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USA Today
26-04-2025
- Automotive
- USA Today
The long Talladega con: How one man talked his way onto NASCAR's fastest track
The long Talladega con: How one man talked his way onto NASCAR's fastest track He said his name was L.W. Wright, and he may be the greatest sports imposter ever. Here is his story. This is the first in a three-part series from The Tennessean chronicling the story of L.W. Wright. The con man parked his Cadillac in front of Coo Coo's garage. He was going by the name L.W. Wright in those days, and he strode to that first meeting with the confidence of a cat burglar, a wad of cash ready to dangle and a couple of car racers ready to sucker. The interaction happened during the last week of April 1982 on the Coo Coo Marlin family farm in Columbia, Tennessee, about an hour south of Nashville, off Interstate 65. The farm had been in Coo Coo's family since the 1880s. Seven hundred acres, 500 head of cattle and a stable of lickety-split racing cars. Clifton Burton "Coo Coo" Marlin was a recently retired country stock car legend. Blond as white oak, he made a name for himself on the short tracks of the South in his crime-scene red 1964 Chevrolet Impala with the number 711 emblazoned on its doors. Coo Coo, though, hadn't fared so well on the big ovals or in the big time. He had tried, unsuccessfully, 165 times to win a NASCAR Winston Cup race between 1966 and 1980. His last race had been the Winston 500 at Talladega, where he came in 37th out of 41. Coo Coo had finished in the top 10 51 times and accumulated just more than $300,000 in prize money. It is not a stretch to say, however, he had never been taken for a ride in the manner he was about to be by the con man with the Cadillac. Coo Coo Marlin wasn't the only mark. There were a lot of victims who felt the sting of this con man's crooked game over the years, according to hundreds of pages of police and court documents from states all over the South. In some racing circles, L.W. Wright is an eccentric, fun celebrity like Rosie Ruiz (who faked her way into the Boston Marathon), D.B. Cooper (who escaped justice by jumping out of an airplane) or Frank Abagnale (whose life of cons was depicted in the movie "Catch Me If You Can"). In other circles, he might be described as a (expletive) piece of (expletive) who tricked a bunch of people whose only mistake was trying to help a guy chase a dream. The con man's life story was as elusive as an echo − with one huge highlight in 1982 − until podcaster/NASCAR historian Rick Houston and a Tennessean reporter began looking for him a few years ago. NASCAR legend Sterling Marlin and Larry Woody discuss L.W. Wright NASCAR legend Sterling Marlin sits down with Former Tennessean reporter Larry Woody to discuss Marlin's encounter with con man L.W. Wright What they uncovered was an audacious tale, kind of sad, about a guy who swung so big and became so small. In 1982, L.W. Wright was a wiry 33-year-old with sideburns as wide as racing tire's skid marks. Raised in Virginia, he talked like a good ol' boy. All gear shifts, crank shafts and gusto. He was fast and interested in going faster. There was this one tiny detail. He had never, ever, not once, competed on a superspeedway in a race car. Which is like saying, I have never touched a cobra, but I'd like to give hooded snake-wrangling a try. But more dangerous. The whole amazing story began to unfold the first time the con man called the Marlin house. "This is L.W. Wright, and I'd like to go to Talladega," he said. Now hold on there, you might be saying to yourself. Talladega? Of all the tracks in all of America, the Alabama International Motor Speedway, as it was called then, or Talladega Superspeedway, as it is called now, is known for its restrictor plates (mandated smaller and less powerful carburetors) and is NOT the place for a first-timer. Remember what happened to Bobby Allison (1987), Rusty Wallace (1993) and 13 cars in "The Big One" (1996)? In 2024, there was a 28-car mangled metallic ballet on that very track. In the world of NASCAR, Talladega and Daytona, the other most treacherous track, are not places for the inexperienced. Talladega is 2.66 miles of asphalt foolishness. The banked turns were designed at 33-degree angles, meaning, when you're turning, your passenger's window must feel like it's at the top of Mt. Everest while your driver's seat must feel like it's in the depths of hell. Race weekend: NASCAR Talladega full weekend track schedule, TV schedule for Jack Link's 500, other races Talladega is crazy. L.W. Wright was crazier. All L.W. Wright needed was a car Sterling Marlin, Coo Coo's son, was 25 when the con man parked his Cadillac near his daddy's garage. He was there for that first meeting. (Coo Coo died of lung cancer in 2005, or he'd probably still be talking about L.W. Wright). Marlin's comments are from several interviews with The Tennessean including one in which a team of journalists visited him at the Marlin family farm. Sterling seemed to kind of like the idea of a first-timer trying at Talladega. Marlin remembers telling Wright, "Go ahead, boss. Go get you some." Even when you have the guts, the moxie, the right stuff to take a stab at Talladega, there is one more thing you need. A race car. "I said, 'Well, I'll get a car together," Sterling Marlin told Wright. And boy did he. There happened to be, just sitting there on the Marlin farm, a 1981 Chevy Monte Carlo ready to roll, with enough giddy-up to compete at Talladega. Apparently, the con man had done his homework. Marlin said he was caught unaware. 'It was kind of crazy," Marlin said. "Where's this guy come from? I had never heard of him.' The car, in this con, was the shiny object. What L.W. Wright was truly after, on that April day in 1982, was the Marlin name. If he could show he had support from the great Coo Coo and his up-and-coming son Sterling Marlin, it was clear sailing to Talladega. Wright asked Sterling to serve as his pit crew chief at Talladega. Sterling Marlin may or may not have been qualified for the job − 'Probably not,' he said with a laugh − but what the heck? He took the job. The car's cost, including a pit crew chief: $21,700. Here's the thing. L.W. Wright told the Marlins he only had $18,000. So he paid the rest of the fee with a $3,700 check. Spoiler alert: That check bounced like a spring-loaded basketball. And that $18,000? It wasn't his money. Forty-some years later, Sterling Marlin said this about L.W. Wright. If he ever saw him again, "I'd (expletive) kill him." Coal country roots Some things about L.W. Wright were always kind of right. Like his name. His given name was Larry Ernest Wright, born in Richlands, Virginia on April 17, 1949. How and why he chose "L.W." instead of just going by "Larry" for his big con is a mystery, as is so much about him. His backstory is largely dependent on his own retelling, so it could be as true or false as good fiction. Wright had five brothers and two sisters, and his father was a coal miner who broke his back, an injury that rendered his family poor. The Wrights lived in Tazewell County in the mountains of southwest Virginia. In a town of less than 5,000 hearty souls. If you've heard of Tazewell County, it may because of the recent rise of Progressive Massive Fibrosis, or Black Lung Disease. The new Black Lung cases are reminding people of the old days, which produced death-defying kids like Larry Wright. Wright told Rick Houston, host of the Scene Vault podcast, he never finished seventh grade, and he was running moonshine by the time he was 17 to help his family. Dodging law enforcement had apparently started early for Larry Wright. The day after Wright turned 19, his brother, Grover Wright Jr., died in Bien Hoa Province, Vietnam. Grover, two years older than Larry, was an Army infantryman in the Air Cavalry Troop, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. On April 18, 1968, Grover found himself in a Bien Hoa river, swimming in search of a crossing route for his unit. He drowned in the midst of that combat operation, and was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal. Larry Wright has told numerous stories about what happened after his brother's death. He said he was prevented from going to Vietnam because of his brother's plight. He also said he served three tours of duty in the Special Forces, which was not true. There wasn't much Wright wouldn't lie about. His racing history, for example, appears to be a complete fabrication. Wright said when he was in his 20s and early 30s, he raced short tracks in the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series. He told everyone he had 43 starts. He also said he ran "outlaw" races, those unsanctioned events that are many times the racing equivalent of beer league softball. It was that lie about his racing background that appeared to launch his Talladega dream. Who was going to check on his veracity? This all happened in the pre-Google world of 1982. If you don't remember 1982, here are a few impactful moments. Kelly Clarkson was born in April of 1982 (about six weeks after John Belushi died). It was the first year of The Weather Channel. "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" opened in theaters. The World's Fair was in Knoxville, where fairgoers could use a touch-screen computer for the first time ever. By the sheer strength of his storytelling ability, Wright convinced Nashville-based Bernie Terrell, who owned the Space Age Marketing company, to loan him $30,000 to fund the Talladega gambit. With that money in his pocket, Wright registered his team name: "Music City Racing." And he paid $115 for a NASCAR license. His team included a bunch of his buddies, which, of course it did. And, sprinkled in for good measure, were country music stars Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and T.G. Sheppard. Again, there was a kernel of truth in his connection to those country stars. Wright had worked for a time repairing and cleaning tricked-out tour buses. He may have bumped into Jennings, Haggard and Sheppard while vacuuming their rolling domiciles. If anybody would know about Music City connections to NASCAR, it would be Gary Baker, who was a former driver on the circuit, and a Nashville lawyer. And he represented T.G. Sheppard. "I was his (T.G.'s) tax attorney at the time," Baker said in a recent interview. "I put together all marketing deals with T.G. and Proctor and Gamble. I would have been the first one to have been in contact with this guy, and I've never heard of him." Baker said Wright's lies were impressive. 'You got to hand it to the guy," Baker said. "He was good at what he did and what he was good at doing was being a con artist. If he applied those same skills and personality traits to legitimate versions of business, the guy would have been an automatic success. It's just a shame that he chose to go in this direction and conned so many people in so many ways." Once he had the money and the car, the con man needed a trailer and a big rig hauler to get the party down to Talladega, Alabama. Wright spent $7,500 for that transport. There was one more issue. Because Wright was a bit of an artist when it came to cons, he wanted that Monte Carlo painted. Coo Coo Marlin's cars were always red. L.W. Wright wanted that sucker painted black, the color of Johnny Cash, pirate flags and daring deeds. Oh, and make that hood, just the hood, metallic gold, hanging out there like the sun's tongue. Wright bought Goodyear tires (about $1,500) and racing jackets (a total of $168) for his crew. Of course, he paid for everything with rubbery checks. There was one more thing he needed the Marlins to help him with before he could race. He wanted a number. It had to be 34. If L.W. Wright had a racing hero, it was Wendell Scott, a Black man who got his NASCAR license in 1953 in the Jim Crow South, and won in every division NASCAR had despite being banned, disqualified and disrespected more times than you'd want to count. Scott was from Danville, Virginia, about three and half hours of driving time from the Wright home in Richlands. There may have been tougher men than Wendell Scott, but not many. At the Dover Motor Speedway, Scott was poisoned by a "fan" who gave him a spiked drink before a race. He was confronted by the Ku Klux Klan. He raced without sponsors and under constant death threats. Somehow L.W. Wright felt a kinship with Scott, and he wanted to race at Talladega with Scott's No. 34 on his doors. Alert the media Some people, while attempting to pull off the sports con of the century, might try to operate quietly. In the shadows. Under the cover of keeping your dang mouth shut. Not L.W. Wright. A couple of days before the Winston 500 at Talladega, Tennessean columnist Larry Woody got involved in the tale. "I was sitting at my desk one morning, the phone rings, and it's some guy that says he's representing a race driver named L.W. Wright who just moved to Nashville to further his racing career," Woody remembers. "And would I be interested in doing a story? And I said ... 'Coincidentally, I'm doing a racing notes column tomorrow for the next morning's paper.'" Woody took some notes and added a couple paragraphs to the bottom of his racing column. "This driver named L.W. Wright came to town trying to start his racing career," Woody said. "He was going to be sponsored by Waylon Jennings and T.G. Shepherd and Merle Haggard ... T.G. was a big name back then, and so I included that in the story." The next morning Gary Baker, the lawyer who represented Shepherd, called Woody. "So I told Larry at the time, 'Woodrow, listen, just, this is totally fishy,'" Baker said. "I know that was the word I'd used only because I go back and look at some of those news clippings. It tells me that I used the word fishy, even before I hung up the phone for the very first time hearing his name. So I knew there was something wrong. You just don't throw a name around, that's going to sponsor you, when you haven't even had any contact with them.' So Woody, being the good journalist he is, got in touch with L.W. Wright. "I said, L.W., this is Larry Woody from The Tennessean," Woody remembers. "I did a note about your racing, coming to Nashville in this morning's paper. And (L.W.) said, 'Yeah, I appreciate it.' "I said, 'Well, there's a little hitch.' I said, 'A friend of mine, Gary Baker, who represents T.G. Shepherd, says he didn't know anything about the sponsorship. And (L.W.) said, 'Well, maybe it's a little premature.' He said, 'We're working on some sponsorship deals with T.G. Sheppard, Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard ...' " L.W. Wright implied that maybe he may have been "misled" by these big stars. Woody thinks it was Wright who was doing the misleading. "I sort of think he exaggerated," Woody said. That's what con men do. Maybe the con man didn't appreciate what journalists do. Because while L.W. Wright was heading south to Talladega, Larry Woody started doing a little digging. "I did another interview with L.W. on the phone before Talladega," Woody said. "I called him one more time and to double check on his credentials. And he said he had done a lot of racing in the Virginias, in the Carolinas ... He had raced on the Grand National circuit, which is what the top level NASCAR is now." Woody called a Grand National source. "They never heard of him," Woody said. All of this could have been just a blip in history, a con man with delusions of grandeur set his sights on a giant NASCAR race. Not much of a story. Because there was one more obstacle to pulling off the con. L.W. Wright had to get in Coo Coo's Monte Carlo and actually qualify for the dang race. He needed to drive fast enough at one of the most dangerous tracks in America to pull it off. And he needed to outrun a journalist.
Fox News
06-03-2025
- Automotive
- Fox News
Danica Patrick reveals drivers she'd want to race against in dream scenario
Former NASCAR driver Danica Patrick has her dream race. Patrick, 42, was asked to pick three people, dead or alive, to race. "Well, I think I'd want to see how I stacked up against Ayrton Senna. He was one of the greats in Formula 1," Patrick said during a recent appearance on OutKick's "Gaines for Girls" podcast with Riley Gaines. Senna, who died in an accident during a 1994 race at age 34, is a Formula 1 legend. Senna achieved 41 wins, 65 pole positions, 19 fastest laps and 80 podiums and was known for his aggressive driving style. Patrick then selected one of NASCAR's greatest drivers to compete against. "Maybe get out there and doorbang with Dale Earnhardt Sr. Obviously, I know (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) super well. I drove for him. He's a friend, and his wife Amy is great. But, you know, he was known as 'the Intimidator.' So, that would be a fun person to see, like, what did that feel like? Would I be intimidated? Cause I have a real mean streak in me at times," Patrick said. Earnhardt raced in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, now the NASCAR Cup Series, from 1975 to 2001. Earnhardt won 76 Winston Cup races and 24 exhibition events, for a combined 100 wins. The legend is the only driver in NASCAR history to win a race in four different, consecutive decades. Earnhardt, like Senna, died in a race of a skull fracture during a last-lap crash during the Daytona 500 in 2001 at 49 years old. In Patrick's hypothetical race, she is taking on Senna and Earnhardt competitively and, for her third person, she chose to put someone in her own car. "Maybe put someone in my car. Who'd I want to put in my car? I think I'd put Jesus in my car. I think that, in all of my spiritual practices and religious experiences, I've been connecting with the energy of Jesus. It has always felt like a homie, like just your best friend. Like someone that's just super cool and on your level but just all love. And, so, there you go, that'd be my passenger," Patrick said. Patrick is one of the most successful women in racing history. She is the first woman to win an IndyCar Series race, the first to have a pole position in a NASCAR Cup Series race and holds the highest finish by a woman in the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500, among many other accomplishments. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Reuters
19-02-2025
- Automotive
- Reuters
Stubbs: How William Byron's rise compares to Jeff Gordon's best years
February 19 - More than 25 years after Jeff Gordon earned his second Daytona 500 win in 1999, he sat inside the media center at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, preparing to take questions. Gordon, now the vice chairman of operations for Hendrick Motorsports, was previously the youngest driver to win two Daytona 500s. That was until 27-year-old William Byron, piloting the Hendrick No. 24 that Gordon brought to power in the 1990s, escaped the last-lap big one to win his second consecutive Great American Race on Sunday. Gordon was asked about Byron breaking his record. "I hope he breaks them all," Gordon said. "I'm in full support of that." Three decades ago, Gordon, crew chief Ray Evernham and Hendrick Motorsports crafted one of the greatest dynasties in NASCAR history. From 1995 to 1998, Gordon won 40 races, the 1997 Daytona 500 and three Winston Cup titles. Evernham left the No. 24 team with seven races remaining in the 1999 season, the same year Gordon won his second Daytona 500. Twenty-six years later, Gordon has gray hair. He traded in his fire suit for a vest after a brief stint as a substitute driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2016. While he still answers questions in post-race news conferences, he sits to the side, with the Hendrick driver who won the race taking the spot Gordon sat in 93 times. Byron is poised to be the face of a new dynasty alongside another man who is getting used to the spotlight of the winner's circle: crew chief Rudy Fugle. Let's not mince words: In regard to both statistics and the eye test, no driver/crew chief combination besides Hendrick Motorsports' own Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus have come close to matching or eclipsing the results that Gordon and Evernham produced in the '90s. But if any duo is going to match the Rainbow Warriors, it could be Byron and Fugle. Byron was paired with Fugle during the 2016 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season, in which Byron won seven races. Byron moved up to the Cup Series in the famed No. 24 in 2018, and he won his first Cup Series race in August 2020 at Daytona with Knaus atop the pit box. Fugle was paired with Byron ahead of the 2021 Cup Series season, which saw Byron record his second victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway and finish a then-career-best 10th in points. Since the advent of the Next-Gen car in 2022, Byron and Fugle have won 12 races, made two appearances in the Championship 4 and haven't finished worse than sixth in the Cup Series points standings. After winning the Daytona 500 in 2024, Byron and Fugle were back in victory lane in Daytona Beach on Sunday, with Byron becoming just the fifth driver ever to win back-to-back Daytona 500s. Say what you will about the state of modern superspeedway racing, but two Harley J. Earl Trophies don't just fall into a driver's lap. Quantifying what a dynasty is or could be in modern NASCAR is a difficult task. NASCAR's championship format is arguably the least straightforward it's ever been, making it harder for the fastest teams to make the Championship 4 on a consistent basis, let alone take home the title in Phoenix. Rather than using the amount of Bill France Cups a driver has on his shelf to decide whether or not he forged a dynasty, looking at race wins and Championship 4 appearances -- two accomplishments aplenty in the No. 24 camp over the past three seasons -- seems much more reasonable. Byron and Fugle's stretch from 2022 to the 2025 Daytona 500 doesn't compare to Gordon and Evernham's dominant run in the '90s, but then again, only Johnson and Knaus' 2006-10 stretch has since. "We talk about it all the time, how quickly he's risen through the ranks and won races and championships," Gordon said. "He continues to do it at an elite level in Cup. This guy (Fugle) has a lot to do with it. Rudy's a great crew chief. When you get that combination of a great talent like William and a great talent like Rudy and you put the team together with it, the resources we have, magical things happen." If Byron and the No. 24 team can continue to earn Championship 4 berths, it seems a foregone conclusion that a championship or two will come their way -- and with it, talk of crowning them as another great dynasty that just so happened to be emblazoned with the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24.
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
NASCAR Has a Camaro Problem
NASCAR has had one guiding principle throughout its 77-year history: keep racing. Fuel crisis? Keep racing. Driver strike? Keep racing. Manufacturers pull out? Keep racing. A legend dies at Daytona? Keep racing. Wars, droughts, earthquakes, plane crashes… whatever arises, NASCAR keeps racing. And right now, that means General Motors is campaigning the Camaro body in NASCAR Cup, even though the muscle car left production back in December 2023. About the only change that's apparent on the track is that the Camaro branding on the rear bumper has been replaced by 'Chevrolet' lettering. This, however, is not the first time NASCAR has faced the problem of not having current cars to race. Let's travel back in time… one decade… two decades… three decades… all the way back 50 years ago to 1975. Back in the 1970s, Richard Petty was easily the most popular driver in stock car racing. And his Petty blue and STP red Dodge Charger was the most identifiable car in the sport. The problem though was that the 1975 Charger sucked. At the time, NASCAR race cars still ran more-stock-than-not sheetmetal. And Petty had the third-generation (1971 to 1974) Charger working great as a racer. The nose was blunt but low, the tail was sloped which directed air onto the rear spoiler for downforce and stability. And the third-gen chassis itself was very much the same as the Chrysler products Petty Enterprises had been running and perfected since the 1960s. Petty won ten races during 1974 and beat out Cale Yarborough for his fifth Grand National and Winston Cup championship. But the fourth-generation 1975 Charger, nearly identical to the Chrysler Cordoba, threw all that away with a new boxier profile including a severe formal roof that was hopeless. So, the Petty team did the only reasonable thing it could, and kept running the 1974 Charger. It paid off in 13 wins during the 1975 season and his sixth championship. Still, the 1974 Charger was in its dotage and only had one more year of Winston Cup eligibility according to NASCAR's existing rules. Petty could run the '74 during 1976, but after that he'd have to find new sheet metal. Instead, after three more wins in 1976, a second-place finish in the points, and once again being named NASCAR's most popular driver in a fan vote, NASCAR changed the rules. The three-previous model year rule for Winston Cup was changed to four for 1977 and therefore Petty could run the '74 Charger for one more year. The explanation was that it was a cost saving measure. But also, NASCAR wasn't about to let its marquee attraction suffer with the '75 to '77 Charger body style. Petty took another five wins and finished second again. But the '74 Charger was done. For 1978 Petty moved over to the new Dodge Magnum – basically a '75 Charger with a new semi-sloping nose. By the first race of 1978, however, Petty was unhappy with the Magnum. 'I'm disappointed,' Petty told The New York Times during preparations for the January road course race at Riverside in California. 'So far the new car has been going fair to middlin,' mostly fair. It ain't got to the middlin' stage yet.' Petty qualified for the 1978 Daytona 500 sixth in the Magnum but crashed out on the 60th lap. And his struggles with the Magnum only got worse. 'It just wasn't possible to get the Dodge Magnum consistently competitive with some of the other cars under the current NASCAR rules,' said Petty quoted by Greg Fielden in his Forty Years of Stock Car Racing book series. 'We tried everything we could possibly think of. Even though there have been some improvements from the first of the year, everyone else is going quicker too.' So, in August, Petty moved over to Chevrolets. There was a good reason why everyone else was going faster during 1978. Before the start of the season, NASCAR approved the use of the Chevrolet LM1 small-block V-8 for use in Buick, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac body shells. The LM1 wasn't that special – it was the base engine in the 1978 Corvette and Camaro Z/28 – but it was a 350-cubic inch Chevy small-block and dang near every American working in a service station knew how to make power with the Chevy small-block. And it soon became obvious that the killer setup for NASCAR speedway races was going to be the 1976 and 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass models with a sloping front end and near-fastback rear window. In fact the Cutlasses were so popular that they shoved aside most of the competition for three years – 1978 through 1980. That was despite the fact that the Cutlass (and all of GM's 'A-Body' intermediates) had been downsized for 1978 and NASCAR looked an awful lot like a used car race during those years. Richard Petty won the Daytona 500 in 1979 in an Olds after Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison crashed their Oldsmobiles on the last lap while led. And Petty took his seventh championship during 1979 driving a mix of Cutlasses on the superspeedways and Chevrolet Monte Carlos on the shorter tracks (the longer wheelbase Montes handled better). Out of 40 entries in the 1980 Daytona 500, 23 were 1977 Oldsmobiles. Then NASCAR switched to the new smaller cars for 1981 and chaos ensued. For a short while. The racing never stopped. Today's NASCAR doesn't depend on stock sheetmetal and the manufacturers – Ford, GM and Toyota – are knitted closely to the sanctioning body and its rule making. There's no way that NASCAR will let something as piddling as the lack of current Camaro production keep Chevrolet off the grid. And for at least the next few years Chevy will keep running the Camaro body in Cup. 'Chevrolet will continue to race the Camaro that is approved in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series,' GM Racing's Trevor Thompkins told R&T. 'We remain committed to NASCAR just as we have been for 76 years. The cars retain ZL1 badging in the Cup series and SS badging in the Xfinity series. Across all the series where we race, we periodically adjust the balance of the car model and the Chevrolet brand. In addition, we use racing across all series, including NASCAR, as a way to promote the full Chevrolet line-up.' The Camaro isn't coming off the assembly line anymore, but the race version will still help sell Traxes and Blazers and Colorados and Silverados. There simply isn't a good alternative in the current Chevrolet lineup. The Corvette would be an awkward Cup car, and it's tough to imagine a Traverse or Tahoe being pretzeled into a stock car shape. Maybe GM could have switched to a Cadillac, since the CT4 and CT5 are at least cars and not SUVs. But Cadillac has committed itself to endurance racing and is preparing for a move into Formula One. The Camaro may not be current, but it's still a beloved Chevy. But, at some point, NASCAR is going to confront the dominance of crossover SUVs in the vehicle market. And the future may look something like the Chevrolet Blazer EV.R displayed at Daytona during this 500 week. 'While we will continue to race our proven and winning V-8 technology in NASCAR for years to come, we continually look for ways to improve the combination of power, durability, and efficiency to transfer learnings from the racetrack to the showroom, especially as we bolster Chevy's consumer EV lineup,' explained Eric Warren, executive director, global motorsports competition for General Motors in a press release. Yes, the Blazer EV.R is an all-electric race machine with 1300 horsepower from three electric motors. Even more importantly for the immediate future, however, it's an SUV body style fitted to a modified version of the current NASCAR Next Gen chassis. 'This program was a great opportunity with NASCAR to design a new crossover utility vehicle body and bring forward design elements from our Blazer EV SS,' said Phil Zak, executive director for Chevrolet Global Design in that same press release. 'The EV.R prototype offers lower and wider proportions and was designed with aerodynamics and performance in mind.' It's possible (if not likely) that the future of NASCAR racing looks something like the Blazer EV.R with that tall rear wing supplying the downforce necessary for racing stability. Whether that future is powered by V-8 engines, electric motors, or transparent willpower. How close is that future? Well, forget all the race cars behind it. It's the Chevrolet Blazer EV SS pace car that may be more indicative of the future that will soon be upon NASCAR. "While we do not comment on future products," concluded Thompson, "we assure you we are working on what's next for Chevrolet in NASCAR." Because NASCAR always keeps racing. You Might Also Like You Need a Torque Wrench in Your Toolbox Tested: Best Car Interior Cleaners The Man Who Signs Every Car
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
John Glenn orbits Earth, Dale Earnhardt dies at Daytona: News Journal archives Feb. 16-22
'Pages of history' features excerpts from The News Journal archives including the Wilmington Morning News and the Evening Journal. See the archives at Feb. 16, 2000, The News Journal Delaware legislators and education officials are concerned proposed amendments to a Senate-approved education reform bill will lead to the death of the legislation. House members filed 10 amendments to the bill Tuesday, threatening the compromise that led to the proposed law. ... The bill would establish standards for students – including state standardized testing and a multi-tiered diploma system – and teacher accountability based on student performance. House members seeking the revisions say they're trying to improve the legislation, not kill it. Tuesday's House amendments included one proposal to separate increased salaries for teachers from the bill. Rep. William Oberle Jr., R-Beechers Lot, said he plans to submit an amendment to eliminate the multi-tiered diploma system. And House Speaker Terry Spence, R-Statford, wants to eliminate the student accountability testing system called for in the bill. Spence, who is running for governor, said he wants to replace the proposed system with testing before the start of the school year, tracking tests during the year and year-end tests…. Recent state education news: New Delaware scores in the Nation's Report Card still show little pandemic rebound Feb. 17, 1923, The Evening Journal In the Valley of the Kings, where 3,500 years ago the royal funeral cortege of Pharoah Tutankhamen marched in solemn state, the men of a new civilization today made preparations for fetching the ancient monarch out of the tomb where he has slumbered for 35 centuries. The aperture knocked through the sealed door to the inner Mausoleum has been closed up until all is in readiness for the official ceremonial opening on Sunday. When Howard Carter and the other excavators entered the inner tomb yesterday, they found an undreamed-of wealth of Egyptian furniture, idols and other articles of incalculable historical value. ... The sides of the sarcophagus, apparently made of wood, came within two feet of the walls of the cell. Its surface was exquisitely carved and gilded. ... In addition to the sarcophagus, the tomb contained a lifelike statue of a cat, regarded as sacred in ancient Egypt; a canopic vase, funeral vases and urns, small caskets thought to hold little images of servants who were to do Tutankhamen's work in the next world, and many other objects placed there to be of assistance to him in his journey into eternity. Feb. 19, 2001, The News Journal Dale Earnhardt Sr., one of the greatest stars in auto racing history, died Sunday of injuries from a last-lap crash at the Daytona 500. The seven-time Winston Cup champion known as 'The Intimidator' for his aggressive driving had to be cut out of his car after slamming into the wall while fighting for position on the final turn of the race. ... 'This is undoubtedly one of the toughest announcements I have ever personally had to make. We've lost Dale Earnhardt,' NASCAR president Mike Helton said. Earnhardt, 49, died instantly of head injuries, said Steve Bohannon, a doctor at Halifax Medical Center. Feb. 20, 1962, Evening Journal Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. was plucked safely from the Atlantic Ocean at 3:01 p.m. today by a destroyer, USS Noa, after he flew three times around the world in his space ship. ... Glenn broke the space trail for the free world today with a magnificent leap into orbit. ... The 40-year-old Marine rose into space atop a flame-spewing Atlas rocket at 9:47 a.m. At 2:28 p.m., 4 hours and 41 minutes later, he had completed the three orbits of his mission. Ten minutes later his spacecraft's 63-foot main parachute opened at 21,000 feet and dropped the craft and its pilot into the sea. ... Glenn had successfully completed an epochal space mission which made him the first American in orbit. ... He ecstatically reported he was seeing 'tremendous' and 'beautiful' views from his capsule as he rode alternately through periods of light and dark. He also reported 'some minor difficulties' with his spacecraft's controls, but he said weightlessness disturbed him not a bit and he felt 'fine.' Catch up on history: Rosa Parks' arrest sparks bus boycott, Prohibition ends: News Journal archives, Dec. 1-7 Feb. 22, 1973, The Morning News President Nixon yesterday strongly defended his budget cuts and predicted a relief from rising food prices in the second half of the year. He claimed that his Phase III anti-inflation campaign, while based on voluntary restraints, will be 'as mandatory as necessary.' Phase III will focus on those areas 'where inflation has been most troublesome – construction, health care and food prices,' Nixon emphasized. 'We are allowing more meat and dried milk to come in from abroad…we have ended subsidies for agricultural exports,' and 'we are reducing the government's agricultural stockpiles.' Reach reporter Ben Mace at rmace@ This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: News Journal archives Feb. 16-22: Glenn in orbit, Earnhardt dies at Daytona
