(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.”
CONTACT: Email me at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. Also, my Twitter handle is EDITORatWORK.
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