The Great American Race

Winner of the Great American Race, Trevor Bayne.

Last weekend was the so-called “Great American Race;” the Daytona 500.
I was one of the millions who didn’t watch, despite my interest in auto-racing when I was younger.
HEX-KYOOZE ME, but I always considered the Indianapolis 500 the Great American Race.
Although it could be depressing.
The Indy 500 always seemed to kill someone, either in qualifying or the race itself.
Someone would clobber the concrete wall lining the track, or the beginning of the pit-wall head-on.
And snuff himself. You had to hope he had already killed himself when his car caught fire.
1973 was the most depressing Indy 500 I can remember, a rain-shortened race won by Gordon Johncock.
Accidents galore, the worst being Swede Savage hitting the concrete wall head-on at speed, and then catching fire. (Killed him.)
A second driver, Art Pollard, had been killed in practice.
Speeds were almost 200 mph per lap. Turbocharging had brought the engines to near 1,100 horsepower, enough to spin the drive-wheels at speed.
When I was a child, it was Bill Vukovich, the so-called “Mad Russian” (actually Serbian; he hated the nickname).
Vuky (“VOO-kee;” as in “you”) had won in 1953 and 1954, but was killed in the 1955 Indy 500.
At that time Firestone Tires was running a full two-page ad in Life Magazine of the many times its tires had won the Indy 500.
Seems it was every Indy 500 since the first in 1911.
Then Goodyear Tires came along and started winning there.
So much for the Firestone Tire ads, which I had studied assiduously.
I guess Firestone is back, although they can’t run those ads — not when Goodyear won so many races there.
National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing; NASCAR.
Sure, go down to your dealer and buy what they race in the Daytona 500.
They used to be stock cars, or stock automobile offerings modified for racing.
Like a stock Chevrolet or Ford or Pontiac.
NASCAR was always a backwater to Indy cars; a bastion of southern auto-racing.
It had its roots delivering illegal corn-liquor, jugs of moonshine stuffed in the back of a hotrod Ford.
Southern race-ovals organized races for the ‘shine drivers, racing their hot-rodded stock cars.
It grew.
Soon the cars became extensively modified stock cars; e.g. a Plymouth or Dodge or Mercury heavily modified for racing.
Roll-cages were installed to -a) stiffen the chassis, and -b) protect the driver in case of a crash.
And NASCAR tried to keep the cars roughly equal, so any car could win; none were dominant.
Modified stock cars became moribund; race-cars started being purpose-built.
Yet NASCAR tried to keep everything within range.
The rear suspension is still the old Model-T tractor-axle, and engines are still stock-based pushrod V8s — still carbureted too.
Since when do you find carburetion at a dealer? Current cars are fuel-injected.
Independent-rear-suspension doesn’t lend much advantage, if any, on an oval race-track.
IRS makes a difference on bumpy roads.
The scuttlebutt now is that NASCAR is racing ‘50s taxi-cabs, although if New York City taxis were anything like NASCAR, trips would take mere seconds, probably without passengers.
Just the same, Indy and Formula-One race-cars have been state-of-the-art for years.
The Model-T tractor-axle was replaced long ago by independent-rear-suspension, and the engine was moved behind the driver.
Doing so centralizes mass, and reduces the pendulum effect.
NASCAR is still front-engine, like what’s available from your dealer.
NASCAR expanded across the nation, so now NASCAR is more apparent than open-wheel Indy-car racing.
And still fairly dangerous, although apparently not dangerous enough.
Cars can lose it and pile up, usually causing multi-car accidents; cars careening into each other at breakneck speed.
Do that in Indy-car and someone gets killed.
In NASCAR, those involved often walk away.
NASCAR also seems to have become red-neck macho expression.
Sick of the daily commute?
Pretend you’re a NASCAR driver!

David Pearson (“Little David;” alias “the Silver Fox”) in the #21 Wood Brothers Mercury.

The race was won by a car number-21.
I wonder if that’s a Wood-Brothers car? (It was.)
They used the number 21 in the past, and had a habit of winning; e.g. David Pearson winning the so-called “Triple-Crown” of racing in the 1976 season, the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. In the 1976 season they won 10 times in 22 starts. They have 98 total victories. They are the oldest team in NASCAR.
Wood-Brothers was always winning; their advantage at first was quick pit-stops.
Later other racing teams instituted quick pit-stops.
Wood Brothers still seems to be in it.