Remembering friends and great drivers

By: Tom Gillispie | Hickory Daily Record
Published: July 15, 2011
Updated: July 15, 2011 - 3:55 PM

I have to admit that I was fairly late in finding Hickory Motor Speedway. I never heard of it while growing up in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the 1960s and ’70s.

I probably didn’t even hear of the track until 1983, but I can tell you the first time I heard a little bit of its history. In 1990, as the racing writer for the News & Courier in Charleston, S.C., I talked to Ned Jarrett at North Carolina Speedway. We were in his car, with the heater running, because of an ice storm in the Rockingham area.

Ned had been the promoter at HMS in the 1970s, and he talked about the great crowd that had passed through the track. Some of them, like Bobby Isaac (the 1970 Cup champion) and Winston Cup standouts Harry Gant and Morgan Shepherd, had run regularly at the track. Other greats, like Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Junior Johnson and Richard Petty, had run Cup races there.

Looking at the track’s Wall of Fame, you’ll learn a lot about racing. You’ll see folks like Sam Ard, a Busch Series standout long before Nationwide took over as series sponsor; former Cup star Morgan Shepherd; Andy Petree, who led Dale Earnhardt’s No. 3 team to Winston Cup titles in 1993 and ’94; Dr. Jerry Punch, who helped Dale Jarrett and Petree in the ’70s at the track; and Ned, Dale, Glenn and Jason Jarrett.

Tiny Lund, the 1963 Daytona 500 winner and the last Cup winner at HMS, is there. So are most of the members of the Earnhardt family -- Ralph (Dale’s dad), Dale, Kerry, Kelly and Dale Jr. – and many of the Houstons -- Tommy Houston, Andy, Marty, Ken and Hal.

Gant was the Skoal Bandit when I started covering NASCAR, and I saw at least two of his four straight Cup victories in 1991. I’ve interviewed racers like NASCAR executive Wayne Auton, Punch, Petree, the Jarretts, Junior Johnson, Beam, Davey and Bobby Allison, and former track champion Andy Loden. I was at the trophy ceremony in Nashville in 1997 when Dexter Canipe was crowned Weekly Racing Series champion. He seemed shocked when I recognized him at HMS in 2008.

Others include Jack Ingram, Robert Pressley and Robert Huffman.

My favorite people on the wall probably were (or are) Buddy Baker and Davey Allison. Davey gave me his home number (not normal behavior for Cup drivers) so I could talk to Liz after the wreck between Allison and Kyle Petty in The Winston all-star race in 1992. He had a great sense of humor, and our interviews often turned into laughing sessions among friends.

Same with Baker. Buddy was usually a hoot, but not always. After Earnhardt died in 2001, I called him. His wife said that he’d locked his door, but she’d try. A few minutes later, he came to the phone. “Hiya, partner,” he said almost pitifully. We had a sad 20-minute interview, but it seemed cathartic for both of us.

Buddy’s on my list of “victims” for stories or columns about the track. I’ll also write about Isaac, who died in 1977 at HMS, as well as Fireball Roberts, who died after a 1964 crash at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Maybe the Allisons, too.

HMS has an illustrious history, and South Boston Speedway and Bowman Gray Stadium are among the few short tracks that could challenge its place in racing.

“The track didn't get nicknamed the Birthplace of NASCAR Stars for nothing,” track promoter Kevin Piercy said wryly last week.

I’d say he’s right.