(NOTE: Appeared in the Hickory (N.C.) Daily Record in 2012.)
College student found time to win a title
By Tom Gillispie
Darby Crouch was almost certainly one of the busier drivers this year at Hickory Motor Speedway.
Crouch, the track champion in the Renegades division, is taking design classes as a senior in mechanical engineering at UNC Charlotte. He also works a forklift for Southeastern Freight Lines, and he’s finishing up on his pilot’s license.
But there’s no rest for the weary. On Fridays, he drives home from the UNCC area to hang out with his family in Claremont and go racing.
“I’ve always wanted to drive and race,” he said when he was home over the weekend. “I’m very competitive, but I race people clean. Racing helps me work off stress. I’m kind of all over the place; I’ve gotta keep busy.”
Crouch had three wins and nine top-five finishes in 10 races in 2012.
He scored 450 points this year to beat out Barney Arnette by 18 points. Eddie Russ (420), Gregory Austin (374), Carroll McKinney (368), Andrew Divanna (340), Brad Nelson (304), Steve Griffith (296), Kenneth Roberts (184) and Darren Dickinson (178) rounded out the top 10.
Crouch even finished 99th in NASCAR’s national Division V/Asphalt standings.
The Crouch brothers, Dillon and Darby, have been racing together for years, even when they had to build their own go-kart track.
“Racing and working on the cars allow us to share a passion for racing and spend quality time together,” Darby said. “Ever since we were little, my brother and I were building racetracks in the cow pasture at our house. We would run our go-karts until we ran out of gas, broke a chain, were stopped by our parents or it was too dark to see.
“Growing up, my brother was always teaching me a lot about mechanics, and still today it amazes me how much I am learning from him. I will admit, at times, I'm not the most mechanically inclined, but my brother has taught me enough to get by.”
Two years ago, Darby raced once at Tri-County Motor Speedway. This was his first full season anywhere.
On winning the track title in his first try, “Oh, yeah, it surprised me a lot,” he said. “But my brother (Dillon) helped me a lot.”
Darby, 23, raced a ’78 Chevy Nova that his brother Dillon, 27, had raced last year in Renegades.
Darby, who played football at Bandys High as a 5-9, 175-pound linebacker and long snapper, says that racing has been a good experience.
“I get to spend time with my brother, and I can race and have fun,” he said.
But circumstances forced a change in plans.
“We didn’t plan to run the full season with (Darby),” Dillon said. “But right out of the box, he was good. In the first race of the season, he ran second. He finished with three wins and was in the top three six times. It was a great year for him being rookie and me sitting on the sidelines, trying to help.”
Dillon raced the Street Stocks division this year and is actually listed twice in Street Stocks points, at 18th in the 5N car with 42 points and 19thin the 0 car with 40 points.
“Darby has basically the same car I had (last year),” Dillon said. “He had a good start. He started quick, adapted to it good. I just had to coach him a bit.”
He says his main coaching involved telling Darby to be patient.
“He caught on well. I just told him that, sometimes, you have to go slower to go faster,” Dillon said. “It didn’t take a lot.”
Dillon, like his brother, has been busy. He works as an automotive technician at Tech 3 Automotive in Hickory and is going to Catawba Valley Community College to get a business degree.
As far as his own racing career, “I’ve been racing since 2000 off and on, nothing full-time until I won the (Renegades) championship at Tri-County in 2009,” Dillon said. “Then I won the Renegade championship in 2011 at Hickory.”
Darby’s uncertain about next year, although he thinks Dillon might run Street Stocks full-time next year.
“I’m thinking of venturing out (in Street Stock),” Dillon said in verification. “(This year), I went to Ace Speedway and Kingsport (Tenn.), and I want to travel around, try different tracks. Hickory’s a good track, but I want to venture out a bit. I might run Kingsport and Hickory.”
Dillon says he enjoyed watching his brother persevere this year through work, school, his pilot’s license and racing.
“I won two championships, but I was happier to see my brother win,” he said. “To help him out and him do so well and win the championship, that made me proud.”
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)
Entries from The Dog Blog
More blog entries by Tom Gillispie
Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie
