Down in the Pits: Big money means little nowadays
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Can you imagine Curtis Turner, Buck Baker, Lee Petty, Junior Johnson and the rest of that crowd racing for nearly a million dollars?
Folks, it would have been a shoot-out like no other race you’ve ever seen in your life. Back then Ned Jarrett, whose first name at that time was called “Gentleman” (Lord only knows why, because on the track he sure held his own), would have been the first guy into the turn to turn somebody around.
Money talks, and these guys could do the walk and it would have been one hell of a show. They’re all so dad-gum rich now that when Little E got the wiggle on Newman, he didn’t have the guts or the fortitude to finish the deal and put him in a tail-spin and go on and get the big bucks. But he didn’t have to, it was just money.
I don’t know where Junior Johnson watched this race from, and I’m sure if Buck Baker had looked down on this thing from wherever he is along with some of his buddies what they would have thought.
There wouldn’t have been any of this rattle-the-cage crap on that track. It would have been an old deal of I’ll put you in the wall and we’ll see where it goes from there.
• We’ve got a great weekend coming up. We’ve got the Indianapolis 500, which means less now that it did for many years, and the World 600.
The Indy race has people involved that if they get to victory lane will probably not be able to say “thank you” without an interpreter, so I don’t think it needs to be termed “The Great American Race.”
You’ve got Robbie Gordon who’s going to try to do a L.A. turnaround, which means he’ll run the 500 and then come back and run the 600 in Charlotte. It’d be real nice to see an American win both of those races.
On the Charlotte track, though, you can never ever discount the future ex-husband of Brooke. You know, that guy named Jeff Gordon who has won four championships without his gorgeous bride driving one single lap.
The guy that you always need to watch is our point leader, Sterling Marlin, who didn’t get to be No. 1 in the points chase because he was some tourist that passed through. He’ll be running good at the end.
The real force to be reckoned with will have to be Little E. Little Earnhardt will be the force to be reckoned with because he’s had one whole week to think about what he could have done, as opposed to what he did, and he’ll drive his tail off to win this race.
Tony Stewart is probably still smoking over the fact that he’s not getting to run in the Indianapolis 500, so he’ll do his level best to win this race. But I’m not certain that a Pontiac can run 600 miles.
I think it takes a Ford or a Chevrolet, probably in that order, to get the job done. But it’s going to be great to see that kind of race under the lights of Charlotte.