5 Lesser-known, but Awesome Racing Stories
5 Lesser-Known, but Awesome Racing Stories
By Brian Cotnoir
I love hearing obscure stories about racing that
almost sound unbelievable. Recently,
I’ve noticed that NASCAR every year during Daytona Speedweek’s releases these
short documentary films about racing legends like Mario Andretti, Bobby Isaac, and Smokey Yunick. And of
course, on the Dale Jr. Download, I love hearing all the former drivers,
owners, and crew members tell stories about all the crazy stuff that happened
on and off the track from the 1960-1990’s.
It’s not just limited to NASCAR, as I do more research in other froms of
Auto Racing, I’m finding that Formula 1, Indycar, and even ARCA have their own
unique legends in racing.
Some of these races have gone down in infamy:
Richard Petty being allowed to keep his 199th career win despite an
illegal engine, and running left side tires on his right side, Dale Sr. leaning
out his window to clean his windshield while still driving his car at Richmond,
Bret Bodine’s controversial first win at North Wilkesboro, Michael Schumacher & Rubens Barichello
having Team Ordered/Staged Victories in the 2002 Austrian and United States
Grand Prix, Bobby Unser’s controversial victory of the 1981 Indy 500, and the
2005 United States Grand Prix; the list goes on! There are so many fascinating racing stories
that have happened in a little over a century, but I want to focus on some of
the awesome racing stories that I feel don’t get enough credit and need to be
talked about!
1.) LeeRoy
Yarbrough, Good Ol’ Boy & Racing Legend, dies in an insane Asylum
I am surprised and appalled that NASCAR does not
talk about LeeRoy Yarbrough (no relation to NASCAR Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough). LeeRoy Yarbrough was a racer from Florida, he
won 14 NASCAR Cup Series races in his career and is one of the few drivers who
has raced in Both the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500. In 1969, he became the first driver to win
the NASCAR Triple Crown winning the Daytona 500, Southern 500, and World
600. He also won the Firecracker 400 at
Daytona in the same year! I’ve also
heard a rumor that he punched NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. in the nose for
saying he was “too scared” to run the first NASCAR race at Talladega.
However, Yarbrough also suffered from a number of
large crashes in both NASCAR and IndyCar.
After a wreck in practice in 1970, many close to LeeRoy began to note
that his mood changed. Another wreck
while practicing from the Indy 500—supposedly—caused his helmet to crack from
the impact and made his condition worst.
I’ve also heard rumors that Yarbrough’s change in mood may have been a
result of a fever from tick bite he suffered.
It does appear from this information—but cannot be
confirmed—that Yarbrough probably suffered from CTE like many other racers of
the day. You can see similar signs of CTE in other former racing drivers like Jerry
Nadeau, Ernie Irvan, Steve Park, and Eric McClure. LeeRoy Yarbrough was committed to a state
mental hospital in Florida in 1980 after he attempted to strangle his own
mother to death. Yarbrough would die
there four years later after suffering a seizure and striking his head.
Despite being named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest
Drivers in 1998, you rarely here NASCAR reference LeeRoy Yarbrough; I’m still
surprised to this day that no driver or team has run a Throwback Paint Scheme
to LeeRoy Yarbrough at the Southern 500, but it could be for a number of
reasons. Maybe NASCAR want’s to distance
itself from the fact that he tried to kill his mother, or that he was a Good Ol’ Boy (he sometimes raced with a
Confederate Flag design on his helmet), or maybe it’s just NASCAR doesn’t want
to admit that brain injuries he suffered while racing derailed his career. We’ll probably never know, but I think LeeRoy
Yarbrough is the most under-appreciated driver in NASCAR history.
2.) Vittorio
Brambilla, wins first F1 race, and then wrecks
Most NASCAR fans can recall drivers like Davey
Allison, Terry Labonte, and Rickey Stenhouse being wrecked after winning a
race, but I’ll bet you didn’t know that something similar happened in Formula 1
racing too. Italian racer Vittorio
Brambillia was never really a racing contender.
He spent most of his short F1 racing career with the March Engineering
Team.
During a rainy race at the 1975 Austrian Grand
Prix, the race was called after only 29 laps being run. Brambilla who had inherited the lead from
future World Champmion James Hunt on Lap 19, drove to the chequered flag (don’t correct me;
that’s how they spell it in F1) and then lost control of his car and
crashed in the barriers just past the finish line. It was March Engineering’s first F1 win, and
it would be the only F1 championship victory of Brambilla’s career
3.) Just
because you didn’t finish first, doesn’t mean you’re not a Winner in the fans
eyes
As the famous line from Talladega Nights goes “If you’re not first; you’re last”…well
that’s not necessarily true. As you will
see I have three stories of drivers who despite not winning the race were
winners in the eyes of the Fans!
Rich Bickle was a Wisconsin short-track racer, who
won 3 races in the then-Craftsman Truck Series, but in the Cup Series only made
sporadic starts for underperforming teams.
While filling in for the injured Greg Sacks in 1998, Bickle would finish
a career best 4th at Martinsville, and is often remembered by many
fans for his emotional post-race interview
Australian driver scored points in his first ever
F1 race—at his home Grand Prix, no less—when he finished 5th at the
2002 Australian Grand Prix for the back maker Minardi F1 team. Typically, only the top 3 finishers are
invited onto the podium following a race, but since it was his home Grand Prix,
and it was the first championship points Minardi had scored in 3 years, Webber
was invited to take place in the celebration.
It netted his team a $50,000 fine for violating Podium procedures, but
that’s only because then FIA President Max Mosely, was a fun-time hating
prick!
4.) Bobby
Dotter, Jumps out of a Flaming Race Car still moving
Bobby Dotter, is still an co-owner for the
SS-Greenlight Team in NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Throughout the 1990’s, Dotter ran the #08 car, and was a decent midfield
runner, he had 1 Career victory in the-then Busch Series, but I’m surprised
that even less people know of this story.
During an ARCA race in 1989, Bobby Dotter wrecked hard and his car
caught fire. Dotter jumped from the car
while it was still travelling at a great rate of speed and suffered 2nd
and 3rd degree burns. I find
that very few people know of this story, and the one’s that do know it only
remember it for the racing commentator saying that “Bobby Dotter, finds himself
in a holocaust”….like seriously, that’s the best word you could come up with to
describe his situation? I, personally,
would of said “an inferno”, but that’s just me.
5.) The 2007 AT&T 250 at Milwaukee
A recent one that some of you may remember, but
still a strange racing story nonetheless.
Denny Hamlin was scheduled to start a Nationwide Race at Milwaukee for
Joe Gibbs Racing. That weekend the Cup
Series was racing in Sonoma, California, so rookie driver Aric Almirola had to
qualify Hamlin’s Nationwide car, and he put it on the pole! While flying to the track at Milwaukee, the
helicopter that Hamlin was riding in, couldn’t land because cars had parked on
the helipad. The helicopter had to land
far from the track and Hamlin had to miss the start of the race. Almirola dominated the race early on, but during
a caution on lap 59, Almirola was forced to give up his seat in the pits to
Denny Hamlin. Hamlin went a lap down,
got back on the lead lap and went on to win the race! I remember this race so vividly because I was
a huge fan of Denny Hamlin, at the time, but because Almirola started the race
he was officially credited as the race winner!
Almirola wasn’t even at the track or in Victory Lane to accept the
trophy, and I can’t say I blame him.
Almirola, would eventually go on to win races in the Trucks, Xfinity,
and NASCAR Cup Series, and for all those races he was in Victory Lane too to
accept the trophy.
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