The Auto Racing Journal: Hickory champions feature for 2013

Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(NOTE: I wrote this for the Hickory Daily Record in 2013.)

Renegades title didn’t surprise McKinney

By Tom Gillispie

When asked if he was surprised that he won this year’s Renegades title at Hickory Motor Speedway, Carroll McKinney said “not really.

“We would have won it last year if we hadn't had problems. We won half the races last year, but I health problems.”

He says he won two races this year, and he finished more than 100 points ahead of Gregory Austin in the Renegades standings.

“I wanted to race when I was a teenager, but I couldn’t afford to,” said McKinney, a resident of Hildebran and a 1983 graduate of East Burke High School. “Once I got my kids raised and my family settled, I was able to race. But I had to take care of my family first.”

He says he’s run his Street Stock car — a 1981 Chevy Camaro — four times at Hickory this year, and he plans to race it next month at Tri-County Motor Speedway. He says he’ll move up to Street Stocks next season.

On the differences between the two divisions, “In one way, there’s a lot of differences between them; in another way, they’re the same,” he said, not elaborating.

He raced a 1976 Chevy Nova to the Renegades title.

“If it wasn’t for my sponsors and crew helping me, there’s no way I could have done it,” said McKinney, who normally takes care of his scrap-metal business.

“I buy and sell scrap metal,” he said. “My (Renegades) car was bought here for scrap metal, the metal and the transmission.”

Chase Pollard says he grew up around auto racing, but he never tried it until this year. And he won Hickory’s 4-Cylinder championship.

Pollard, 17, is the son of former Busch (now Nationwide) Series driver Larry Pollard and the grandson of former Winston (now Sprint) Cup star Harry Gant.

“This was my first year of racing anything, other than go-karts and dirt bikes,” said Pollard, a senior at Alexander Central High School.

“My whole life I’ve always been around (racing),” he added. “I’ve always loved racing, but I’d never had a desire to try driving until two years ago. I started thinking about it and went ahead with it this year.”

The 6-5 Pollard says he had a slowdown plan that didn’t work.

“In the beginning, I wanted to finish races and figure how everything worked,” he said. “We were doing pretty good and decided to run for the championship.”

Pollard went into Hickory’s championship night two points behind Nathaniel Kanupp and finished four points ahead of him.

On next season, “We’re not sure what we’ll do, probably stay another year in the 4-Cylinder class and get more experience,” he said.

On the future, “I’ll probably start working full-time, go to a community college and see how that goes, then transfer (to a four-year school) from there,” he said.

Although Don Fenn says he has “raced something most of my adult life,” he hadn’t raced since he drove stock cars in Florida from 1985 to 2003.

This year, he raced a ’64 Chevrolet Chevelle in the Sports Racing Classics division at HMS, and he won the division title.

Asked if it was a surprise, he said, “Yeah, it kind of was. I hadn’t raced for 10 years, and I never thought I would again. I won two races and two poles, and to win a championship on top of that was a surprise.”

Fenn, 55, says he and most of the racers are in the same age group. Their cars might be, too.

He says he sat in the grandstands last year, watching the racing while building his Chevelle. He was there when Ken Webb was injured in a horrific accident.

“I never thought I’d want to race again,” Fenn said of his 10-year hiatus from racing. “For the first year back, we did pretty well, and I was surprised.

“I was lucky it happened at Hickory,” he added. “It couldn't have happened at a better place, with the history there and the people who came out of there, the names on the board (the Wall of Fame) outside. I’ve raced too long not to know who most of those people were. Hickory is not an easy place to race. I thought New Smyrna and Orlando (in Florida) were pretty decent places to race, but Hickory is difficult to get around.”

Fenn was originally from Orlando, but he moved to Lincolnton and is service supervisor for a company that builds generators.

As for next season, “I’ll be there,” he said.

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