ARCA: Coach Glanville coming home with ARCA
4 January 2000
Posted By Terry
Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Toledo, Ohio--Jerry Glanville, former NFL head coach for
the
Atlanta Falcons and Houston Oilers, is planning a homecoming with the
ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series in 2000.
According to Glanville, who grew up in the Toledo, Ohio suburb of Perrysburg, the current CBS pro football television analyst will return to his roots this year for a family reunion to include an evening at Toledo Speedway. Except this time, the colorful commentator is bringing his Ford Taurus along to drive in the Jasper Engines 150 ARCA race on June 23rd. In addition to that, Glanville hopes to race at Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte with the ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series on May 20th as well as Michigan Speedway on June 10th, Kentucky Speedway on July 2nd, Berlin Raceway on July 8th and Pocono on July 22nd.
"I grew up in the Toledo area with ARCA thinking how cool it would be to one day race in the series," said Glanville from his Roswell, Georgia home. "Now Im not one to spend all my time dreaming, so I went after it and accomplished what we set out to do, and thats learn how to drive these big heavy cars, adjust them so they handle properly and finish races. We did a lot of ARCA racing in 94 and that led to the NASCAR Busch Series and then to the Craftsman Truck Series for the last couple of years. But ARCA races in my hometown so I thought that would be a great place to have a family reunion. My mother and brother still live there so its certainly convenient. That, and I had a lot of fun running with ARCA. Its great grass-roots racing series with a superspeedway feel. Anyway, were planning on running six ARCA events right now provided some other business venture doesnt get in the way, maybe even a couple more. Well just have to see how it all plays out."
That some other business venture is certainly a possibility considering Glanvilles schedule these days. On a typical week, Glanville spends Mondays and Tuesdays at home in Roswell preparing for the next five working days in New York City where Glanville appears on HBOs Inside the NFL on Thursdays at 8 PM ET alongside colleagues Len Dawson, Nick Buoniconti and Cris Collinsworth. In addition, Glanville also appears as an analyst on the popular pre-game show NFL Today that airs live every Sunday on CBS at noon. Prior to that, Glanville was an NFL television commentator for five years with the FOX network.
Glanville had 10 ARCA starts in 94 in his rookie season with a career-best finish of 8th at I-70 Speedway in Missouri. That same year, the multi-talented sports enthusiast finished 9th on the Des Moines roadcourse and 11th at Toledo. In other starts, Glanville finished 13th at Flat Rock, 14th at Louisville, 15th at Pensacola and Michigan Speedway, 22nd at Kil Kare and 29th at Talladega and Pocono. Outside of the NASCAR Busch and Truck Series, where Glanville has been racing on a limited schedule for the last five years, the former coach ran some NASCAR Winston West events as well with a career-best finish of 3rd at Las Vegas in 97.
Glanville was born on October 14th, 1941 in Detroit, Michigan but spent most of his childhood in Perrysburg and graduated from Perrysburg High School. Glanville then graduated from Northern Michigan University where he played linebacker. In 1992, he was inducted into the Northern Michigan University Hall of Fame and later received a Masters degree from Western Kentucky University. For more information, visit Glanvilles web site at www.coachglanville.com.
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