By MONTE DUTTON Click here. When writing about stock cars became my principal way to make a living, one of the surprises was Howard Augustine “Humpy” Wheeler Jr., known for his flamboyant promotion of events at Charlotte Motor Speedway. I was expecting P.T. Barnum. What I found was the Wizard of Oz, a mild-mannered fellow …
Tag: NASCAR
Nutty in Johannesburg
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. I enjoyed the wide world of motorsports on Saturday. “Spanning the globe to bring you the human drama of sports … the thrill of victory ... the agony of defeat,” I watched a little Indy Car qualifying from Laguna Seca – perhaps my favorite road course because of “the corkscrew” …
Scheffler is golf’s coolest cat
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. In Tiger Woods’ heyday, he was rolling thunder. It never surprised me when his body began to fail him. I’ve never seen a golfer come out of cleats like Woods. It was exciting, though. Scottie Scheffler’s personality reminds me of singer Vince Gill. He doesn’t seem to have that burning …
Doing nothing is cheap
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. Time stands still. I do a lot of thinking. And reading. And watching old movies. And playing my guitar. I had big plans for today. As it turned out, I never left the house. It’s been a moribund day. TCM ran a series of Tab Hunter movies. The Red Sox …
A heap of sights and sounds
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. Some of the cooler things I’ve ever done: No particular order. Watching part of the Rolex 24 in Daytona Beach, Fla., at midnight from a Ferris wheel. Driving the Pacific Coast Highway in a car full of scribes when we pass a restaurant on the water. Out front, a man …
It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world*
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. This day began as most days do, with me convincing this laptop I am human. All I had to do was identify three frames that had buses in them. Oh, the humanity. I got a text message warning me to pay immediately a traffic ticket I never got in North …
Here ‘n’ there, this ‘n’ that
By MONTE DUTTON Many things in life are predictable. When a major golf tournament is on TV, and coverage shifts to a player who is out of contention, the shot is going in. They don’t have to mention all the “possible side effects” of prescription drugs. It’s obvious from the commercials that almost all of …
The best account of the best
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. The hereafter is where old race fans debate the merits of Curtis Turner, Junior Johnson and Fireball Roberts. Some young NASCAR fans weren’t born when Dale Earnhardt met his maker. Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Rusty Wallace have their adherents, not to mention those of my age who also recognize …
Another loss in the ranks
By MONTE DUTTON Al Pearce Click here. When I first started writing regularly about NASCAR as a way to make a living, I quickly gained acceptance in the media centers and press boxes because of two friends, Mike Hembree and Al Pearce. Back in 1993, the NASCAR media corps was hard to penetrate. Veterans – …
NASCAR used to be fun
By MONTE DUTTON (Photo by Harold Hinson/HHP for Chevy Racing) Click here. On Thursday night, I was watching the Daytona qualifying races on TV and thought about how they had changed since the early 1990s, when I started writing about them.They were in the daytime back then, and the stands were almost full. The stands …
Nightrider's Lament 