Tuesday, May 31, 2016

NICE GUYS

NEIL BONNETT

NICE GUYS

The other day, I ran into two guys at the local park. One of them knew that I was a writer (we'd talked before), and they asked me about my career.

 It turns out that both of them were racing fans, and one of them has been to as many Cup tracks as I have. So they got me talking.

 They were the first fans ever to ask me about nice guys. Who were the nice guys you talked to when you were covering NASCAR in the 1990s and early 21st century?

 John Andretti was special for his intelligence, his humor and his kind demeanor.

 The Labonte brothers, Terry and Bobby, are right there. Kyle Petty, when he was in a good mood. Jeff Gordon, easy. Mark Martin. Sterling Marlin. Ricky Rudd. Rick Mast.

It's easier to name good guys than jerks, but every driver can be a jerk when he's stressed. Mark walked away from me the first time I tried to talk to him. The next 15 or 20 years, he was as good as gold. He might have been my favorite guy to talk to; he was close.

 I had a bad time with Dale Earnhardt when I first tried to talk to him, in 1990, and it wasn't until '91 that I actually got an answer out of him. Then over the next several years, Dale would either be friendly with me or he'd ignore me. There was little middle ground. He could be nice, if he was in the mood. But he was rarely in the mood.

 People think of Bill Elliott as a good guy; after all, he was the most popular driver several times. My first interview with Bill was contentious; it started out like he was in fight-or-flight mode; he eased at the end and he actually shook hands with me and thanked me for talking to him.

 Bill was kind of like Earnhardt. If he was stressed, he'd walk away from you or be gruff.  If he wasn't, he'd sit and chat. Yes, Bill could be a good guy, or not.

 The Bodine brothers, Geoff and Brett, were two of my favorites. They knew me, and I got to know their families a bit from calling their homes. Both seemed genuinely happy to see me at tracks, and both were great, and willing, talkers.

 I remember one day I was walking through a garage area during practice, and Brett was heading out on the track. When he got to me, he slowed down to a near-stop and waved broadly at me (I'd covered him extensively when he'd driven for Hoss Ellington). He wanted to make sure I saw the wave, and, strangely, it's one of my favorite memories of racing.

 There's also Davey Allison. A lot of reporters didn't like Davey because he was often short with them. Davey also drove for Hoss (he didn't remember me from there, though), but I really got to know him after his wreck in the all-star race at Charlotte in 1992. Through his PR guy, I got his home number, and I talked to Davey's wife, Liz.

 Davey also gave me his shop number, and I'd leave my name and number on his answering machine. He'd call me back, and we'd talk for an hour. Sometimes it was an interview; other times it was just BS. When he had time, we even talked a time or two at the track.

 It hurt when he died in 1993.

 The final nice guy I'll mention is Neil Bonnett. Neil was still trying to come back from a 1990 wreck at Darlington when I got to know him. I interviewed Neil by phone in early 1994, and we enjoyed the interview immensely. Later, he called me back, and it was obvious he was rummaging through the garage for pictures and other stuff.

 Before we hung up, he asked when I was coming to Daytona. I told him, and he said for me to come by the 51 truck, and we'd go out for dinner. He wasn't there when I got to the track; he died earlier that week in practice.

 Later, I wrote a column about Neil, and I ended it by saying racing lost its best friend in Neil Bonnett.

He might have been the ultimate nice guy, although that reminds me that Benny Parsons and Buddy Baker were tremendously nice guys, too. Same with Ned Jarrett and his son Dale. Ned was right up there with Neil. (All of them were close.)

 I give up. There were so many of those nice guys. I might have missed a dozen or so.

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EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com   TWITTER: EDITORatWORK
 
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Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Keith Barnwell feature

(NOTE: This story appeared in the Hickory Daily Record a few years ago.)
Barnwell concentrates on that next win
By Tom Gillispie
Keith Barnwell, the longtime spotter, has been really busy this year.
KEITH BARNWELL OF GRANITE FALLS
The Granite Falls resident has spotted for Sprint Cup driver David Ragan, Nationwide driver Cale Conley, Truck Series racer Tyler Young and ARCA driver Justin Allison. Barnwell says that ARCA win with Allison was one of his favorites all time.
"I've spotted every (Sprint) Cup race this year, 27 out of 30 Nationwide races so far, 17 or 18 out of 19 truck races, and six or eight ARCA races," said Barnwell, a 1977 graduate of Hudson High School.
"It's been a decent year. We had a good run yesterday (Sunday) with David Ragan" at Martinsville. "He finished a strong 10th, his first top-10 finish this year. It's been a struggling year. If he starts running better at the end of the year, that might make it easier for next year."
Barnwell's first race as a spotter was the 1986 Busch (now Nationwide) race at Daytona. There, he ran into Scott Houston, one of Tommy’s sons.
"He asked where I was going, and I said I was going to watch the race in the grandstands with a friend,” Barnwell recalled. “He said, 'How about taking this radio and spot for my dad and tell him what's going on?' So I went to the grandstands to do the race. Tommy was on the pole, but he blew a motor halfway through the race.
"By then, I was hooked. I had a niche I could make a contribution with; I had a hobby and fun thing to do on weekends, and it turned into a career path."
Barnwell’s first Cup race was the 1992 Daytona 500; his driver, Sterling Marlin, was on the pole but wrecked and finished 35th.
Barnwell spotted for brothers David and Jeff Green when they won the 1994 and 2000 championships, respectively, in the Busch (Nationwide) Series.
“At one time, I figured I’d had over 50 Busch wins, with Tommy Houston, the Greens, (former Busch champion Steve) Grissom and others,” Barnwell said. “I won a lot of races with a lot of different drivers.
“In Cup, I’ve had maybe 10 wins.”
Barnwell’s best season has to be 2010, when he spotted for Jamie McMurray’s wins in the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400, plus a Cup win at Charlotte.
Houston and Barnwell won at several short tracks. In 1986, for instance, Houston won short-track Busch races at Hampton, Va.; Hickory; Rougemont, N.C. (Orange County), and Martinsville.
“With Houston, we won some good Nationwide races,” Barnwell said. “Those races felt as good for us at the time as Daytona and the Brickyard did later. To win at Hickory Speedway was no different than winning at Talladega.”
Oddly, one of his most memorable races came with Green in a 1994 Busch race at Bristol. Green was second to leader Mark Martin under caution near the end of the race, but suddenly Martin dipped onto pit road. Now, it’s a famous race; then, it was shocking.
“That (Green’s gift win) was as surprising to us as us (later) winning Daytona,” Barnwell said. “(Martin’s car owner) Jack Roush was near me on the roof (with the spotters), and the caution came out. There was no green-white-checker then.
“I looked over, and Jack took his radio off and put it in his bag. He turned away and Mark came down pit road. (On the radio) David said, ‘What do I do?’ I said, ‘Stay out.’ He said, ‘I’m confused.’ Then NASCAR said that the 44 (Green) was to go to victory lane.
“It was confusing because things were taking place different from protocol.”
Barnwell says he later learned that Martin was talking on the radio with his Cup crew chief and what they would do for Winston Cup practice. Martin was thinking about that and absentmindedly pitted.
It was Green’s only win that season.
Barnwell doesn’t know who he’ll spot for in 2015. He says that he’ll be looking forward to that next victory.
Almost wistfully, he said, “You never know when, or if, it’ll come.”
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EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com   BLUESKY: PROFILE

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Thursday, May 12, 2016

Born to be a dirt racer

(NOTE: This story was written in 2008 for a short-lived publication, The Racing Journal.)
Steve Blackburn: Born to race
By Tom Gillispie
TRJ Editor
PINE HALL — Steve Blackburn remembers going to races as a boy and telling his dad that he wanted to race. His dad said he couldn't afford for Steve to go racing.
"My dad worked and had four kids beside myself," said Blackburn, who now races Super Late Models on the dirt of 311 Speedway in Pine Hall. "He said there were more important things.
So he didn't start racing until he got into go-karts at 18. He and wife Amy married then, and daughter Ashley was born when Blackburn was 20.
"I worked two jobs for six years to be able to race," he says.
His first real car was a modified four-cylinder Ford. He's been racing Super Late Models since '06.
He did miss a couple of seasons starting in 1999, he says, when he and Amy had twins Brandon and Jessica, who are now eight. Ashley will soon be 15.
Blackburn says Amy is totally behind his racing — "She supports me 110 percent," he said. Same with his sponsors and his car owners. Actually, car owners Don and Herbert Way were a belated blessing; he had lived near them in Greensboro growing up.
"Don and his dad (Herbert) own a construction business in Greensboro," Blackburn said. "His dad used to race years ago, then he got interested again."
But Herbert wasn't going to race.
"(Herbert) wanted to put me in the car to drive," Don Way added, "but I said, 'No, get Stevie to drive it.' "
So it's worked out for Blackburn and the Ways.
"We want to give his dad a special thanks for making it possible for us to race," Blackburn said.
Herbert Way wasn't at the track Saturday, and he missed some good racing.
Blackburn finished sixth in the first 25-lap Super Late Model race. In the second Super Late Model 25-lapper, he tried to pass for the lead on the outside, lost ground and fell back to fifth before rallying for the victory. In the Crate Late Model race, he was in a wreck and finished 18th.
His black Super Late Model car was brand-new, and it was just its second time at the track. So Blackburn was thrilled.
"Oh, yeah, it was a real good night," he said with a smile in his voice."
But not all nights are that great. Take opening night this year at 311.
"I had no power steering," he explained as he waited to qualify last Saturday. "I knew when we unloaded; we brought the wrong (power-steering) pump. When I wanted to turn left, it wanted to turn right."
Blackburn did pretty well that night, considering the handicap, so he had sore arms and another good story to tell.
He races a lot at 311 — he won two Late Model titles there — but he's also raced at Clary's Speedway in Brinkleyville, Oak Level Raceway (now Fork Mountain) and Wythe Raceway in Virginia, Fayetteville Motor Speedway, Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C., Wayne County Speedway in Pikeville, Thunder Valley (now Cleveland County Speedway) in Lawndale, Carolina Speedway in Gastonia, and The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway.
And he's had his adventures beyond racing with the wrong power-steering pump. He raced Sprint Cup driver Clint Bowyer last year, with Bowyer winning.
"I battled him for the win, but I dropped a cylinder," Blackburn said. "It just wouldn't go."
He also raced Sprint Cup drivers Carl Edwards — "I won that race," he said — and Casey Mears in '06; in fact, he loaned Mears his second uniform so he could race. Fortunately, they're the same size.
All in all, it's been a dream hobby for a guy who works during the day as a supervisor for a printing company in High Point. And he doesn't even have to work two jobs.
"I've been busy at it," he said. "It's a passion of mine."

CONTACT: I can be reached at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. Also, my Twitter handle is EDITORatWORK.

More entries from TARJ
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)

EDITOR@WORK blog entries 

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