re: It’s been a few years and I still hate this NASCAR ticker

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I started racing go karts at age 9. I had more fun doing that and racing late models than I ever did racing in ARCA or Nascar. It became more of a corporate atmosphere. I spent more time at golf tournaments and events than I did at the race shop. I guess that’s fine for most of the drivers now because most of them couldn’t tell you the difference in a lug nut and a sway bar....... damn I’m old

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I know it's probably changed since you were racing, but what is the process for getting a NASCAR license?

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I know it's probably changed since you were racing, but what is the process for getting a NASCAR license?

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It really hasn't changed since I got my Nascar License. You have to have run in another series and have legitimate experience. Even though I had run a bunch of ARCA races I still had to pass a rookie test at Daytona in 97 the first time I raced in Nascar race on a superspeedway. ARCA, on the other hand. When I first started ARCA all you had to have is a car. They have gotten stricter in the past 8-10 years. They will not let you run a speedway race without some short track experience. But just about anyone can get a car and go run a short track ARCA race anywhere they run under 1 mile if you can qualify on speed.

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The France family basically "bought out" International Speedway Corp, which was the publicly traded company that owned many of the tracks

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It was essentially a technicality anyway, since Brian France ran NASCAR and Lisa France Kennedy (his sister) ran International Speedway Corporation. They were even in the same office building in Daytona Beach.

ISC tracks were always essentially NASCAR owned tracks.

Cool to see a driver on the board. I’ve seen you race several times at Talladega over the years.
I started out going in the early 90’s when my dad worked for Sears and got tickets through Diehard. I still go but not as frequently as I used to. My first race was when Ken Schrader barrel rolled down the back in the 25 car.
We usually go to Five Flags in Pensacola every year on a beach trip. I think Augue Grill (sp) was racing there last summer.

Yeh, I've known Augie all of my life. His dad, Frankie Grill is a very well know chassis builder. He owns GARC (Grand American Race Cars) that started out as Neil Bonnett Race Cars. There are several big late model races going on last week and this week down in South Florida leading up to the Daytona 500. Augie is down there now running his late model and open wheel car. The biggest late model race of the year is at 5 Flags the first weekend in December. The Snowball Derby. If you ever get a chance to go, its great race to go to. Several Cup drivers are always there and its fun to watch them get outrun by up and coming late model drivers.

Although Kyle Busch did win a few years back.

Yes, there are several young drivers that have been noticed at the Snowball Derby. Kyle has actually placed several of them in his development program at KBM. He just recently bought out late model car builder Robert Hamke’s operation and started building his own late model chassis. He has a large late model operation with several young drivers running his house cars. Barbers is a beautiful track and the museum is great. Mostly vintages motorcycles but several cars and lots of cool stuff. I’ve been out there several times as it’s 5 minutes from my house. The Indy cars are definitely fun to watch and it’s a really laid back atmosphere. You can bring blankets and just lay out on the grass on a hill on the backside of the track and still have a good view. It’s definitely nothing like Talladega.....I could write a book about the crazy stuff I’ve seen in the infield at Talladega. It’s a big party at most racetracks I’ve been to but none hold a candle to Talladega.

Thanks, I was pretty close to Davey and Clifford even though they both were older than me. I believe Davey would have won several Cup titles if he was still with us. He was a great person. I had just recently helped him move into his new house and ate lunch with him and Red Farmer the day of the helicopter crash. My first ARCA cars were all painted black and lettered in the Texaco color schemes because of Davey.

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I’ve never watched NASCAR in my life

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