NASCAR Isn't The Beverly Hillbillies
28 April 1999
When the NASCAR Winston Cup drivers visit California Speedway near Los Angeles this weekend the "Good Ol' Boys" as the some in the media call them won't be gawking at the cement ponds or relying any of Granny's remedies. Instead the sport, whose proud roots are in the South, has grown to encompass $800,000 motor homes, jet airplanes, huge television contracts and fans all over the country.Last weekend's entry list at Talladega included regular drivers whose hometowns represented 20 states with a majority from states outside the traditional hotbed of racing. For drivers like #1 Pennzoil Monte Carlo driver Steve Park, a native of Long Island, N.Y., NASCAR's growing diversity is an indication of the sport's success.
States & Drivers Number of Drivers
Virginia (J.Burton, W.Burton, Sadler, Mast, Rudd) 5 Indiana (Stewart, Gordon, Irwin, Andretti) 4 Wisconsin (Musgrave, Trickle, Marcis, Bickle) 4 North Carolina (Earnhardt, Jarrett, Petty, Pressley) 4 New York (Park, G.Bodine, B.Bodine) 3 Kentucky (Mayfield, M.Waltrip, D.Green) 3 Missouri (Schrader, R.Wallace, K.Wallace) 3 Tennessee (D.Waltrip, Marlin, Hamilton) 3 California (Irvan, Skinner) 2 Texas (T.Labonte, B.Labonte) 2 Georgia (Elliott, Jones) 2 Washington (Little, Cope) 2 Arkansas (Martin) 1 Connecticut (Nadeau) 1 Vermont (Lepage) 1 Pennsylvania (Spencer) 1 Colorado (Dallenbach) 1 Michigan (Benson) 1 Florida (Nemechek) 1 Maine (Craven) 1
Steve Park On NASCAR Racing Encompassing Entire Country:
"There were days when I guess you could say me and other guys from outside the South were a minority, but if you walk through the garage anymore you can hear all kinds of accents. It's not just that. We get stopped for autographs in places you might never think we'd be popular. I've signed autographs in the Waldorf Astoria in New York, at shows in Las Vegas and I've even had people come up to me at a Rolling Stones concert. We get fan mail from Europe all the time.
"Racing is a national sport and I hope it keeps growing. Look at the number of fans that show up for our races in New York, California, Texas and Indianapolis.
"I have never had a hard time in NASCAR because I am from Long Island. Everyone has welcomed me down here. Guys like Geoffrey Bodine kind of blazed the trail for us Northerners. I mean think about it. Dale Earnhardt goes out and hires a guy from Long Island to drive his Pennzoil car. That tells you there isn't any regional bias in this sport."
Steve Hmiel, Dale Earnhardt Inc. Technical Director:
"I think this diversity has as much to do with the growth of NASCAR than anything else. More and more young drivers are being exposed to big time auto racing and more and more sponsors are wanting to get in the sport and taking chances with younger drivers. Obviously, this sport is appealing to a lot of people. Look at the television numbers they are as good as any sport's numbers. In the old days maybe only those people in the South were able to watch big time stock car racing live while the rest of us had to wait two or three weeks to see the race on tape delay.
"We have drivers now coming to the teams from all parts of the country. The next Dale Earnhardt could be bumming around in a dirt car in Indiana, a modified in New York, or a Winston West car in California. The talent pool is so much larger today."
Ty Norris, Dale Earnhardt Inc. Director of Motorsports:
"Look at the organization Dale Earnhardt has built. We hired Park from the Northeast, our truck driver Ron Hornaday is from California and if you look at a majority of our crewmembers they are from areas where a lot of people don't think of as a traditional venue for auto racing. You can't afford any regional biases in this sport. It's too competitive. We will go all over the nation, make that all over the world if there is someone who can help make the Pennzoil team better."
Editors Note: For hundreds of hot racing photos and racing art, be sure to visit The Racing ImageGalleries and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.