enterprises innineteen eighty three, and before the season
had even started he was named theco crew chief of that legendary operation.
So he's been in North Carolina fora little over a year and he's Richard
Petty's crew chief. Unbelieabal, It'sa really, really amazing story. Richard

(05:39):
then proceeded to break a nearly twoyear windless streak in just the third race
with Larry in that role. Hewent to victory lane at Rockingham. But
if Larry expected to just coast intowork at Level Cross the next morning,
he had another thing coming o.Then, in our second segment, we're

(06:00):
going to go back to the Marchseventeenth, nineteen eighty three issue of Grand
National Scene. Richard Petty holds offa hard charging but clean effort by young
Bill Elliott to win a rain splitrace at Rockingham. Richard and kel Yarborough,
among others, had called for racesat Rockingham to be shortened from five
hundred miles. You get an amenon that one, brother, Steve am

(06:27):
You wouldn't have got one back then, but amen now. Elmo Langley finds
himself unloading his hauler after it catcheson fire on the way home from the
rock after the race was delayed aweek due to rain. And while dal
Earnhardt won the Saturday Budweiser Late ModelSportsman event what's now the Exfinity event,
both Morgan Shephard and Bubbanisson had foundhuge trouble in that race. There are

(06:54):
rumors pertaining to Daryl Waltrip, gofigure, rumors about Darryl Waltrip wanting to
change teams. You don't say thistime. The rumor was that dw and
Junior Johnson were fussing and feuding andthat DW might even be leaving his championship
winning team to form his own WinstonCup operation before that year was out.

(07:20):
No, that was strictly a rumor, but it wasn't the first time the
rumors swirled around Junior and Darrell.Not the first time at all, and
it wouldn't be the last. Lastright, Plus, an eighteen year old
Bobby Lebanni is featured, complete withbraces. It's hard to imagine Bobby Lebanni

(07:46):
eighteen years old with braces, butthat's when he got his real start,
heading toward NASCAR, startum and finally, listeners. You can support our podcast
by checking out our T shirt shopover on our website www dot the Seabought
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(08:09):
seam Bought Podcast T shirts. Youcan buy an LW. Right T shirt.
Whatever you want, We've got youcovered and the more than marrier by
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(08:35):
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(08:58):
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Brain. Well, Larry, ifI knew that you were from Canada,

(09:26):
originally I had forgotten it, right, So tell me about your family and
its background in racing, because you'vegotten extensive background in motorsports. Well,
I've done a long time and comeacross it honestly because my dad was into
it very young age. Well,I'm Sam building cars. Obviously my dad

(09:52):
was there at my side helping me. But yeah, that's we did.
He raced. He was a heckof a racer, just super good driver.
So I just kind of got infectedwith the disease early and yeah,
it just went from there. Youknow. We raced in Canada for a
long time, won a lot ofraces, and then got a call from

(10:13):
Richard Shoulders one day from Winston steNorth Carolina and he said, did you
come and work for me? Ithought it was a joke and how long
have I got to decide? Heso I needed to do something in two
weeks. And I just bought alittle house back in Victoria, BC,
Canada, and I just bought aZ twenty eight Camaro and I put it

(10:33):
on hold. And I just boughtDad out of our Polar automotive business in
Victoria about two months before that.Oh wow, you know, I was
just kind of but racing was racing. We had to do it kind of
thing. So I went back toDad and I says, Dad says,
not that deal. I got thisdeal here, would you mind going to

(10:54):
work for me for you know,because he wanted to retire just for maybe
six months. I don't know.I got the steal the guy from Winston
Salem called Richard Child or something.I'm gonna go see if I can work
that out. And of course Dadwas such a awesome guy. He said,
yeah, yeah, go ahead,your son deal and go ahead,
you know. So I took offand I gave my Camaro to my mom

(11:18):
to drive, and I was fixingup this old house. So it was
worked out good. I just wasin the midst of selling it so sold
that Dad looked after the business andI told that, I said, I
listen, my payments in this thingor one hundred and fifty six dollars,
I'll remember to this day. Allyou just make expenses whatever you make yours.

(11:39):
So that's what we did. Now. Victoria's right across the bay from
Washington State. How often did yougo back and forth? A lot?
Okay? Yeah, that was ourracing in the states. Monroe, Washington,
Yakima, Washington, so sound ScatchetSpeedyway Speedway, which was dirt.

(12:00):
We ran there twice with the lateModels, so that was kind of our
entrance. And then of course everyMan for five six years straight. I
think we ran in Riverside in Januaryforever with the Winston Cup Race you know,
which had the two hundred before,and in the Cup race Sunday.
So yeah, the West Coast iskind of home for us, you know.

(12:20):
Now, how would you go aboutgetting a car across the bay on
a ferry or how did that work? Yep? Vancouver Island was a secluded
island. You had to use aferry to get off it, and back
in the day it wasn't too bad. Now they say it just got incredibly
expensive to put a trailer and atruck on the ferry and transported, so

(12:43):
that every time you went anywhere,there was more expenses than any other place
you went, just because you hadthe ferry, you know what I mean.
And you're so far away from everything, so it really hadn't had to
take some planning to make it workout. Was racing something that was fairly
well apted where you lived, orwas it considered a little bit of an
oddity. Vancouver Island was a racecity for no more population than it had

(13:13):
a tremendous amount of turnout of cars. Like in Saturday night in the late
seventies, there was always three thirtyfive hundred people in the stands and there
was always a good car count.And we always said there must be something
in the water here because a lotof people had race cars, and good

(13:33):
race cars we got, you know, Gary Kershaw, Roy Smith of all
the guys graduate, Billy Foster graduatedfrom this little old flat three eighth mile
track in Victoria, Canada. Youknow, so it was an amazing place
for racing. At what point didyou start driving? Thirteen? Yeah?

(13:56):
There again, I'm gonna say Ibuilt a car at thirteen. I get
credit for it, but my dadwas there. But that's all we did,
was Bill Card and we built twocars the same and then I went
to the race track and they wouldn'tlet me run. I was thirteen.
Yeah, you have to be sixteen. It's okay. Well, so we
my car was the choice of cars. So Dad drove my car for one
year in the stock art division untilthey let me run the next year.

(14:20):
So I started, actually started racewhen I was before I was fifteen.
You know, they said you gotyou. I was pretty tall boy,
so they said you got your relationship. I said, yeah, we're good.
I have to show them. Youhave a book out that is awesome
about your family's history in racing andeverything. And I got a lot of

(14:43):
a lot of good little nuggets outof it. Yeah, if I read
correctly, you were the valedictorian,Yes of your high school class? Yes,
sir, really? Yeah? Yeah, I just that was a you
know, and what I got selectedto do that, or got one at
whatever you do. I didn't thinknothing to me, so, you know,

(15:03):
he just years later you look atand say, wow, but when
we wanted when I got selected,my law professor Mike Dunne, he knew
that I was. You had acouple three weeks before the ceremony you know.
So he said, let's go tothe prison. I got a I
got a prison mate down there thatwas a scriptwriter for a lot of the

(15:26):
prime ministers of Canada. He said, we'll sit down with him and he'll
give you some tips on So MikeDun myself went to the this is big
security. He was in there fora while, but he was I don't
even remember his name. He wasa really cool guy, but he was
a writer of speeches. So wesat down. He was in prison.

(15:48):
He was in prison, yeah,yeah, And we went in there.
Got to go in there, andwe sat down in for an hour,
an hour and a half, andhe gave me a bunch of tips on
what to talk about, what notto talk about, how to present it.
It was it's cool, man,you know. But uh and then,
like you say, years later,I got the picture at home the
valatorium with a speech and all anda copy of the speech. And it

(16:10):
takes a long time after that togo. Man, that was pretty cool.
You know. You got to addressyour graduating class, you know,
and it was cool now, yousaid, your law professor, Uh,
my law law class teacher. MikeDunn, he was. He taught our
law class in high school, youhad a law class. Yes, oh

(16:30):
yeah, really yeah yeah, youcould select that as one of your courses
and it was law twelve and MikeDunn was the teacher of law. You
know, so it was pretty cooldeal. You got a pretty good introduction
into the the law world. Andyou know, I took up that pretty
good. So that's how the wholedeal worked out. Man, I thought

(16:52):
I was just to interview on adumb race car. Driund. I am
not all right, you're addler?Now was that something that you were considering
law? Or was that just aclass he was selected? You know what
I mean? It was it wasout there and I've always had an interest
in it, but no, itwas definitely not a destination. I was

(17:17):
a racer. I just golly,Obama didn't go to school, dances,
didn't do this did I worked onthe race car. That's all we did,
my dad and I and Dad,you know, didn't have a lot
of money, and I don't knowhow in the world he raised three daughters
and two race cars and me,you know what I mean. But we
did everything ourselves. I mean wewe had to, you know, we

(17:41):
had two race cards. He builta trailer to pull behind his little Ford
pickup, and he got a bunchof a quarter by two bandiron whom a
guy gave him, and I swearto god, he created a gooseneck trailer
out of this quarter by one tooband iron and we hauled one of the

(18:03):
race cars on it. He wasjust amazing man. Just he could just
come up with stuff and just dostuff for way under budget, you know
what I mean. And that's theway we did. A mom made our
uniforms, she sold all uniforms.If we went to Vernon or Langley,
BC to race, she packed lunchand you know we that's what we ate
sandwiches, you know. Just itwas just we didn't think nothing of it.

(18:26):
That's just the way it was.It was just going racing with family
and it was all good, youknow what I mean. Just it was
all good. Now, was yourdad full time in racing? No,
He worked at a garage. Andthen when he when we first moved to
Victoria in sixty nineteen sixty six,I think he got a job as a

(18:47):
mechanic at a gas station and thenwent over to another gas station and Mel
Marshall and his brother Jim, andthey raced so man, he's back in
it because he raced back ver MillionaireBerta and that he know he and then
he became a sheet metal I'm goingto say specialists because it was because he

(19:11):
did all in Victoria, BC.They got these beautiful dome roofs and they're
all copper. And Dad had anact for doing this copper work and he
could build these roofs for the Itwas Smith and Addison Roofing, it was
the name of the company. Buthe had the He looked after the copper

(19:32):
making, the confer eaves and thedrifts and the and the trimming on the
thing. And so that's what hedid. You know, he just until
he retired. Now, what wasthe goal as your career started progressing.
Were you always looking to go WeinstonCup racing or were you content to stick
to Victorian and the Arian, Washingtonand Yakima and all those tracks? What

(19:59):
was your goal? You know,that's a heck of question because at the
time just a race. I don'tthink I ever set back and said,
man, one day I'm gonna dothis. I just every class we got
involved in it was the next step. You try to do the best you
can at never a goal of Iwant to run here or there, just
wanted to run. And then whenI got to the call from Richard Schilders

(20:23):
in eighty one, my goal stilldidn't change. I just wanted to be
involved in race and I was havinga blast working on race cars and being
a Cup crew. And then ineighty three, you know, Richard Petty
colleg And says, like to getinvolved in our team here would you?

(20:44):
Would you kind of come? AndI said, well, I'm from Canada.
Here's a little old guy from Canadathat loves race and just starstruck.
And Richard Petty collig And said hewants to be involved in your team.
I felt so bad for Richard Schildersthat to leave him after one year,
but I again, a guy fromCanada that doesn't know anybody down here gets

(21:07):
asked, you kind of got todo it, and I and I that
was a wonderful relationship with Richard andI we just then he after the first
time I went to practice at Dayton, he asked me to be crew chief
with Robin Pemberton, and well,you're you know this is this is pretty
awesome right here. So then wego win three or four races and end
up fourth and points. It was. It was pretty awesome. Again,

(21:32):
here's this guy from Canada that doesn'tknow anybody, but he just wanted to
race. That's all I thought about. Didn't have a girlfriend, just wanted
to race. And so you putyour heart and soul into it and it
works. It'll go. If youreally want to do something bad enough,
just dig down deep and you gotto sacrifice some things. But don't be

(21:53):
looking for the big picture. Justdo the day, do the best you
can, learn all you can andgo. That's the way I looked at
it. While you were still inCanada, before you made the move here
to North Carolina, how closely wereyou able to follow what was going on
in Winston Cup or was that evena consideration. Yeah, as far as

(22:15):
news and that kind of thing,you know, once you get down here
and see how much is going on, we didn't get much of it at
all. Because we saw the Firecrackerfour hundred and the Daytona five hundred.
We thought there was four race ayear, basically, you know what I
mean. So no, I'd sayyeah, And now today, obviously with

(22:36):
the media, if they they're weekly, who's who's changing tires for that?
You know what I mean, theyknow what's going on back then going to
Winston Salem. I don't know RichardChild never seen him looking for a guy
in a in a orange jack,no, a purple jacket, going to
meet me at the thing. Sono, we didn't, you know,

(22:57):
like when we race the Riverside.I don't reason why I got hooked up
with him as we were parked inthe garage beside Earnhardt and Shoulders in eighty
one or two, I guess onlyand we were part beside him with our
old junk from Canada, you know, Dick Midgley stuff. And I shouldn't

(23:18):
say that. I take that back, Dick. It's not a john,
but we he did a lot withnothing, old Dick midds. But he
went to this race every year.And then Gary Nelson helped us. And
so anyways, when Richard was startinga new team, he called Gary Nelson
said, man, I need someguys that can do brook on a race
car. You know, but backthen you didn't have but five or six

(23:41):
guys in the whole team, sohe kind of had to do a little
bit everything. So Gary Nelson toldRichard Schilders, just get this guy from
Canada. He can change tires,he can work on a car and build
motors, and he can drive him. So that's how that whole deal started.
Was the initial phone call from Richardshowed us was I was talking to
Gary and Allison. He said,you might be interested. That's how the

(24:03):
whole deal started. You were workingon Roy Smith's crew at that time,
yes, when you got the calland everything, yes, uh huh.
Now was it difficult for you tobalance working on a crew with the desire
to drive yourself? What was yourpriority? Were you content to work on
cars or were you still wanted todrive? Obviously you still wanted to drive,

(24:26):
but new I had not the resourcesto drive. So when I went
with Roy to Riverside and Racism andRoe, Washington, we raised there a
lot with him. We were AndyYoung and I were the tire changers,
and we had these pit crew contestsall the time. Every race track you
went, you had a pit crewcontest where we would just smoke them.

(24:48):
Well, for some reason we justhad we can do that. But no,
So when I was I was contentwith just going to the races,
Jane at tires and just enjoying it. You know, once you got here
to North Carolina out would assume thatyou drove here. Did you drive flu
man, Oh you're old. Thatwas bid Piedmont Airlines Man childers at a

(25:11):
ticket for me in Seattle, Washington. The drunk. Yeah, well it
would be a better story if youdrove and sleeping addressed. Okay, that's
right, Moonlaw, Moonlaw. Onceyou got here, how much of a
culture shot did you experience between hereand back home in Victoria? Yeah?

(25:33):
Yeah, it's uh just so suchcool people here. Just the way they
are, the way they talk,the way they act, the way they
treat people. Definitely different. Likewe're in I think the first week and
children's a shop, will Lynn,David Smith, myself, Kirk Shamardine,
Robbie Johnson. And then there wasStan and Bill Bill, Bill beyond the

(25:56):
guy and the motor guy. That'sall there was us that we did everything.
We loaded the carpet of the car, you know, and then the
phone rang, and uh so Larrygrabbed the phone. So okay, I
go, guys, the phone andthis guy here then I couldn't understand.
I said, somebody better grab thisbecause I don't know what this fella's got

(26:18):
to say. He needed a translatoreveryone. No, it was Now what
do you think of the weather onceyou got here? Yeah, that's different.
Wow. I mean Robbie Johnson,unbelieve a friend of mine still is
today, Junior Johnson's son. Himand I rented a just a little three

(26:41):
bedroom from Hank Thomas. He wasdown the street from Richard Childre's racing back
in the day. So him andI rented it. And I remember in
August no acor or the window acor whatever we had. I remember just
laying on the bed in the middleof the night his native Jaber just to
sweat and was running off in Isaid, my goodness, it was unbelievable,

(27:04):
But you kind of get used toit, you know what I mean,
After a period of time, youget used to it. How different
was it racing in Winston Cup asopposed to what you've been doing in Canada?
Oh wow, yeah, yeah,just we were pretty antiquated with a
lot of stuff. Just didn't doit enough, you know what I mean.

(27:26):
We raced eighteen, seventeen, eighteen, twenty times a year, which
was a big schedule for us.But then you come back here and man,
the guys were just knew the stuffabout cars and what it took,
what it didn't take. So it'sjust being around it so much more that
it was a mind blowing of howmuch stuff you need to learn. What

(27:48):
were you doing for RCR? Absolutelyjust back packing bearings, We painted,
we decaled, Kirk did most ofthe set up stuff, you know,
but but just loaded the truck,hitted, loaded the truck back up.

(28:11):
Yeah, it was just you justdid whatever it took to make it down
the road, drove all night,if you had to switch out seats in
the van to get there, youknow, I mean, it was just
a different world. It was justyou know, you're family. You just
you were with each other all thetime, just day in and day out.
And I don't know how we gotas much stuff done as we did
with such few people. You know, it was unbelievable, you know,

(28:33):
just because they're every one of uswere racers, like you say, Will
Lee and Kirk, David Robie,myself, Richard Judy in the front office
sometimes and then Bill and Stanley inthe motor room. And we had this
crazy guy coming, Bob Garrel.He was a ciner head guy. He's
a nut guy, lovel Bob,and he would come in after his work

(28:56):
and then grind heads all night.That's what you did. You know,
you had one qualifying motor, youknow what I mean, and you swap
that thing out after so many laps, and then he'd go through it for
the next race, and then youhave your qualified motor back. It was
it was crazy. Were you ableto do any racing yourself? Once you
moved here? At first? No. We went to Texas College Station,

(29:22):
Texas. Richard was a little concernedwith Ricky's confidence, so he said,
let's go and stop in at CollegeStation, Texas on the way to Riverside.
And it was a it was aUSACK race or something, and and
so just maybe he could win thatthing, give him some confidence, you
know what I mean. So weget there and it's I don't know if

(29:42):
you're an old college statements two anda half mile race truck. It's like
a big Michigan and old James Hiltonwas there and he said, they Paul,
just you want to drive my car? And I said why now?
And he says, well, Ijust I just wanted so many part starting
park this thing. And I says, I never run hundred seventy And he's

(30:03):
I said, yeah, I'll dothat. So we board a race and
uniform Ron Bouchard was there and hehad an extra driving suit and uh oh
man, they fell from rocking him. Oh my goodness, the names.
He was a friend. Huh No, he drove. He had a little

(30:25):
clam restaurant in rocking him. Oh, I feel bad. He was such
a good guy. But he's afriend of Richards and he was my crew
chief. He was he was anex cup raiser. So we went out
there and made five laps and parkedthere. But to me again, some
kid from Canada runs in and Winstoncup car at College Station, Texas which

(30:45):
is now shut down in one hundredseventy mile an hour. It was really
a cool deal, you know.So then we went on to Riverside and
I think Ricky went out there.I'm not mistaken here. We went out
there. How did the move toPetty Enterprises has come about? Just a
phone call? Just uh yeah,just a phone call we uh from the

(31:07):
King of Maurice College and says,you know, blah blah blah. So
and I had hard feelings about thatbecause Richard brought me down here blah blah
blah. You know, what Imean it was it was a selfish on
my part. And I had lunchwith Richard here shold us last summer and

(31:29):
we're all good. I mean,it was a great day we spent together.
But you look back and you say, Dad going, I just but
I not. We're on radio show. I'm gonna say. I'm gonna say
but like I didn't. I didn'treally get along with Kurt Schaming too good.
We're still friends. We've done stufffor him on his race card since.

(31:51):
But when that opportunity came up,I says, I'm out here,
you know. I mean, that'smy opinion. That's no slur to him.
That just because he was obviously obviouslya super crew chef. He was
a smart, smart guy, youknow. So that's why I kind of
just took it and ran. Youknow what was Richard's reaction when you told

(32:12):
him? Richard Childress's reaction, Um, it wasn't good. But what he
did this is a true story too, Bob Grell. He picked me up
one day and he says, doyou want to go to Rivers? You
want to go to Daytona with us? For the twenty four hours with Paul
Newman and Dick fitztrit not Fitzgerald.What's his name, called him Fitzie.

(32:35):
He just he's a road racer fromroad Atlanta. Just a super good guy,
Dick Fitzgerald. I think it is. Yeah, And I says,
yeah, I could you know what'sthe deal? He so well, he
said, just uh, we'll justwe'll just run on down there and spend
a couple three days and half.So finely said okay. So I couldn't
figure it out really because I'd kindof left the deal. So Bob come

(32:57):
picked me up and we threw allthe bags in the car, and he
and he had a new Moniac whichwas Richard's shoulders sponsorship, and climbing the
car. And I don't know ifyou know Bob grown now, but he
is a catbird. I just lovehim. He's a cart And he gets
in the car and he's driving.He stops and he says, okay.
He says, uh, you're comingback to work for us next year.
And I says, no, Bob, I'm got this deal with Richard.

(33:20):
Okay. I just told Richard Itry to talk into it. Let's go
to let's go to Daytona. Ihave some fun. So that's when you
were hired by Richard Petty at PettyEnterprises. Was there ever any discussion when
in the very beginning of you beinga crew chief? How did that come

(33:43):
about? We went to tests inDaytona before the season. Yeah, and
remember you used to go down therein December and and and just h I
didn't know any of them guys.I didn't know Robin Pamerton, I didn't
know Richard, Maurice Kenny Willson wasthe engine guy. And but I just
when they we go to Daytona tests, he only took four of us,

(34:06):
you know what I mean. SoI'm saying, oh, so we went
down there and before this, afterwe got done testing for a whole day,
Richard just got me off the sideand he said, I'd like you
to make some decision on this team. Would you be willing to work with
us on that? And I said, well, yeah, just whatever it
takes, you know what I mean. So, and we got thrown in
the hat with Robin, and wehad a great deal. Rob and I

(34:29):
worked so good together. I waspretty headstrong, and he could be manipulated
by myad strong ways, I guessbecause I'd make some mistakes. But he
never did say anything, and hewas but he was so smart. He'd
been there so many years, youknow that he knew all the ropes.
And I really enjoyed working with Robin. He'd you know when we hopefully we

(34:52):
still remain fan. We talk allthe time on Facebook and stuff. But
it's just a combination. He wassmart than I was, But I was
ripping the edge of what you coulddo and what you couldn't do. Because
I'm from Canada, I didn't knowthat it was yeah, you know,
that was just the way it wassupposed to be done. I'd said,
heck, no, we'll do this, you know what I mean, And
it and it we want some racesbecause of it, you know what I

(35:15):
mean. It was just it wasjust me trying to think of things to
do. And I wasn't in thenormal batch of people coming through wins the
Cup that did exactly the same thingevery time all the time. You know,
I was some guy from Canada thatI didn't have a problem with.
Well, let's do that. Let'sput left sides on. You can't do
that, Yeah, we can putthem on there, you know what I

(35:36):
mean? Oh, now we now, yeah, now we'll get to that
in a minute. So you hadbeen here a year basically, and all
of a sudden you were Richard Patty'screw chief. Yeah, because you are
from somewhere so remote from here,I mean, thousands and thousands of miles

(36:01):
away, completely different universe. Didit compute with you that you were Richard
Petty's crew chief? Was that intimidatingto you? Because it's Richard Petty the
King, He's won all these races, he's won all these championships. But
it didn't. It didn't intimidate you. It didn't. And I and like

(36:23):
we talked earlier years later, itdoes. Isn't that weird how it goes?
Yeah, But at the time itwas just another step, and and
yes, I was more than honoredto get asked, and but it wasn't
as though it was, oh,my goodness, this is the deal,
you know what I mean. Itwas just another step. And I think

(36:45):
that's why it worked so good,because I wasn't awed by it. I
was just giving my input the wayI saw it. And I think that's
what they wanted too, you know, just if they had an issue,
they'd say, what do you thinkabout this? Well, it came from
all my past, not necessarily whatJake l or some of the old crew

(37:09):
chiefs would do. I'd say,well, no, we need to try
this, and it just kind ofput lights on you know what I mean,
and they say, okay, youknow. So I think that's what
answers that question. You know,early in the year Richard and Bill Elliott
had this awesome finish at Rockingham.But what do you remember about that weekend

(37:29):
and getting your first win as akerchief? That was pretty cool. My
dad was down for that race andhe put we changed the gear, and
he like he was with us,and he changed the gear, helped us
change the gear, and he putthe dry cheft in and I remember him
saying after the races, I wasjust worrying the whole race, the drive
chef. I'm gonna come out,you know. But yeah, that was

(37:51):
a cool time. And that wassecond race went Totona, went Rockingham and
nothing to it, nothing to it. We got win. It just wasn't
a big deal. We just goout there and we win the thing,
go through all the ceremonies, getthe picture in victory lane, and just
I just wasn't odd by it.I was I was so excited about it,

(38:14):
but some of the other guys inthe crew hadn't. They didn't won
a race in forty two races,and they were just blown away. And
I'm just I wasn't being up ate. I just it just wasn't like
eternity for me. It was justlike, Okay, we want to race.
Cool deal, What do we gottado here? Now? We gotta
pick the pits up, we gottago here. And we go to victory

(38:34):
lane and gets picture taken and andwhat really opened my eyes on that deal
was we get done second race,win a race, put them back on
the winner circle. Blah blah blah. We go to work and I told
the guys, I said, well, you know, we won last night.
We tore down. We got homelate. I just told the guys,
let's come in at ten and uhoh man, okay, okay,

(38:58):
you know, just all the guyand the crew, and so we kind
of roll in. I roll inthere about nine thirty or so, and
I'm just kind of getting the thingunloaded and just just starting on a week
we had to race the next weekend. Nold Richard comes in with a big
hat on and the spit cup andhe comes up there and we're all standing
around in the front of the carand he says, yesterday was Rockingham.

(39:21):
Today's level cross. We start workingeight o'clock, takes a big old spit
and a cup like that, andthen he says, oh, by the
way, good job yesterday, walksout and I said, well, that
puts it in perspective. Taking thecheckered flag and driving to victory lane is

(39:46):
the goal for any racer. Ittells the competition my accomplishments resulted in a
trip to the winner circle. It'sno different as a business owner, team
leader or coach. Recognizing those deservingis what we do every day. Five
Star Awards and engraving high race fans. This is Bob Laird, director of
Sales at five Star and former jackmanfor Buddy Arrington back in the eighties.

(40:07):
Laser engraved and full color corporate awards, as well as crystal plaques, trophies,
and promotional products are just some ofa sample of what we offer at
five Star. With state of theart equipment in our North Carolina facility,
let our experience graphic artists take youfrom idea to concept and ultimately the finish
line to view our beautiful and uniquedesigns. Please visit us at five Star

(40:29):
Awards dot net. The entire projectcan be completed online. Please reach out
to me at Bob dot Laird atfive Star Awards dot net nine one nine
nine five four one one three zero. As a thank you, everyone who
contacts me will receive at no charge, a collection of NASCAR memorabilia featuring Richard
Petty while supplies last. That's Bobdot Laird at five Star Awards dot net

(40:52):
nine one nine nine five four oneone three zero. This segment is brought
to our listeners by Las Vegas MotorSpeedway, America's racing show Place. Before
I get started, I want tomention the fact that there is a book

(41:15):
on Earl Pollard, Larry's dad andhis and his family's history in the sport.
It's called Every Saturday Night, TheRacing Legacy of Victoria's Earl Pollard Family,
and it was written and self publishedby Bob Kehoe. Na. I
did not know that at all.That's fascinating. Well, let me tell

(41:36):
you there are a lot of differentkinds of self published books on the market.
Some that are okay, some thatare kind of horrendous, and some
that are absolute Gems, and that'sthe case for Every Saturday Night. It's
one of the best self published books. And this is not an advertisement,

(41:57):
this is an honest review. Itranks right up there with Will Cronkritz I
was a NASCAR redneck and Smokey Eunich'sbest down garage in town. Although let's
just say that Every Saturday Night isway different than Smokey's epic project. Let's
just put it that way. Butaccording to your earl's book is right up

(42:19):
there with the best in the business. It is a great book, and
it's huge. It's like four hundredpages with a million photos. It's available
in both black and white and fullcolor formats on Amazon. So you need
to check that out every Saturday Night. And let me tell you, this
interview picked up right where the bookleft off. That makes it a pretty

(42:43):
good innue here. I think.Yes, sir Larry was the valedictorian of
his high school class, and aprofessor of his took him to prison,
Yes, I said, took himto prison to get help putting together his
commencement speech from a person who hadevidently written speeches for the Canadian Prime minister.

(43:06):
Now, I do not know whyhe was in prison. What he
was doing in prison, I don'tknow, but he was evidently a speechwriter
for the Canadian speech writer for thePrime minister. He had to be a
good speech writer, no two waysabout that, but it sounds like to
me he may have also written somebad checks. It does something. I

(43:30):
love the comment that Larry had abouthis family in racing. He said that
his family didn't have a lot ofmoney and that he didn't have any idea
how his dad was able to raisetwo daughters, one son meaning him,
and two race cars. So evidentlythose race cars were truly considered a part

(43:51):
of the family. Must have beento get all that done without a lot
of money, seems to me therewas a lot of determination to make up
for that lack of fun. Larryhad just bought his father out of his
share in the family automotive business,as well as a house and a Z
twenty eight Camaro there in Victoria whenhe got a call from Richard Childress just

(44:13):
prior to the nineteen eighty two seasonwanting to know if Larry would like to
come work for him, and soLarry lured his dad out of retirement hired
him to look after the business.He gives the Z twenty eight to his
mom. I wonder if Adam andJason will ever give me a Z twenty
eighth straight up answer. No,might be a mashbox car, hot whales

(44:37):
or something. Now, Steve,here's a question for you. What is
your dream car? I don't knowthat we have ever covered that topic.
What's your dream car? Very earlyin my racing career, I really liked
watching Nord Krafts Cops number seventy oneOrange Dodge with the wings that Bobby Isaac
drove. That to me was abullet of a car. Even without the

(45:00):
wing in the back, it wasstill a sleek car. I always wanted
to get my hands on one,but I never really had the money to
do it. Now I drove acouple of them that people let me drive.
A really yes, and I'm tellingyou it was it was all I
could do to control that car.I mean, even on the street.

(45:22):
It was so powerful, and Ithought, Man, this is a kind
of car that racing is all about. And I spent a lot of years
worshiping most Dodges, never on one, sadly, but really really enjoy them.
Now me, I'm gonna go witha trans amp just like the one
on Smoking the Bend. Oh yeah, tricked out with all the modern bells

(45:44):
and whistles by Count's Customs in LasVegas. And you know how Smoky Unich
was rumored to a snug a Chevellepast NASCAR that was maybe seven eighths the
size of a true stock version.Oh yeah, that's exact clear what it
is. I don't try cars out, I try them on. And so
I want to smoking the Bandit transam that's nine or ten eights the size

(46:08):
of a stock trans am, soI can be comfortable with a lot of
head and leg rooms. So Iwant an upscale transam. That's better than
stop. You're asking pro there,Rick, Come on, get the transame,
get some money to work on it. Your first thing you had to
do is get the transam, andgood luck with that. Well listen,
if I got the money for atrans am and to get Counts Customs to

(46:31):
customize it, I don't care whatthe cost is. Just go to town
and make it what I want.Baby, all right, I've had it.
Larry got his feet wet by workingas a crew member for Richard Childer's
racing for a year or So he'sin the shop with Kirk Shalmerdine and Will
Land and David Smith and a fewother people, and that is it.

(46:52):
He was in culture shock just alittle bit, moving from Canada just north
of Seattle to Winston Salem, NorthCarolina. He answer the phone and basically
needed a translator because he doesn't quitegrasp the North Carolina that dialect. Steve,
I don't know what he was talkingabout there. He's the one that
talks funny. But look, look, let's look at it this way,

(47:13):
Ruth. This is one of themost unusual stories we've ever told about a
guy that made it in NASCAR.Most of the time, the guys come
from a hard, scrabbled background,right, They've gone around knockron shot doors
trying to get a job with anyteam. You've been sweeping the floors,
all right, and they eventually makeit. Now here's a guy from Canada.

(47:36):
Number one. He's the valedictorian ofhis past. That separates him from
about ninety nine percent of all theguys we've talked about in the past already.
Then he questions or comments emails SteveWade, and it's true. Now
he comes from Canada, and hemoves to Winston Sam, North Carolina to

(47:57):
join Richard Schilder's team. Now thatmeans he's in the company of Kirk Shoumatai
Will and Chocolate Myers eventually and allthose other guys that are already on the
team. Now we're not talking aboutthe landed gentry here, Okay. These
guys don't have tea every day atfour o'clock. Okay, and they probably
see things a little bit tougher thantake off you, Hosier. Hey,

(48:22):
it's the whole separate world. Andyet he made it. He made it,
and I think that's a remarkable story, truly unique. Now, not
only does he have to get usedto the language, he also has to
get used to the North Carolina humidity, and that takes some doing it.
But then, after he'd been ayear or so with RCR, he didn't

(48:46):
just get thrown into the deep endof the pool. He got the full
force of a fire hose squarely inthe face. When he was hired at
Pitty Enterprises prior to the nineteen eightythree season, you could hear it in
Larry's woice. He hated to leaveArco, especially since it was Richard Childress,
who had brought him to North Carolinain the first place. But he

(49:08):
did admit that he didn't exactly getalong with Kirk. Shelmerdine didn't go into
detail, and I didn't press,but they evidently didn't get along that great.
They're friends now and Larry has donesome work on Kirk's race cars,
but at the time they just weren'texactly on the same page for whatever reason.
So Larry hit the road from WinstonSalem to Level Cross or Probably what

(49:32):
made the difference between Kirk and Larry, it's the fact that Larry was a
newcomer. He was not established inNASCAR when he joined the RCR. He
probably did have his ideas on howthings should be done or what he might
do to a car. But goingup against Kirk, who's been around and
is the crew chief in fact,that's not always going to sit well.

(49:55):
So you're going to have guys thatgo at luggerheads sometime. I'm when he
reaches that situation. Well, Steve, here's what is truly the amazing part
of this story. They go totest at Daytona prior to the start of
the nineteen eighty three season and RichardPetty asked Larry Pollard to be a co
crew chief with Robin Pemberton. Andagain, Larry had only been in North

(50:20):
Carolina and working in the Winston Cutgarage a little over a year. Now,
that to me means that Richard musthave seen something in Larry he really
liked. And here he is ina role that del Enman had been in
for years. He is sharing thatrole with Robin Pemberton, and Larry said
that he could kind of talk Robininto doing somethings. Robin might have been

(50:45):
a little more experienced in the cupgarage, but I think Larry was willing
to push things to the edge alittle bit, and at that point,
just being in NASCAR for a coupleof years or so, he wasn't quite
sure what he couldn't couldn't do tothe car. So I guess he figured
it was easier to ask forgiveness thanit was permission. Now I know much

(51:05):
about racing in Canada, but I'msure the rules are a bit different,
and maybe Larry learned some things inraising up there that he thought could apply
to his NASCAR career. Now hewasn't entirely sure what could and could not,
But what the heck if you couldtry it and get by with it,
why not? That's what he wasthinking. Rules are not to be

(51:27):
obeyed or disobeyed. Rules are tobe interpreted. That goes for Canada and
the United States. They go toRocking Him for the third race of the
nineteen eighty three season, and Larry'sfather is visiting from Victoria and he helps
the team change gears and the driveshaft. And then in the closing stages

(51:49):
of that race, Bill Elliott isall over Richard for the win and makes
a last ditch effort coming off thefourth turn on the final app but he
comes up maybe half a car lengthshort, side by side at the checkered
flag. And again, this isLarry Pollard's third race as co cru chief

(52:09):
and he's taken the King to VictoryLane. So there's nothing to this.
This is easy, and you're nowhere is a story behind the story.
Alert. History will forever record RichardPetty as the winner of the Spring Race
at Rocking Him in nineteen eighty three. But what history does not record is

(52:30):
this little gem of a detail.Pitty Enterprises won that race. So they
go to Victory Lane, they gettheir pictures taken, they have to pack
up the pits, they go throughinspection, and they're late getting out of
the track and then back to LevelCross. So Larry tells everybody he's the
crew chief. So he tells everybodywe won and we were at the track

(52:51):
late. So you have most ofthe morning off. Don't worry about coming
into the shop until ten o'clock orso. So everybody just kind of mosies
in. They're taking their time,and Richard's pretty much waiting there, hands
on helps, looking at he's watch. He tells everybody, yesterday was rocking

(53:12):
him, but today is level cross. We start work in Level cross at
eight o'clock. Now, I wonderwhy Larry didn't ask Richard about that before
he made a decision. That's theonly thing I do easier ask forgiveness than
it is permission. Hey, racefans. John Dodson here from NASCAR Technical

(53:45):
Institute. NASCAR Tech is opening androlling with classes starting every three to six
weeks. In our forty eight weekAutomotive Technology program, students learn everything from
vehicle electronic technology to diagnostics and driveability. As our exclusive educational provider for NASCAR,
we are for a fifteen week NASCARelective where students learn engines, fabrication,

(54:07):
aero dynamics, pit crew essentials,and more. NASCAR Tech also offers
thirty six week welding and C andC machining training programs, so you can
choose the path that best fits yourcareer goals. Ready to see how you
can get started, visit UTI doteu slash NASCAR Today. NASCAR Technical Institute

(54:27):
prepares graduates to work as entry levelautomotive service technicians. Some graduates who take
NASCAR specific electives also may have jobopportunities in racing related industries. NASCAR Tech
is an educational institution and cannot guaranteeemployment or salary. This segment is brought

(54:55):
to our listeners by Las Vegas MotorSpeedway America's Racing Show March seventeenth, nineteen
eighty three issue a Grand National Scene. The Warner Hodged in Carolina five hundred
was scheduled to start at twelve ofive pm on March sixth, nineteen eighty
three. Now, that didn't leavemuch time to get from preaching to the

(55:15):
Chinese buffet for lunch, and thenhome to watch the race on television.
But that's beside the point. Justover the Chinese buffet to go, that's
all you had to do. Butrain delayed the green flag until two PM,
and only one hundred and forty threelaps were run before rain started falling
again. And so that meant thatthe remaining three hundred and forty nine laps

(55:38):
were postponed until a week later onMarch thirteenth. So the next clear day
rule evidently wasn't in effect. Wasnot in effect, and that made a
big factor into what went on atRockingham. They bumped it to the next
week. Here's another crazy thing.Weather almost always seemed to be a five

(56:00):
act at Rockingham early in the season. Steve, this was the fourth straight
race at Rockingham that had been postponedor delayed in some shape, form or
fashion by inclement weather of some sortbit, rain, snow, whatever,
and the fifth in the last sevenfour straight races are delayed by weather.

(56:21):
Weather indeed was the factor as towhy Rockingham went off the NASCAR schedule.
It seemed to play that track,I don't know how many times consistently just
ruining the racing for the fans,postponing racing, things of that nature.
Got to the point where ticket salesgot harder to achieve because of the weather,
and there was some discussion over startingthe race at all between track officials

(56:45):
and NASCAR, and one anonymous trackofficial told you it takes at least four
and a half hours to finish arace, and when one pm came and
went, we would rather not havestarted at all and have the fans come
back next week. We went alongwith NASCAR because they wanted to try to
prove that they will try to geta racy in any way they can.

(57:07):
We can understand that because this year'sschedule was jammed, but when the race
was interrupted after it had started,we got really upset because then we knew
at best we could get in onlyhalf a race, and that isn't good
enough for the fans. That's notwhat they paid to see. And that
was a very good point. Ifyou were going to tell fans and you're

(57:27):
going to see a race, asyou're gonna last about half as long as
you expected, fans are not goingto be happy because they paid money for
a full race and they're not gettingit. The rest of the race was
rescheduled for the following Sunday, andkel Yarborough and Neil Bonnet proceeded to lead
the race for a total of threehund fourteen laps between them, but they

(57:51):
were racing for the lead on lapfour fifty two when the back end of
Neil's car got loose going in turnone. He got into cal and they
both Now Richard Petty and Bill Elliottwere right there behind them in third and
fourth place, but somehow they managedto avoid the mass and they went on
to settle the race win between themselves, with Bill, I mean all over

(58:15):
Richard in the closing laps, tryingeverything he could accept the bumper to collect
the first win of his Winston Cupcareer. Coming off the fourth turn on
the final lap, Bill got abig run on Richard and got up alongside
him but fell maybe a half ofcarlink Short. And that was a great
finish and it was great for Richardto finally win again at last. But

(58:37):
I can tell you right now alot of fans at that race were really
pulling for Bill Elliott to make itthrough and get that first Winston Cup peaker,
if popularity was already growing. Thewin was the one hundred and ninety
six the Richard Petty's career and thefirst for Larry Pollard as a co crew
chief, and it broke a losingstreak for Richard that went by to mid

(59:00):
August of nineteen eighty one, whenhe had last won at Michigan and Steve,
you want to take a wild guesshow many races that losing streak had
been. No, Rick, whydon't you tell me forty three? Oh,
you gotta be kidding me. Howabout that? Richard said in this

(59:22):
issue, he really came off thatlast corner. It wasn't a deal where
I could have driven him right downpit road. I hadn't come off the
corner as hard as I could have, and I never kept the car down.
I got into the middle of thetrack. I didn't give him too
much room, but it was enough. I was concerned, and then Bill
said, I really thought I coulddo it. I would have been a

(59:43):
lot stronger if the caution hadn't comeout near the end, because it seemed
the longer I ran, the betterthe car. Guy. He was beating
me off the corners, both corners, but I was a bit stronger everywhere
else. If I'd tried to doany more than I did, I probably
would have on us both out.He was playing stop and go with me,
and I didn't figure it out untilthere were a couple of laps to

(01:00:05):
go. When he would stop,I'd go, and he cut me off
so bad with one lap to goit almost wrecked us both. But that's
racing. Wow. I really thoughtI could get buying. I wish I
could have pulled it off. Itwould have been a good leg with the
guys on my crew. And asI mentioned in the intro, there had
been a lot of talk about shorteningthe race from five hundred miles to five

(01:00:29):
hundred kilometers, which is about threehundred and eleven miles. The rain delayed
conclusion to this event added fuel tothat particular five because that day they only
ran like three hundred and forty ninelaps as opposed to four hundred and ninety
two, which is full length yea, and so fans got treated to a

(01:00:51):
pretty sporty little race. There weretwo issues involved here. Shortening the races
was not necessarily what the fans won, because they said, well, if
you're going to shorten the races,or you're gonna cut the ticket prices,
and no, they couldn't cut theticket prices, so that there was a
little bit of a struggle between thetracks and the fan. Also, the

(01:01:14):
tracks and the competitors were a littlebit at odds. For another reason,
the competitors always complained that Rockingham torun four at night, two laps at
Rockingham four and a half hours ofracing, it didn't pay a whole heck
of a lot compared to some otherraces. One or two winners in the
press box would say to the press, look at this, I just ran

(01:01:37):
five hundred miles at this place andthis is all I want to which the
track would be upset about that,but they didn't have the resources as some
other tracks, so they couldn't payas much. So you had a very
unbalanced situation between the tracks and thecompetitors and the tracks and the fans.
You weren't gonna get to see asmuch racing time wise, but you were

(01:02:00):
going to get to say more thanlikely better competitive racing, and that I
think is what eventually led to shorteningthose races. Richards said, what did
we run three hundred and fifty milesor so? And what did you have
two cars racing hard to win?Now? What would have happened if we
had to run one hundred and fiftymore miles. We couldn't have kept it

(01:02:21):
up. It wouldn't have been racing, it would have been surviving. And
there's a good point. Indeed,even after reckon out of the lead late
in the race, Cale yarbro chimedin and he said, I think the
fans saw one heck of a showhere today and it wasn't five hundred miles
either. I think this proves thata five hundred kilometer race is the hot

(01:02:45):
tip. But the big struggle backthen, at this time again was all
about money. The fans wanted topay less and the competitors wanted to earn
more. Despite all that kind ofinput from drivers like Richard Petty and kel
Yarborough and host to others, WinstonCup races at Rockingham were not shortened to

(01:03:07):
four hundred miles until the fall ofnineteen ninety five, more than twelve years
later, after the start of theRockingham Race was postponed the week before,
Elmo Langley was driving his box truckhauler back to Charlotte when it caught on
fire about nine pm on Highway seventyfour, about eighteen miles east of min
Road, North Carolina. The cabof the truck was completely engulfed in flames

(01:03:30):
and was a total loss, althoughthe equipment and everything that he was carrying
back home remained undamaged in the backof the truck for the most part.
Now here's why. There were peoplethere watching what was going on, standing
there gawking. But they were afraidthat the fire was going to reach the
gas tank and explode. So Elmohad to unload everything off the truck by

(01:03:55):
himself. Oh no, including aspare engine. A spare engine by himself,
by himself. Elmo said, Ireally don't know how I did it.
I kind of pulled the engine outof the truck and hung with it.
I'm skinned up and bruised, butI had to get it out.
It's worth ten thousand dollars, andit was not like he had a lot

(01:04:17):
of high horsepowered engines laying around tobegin with. Why he was trying to
save everything he had. And whenyou're trying to save everything you own,
I guarantee you your drilling runs uppretty high and you can do some amazing
thing, Elmo continued. By thetime the fire department got there, it
was too late. But when theysaw what I had done, they started

(01:04:41):
calling made the incredible Hulk. Elonewants her to look like the incredible Huk
when you get right down to it. And if you've ever seen Elmo Langley
made the description isn't far off.That's right. Incredibly, Elmo was already
scheduled to get a new truck fromhis spa, your Sonny king Ford of
Anniston, Alabama, And as unfortunateas the fire was, his race car

(01:05:05):
was still in Rockingham because it hadbeen impounded by NASCAR after the race was
postponed, which is a good thingfor Elma by all means, losing the
car would have been really cut Forard. Rockingham didn't have a lot of luck
with its races that spring. DealEarnhart won the Budweiser Late Model Sportsman event

(01:05:26):
on Saturday, of course what's nowthe NASCAR Exfanity Series. The day before
the Cup race was rained out.Deal Earnhart won the Saturday race, and
that wasn't exactly a stop the Press'smoment, but there were a couple of
photos in this issue that are downrightscary. Morgan Shephard was knocked out for
thirty five minutes after his engine blewand he hit the wall and right there

(01:05:51):
he is in this issue in aclose up shot of him with his eyes
closed and laying on a stretcher.Even before that picture came out, Rick,
a lot of people were very concernedabout Morgan because they was taken forever
rivet to put him on that stressureand take him out of the racetrack.
Didn't really get any word until alittle bit later about what happened, and

(01:06:15):
then that picture came out, andman, I'm telling you, it was
really scary. The other photo isof what was left of bub and Nesson's
car after he hit the guardrail andturned two, absolutely obliterating the guardrail and
his car. From the firewall ofhis car forward, there's nothing left,

(01:06:36):
no wheels, no engine, nonothing. It's completely gone. And the
instrument panel is hanging out of wherethe front windshield should have been, and
there's no sheet metal on the driver'sside of the car. And damage to
the guardrail was so severe it wasgoing to take hours to complete, so

(01:06:57):
the race was called after just onehundred and forty eight of the events planned
one hundred ninety seven laps were completed, and guardrail damage was the most serious
threat to a driver back then,and that steel guardrail split, it became
a flying missile, a spear,if you will, and it could really
slice up a driver and his carvery very well. That's why it took

(01:07:21):
so long to fix it in thatguard rap, because it was completely shattered,
and that's why the race was postponedand as also, guardrails were eventually
obliterated from NASCAR competition. There wererumors that after winning the previous two wins
to Cup Championships together, Junior Johnsonand Darryl Walterrop were feuden that Daryl Walterrop

(01:07:44):
was planning to form his own teamand that Darrell might even leave as early
as mid season that year. Innineteen eighty three, Junior said, there's
no squabble between Darryl and me.We had a slight problem way back last
fall over licensing in a souvenir situation, but that was due to a misunderstanding.

(01:08:05):
It was settled amicably and is overand done with. All this latest
stuff is coming from some people ona few other teams up and down Pit
Road. They'd like to see usbreak up, I'm sure, or get
a lot of dissension on our teamwhere it might hurt us. They can't
beat us on the track, sothey're trying to do it another way.

(01:08:26):
Steve, that would be so unlikethe Winston Cup garaged for one team to
start rumors about another just to createturmol Oh, oh, sure that that
never happened, Rick, of coursenot. I knew some of those guys
on them other teams. They'd godirectly to one or two particular reporters and

(01:08:49):
say this stuff and it would bein print the next day. And as
I mentioned, the talk had Darrellnot even making it to the end of
the season with Junior and that hehad lined up a two million dollars deal
to form his own team. Juniorcontinued, that's news to me. Daryl
has told me he has no desireto go anywhere this year, but he's

(01:09:12):
noncommental about nineteen eighty four. I'lladmit, if he can negotiate a better
deal, then fine, I'll helphim anyway I can. I personally hope
Darrel stays with us in eighty four. I think it'd be a critical mistake
for him to try running is onoperation right now. Oh, he would
win here and there. He's thatgreat a driver, but running a team

(01:09:34):
is a twenty four hour a dayjob. Doing the driving on top of
that makes it an impossible job.That's the biggest reason I quit driving in
my mid thirties. I couldn't doboth. That's Richard Petty's biggest problem right
now. And Junior was one hundredpercent right. It's very difficult to drive

(01:09:55):
and own your own team. Lookhow many drivers try that over the years,
and Darrow tried it too. Thelist goes on Ricky and Buddy and
Kill and more, and I hadto give up the ghost. No,
it's a very, very difficult job. This issue featured what I would almost

(01:10:15):
certainly bet was the first national storyon Bobby Lebanni, the future wins The
Cup champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer, who was just eighteen years old at
the time and working for his brotherTerry's Again racing team. And Bobby said
in this issue, I want torace, and you've got to know a

(01:10:36):
lot to do that. With dellEnman here, I'm getting to do a
lot more than I did last year. Deal just naturally puts everyone at ease.
We're a team, and if wewin, the whole team wins.
It's not just one or two persons, but basically I'm learning everything. Last
year I caught gas on pit stopson race day, and this year I

(01:11:00):
might be learning how to change tiresin case I'm needed. Now, think
of all the assets that Bobby had, his brother, did he, Hagen,
theo Inman, his own father,Bob, all that knowledge and experienced
that he could learn from. Andyou know what, that's exactly what he
did and exactly why Bobby became sucha successful driver. He took advantage of

(01:11:26):
it. Hey, everybody, it'sTodd Bodine. Hey, race fans,
this is Johnny Benson. Hi,folks, this is Jeff Hammond. I'm
Kenny Wallace. Just watched your podcastwith Kred and that thing is gold.

(01:11:49):
It's just gold. Hello, SeenVault fans, this is Brian from Speedway
Screens. And if you're enough ofa NASCAR historian to be listening to this
podcast, there's a good chance apiece of the past you've been on the

(01:12:10):
hunt for is in my shop.I'm constantly on the hunt for apparel and
collectibles from all genres and eras ofmotorsports. So whether it be cup cars,
dirt modifieds, dragsters, or monstertrucks, I've probably got something for
you check out my inventory at SpeedwayTSJ dot etc. Dot com and be
sure to follow me on Instagram andTwitter at Speedway screens for the newest items

(01:12:30):
as soon as they drop in fora peek at what I keep from my
own collection. As a special thankyou to listeners of this show, just
enter scene at checkout for ten percentoff Speedway TSJ dot etc. Dot com.
That's Speedway, TSJ dot etc.Dot com. This episode has been

(01:12:56):
brought to our listeners by Las VegasMotor Speedway America's right in show place and
they track that truly cares about NASCARhistory and listeners. If you have any
questions or comments, you can emailme at Rick at the singabought dot com,
or if you have any complaints,you can email Steve at the singabolt

(01:13:17):
dot com. I don't like awardingwith that so much, Rick, You
like how I tried to slip thatin there, Like, yeah, that's
good. That was getting pretty shrewd. And the Panthers are winning for now
now I don't care. I don'tcare. They're not gonna win, but

(01:13:38):
they're masking a great join. Margaretsaid, Hey, what up this woicehap