With NASCAR Alumni Network, drivers who felt forgotten find an open door
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'They didn't care about me when I was there, and they didn't care about me when I left,' Lepage said he was told.
But earlier this month, when making his first visit to a NASCAR race since his 2014 retirement, Lepage said he'd changed his outlook due to a new initiative called the 'NASCAR Alumni Network.' He grinned as he spoke about the experience of walking back into the garage area for the first time in more than a decade, getting handshakes and back slaps from old friends while fans approached to get their pictures taken with him.
'All these years later, for NASCAR to come up with this program and to see how well it's run, to me it's saying, 'Thanks,'' Lepage said.
That's special to drivers like Lepage, many of whom had fallen through the cracks in NASCAR until recently. He won twice in NASCAR's second-tier Xfinity Series over 350 races but also made more than 200 Cup Series starts. He didn't have a Hall-of-Fame career, but it was also far from anonymous.
Lepage said he did everything asked of him over the years — autograph sessions and interviews and souvenir trailer visits and charity softball games and golf tournaments.
'I gave my heart and soul to NASCAR,' he said. 'I did all the stuff they needed.'
But in the end, it felt thankless. When his career vanished, so did Lepage.
That's where the NASCAR Alumni Network comes in. Thanks to the year-old initiative, former drivers, crew chiefs and owners who invested their time and energy into NASCAR (with a minimum of 100 national series starts) are now being welcomed back — with the doors flung wide open.
It began when Amber Wells, a longtime NASCAR employee who manages incoming NASCAR Hall of Fame classes, realized the company's database of former drivers was sorely lacking. Some of the contact information was still stored on paper Rolodexes.
In 2023, Wells was tasked with tracking down retired racers to inform them they'd been selected to NASCAR's 75 Greatest Drivers list — except it was difficult to locate phone numbers even for drivers as high-profile as two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin.
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'Nobody knew where he was,' Wells said. 'That group of guys, when they walked out of the garage or stepped out of the race car, they weren't able to stay connected. I don't think it was ever an intentional thing, I just think we move so fast, and there wasn't a place within the NASCAR walls that owned the responsibility for that connection.'
So Wells began circulating the idea of an Alumni Network, which quickly gained backing from NASCAR chairman Jim France and senior advisor Mike Helton — two of the most passionate advocates of the NASCAR legacy. Wells was named executive director, and the first event was held during NASCAR's 'Throwback Weekend' at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina last spring with a follow-up at the same track in early April.
'Like anything within NASCAR, I was able to get it in front of the right people who listened and gave us the support and the platform to be able to do this,' Wells said. 'It's just having the bandwidth and the capacity to be able to facilitate it. And it's fun and rewarding, because you talk to guys like Lepage and he's just like, 'Oh my gosh, this is great.' It's making people feel special.'
Part of that feeling was deciding how to welcome former drivers back to the track. In NASCAR, there are two different types of passes that give access to the garage and pit area — a single-event VIP pass and a 'hard card,' which is good for the entire season and skips a visit to the credential line outside the track. Hard cards cost more than $3,000 (yes, even current Cup Series drivers have to pay), but NASCAR decided to give free hard cards to its Alumni Network members.
'All the things we went through for this sport, we expected to just get this sent to us without asking (in years past),' 18-time Cup Series winner Geoff Bodine said, grasping his Alumni Network hard card. 'But there was a time when we had to beg. What they've done now is say, 'Come on, the tracks are open to you.''
The new @NASCAR Alumni is incredible 🏁 THANK YOU @ChipWile and Amber Wells and team 💯 pic.twitter.com/7mUEiRGXHh
— Kenny Wallace (@Kenny_Wallace) May 11, 2024
Wells said one reason to go with hard cards for the alumni was because much of the feedback from former drivers was along the lines of, 'I don't even know who to contact to get a pass.' NASCAR wants the alumni to be as visible as possible, so Wells said it was important to 'give them that easy pathway to get back to a racetrack.'
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That's important, because former drivers like Lake Speed — who hadn't been to a race in years — said the old, familiar anxiety about race traffic and finding where to pick up passes and park were potential roadblocks he had to shake off before arriving.
'It was like, 'Is this going to be any fun, or is it going to be a real pain?'' Speed said. 'It turned out to be extremely good.'
Part of that was due to a large, private hospitality tent where the alumni were able to gather, relax and share old stories. It felt like a family reunion, drivers said, with Speed quipping the best part was seeing everyone together at a time when 'it wasn't for a funeral.'
Said Bodine: 'We didn't like each other. When you're in competition, I don't care if it's in pool or racing or pickleball, you want to beat them. Now we're just in there having fun and appreciating everybody and what they did for the sport.'
The Alumni Network isn't actively recruiting new drivers to add to its existing 75 to 100 members, instead relying on word of mouth. Wells asked those in attendance at Darlington to be ambassadors for the program and tell others who may be interested to get in touch; Lepage was one of those who had received the 'Call Amber' message from a fellow driver.
'They want to stay connected, and there are a ton of opportunities we haven't even thought of yet,' Wells said. 'It is an honor for me to be the one who gets to own those relationships.'
Wells hopes the Darlington gatherings will become an annual anchor event, and she has heard from drivers who missed it this year but promised to never do so again. Others have already been spreading the word among old friends that even if they haven't felt welcome since retirement, now is the time to come back.
'It makes us feel like all the times we hit the wall and all the times we weren't with our families and all the times we had to suffer through the sport, that it was worth it,' Bodine said. 'It really does.'
(Photo of, from left, Kyle Petty, Richard Petty, Eddie Wood, Geoff Bodine and Kevin Lepage at a NASCAR Alumni Network event last week in Darlington, S.C.: James Gilbert / Getty Images / Courtesy of NASCAR)
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