Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 1/28/11
With Speedweeks getting ready to kick in the next few weeks at Daytona, it brings to mind a simpler time, when, instead of fighting aerodynamics, drivers fought sand on their windshields.
From its inception, NASCAR’s premier venue was the old beach and road course in Daytona. It was, to say the least, an interesting place to race.
Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 1/14/11
The snowy weather that bogged down the southeast over the past week really limited the number of things you can do to pass the time.
One of the best things you can do, however, is to get caught up on your reading. I have a pretty good stack of books that I need to go through, and the frozen conditions outside of my house opened up the opportunity to do just that.
Mike Bell
By Mike Bell
Posted in Columns 12/31/10
The recent news that the Zebulon Speedway, located just north of Zebulon, Georgia, would soon be reopening put us in mind of a popular area driver who lost his life at the track about 43 years ago.
‘Fatso’ Phillips was killed at Zebulon in a crash back in October of 1967 during a feature race on the ‘Figure 8’ track.
Back in 2007, we made contact with Fatso’s sister, Martha P. Daniel, of Thomaston, Georgia. First of all, his given name was Arthur Lyle Phillips, but no one knew him as that.
Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 12/24/10
There are not a lot of good things you can say about rain delays at a racetrack. Sure, we can always use the rain. But other than that, rain at a racetrack is pretty much a miserable thing.
But there is one bright spot. Usually when there’s a rain delay at a race track, you end up with a group of people getting together to share racing stories.
With all the characters that have passed through the American stock car racing scene over the years, the stories are absolute treasures.
Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 11/19/10
Several years ago, my dear friend and mentor Rob Wainberg taught me a phrase in Yiddish that I have used many times since. It’s become one of my favorites, and it sums up some situations nicely.
The phrase, as best I can spell it in English, sounds like “Tokhis oyfin tish.”
Roughly translated, it means, “Put up or shut up.”
Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 10/22/10
If you haven’t had the opportunity to see the new documentary “Petty Blue”, you really should.
While if focuses mainly on Richard Petty, it tells the story of the Petty racing dynasty, good, bad and ugly.
One of the most heart rendering moments of the video is when they reach the story of Adam Petty, Kyle’s son, who was lost to us in a crash on May 12, 2000.
It was on that day that the sports world lost something special.
Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 10/8/10
One of the things that always amuses me about the latter half of the racing season is watching all the various pundits try to be the first to name who the Sprint Cup Championship will go to.
First they’ll point to somebody who carries momentum into the chase. Then they’ll jump on the bandwagon of the first winner, only to promptly claim that the second race winner was the one to watch all along.
Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 10/1/10
A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to get to play chauffeur to a person I consider to be one of the all time great wheel men in NASCAR, Buddy Baker.
Buddy was kind enough to serve as the grand marshal at the Mountain Moonshine Festival, the annual gathering of race and old car enthusiasts centered around the square in downtown Dawsonville that particular year.
The event always brings out veteran racers, including David Pearson, Cotton Owens, Rex White and Junior Johnson.
Mike Bell
By Mike Bell
Posted in Columns 9/24/10
Jerry Wimbish died on June 22, 1998. Two days prior, he had been part of a team representing the Georgia Auto Racing Hall of Fame Association (GARHOFA) at the Alabama Auto Racing Pioneers Banquet in Talladega, Alabama.
Jerry was a true pioneer of the sport and no stranger to Atlanta’s racing addicts, especially those who frequented the Peach Bowl in Atlanta and at Lakewood shortly after World War II.
During the war, he flew several dozen missions as a bombardier over Germany. I once asked him why he had a slight limp.
Ken Stanford
By Ken Stanford-Guest Columnist
Posted in Columns 9/10/10
My first NASCAR race really wasn’t my first one.
That’s because rain postponed it. It was to have been the Atlanta 500, sometime in the early 1960s but rain got in the way.
I’m not sure of the year but I know it was the Spring race… then known as the Atlanta 500, the one that has just been pulled from NASCAR’s schedule.
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