Episode 223 -- Robert Pressley on Michael Waltrip's Bristol Crash, Beating and Then Replacing Harry Gant

In the second of our three installments with Robert Pressley, he and Michael Waltrip get together to trigger one of the most infamous crashes in NASCAR history and an IMPRESSIVE stare-down minutes later.

Robert then pulls off a last-lap pass of Harry Gant to win at Darlington, after an impromptu rain-delay tutorial from the one and only David Pearson the day before. Finally, Robert takes us through the palace intrigue that EVENTUALLY led to him REPLACING Harry Gant in Leo Jackson’s Skoal-sponsored Chevrolet.

In our second segment, hosts Rick Houston and Steve Waid dissect the April 2, 1992 issue of Winston Cup Scene.

Bill Elliott wins his fourth-straight race of the very young 1992 Winston Cup season at Darlington, after Harry Gant and his team try a strategy move that doesn’t quite pan out. And speaking of Harry, Robert Pressley makes a thrilling last-lap pass on the Bandit to capture in The Lady in Black’s Busch Series race.

Kenny Wallace has to dodge a HUGE inflatable beer can during Busch Series qualifying. Steve Waid gets his picture in the paper … AGAIN … during the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame’s grand re-opening. EVERYBODY’S going after Richard Petty fan appreciation cars … including thieves.

Corey LaJoie makes his first national appearance in a racing publication, and finally, Alan Kulwicki talks on the telephone.

NOTE: This show is not associated in any way with American City Business Journals, owner of the Scene brand.

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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. What hurtwatching that wreck did not hurt as
bad? As Michael stared me downas I went. He went by,

(00:28):
you like it here? Said,oh, I love it here? Or
you're gonna go drive the Harry getcar. And I couldn't lie to it.
I said, yeah, when Harryretires, but that's a couple of
years down the road. He lookedat me and he says, you're fired.
So I called Rick and I said, Rick, it's Robert. He
shouldn't. Yeah, it's Gold toldme that you're gonna drive my car,

(00:50):
and I told him, like hell, And they said, you didn't tell
us that you already had a contractfor ninety five. I said, well,
y'all didn't ask the day NASCAR andall of us associated in anyway.
When NASCAR forget, it's past ustoday, we don't have any future.

(01:14):
Hello everyone, I'm Steve Wade andmy name is Rick Houston, driver of
the Lonesome Pine Raceway Park pace Car, and welcome to the Seine Vault Podcast
presented by Las Vegas Motor Speedway,America's racing show place in a track that
truly cares about NASCAR history. Nowone is that driver the pace Car stuff

(01:37):
really necessary? Rick Man, Ihad my name legally changed driver of the
lownesome Pine Raceway Park pace Car isnow my official last name. Well,
if you don't mine, I'm suregonna call your Rick, Steve. We
need to talk about the schedule forthe rest of this year. When we

(01:57):
were at Scene, seen published fiftytimes a year right up to the last
couple of weeks of the calendar yearcorrect. Now, as a result of
that, we've been following pretty muchthe same course of action here on the
podcast, and that's what we're goingto do this year as well. This
episode drops on Wednesday, November twentythree, the day before Thanksgiving, and

(02:21):
we will finish up with Robert Presleynext week, with that episode coming out
in wide release on Wednesday, Novemberthirtieth. Then, well, you have
something special plan for the last twoepisodes of the year. The first of
those will drop on December seventh fora Harbor Day, and then our final

(02:42):
episode of the year will be Decemberfourteenth, now, I don't want to
say what December seventh episode is goingto be just yet, but it will
be something that we've never really triedhere on the Same Vault podcast before.
But I think it will be prettycool if it turns out the way that
I hope it will. I'm surethere will, Rick, I got a
pretty good idea what you're talking about, and I'll tell you what. Our

(03:05):
listeners are gonna love it if wedo it right. That's a big gift.
Then December fourteenth will be our lastepisode of twenty twenty two, and
it will be our selections for thebest of the Same Bought Podcast this year,
and that's gonna be a tough choicefor us to make for sure.
Rich Well, as good as ourinterviews have been this year, this episode

(03:30):
may last about four hours. Idon't know. Okay, I'm done patting
myself on the back this week.In our first segment, in the second
of our three installments with Robert Presley, he and Michael Walter get together to
trigger one of the most infamous crashesin NASCAR history, and then an impressive
stare down just minutes late. Robertthen pulls off a last lap pass of

(03:53):
Harry Gant to win at Darlington afteran impromptu rain delay tutorial from the one
and only David Pearson the day before. Now, if you're going to school
with David Pearson at Darlington, Yeah, well you're going to school with the
master. You better listen to everysingle word he says about Darlington. Kind

(04:15):
like going to Pascard school with me. Never never mind. Finally, Robert
takes us through the palace intrigue thateventually led him to replacing Harry Gant in
Leo Jackson's Skull sponsored Chevallet and Steve. When I say palace intrigue, this

(04:36):
was good. This is a prettydone good soap oper. If he asked
me, well, let's just saythat Elizabeth and Charles and Camilla and Diana
and the Crown, they didn't haveanything on Robert Presley, not a thing.
Then in our second segment, we'regoing to go back to the April

(04:56):
second, nineteen ninety two issue ofWinston Cup scene. Bill Elliott wins his
fourth straight race of the very youngnineteen ninety two Winston Cup season at Darlington
after Harry Gant and his team trya strategy move that doesn't quite pan out.
Speaking of Harry and speaking of Robert, Robert makes a thrilling last light

(05:17):
pass on the bandit to capture thelady. In Blacks Bush Series race the
day before the Cup race, HennyWallace has to dodge a huge inflatable beer
can during Bush Series qualifying. Youget your picture in the paper again.
During the National Motorsports Press Association's Hallof Fame Grand reopening, everybody is going

(05:40):
after Richard Petty fan appreciation cars includingthieves, and Corey Lejoy makes his very
first national appearance in a racing publicationand finally stop the presses. Alan Quickie
talks on the telephone. Cop onthe telephone is correct, Rick, but
as our lesions will discover, itwasn't quite a routine thing. This week

(06:06):
we have new Patreon support from ScottLaroc and Andrew Schmidt. So Scott and
Andrew, you are now a partof the family. I don't know how
us to put it. Thank you, Thank you for your belief in what
we do. I truly appreciate it. And listeners. You can support this
podcast by checking out our t shirtsover on our website www dot the sambought

(06:29):
dot com. Click on shop,go to town it's Christmas. You can
buy everybody you know an LW RightT shirt or a Sambault podcast t shirt.
Listens. If you can help usout on a monthly basis, you
can do that at Patreon dot com, slash the Same Vault podcast, or
if you would prefer to do aone time show of support, you can

(06:53):
do that via PayPal dot knee,Slash the Same Bought podcast, or Venmo
dot com the Same Bolt podcast.And just as a reminder, this show
is not affiliated in any way,shape, form, or fashion with American
City Business Journals, owner of thesame brand. April nineteen ninety at Bristol,

(07:23):
you're racing Michael Walter, and thetwo of you get together a little
bit and you go on about yourbusiness and you come around and all hell
has broken loose. What do youremember about that? I am so glad
we're talking about that, because thisis something that Michael has talked about many
times. Yeah, and I've nevergot to really go publicly and say exactly

(07:47):
what happened. And this is perfectfor the story. I'm driving for a
lights tractor trailer training center. Michael'sdriving for Ronnie Silver's, which lives here
in Asheville and just happened to besponsored in a bunch of races by Blatan's
Tractor Trailer Trading Center. We hadgot into a little controversy kind of because,

(08:11):
let me tell you, it wasa rival between these two training centers
to learn drive tractor track and theywas only a mile and a half apart.
So we'd kind of got into itat Hickory, you know, Michael,
you know, bumping and everything,and somebody had said something called Blatan's

(08:33):
wanted to beat the lights, andyou know, a lights, whatever it
takes, we can't let the Blatoncar win. So now we go to
Bristol. Now it was Blatton andassociate. No, well Blatan's was not
on it. At Bristol, itwas a kool Aid car. But at
Hickory and some of the race tracksthat was close here it had Blatin's Tractor

(08:54):
Trailer Training Center as a primary sponsorfor Ronnie Silvers. Yeah, so we
get to Bristol and now this nineteenninety my first or second race at Bristol,
cause I run there in eighty ninein my own car, and I
can remember Michael Waltrip and I'm gonnatell most of this all story where if

(09:18):
Michael wants to talk, and we'vekind of said things, but not really.
Michael and Kyle Petty was dominating therace the peak car and Michael I
was getting lout. I probably twolaps down, might have been three,
you know, Bristol and running ina good race car and everything. They

(09:41):
both pitted somehow Michael didn't get outof the pits is quick, and that's
when the slow cars on the bottom, fast cars on the top, and
Kyle got away from him. I'vewatched this film hundreds of time to make
sure what I thought matched up.And this is in the nineties, cause

(10:03):
that was a terrific wreck that youdon't want to never see. And Michael,
the race track's coming apart. Soif you go back and look at
the history race track come part,there's loose gravel up there and everything and
rubber, and Michael's coming and thespider says, thirty cars coming. He's
second place or third place or whatever, and you know, I'm down on

(10:26):
an apron like a slow car is. And whenever we come off a turn
two, this is where the controversy'sgoing to start. Is I, honestly,
in my opinion, think that Mikewas gonna give me a little dudge
to say, hey boy, whereare you at? Now? Where's this

(10:48):
a lights car at? Now?And Mike clipped my right rear tire and
whenever he did, he shot straightinto that gate. I knew and I've
seen it hit and I thought,you know, wow, what is it?
Am? I delyris that I justwitnessed what I've seen in the mirror.

(11:11):
And you know, we didn't comeback around. They read flagged that
race, and I'm looking and everybodystaring at me like what in the heck
just happened? And then somebody says, hey, Robert, that wasn't your
fault. And so we get outof the car and I look over there

(11:33):
and I see all this, andI mean I almost wanted to throw up.
I was sick seeing a body partshere, motors here, and I
knew he was dead. And allof a sudden, we're sitting there in
the red flag and they're cleaning itup, and here comes Michael on a

(11:56):
golf cart going to the infill.And let me tell you what hurt watching
that wreck did not hurt as badas Michael staring me down as I went.
He went by and we wasn't twentyfoot apart. And I was so
relieved he was alive that I neverthought about any controversy. And he never

(12:20):
said a word. He just staredas he went by on that golf cart.
And I felt so much better becauseI knew it wasn't my father or
anything. Later on, I heardMichael on a podcast tell somebody say,
I want to go of their whoophim? But I knew how tough them
old Ashville boys. They told mehad they been? I mean, heck,

(12:46):
I think to him, he wasjust glad to be alive. But
later on his brother Daryl told me, he said, you bout killed my
brother. And I said, Darrel, and this is probably the most conversation
we ever talked about it. Isaid, Darrel, how did I do
it? How did I wreck him? He said, well, whenever you

(13:07):
turned him into that wall. Isaid, oh, I didn't know that
I turned him in the wall.He said, yeah, when y'all come
off the corner, you just turnedhim in the wall. I said,
Darrel, you need go watch thevideo. He's behind me, and you
know I'm in cup now. Thisis years later. I knew I was

(13:28):
good, but I didn't know Icould wreck somebody off the back bumper and
he so, I think you needto realize. Darrel come back to me
next week and said, we hadalways heard you put him in the wall.
And he said, you know allthese years didn't know, but me

(13:50):
and Michael probably have not said twentywords together since that wreck. I mean
maybe in driver Interduct and all theraces we run, it would be whenever
we walked by each other, wejust looked at each other. No words
was ever spoken. And I'm soglad you brought that date up because that

(14:13):
is something that the tape of showevery bit of what I'm talking about from
them too dominating a raid up toit happened, and I'm not sure that
they really show me when he passedon that golf cart you know about.
I can remember it. That waswhat thirty two years ago now, So

(14:35):
nineteen nine and ninety one, yourun. Okay, you got another win
in Orange County, but otherwise theresults were kind of up and down.
How big a learning curve did youhave those first two full time seasons in
the Bush series. It was calledloyalty, and I've got to call that
a year and a half of upand down because I want did the boys

(15:00):
had helped me through the late Modeldays to go to this Alliance team.
And then again Jack Ingram come tome. He said, Robert, I'm
fixing to retire. He said,you need to get Ben Barnes motors.
You need to get Ricky Pearson asa crew chief, and you need to

(15:22):
hire this boy here, Owen,and get rid of them boys. You
gotta so I ain't gonna get ridof and we need help. And I
come home and called Ricky Pearson andOwen Edwards that I knew personally. He
said, hey, I'll come towork when Jack retires, and then went
down to talk Ben Barnes and hesaid, yeah, since Jack's retiring,

(15:45):
I'll build your motors. And whenRicky Pearson come on board, it was
just like we went to the verynext step. We went. You know,
we run good at short tracks,but you know we hadn't never been
the Nazareth, we hadn't been Hapshire, we hadn't been to some of these
race tracks. We was a shorttrack guy. And when Ricky come in

(16:06):
here, I mean it was likeme wrestling race cars to me being able
to drive a race car. Becausethey drove so good and that was the
difference and I owe everything. Wegot to a light Ricky Owen and Ben
Barnes. So tell me about thePearson family. Because you got Ricky,

(16:26):
you had Eddie. I don't knowthat. Did Eddie work for you?
No? He was weekend hell comein? And then of course you had
David in the big somehow. Whatwas it like to be around that family?
Ricky Pearson and me had a relationshipthat we both probably could say,

(16:47):
what if like a Ray Everham,Jeff Gordon, you know who was the
best? We was a team.It was times we'd call each other two
or three o'clock in the morning beforethe race in the motel. Hey,
Ricky, I just thought of something, what about we do this? Or
Ricky you'd say, Robert, here'swhat I'm gonna do now, I'm not

(17:07):
sure if it's gonna work or not. That was a relationship that me and
him. We believed in each other. He supported me one hundred percent and
I supported him. And there wastimes there was controversy, but you had
to have it. But David wasaround very little, you know, but
he was always at Darlington, Rockinghamin place. Well, and you go

(17:33):
back to ninety one, and thenthat's when we started turning everything around.
At ninety two, we go toDarlington the year before, I'd run eighteenth
and fifteenth, two or three lapsdown. You know, Darlington, you
better know what you're doing there.So we practice and we're twenty second on

(17:56):
the board out of forty something wereI should have been at Darlington ninety two
spring race. David comes over thereand he's sitting on the trunk and he
said, boy, you you don'tdrive this race track. He said,
let me tell you. So.It was raining and we's getting requalified.

(18:17):
David being David Pearson owned Darlington,and he got Jim Hunter and said,
hey, I'm gonna take this boyout run race track slow in the pace
car. We rode around that racetrackfor about ten minutes and David telling me,
here's what you do, Here's whatyou do slow, you know,
because it was raining. I said, really, and he told me what

(18:41):
the car was gonna do. Hesaid, you can't let off, you
can't. You gotta keep tractioning them, retire. It stopped raining that afternoon.
Getting requalified, Mark Martin sits onthe pole and I sat on the
outside pole had gained like a secondfrom practice to there, not changing nothing

(19:03):
on the race car, and therace started, and I've seen then more
what he was talking about of howyou don't race at racetrack. You race
your car. You don't worry aboutnobody in there in front of you until
you're ready to pounce on them.You find out their weak place because there
ain't many places passed. You don'trun side beside with nobody. And we

(19:30):
end up winning the race, thetwo hundred Darlington race because of a rain
delay if it had not rain delay, and then we come back next year
and win the race again. Wellbefore we go, yeah to ninety three,
I want to talk about ninety two. Not only did you win at

(19:51):
Darlington in the spring of ninety two, you passed Harry Gant on the last
lap. Yeah, to do it? Take me through the It was the
last few laps. Okay, Harry'skind of running like he does at Darlington.
We're a third place car. Colsoncomes out with ten laps to go.

(20:11):
We come in get tires and RickyPearson, Eddie Pearson and my crew.
We get out on pit road first. Harry's on the outside. Harry
calls us a little high school kids. You know, I'll let them little
kids riding, then I'll take themwhen I want them. Well, I'm
leading, leading, leading there,and all of a sudden, about three

(20:33):
or four laps go, Harry passesme and we come off a turn two,
the old turn two or the racetrack turned too at that time,
and I pull up beside of him, and I didn't realize called Harry had
not got away from me. Youknow, I was right there, and
I got under him, and I'veseen what was going on, and we

(20:56):
got side beside and he let mego on the last lap, two laps
together, and he's sitting there behindme, and I said, what in
the world's going on? And thenhe pulls up there and gets beside of
me, and we're going down theback straight away and now listen back straight

(21:17):
away. He's walk three and ahalf seconds long. And David Pearson gets
in my ear, not on aradio of what he told me. Robert
best saying about Darlington is whenever youcan let somebody sneak in on your inside,
and then when they go up thetrack and you pass them back,

(21:37):
you do the cross on them,he says, and that's racing right there
at Darlington, and I'm thinking,whoa, Harry's going to cross me.
And I heard him left, Ilifted, he left, I left,
and I make him go in theoutside with me no opportunity to do the

(21:59):
crossover. And then he realized I'min trouble. He was gonna teach me
a lesson, and I taught himone of the best thing about it.
After the race is over and nextweek we're talking. I guess at Dover
where we're at, or next placewe raced together, I think was Dover

(22:21):
And he said, you didn't outsmartme. I knew you'd crash me if
i'd done. I said, Harry, you think I were direct using I
wasn't gonna take no chance because Ihad to win that Cup race the next
day. Harry had an answer foreverything. But but it's amazing, and
only race car drivers, I thinkcan really understand of a wreck is slow

(22:47):
motion. But that Darlington was slowmotion going down the back straight away and
like right when we was getting thethree, hereson, Oh, here's the
funniest part of the race track andyou can do a crossover. Yeah.
Wow. Well, beating Harry wasno small thing. Especially at that point
because he was coming off that justcrazy September a few months before. Was

(23:14):
that the race that put you onthe map? Oh? Yeah? After
that race in ninety two, inthe spring of ninety two, I started
getting calls to go Cup racing.You know, ain't it ironic that I
win a bush race at Orange Countyand start getting Bush calls. Now,
I finally I think I'd won OrangeCounty twice and maybe somewhere else or something,

(23:38):
And then you win Darlington. Nowthe Cup owners are calling, Hey,
what's your plans here? You know, Hey, I'm getting I love
Bush Grand National. I'm not goingnowhere. And then all of a sudden,
towards the end of ninety two season, I get a call from Leo
and he says, hey, RobertHarry Gantz gonna be retired in a couple

(24:02):
of years, would you be interestedin signing a contract now to take over
for him? It could be ninetyfour, or it could be ninety five
or ninety six, but we wantto tie you up. And I said,
WID don't really know. And Iit was that early, and nobody

(24:26):
knew about this, and I'd metwith Skull, and I mean, it
was a top top secret deal becausethe skull Bandit car is what I was
told from Johnny Hayes and Leo Jackson, Harry Gantz the skoal bandit. You'll
never be the skull bandit. RickMass is not the scold guy. You

(24:48):
know, Nobody that's Harry. Wenever want Harry to think that we're planning
ahead to make him think that we'rewanting to get rid of him. Called
if Harry wants the race till hehe's sixty five years old, he's going
to drive this race car. Whatwe want is to put you in the
car when he gets out. Isaid, well, I can do that.

(25:10):
So I went back to my ownerand just filling him out one day
and I said, hey, myLights, and I said, hey,
what's our goals? You know,you know, we'd talked a couple of
years ago about going Coup Racing RT. We love what we're doing right now,
and we're gonna be here, youknow, with everything going on,

(25:33):
and this is worth a government becausethe government was kind of funding the Lights
deal, you know, because thatwas during the time when people was losing
their jobs and they was paying peopleto learn a trade. So it was
both ways. And he said,hey, we're good. Are you wanting
to leave? And I said,oh no, no, I want to
make sure we're good for the nextcouple of years. I knew Harry was

(25:56):
nowhere near ready to retire. Andoh yeah, but Robert, anything ever
come up, you let us know. You know, I'm not gonna hold
you back because we might go coupracing one day and we want you.
So I raced the rest of orWell is actually in a fall of ninety
two. I raced all ninety three. We're having a great year. I

(26:19):
mean, we ain't winning as manyraces, but we're championship down, you
know, that's our whole goal.And we get to five races to go
in ninety three, and what happens. The Secretary of Skull and the Secretary

(26:40):
of Alliance go to church together andthey go and start talking, Well,
we're so glad or they had tobe. The Secretary Skull had to be
there to sign the contract and getall of it notorized. Robert's coming over,
and we're so happy he gonna takeover for Harry when he quits a

(27:02):
couple of years from now. Nextday, that was church Sunday on Monday,
owner called me in he's doing anappearance, and he said, I
need to talk to us. Well, i'll be back wednesday. You need
to be here Wednesday morning. Andhe hadn't never had that tone of void,

(27:22):
but we was all tent stuck.Go five races ago. We're heading
to Martinsville and we're contenders to winthis championship, and my tracks are coming
up Rockingham, Martinsville and place.I go walking in out there Wednesday morning
and I go to shop, gothrough, see the guys, and the

(27:45):
shop's locked. I go over thereand I get an office and owners says,
what's your plans? So well,I'm gonna leave tomorrow go to Martinsville.
And I said that's it. Ain'tgot nothing now, So he said,
ninna your future plans? I said, well, I guess we're good

(28:06):
to race next year and we're gonnago so that would have been ninety four
season. You want to race here? You you like it here? I
said, oh, I love ithere. And you know you said that
we're gonna be up here and wedon't know what ninety five holds called.
I really thought Harry was gonna goto ninety six. And he said,

(28:29):
well, I heard, you're gonnago drive the Harry get car. And
I couldn't lie to him. Well, there's rumors that Harry's gonna retire,
and whenever he does that I mighttake over. But I'm here. They
know that I'm gonna be here nextyear and everything. Had you signed anything,

(28:51):
yeah, I'd signed the contract Iwas paid by I was being paid
by them too, not to driveanything but my lights car. And I
said, yeah, when Harry retires, but that's a couple of years down
the road. He looked at meand he said, you're fired. We're

(29:12):
getting ready go to Mark. That'swhy the shop was locked up. They
was getting the seat ready for demoscenter. If I come home, tell
them why I just got fired?What old her? What happened? Who
told? I said, Well,the secretaries got the talking and found out.

(29:34):
And now other people was finding out. You know, called Ricky Pearson
knew and everything. And if Iget on phone and I called Johnny Hayes
and I said, Johnny, Ijust got fired. What I just got
fired? I said, they foundout. Two secretaries got to talk and

(29:55):
found out I'm gonna drive for hiscoal car. And he told me,
if I wasn't happy here that I'mfired and Dennis Ceter is gonna drive the
car at Martinsville. I'm in thepoint championship and we've worked hard to do
this. I'll call you back.I got fifteen minutes later. He calls

(30:15):
on the phone. You're driving Rickmask old car up at Martinsville. I
submitting Rick ain't getting along. Sowe'd had confrontation earlier in the year.
At Martinsville, we both started onthe front row and we got together and
Rick and me was not on talkingterms. And so I called Rick and

(30:37):
I said, Rick, it's Robert. I said he shouldn't. Yeah,
it's gold told me that you're gonnadrive my car, and I told him,
like hell. Me and Rick becomebest friends. That weekend went to
Martinsville. He was running good andI finished the year you're out in the

(31:00):
skull car of the Rick Mascar.They run the other race. Well,
we had something happened one of theraces. We couldn't do something. And
Andy that fourth or fifth in thepoints, I think that year or something.
And next year I have nothing,and I get a call from Larry
Hedrick, get a call from RickHendrick and Harry Gant announces he's going to

(31:26):
retire ninety fourages farewell, and Ithink we kind of sped that up with
them two secretaries talking because Harry I'mvery retiring. Well you know, heck,
I'm glad you know all that.So I get a deal from Larry
Hendrick. Rick Hendrick's a guy,Jimmy Johnson, not the racing Jimmy Johnson

(31:52):
the otherland. Yeah, I'd beinterested in driving. And I went to
Leah and told him and he said, yeah, when there, because man,
we want you to practice in Hendrick'scars or Hendrick's car before you get
in here, because this cup deal'sgonna be different. You're gonna tear stuff
up. So me and Jimmy Johnsontalked on the phone. Yeah, I'd

(32:15):
like to do a one year dealand then we can do options or whatever.
You know, I couldn't tell becauseHarry Gant had not been release yet.
They wanted to make a big pressrelease in January on that and they
said, okay, Well, thenI get a call back from Rick Hendrick,

(32:36):
Jimmy Johnson, Robert We're going withTerry Lebanni. So you were gonna
drive the five car? Yeah,I'm gonna drive the five car and said
we didn't know. When we wentback and told him that it was between
Robert Pressley, Terry Lebanni and somebodyelse drive a car and everything. They

(33:00):
said, well, why do youwant Robert Presley for one year because he's
already signed a concert called Chevallet HarryChevallet Hendrick, and they said, you
didn't tell us that you already hada contract for ninety five. I saw
we y'all didn't ask. I saidI would do it for one year with
options. So that blowed that out, and then why Deel Wilson was at

(33:25):
Hedrick and Chevallet had already told alltheir people because they're looking for drivers in
their car. And Hedrick said,well, I think I got Robert on
the hook. Him and Wadel's metseveral times. Then I got a call
from Widell says well, we're notlooking for a one year driver. So
that's when now everything's run out,and the ninety nine car calls and says,

(33:51):
hey, Ricky Craven's left, he'sstarting his own team. We was
just going to run idol, butwill you drive for us? Got the
Daytona and they put me on Hoosierretires in the ninety nine car and ninety
four is a year of the worstof my career, but the brightest part

(34:15):
of knowing I was going to cutthe next year. Taking the checkered flag
and driving to victory Lane is thegoal for any racer. It tells the
competition my accomplishments resulted in a tripto the winner circle. It's no different

(34:37):
as a business owner, team leader, or coach. Recognizing those deserving is
what we do every day at fiveStar Awards and engraving high race fans.
This is Bob Laird, director ofSales at five Star and former jackman for
Buddy Arrington back in the eighties.Laser engraved and full color corporate awards,
as well as crystal plaques, trophies, and promotional products are just some of

(34:58):
a sample of what we offer atfive Stars. With state of the art
equipment in our North Carolina facility,let our experience graphic artists take you from
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designs, please visit us at fiveStar Awards dot net. The entire project
can be completed online. Please reachout to me at Bob dot Laird at

(35:19):
five Star Awards dot Net nine ninenine five four one one three zero.
As a thank you, everyone whocontacts me will receive at no charge,
a collection of NASCAR memorabilia featuring RichardPetty while supplies last. That's Bob dot
Laird at five Star Awards dot Netnine one nine nine five four one one
three zero. This segment is broughtto our listeners by Las Vegas, Motor

(35:51):
Speedway, America's Rising Show Place andSteve I gotta tell you, man,
we got things started off in thisweek's interview with a bang or the mud
of all crashes, whichever the casemight actually have been. Most people listening
to this podcast already know about MichaelWalker's crash during the April nineteen ninety Bush
Series race at Bristol. Steve,you were there, I was there.

(36:13):
I will never forget that setting.But for the four thousand, one hundred
ninety second time here on the podcast, here is another story behind the story
of an event about which we alreadythought we knew everything that's right, and
this was something I hadn't heard noryou until Robert started talking. Robert even

(36:34):
said, Michael has talked about thataccident many times, but this was the
first time that he had ever reallybeen able to share his side of the
story. Robert Presley's primary sponsor atthe time was Alliance Training Centers, as
we discussed in last week's episode,and Michael was driving a card that had

(36:54):
been prepared by Ronnie Silver, who'salso from the Ashville area, and they
had had some sponsorship from a companycalled Blatan's Tractor Trailer Training Center. We
say that five times fast. Thetwo companies are only about a mile and
a half apart there in the Ashwellarea, and from the way Robert sounded

(37:19):
when he talked, it wasn't exactlythe friend list of rivalries either. It
sounds pretty ominous. At Hickory,a couple of races earlier, Michael and
Robert had wound up bumping and banginginto each other, and in that event
both had their respective training centers astheir primary sponsors. Now at the time,
Michael, of course was driving thekool Aid car in the Bush series,

(37:43):
but at Hickory, Latin's Training Centerwas his primary sponsor. At Hickory,
you could already since a sponsorship rivalrygoing on at Bristol, Robert was
already a lap or two down,and according to him, he feels sure
that Michael came down on him togive him a little tap to let him

(38:07):
know where the Blaton car was andwhere the Alliance car it was. Now,
given the rivalry between the two firms, that doesn't seem to be too
far at the question. Michael wasnot sponsored by Blanton at Bristol, but
the rivalry was evidently still there myappointing. Exactly Michael made contact, he

(38:27):
shot up the track and we allknow the result. Robert could not believe
what he saw in the rearview mirror. He saw that happen in his rearview
mirror. The race was immediately redflagged, and Roberts said that he never
made it back around far enough tosee the aftermath and the remains of Michael's
car. He's sitting in his carand he starts to fill all these eyes

(38:47):
on him, looking at him asmaybe the car that helped cause this accident.
He gets out and he sees thewreckage and Steve, you can just
imagine him getting weak in the kneesand that bottomly feeling in his ballot.
Oh wait, I mean he mighthave thought at that particular time that things
were really really bad for Michael.If you know what I mean, everybody

(39:10):
at that racetrack that day. Ithought that things were really really bad for
Michael. Now that being said,Michael gets out of the wreckage. He's
basically uninjured, but he goes byon a golf cart and Robert sees him,
and Michael evidently has this cold deathglare locked in on Robert, and

(39:31):
Robert is so relieved he doesn't evencare. Boy, Yeah, that's the
way i'd feel. Stare at me, are you one? I'm just glad
you're here to stare at me.Yea Madrid. And Robert said that in
the thirty two years since, heand Michael Walter might have spoken twenty words
to each other total. They wouldpass each other in the garage, and

(39:53):
if they acknowledged each other at all, they might have given one of those
very noncommital nods. You know,I can understand someone how Michael feels.
I'm sure that he thinks Robert wasthe cause of that terrible accident and had
born to grudge against him every since. But I'm not saying that Michael is

(40:14):
right that Robert caused it. Whoevercaused it doesn't make any difference. Michael
Steel feels that Robert is the rootof that accident and that has not bare
him very good will there after.Well, according to Robert, he's a
good race car driver, but he'snot good enough to wreck somebody who's behind
him. True, Michael doesn't feelthat way. Ricky Pearson joined Robert's team

(40:40):
as crew chief midway through the nineteenninety season. Then he gets a guy
by the name of Owen Edwards asa mechanic and Ben Barnes to build his
engines. After Jack Ingram retired atthe end of nineteen ninety one, and
in nineteen ninety two, all ofthe pieces of the puzzle are finally in
place and Robert starts running like nobody'sbusiness. Spring nineteen ninety two, Robert

(41:05):
makes his fifth start at Darlington.Now, listen, Steve, listen to
his qualifying results for his previous fourraces there, thirty nine, twenty four,
twenty six and thirty fourth. Now, that is not somebody who's exactly
very comfortable at Darlington. They're definitelythe numbers of somebody that might not have

(41:27):
quite figured out that racetrack. Yet. I would say I would agree with
you. His best finish was thenineteenth four laps down the previous fall,
so Robert and Darlington didn't exactly getalong in his first couple of seasons in
the Bush series. He goes toDarlington in the spring of nineteen ninety two.
In first practice. He's right there, in the same shape he's always

(41:49):
been there. He was slow,he didn't quite have square wheels, but
it was the deck's worst thing.But it starts raining, and so there's
nothing to do but sit there andwatch it and talk. And David Pearson,
who of course was Ricky's dad.You might say that David had had
some success there. What do youthink Darlington and David, they were synonymous.

(42:16):
Once upon a time David. Davidgrabbed the keys to the pace car
from Jim Hunter and he took Robertout for a quick ride around the racetrack.
Here's what you do here, here, and here, and Robert takes
that to heart, but still he'snever done what David had told him to
do at speed. Right, Robert'sturn comes to qualify and boom, just

(42:40):
like that, Martin. Martin ison the pole and Robert is right there
beside him on the outside of thefront row, and there's a sign that
things might be ready to change forRobert. Let's just say that he passed
the test from the master. Qualifyingis one thing, But then Robert ends
the race by passing Harry Gent onthe last lap, and I love how

(43:07):
Robert set that move up. Hegot to the inside of Harry coming off
of what was then turned two,and he hears David Pearson's advice ringing in
his ears. We'll watch out forthat crossover move going into turn three.
It's the greatest move in the world. But don't let it happen to you.
So he and Harry go in toturn three side by side, and

(43:29):
rather than carrying all that speed andmomentum into the corner, Harry backs off,
but Robert backs off two. He'snot gonna pull the slide job and
wash back up the racetrack to giveHarry room to get back under it.
It was as perfect a move asperfect gets at Darling. And that's what

(43:49):
he gets for listening strongly to DavidPierson and tell you a little story.
Another driver, years later, wentto David Piershon for advice about how did
you around at Darlington, and Davidinstructed this Striary just as well taught him
where to do this and way todo that and what to watch out for.
And that guy went out and wonone of the greatest Darlington races,

(44:14):
or one of the greatest NASCAR racesever. It was Ricky Craven who narrowly
beat Kurt Bush in two thousand andthree. How about that, and Ricky
to this day kredish David. We'vegiven him to the knowledge about how to
get around Darlington. All of asudden, Robert starts getting calls from Winston

(44:35):
Cup team owners and at the endof that season nineteen ninety two, he
gets a call from Leo Jackson.Leo doesn't know when Harry Gant was going
to retire, that he wanted toknow if Robert would be willing to basically
be on standby until Harry did decideto hang it up. They don't want
Harry to think that he's going tobe replaced. So this is basically completely

(44:58):
on the QT betwe Robert and Leoand Us Tobacco. From what I gathered
from what Robert said, Harry didn'tknow it first, and maybe even more
importantly, Robert's most series team ownerDaniel Welch doesn't know. Now this is
where the mystery starts. All thissecrecy. This is one of our all

(45:22):
time great behind the scene stories.Here on the Same Vault podcast, you
can just see it happening. Thesecretary for School and the secretary for Alliance
wind up at the same church latein the nineteen ninety three season and you
see what's about to happen here,and the School secretary says, you know,

(45:45):
we are so excited about having Robertcome to drive for us, and
the Alliance secretary is like, say, what, Oh, that was church
Sunday, as Robert called it.The next day he gets a call from
Daniel Welch and Daniel says, weneed to talk. No good conversation has

(46:07):
ever started out that Robert goes tothe shop for the meeting on Wednesday and
it is locked. There's nobody there, and let's just say that the conversation
did not go well and Robert wasout of a ride then and there with
four races remaining in the season.Now, memory is a funny thing.

(46:27):
Robert remembered being in the thick ofthe Bulls Series Championship battle, but at
the time he was actually seventh inthe standings, three hundred and twenty eight
points behind leader Steve Grissom. Sohe wasn't going to win the championship.
I think what he might have beenthinking about was remaining in the top ten
in points. But still, theAlliance between Alliance and Robert had been a

(46:49):
great relationship and certainly one that hadput him on the NASCAR map in the
grand scheme of things, and thatyear in nineteen ninety three, he had
won races with Alliance again at Darlingtonfor the second year in a row,
Nazareth in New Hampshire. But becausetwo secretaries went to church one Sunday,
that was it for Robert and Allianceand Steve. They weren't gossiping, they

(47:14):
weren't, you know, they weren'tdoing anything wrong. I mean, the
Skulls secretary said something very innocent andthe Alignance secretary did not know anything about
it. And if she didn't knowanything about it, you kind of gotta
figure that Daniel Welch didn't know anythingabout it. But wait, it gets
even better. Robert calls Johnny Hayes, who headed up Skulls racing program,

(47:38):
and he tells him that he hadbeen fired and Johnny says, I'll call
you back. Johnny lined up Rickmass Bus Series car, which came as
a shock to me because I didn'teven know Rick masked had ever driven in
the Bush series. Ha ha,it's a joke, people, it's a

(48:00):
joke. I'm joking, Rick mystI promise Ricky still mad as you be
leaving him out of your The storybehind that story was that Robert and Rick
had gotten into a scrape somewhere atsome point in time, and they weren't
exactly on speaking terms. They wereactually kind of ticked off at each other.

(48:22):
And Robert calls Rick and Rick says, skull told me that you're going
to drive my car at Martinsville,and I told him, like, heck
you are. I don't think heckis the word he used. I just
get the image of cold Trickle androwdy Burns meeting for the first time at
that Charlotte test in Days of Thunder, and Rick telling Robert you've been this

(48:43):
sucker up the least a little bit. I'm gonna tear off your you know
what. They go to Martinsville andthey become best friends and live happily ever
after, just like Colin Rowdy afterCole won the Daytona five hundred driving Rowdy's
car. I love a happy well. I would have told you that what
happened between Rick and Robert is thekind of stuff that Hollywood wouldn't even touch.

(49:07):
But if you shall mind me,and so never mind, here's another
little nugget for you. According toRobert, he feels that those two secretaries
spilling the beans at church that daymight very well have sped up Harry's retirement.
Robert had thought all along that Harrywould race through at least nineteen ninety

(49:30):
five, if not even into nineteenninety six. But after word got out
about Robert still, Harry went,well, I reckon, I'll just go
ahead and retire now. Rick hareme being ready to retire. He raced
for the majority of his Cup careerwith Skull as a sponger, and I'm
sure that over the years he acquiredsome US tobacco stock in addition to his

(49:53):
paycheck, so I don't think heneeded any money. I think he might
also being fueled by the fact thathe had not won a race in two
years. With Leo Jackson, allthat might have propelled him to retire anyway,
Oh but wait, they're still more. Ricky Rudd was leaving Hendrick Motorsports

(50:15):
at the end of the nineteen ninetythree season to do his own deal,
so that left the five car opened, and Robert gets a call, Are
you interested? And Robert says,oh, yeah, absolutely, let's do
a one year deal with options.But what Robert didn't mention was the fact
that he had already signed a contractwith Leo Jackson for nineteen ninety five.

(50:38):
Motorsports found out about it anyway.Oops, Robert gets a call and he's
told we're going with Terry Lebanni.You didn't tell us about your deal with
Leo, to which Robert Presley responded, you didn't ask. Robert had another

(50:59):
one to cup ride lined up withLarry Hendrick and what l Wilson, and
they apparently got wind of the issuesHendrick had with Roberts one year availability and
he lost that deal. As aresult of all those make nations, Robert
wound up back in the Bus Seriesin nineteen ninety four with Bill Patke and

(51:20):
Mike Laughlin and a one race dealwith Petty Enterprise's Bus Series program. Yeah,
you're right, Rick, This isNASCAR's version of the crown, right.
I've gotta wonder that if Robert hadn'tthought he might have made a mistake
to go ahead and signed that contractwith Leo, how do you think his
career might have gone and he drewnfor Hendrick Motorsports or even Larry Hendrick and

(51:45):
Wydale Wilson. He's kind of wonderabout that sometimes. I really think that
it wasn't the best of years innineteen ninety four. But he knows that
he's gonna go Winston Cup racing innineteen ninety five with Leo Jack, so
he's got that to look forward to, Hey, race fans. John Dodson

(52:12):
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(53:00):
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(53:22):
This segment is brought to our listenersby Las Vegas Motor Speedway America's Racing show
Place. April second, nineteen ninetytwo issue of Winston Cup Scene. Bill
Elliott won his fourth straight race ofthe season at Darlington, and it was
only five races into nineteen ninety two, and that was his very first year

(53:42):
with Junior Johnson and associates. Billdropped out of the lead to Pitt on
lap three oh five and he couldmake it the rest of the way from
that point without stopping again. Billrecaptured the top spot on lap three twenty
three when Harry Gant dropped onto pitroad for four tires, just thirty seven
lives after stopping under green for gasand tires. Previously Harry was almost ten

(54:05):
seconds ahead of Bill at the time, and after the stop he was a
lapped down to Bill. The thinkingwas that he could go right back to
the top of the leaderboard if andwin Bill made his stop. There's only
one problem with that plan. Billnever pitied again, and while Harry rocketed
back up to second place, henever quite caught back up to Bill and

(54:27):
finished eight point eight seconds back.Bill said, as I said earlier,
I would have never believed this wouldhappen this year. We've been lucky and
we've been good. Today we weredecent. We struggled along, and as
the day went on, our cargot better while everyone else's seemed to fall
off. I kept telling myself tokeep cool, keep cool. I knew

(54:49):
I had a decent car, andif I didn't win, I'd have a
decent finish anyway, and here weare in victory Lane. There are a
lot of rumors going around at thattime that Bill's ford might have had a
little bit something extra Bills into itthat helped him win those four races in
a row. Afterward, Bill cooleddown a little bit, but it was

(55:13):
still a trip it year for Billand Junior Johnson In the hunt for the
championship until the Hooters five hundred inAtlanta. And Rick, I believe you
know a little something about that race. This past week it was exactly thirty
years that race. Can you believeit has been thirty years? No?

(55:34):
I can't, Rick, and Idon't want to be reminded. Oh sorry.
The win was Forward's ninth straight goingback to the nineteen ninety one season,
and the grumbling was starting at GeneralMotors. After finishing second to be
all for the second race in arow, Harry Gant said, I don't
know what we're gonna do to beatthose Forwards. They're just flat out beating

(55:59):
us. Our car is good,probably the best it's ever been. We'll
just have to keep working on itand one of these days the brakes will
go our way and we'll be thereto win. I don't feel bad about
today. Heck, we ran agood race and finished second. There were
only four cautions in this race.Daryl Waltrip was one of them just before

(56:19):
the halfway point. He was nothappy with Jeff Bodina. Afterwards, Darrell
said, I'm trying not to gettoo excited, but that little turd driving
the number fifty ink car ran overme. You know, you give and
you take, and you give andyou take. I gave the man plenty
of room, but he decided heneeded a little bit more. I guess

(56:43):
he just knocked the fire out ofme and spun me around for no reason.
Just one of those uncalled four thingsthat happened in racing. I guess
Jeff heard of Darrell's remark and said, I'm sure I've been called worse.
I don't blame him. I'd havebeen mad too if my car had hit
the wall, but we just bumped. Well nothing, I knew you're about

(57:06):
to exchange your boards there. I'msure that Dare always said pretty much about
others. I'm pretty sure that Jeffhas done the same for others as well.
Well, let's just say that's raising. This issue also featured coverage of
that just absolutely fantastic finish between Robertand Harry in the Bush Series race at
Darlington that weekend and Steve. Imaginemy shock when I read the byline on

(57:31):
the Bush Series race lead in thisissue. It says, by Steve Wade,
executive editor, what in the worldwere you doing covering a Bush Series
right? Had you lost a bet? What I don't want to say for
certain, Rick, But you aska very good question right there doesn't need

(57:52):
an answer. Robert Pressley said inYour Race Lead, I thought, with
two laps to go, if Icould just run him a little bit harder
into turn one than he would want, I might just have a chance,
or at least i'd look good.I thought maybe he would mess up,
maybe just a one in a millionchance, and he did right here today.

(58:15):
Going into the third turn, Iknew you never let anybody go there
on the outside of you and breakyou, because they're going to come back.
I knew that's what he was goingto do. I heard him let
off, and I let off,and he was hung out there. I
thought he was mad. But thenI got around him, and for some

(58:35):
reason my car got sideways and turnedfour. I knew he would be outside
me, and for a while Ithought I was going to finish second,
said Harry. He put his carright where it would stick, and there
wasn't much I could do about it. He gave me plenty of room,
but he just flat beat me.He had a really strong car, and

(58:55):
he also had those good lessons.And David Pierson, obviously they hey yea,
all free. A lot of peopleremember the huge inflatable Tropicana orange that
somehow made its way onto the trackduring Cup qualifying at Chicago Land in two
thousand and four, and everybody wassaying, I've never seen that before.

(59:16):
Well, Kenny Wallace did during qualifyingfor Darlington's Bush Series event that year.
In nineteen ninety two, the BushBeer can inflatable broke loose in eighteen mile
an hour winds and sailed into thelower groove and turned one just as Kenny
was starting his qualifying lap. Hughhe said in this issue, I was

(59:37):
really concentrating on driving in to turnone as hard as I could. I
got into the corner and I knewsomething was weird because I saw an extension
cord with a blower on the endof it. I thought, what the
heck, Yeah, I bet that'swhat he said. And I leaned my
head far to the left and Isaw a bush Beer balloon flapping in the

(59:59):
lower grow. I was in thegas wide open and moved up just a
little bit. It stunned me morethan it did anything. I didn't know
what to do. I just stayedin the gas, and when I went
through there. I felt like Ihad to make up lost time. I
was determined to make it up.Kenny was given the option of making another

(01:00:20):
qualifying run, but he stood onhis time and after all that excitement with
the balloon, he still qualified.Forth, we're a scene, a balloon
coming at you might want to makeit over a little bit fast, and
you really think you huld with thatbigger inflatable beer can I wonder what kind
of beer rebate money we could getfrom Paul Friedrich. That's a very good

(01:00:44):
talk. I appreciate that the newNational Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame opened
that weekend, and at the timeyou were the president of the NNPA.
There's a fantastic photo of you andDarlington Raceway president that Woody McKay cutting the
ribbon, and Steve just listened tothis list of people who were there with

(01:01:05):
you, Jack Smith, Bob Welborne, Ray Fox Senior, Tim Flock,
Herb Thomas, ned Jarrett and Jimpaschal Rick. I can't tell you how
proud I was to be there atthat moment and to being a man to
cut the ribbon to new NNPA Hallof Fame and to be with that group
of drivers, that very special groupof famous Hall of Fame drivers. I've

(01:01:30):
got that very same picture and Itreasured for sure. There was a feature
in this issue on Stanley Smith,the driver best known probably in the Winston
Cup ranks, for surviving a veryserious crash at Talladega the following year,
the one in which Jimmy Horton wentflying over the wall. He actually survived

(01:01:51):
a basil skull fracture, just likeClarry Pollard. He said in this issue,
when I set my mind for something, pretty well go at it and
pretty well accomplish it if it's withinreason. But a lot depends on if
I've got the sponsorship dollars. You'vegot to set your goals in line with
what you can really do and notkid yourself. Five years from now,

(01:02:13):
I hope I'm gonna name enough driverthat I'm one of the Winston Cup regulars.
Yeah. Unfortunately, standing never didyou get the sponsorship he needed,
and five years later he was notone of the Winston Cup regulars. Commemorative
die cast cars were issued for eachstop on that year as Richard Petty Fan
Appreciation Tour, and they were thehot item early that season. They were

(01:02:39):
such a big deal that the coverstory on the previous week's issue of Winston
Cup Scene was on the hunt forthe petty cars and things literally got carried
away with a five finger discount.Not surprised, thieves stole approximately seventy five
hundred to ten thousand dollars worth ofthe cars from a warehouse near the Fairgrounds

(01:03:04):
Racetrack in Nashville. The thieves hadalso gone after the cars at a warehouse
at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but theycould not gain access. Finally, Frank
Wilson, the president of North CarolinaMotor Speedway in Rockingham at the time,
he locked his tracks allotment in aU haul, then parked the truck each
night in a building with a guarddog and personally drove it to and from

(01:03:29):
the track on Saturday and Sunday.That's what you call guarding the loot.
That's really taking that a real stepfurther. And Steve, I couldn't help,
but remember that, very very earlyon in our run with the Sea
Vault podcast, Margaret was evidently makingyou get rid of some of your NASCAR
treasures, and you actually gave mea complete set of Wales cars. And

(01:03:53):
I tell you Margaret is the onlypart of the reason I had so much
stuff lying around, like knew thatI wanted to see to it that it
went somewhere special. You know.I could not think of anybody more desifferent
to have those cars than you,the big Richard Petty fan you were.
And here is a gem from thepit pass section and Steve a lot of

(01:04:16):
times the pit pass section was justkind of short, little press release kind
of things. True, but thepit pass section was one of my favorite
sections in the paper because it waslike mining for gold all the time.
They were nuggets from the pit passsection that were just absolutely pure gold.

(01:04:38):
I mean they were awesome. You'reright, Rick, And you know I
was a big fan the pit passsection as well, and contribute to it
as much as I could, becausethat was really interesting and entertaining stuff.
It was in this case, Andhere's the item. Often drivers are seen
conferring with their crews just before qualifying, but as the garage area cleared for

(01:05:00):
Trans South five hundred time trials,Alan Quickie was standing near his team's trailer
talking on a cordless telephone. Nowyou can imagine what a site a cordless
telephone was back then we're talking tothe infancy of cordless phones. Finally,
I also loved the backstretch section wherefans could send in their photos for publication.

(01:05:23):
And some friends of Randy Lejoy's sentin a photo of him and Buckshot
John's on their honeymoon. Oh wait, no, that wasn't it. I'm
sorry. Some friends of Randy Lejoysent in a photo of him and three
month old son Corey, who Randywas holding upright in a tiny little pushcar.
Now have you seen Corey lately?I can never imagine that guy being

(01:05:46):
just three months old. I'm KenSchrader, I'm Lake Speedy, Mike Beam.
Hey, race fans, this isShauna Robinson. Hey, I'm Rick
Wilson, and you're listening to thesame Vault podcast. Hello seen Vault fans,

(01:06:19):
This is Brian from Speedway Screens.And if you're enough of a NASCAR
historian to be listening to this podcast, there's a good chance a piece of
the past you've been on the huntfor is in my shop. I'm constantly
on the hunt for apparel and collectiblesfrom all genres and eras of motorsports,
so whether it be cup cars,dirt modifieds, dragsters or monster trucks.
I've probably got something for you.Check out my inventory at Speedway TSJ dot

(01:06:43):
etc. Dot com and be sureto follow me on Instagram and Twitter at
speedway screens for the newest items assoon as they drop in for a peek
at what I keep from my owncollection. As a special thank you to
listeners of this show, just enterscene at checkout for ten percent off Speedway
TSJ dot dot com. That's Speedway, TSJ dot etc. Dot com.

(01:07:12):
This podcast has been brought to ourlisteners by Las Vegas, Motor Speedway,
America's racing showplace and Steve. Nota lot of people outside the NASCAR community
will know the name of Steve McCallwho died last week, but he he
was a huge behind the scenes figurefor the media for a lot of years.
Tell me about Steve in his role. Well, Steve and his brother

(01:07:38):
William I actually volunteered their services tothe NMPN and they were there at every
convention. They we ever had todo anything and everything they could to help,
even to being bartenders in the hospitalityroom. But more than that,
their services or expandage in NASCAR itselfand then day Tuna and then Charlotte and

(01:08:00):
the Rockingham and several other tracks.They just came around to do what they
could do, and they became sofamiliar and so friendly, but not on
the media, but many many othertypes of officials that worked the race track
that they were hugely popular. Justreally two great guys. It was very,

(01:08:21):
very very sad to see that aboutthe passing of Steve because he became
a friend to so many people inNASCAR, and friendships like the types that
he and William established are very rare. Indeed, Steve, he and William
worked behind the counter of a lotof media centers during their day. Absolutely

(01:08:45):
Steve. This episode, asn't mentionedin intro, will release on Wednesday,
the day before Thanksgiving. And ifi don't talk to you before the end,
and I'm sure I will for onereason or another, have a good
Thanksgiving brother. Thank you so muchfor what you've done for the podcast this
year. And yes I'll kidding,decide, I'm thankful for you and your

(01:09:05):
friendship. Well, I appreciate that, Rick, and I wish you and
your family the happiest of Thanksgiving.It has been a real player for me
to work with you listeners. HappyThanksgiving, Hey, how are you?
Rick says, how are you allright? Start from where I finished up,

(01:09:34):
saying, I reckon, I'll goahead and retire now, okay,
And you can respond to that,okay,