NO HABLA FELIX

In the early 1990s, the media had questions for Cuban-born car owner Felix Sabates, although I don't remember what we wanted to know. We confronted him in the media center at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and he was quite willing to talk.

Felix went up to the podium and broke into a spate of Spanish. I probably picked out five words in his little monologue, and several of my colleagues yelled for English as Felix talked.

When he was done, he said good day in Spanish (buen dia), and he left the media center posthaste.

We never did find out what he said.

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FIND MY BOOKS ONLINE

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com   BLUESKY: PROFILE

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Dog days for Felix Sabates

THIS IS WHAT FELIX LOOKED LIKE THEN

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.

------------------------------

FIND MY BOOKS ONLINE

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com   BLUESKY: PROFILE

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 do when I'm editing

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

• 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)

• OOH! OOH! The stereophonic 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!

Birthday boy on the Media Tour

I don't know what year it was, but it was the 1990s, and we were on the Winston Cup Media Tour in Charlotte. We went to Kyle Petty's shop — I think he was driving for Felix Sabates' team then — and the date was Jan. 8.

We hadn't started the program yet, so I went up front to wish Kyle happy King's birthday. No, it wasn't Richard Petty's birthday; it was Elvis Presley's.

Kyle knew about it, of course, and he and I led the front two rows of sports writers in singing a couple of Elvis's songs. It only lasted a couple of minutes, but we all came away in a good mood.

Kyle has a pretty good singing voice; so do I.

------------------------------

FIND MY BOOKS ONLINE

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com   BLUESKY: PROFILE

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 do when I'm editing

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

• 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)

• OOH! OOH! The stereophonic 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!