Dog days for Felix Sabates

IN THE EARLY 1990S, I WAS INTERVIEWING car owner Felix Sabates, then the owner of the Winston Cup team for Kyle Petty. Felix was from Cuba originally, and I asked if he ever had trouble understanding good-ole-boy lingo.

He smiled and told me about one word that caught him immediately. His crew members were talking about the snout (front end) of the car.

"I thought they were talking about a schnauzer," Sabates told me.

He never said if he was kidding or not, but he looked serious as he finished the quick story.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  TWITTER: EDITORatWORK

More entries from TARJ

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

EDITOR@WORK blog entries 

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• What I do when I'm editing

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn•

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!

Get your recent auto-racing articles right here

I haven't written tons of auto-racing articles in the last year or two, but I have written a few.

One of the is called One Sweet Ride for Chocolate, a Winston-Salem monthly magazine story about Winston-Salem native Chocolate Myers, the gas man for the late Dale Earnhardt. It can be found here.

Back Up To Speed is a Winston-Salem Monthly magazine story on the Winston Cup Museum reopening. It's here.

My most recent Winston-Salem Monthly magazine story was called Zach's Toys. It's about a Winston Cup Museum exhibit featuring motorcycles and cars owned by the late Zach Reynolds of the R.J. Reynolds family. It's here.

I also wrote a blog entry called Learning from Hoss Ellington that might be of interest. You can find it here.

There's a blog entry on my Memories of Benny Parsons. It's here.

Finally, I wrote another blog entry about my time with Hickory Motor Speedway. You can find it here.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  TWITTER: EDITORatWORK

More entries from TARJ

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

EDITOR@WORK blog entries 

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• What I do when I'm editing

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn•

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!