The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 55

A THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER Sunday May 26 1991 15D MOTORSPORTS 144 4 Johnson's crew looking for win for 'Team Floss' Boston Va" Wright who played as a lineman and linebacker at Franklin County (Va) High spurned several college' scholarship offers in favor of a career in racing His house guests in Thomasville this week to attend the race include three San Francisco 49ers old high school teammate 49ers defensive coach Dwayne Board: Eric Wright and Michael Carter Hill has been around racing since he was a toddler His father Harley fielded dirt track cars out of a Spartanburg shop starting in the 1950s One of his drivers was David Pearson who moved on to win three Winston Cup championships and 105 races second most of all-time Hill joined the Johnson team in '81 Wright in '86 The two were smiling Saturday reporting that Ellis' practice laps were close to those of the fastest cars "If fans want an underdog to pull for though Team Floss is it" said Hill "Cause you might say Junior is checking out his bench" Wright shook his head He said: 'Talk about a fired-up bunch This probably means more to Mike and me than anything that's ever happened to us We've been thrown into a tough situation in a short amount of time but with the other boys' help we're going to be equal to it" Added Hill: "We didn't qualify toward the front but that was sort of by design All of us including Tommy agreed that it'd be better to go conservative and make sure the car wasn't brought back to the garage on a hook We didn't have to prove we can kick any fannies the first thing" Both Wright and Hill are 37 And as much as any competitors in the speedway garage area they can honestly claim to have been in stock car racing all their lives "I went to my first race when I was two weeks old" said Wright a top jackman while Hill is a member of NASCAR's all-pro team as a rear tire changer "It's true My mom and dad Shirley and Warren took me to watch my uncle Lane Richardson race at South By TOM HIGGINS Staff Writer Sentimental favorite in the Coca-Cola 600 today at Charlotte Motor Speedway for a lot of fans will be "Team Floss" The outfit's No 97 Ford does not bear that name because it is sponsored by a dental material It is "Team Floss" because the listed owner is Flossie Johnson wife of Junior Anson who is suspended for four races She is one of the most respected women in NASCAR racing "Floss" of course is the nickname employees of Johnson's two Wilkes County-based teams have affectionately pinned on the matriarch of big-time motorsports' winningest operation over the past 15 seasons She has been cast into today's unexpected role by a series of soap opera-like events that have been well-documented since The Winston all-star race last Sunday at Charlotte To synopsize: A slightly over-sized engine was found in the No I 1 Ford that Tommy Ellis drove while substituting for injured Geoff Bodine On Monday NASCAR suspended Johnson crew chief Tim Brewer and Ellis for 12 weeks Johnson was fined $7000 Ellis his winnings of $18000 Johnson's fine and Ellis' suspension were lifted on appeal A further appeal reduced the Johnson and Brewer suspensions to the next four races starting with today's 600 in which Ellis will continue to drive as Bodine recovers from three broken ribs and a punctured lung "I'd give about anything if we could win that race" Flossie said Saturday from the Johnson's home atop a hill in picturesque Ing les Hollow She remained close to tears over the controversy she feels has soiled the reputation of her legendary husband a hall of famer as a driver She said Junior spent Saturday in the fields baling hay And crew chiefs Mike Hill and Pete Wright filling in for Brewer declared the crew of 97 "is going to give everything to give Floss a showing that she and all of us can be proud of" I Still competitive For Yates track is place for wins and memories 0 ::::::::::7 Elf? 41 iNi 1:4:01:) '--r'--- eN 11 git SOWL --t- ---11'ki1111- lk ay 1 7777'''-- 0 It4 -''-j I 0----r 1311 4:4 Mr''' --i77 Is-- 0 i '1 1 'A At 0 --1r1' 4 1 atr kT eer411- ::3 1::4 or- :1:::: I teS ir GARY O'BRIENStati tional Raceway almost three years ago has assumed a stronger role with his race team Bobby Allison whose driving career wag shortened by a crash at Pocono (Pa) Interna 600 lineup Lineup for today's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway: Car No Poe Driver Car Speed 6 1 Mark Martin Ford-'- 174820 30 2 Michael Waltrip Pontiac 174582 25 3 Ken Schrader Chevy 174520 22 4 Sterling Marlin Ford 174244 26 5 Brett Bodine Buick 173874 4 6 Ernie lrvan Chevy 173449 33 7 Harry Gant Olds 173371 8 Alan Kulwicki Ford 173227 2 9 Rusty Wallace Pontiac 172772 28 10 Davey Allison Ford 172717 9 11 Bill Elliott Ford 172667 21 12 Dale Jarrett Ford 172463 94 13 Terry Labonte Olds 172243 3 14 Dale Earnhardt Chevy 172188 1 15 Rick Mast Olds 172161 66 16 Lake Speed Pontiac 172062 5 17 Ricky Rudd Chevy 171925 17 18 Darrell Waltrip Chevy 171881 42 19 Kenny Wallace Pontiac 171494 15 20 Shepherd Ford 171401 10 Cope Chevy 171298 41 22 Larry Pearson Chevy 171265 19 ''23 Chad Little Ford 171184 43 24 Richard Petty Pontiac 171162 71 25 Dave Marcis Chevy 171059 47 26 Greg Sacks 4 Olds 170956 24 27 Mickey Gibbs Pontiac 170891 8 28 Rick Wilson Buick 170875 68 29 Bobby Hamilton Olds 170708 12 30 Hut Stricklin Buick 170632 20 31 Bobby Hillin Olds 170573 49 32 Stanley Smith Buick 170455 98 33 Jimmy Spencer Chevy 170428 97 34 Tommy Ellis Ford 170395 75 35 Joe Ruttman Olds 170342 89 36 Jim Sauter Pontiac 170315 55 37 Ted Musgrave Pontiac 169956 34 38 Dick Trickle Buick 169146 52 39 Jimmy Means Pontiac 168503 23 40 Bierschwale Olds 168376 90 41 Wally Dallenbach Ford Pros -Event record old record Ken Schrader 173963 1990 Allison still winning in his toughest battle II "I have my good days and my bad days" Bobby Allison former driver "I'm a little harder on him than the rest bl the family because know first-hand what feeling sorry for yourself does to you" Donnie said "When Bobby finally got going pretty good (physically) I'd call up there and he was sitting itl a chair working a crossword puzzle That's-not Bobby Allison "When I was hurt I'd get up eat then start watching soap operas And I hate television "We didn't talk about it for a long time But he came to me in February at Daytona and I told him things I went through and he said 'That's exactly the way I feel' "By this point the recovery was more mental than physical It's tough for anybody not being able to go right out and do things you've always done without thinking about it" For much of the past three years Allison has struggled with the harshness of that reality He said he still does at times today But he knows and he reminds himself how close he came to the harshest of fates "The doctor came in there at the Allentown (Pa) hospital and asked Judy to sign something to give permission for some of the work they had to do on me 'Judy said He doesn't want to be a vegetable' "He told her want to give you your husband back' Lots of NASCAR's top Winston Cup Series teams consider Charlotte Motor Speedway the "home track" is because their shops are located near the clty or at some outlying town like Concord Denver Harrisburg or Mooresville 4 Perhaps more than for any current competitor h'owever Charlotte honest-to-goodness is home fqr Robert Yates team owner and engine builder forFord driver Davey Allison considered at least a 4-4-: -0 Co favorite today in the tracks 'Coca-Cola 600 1i Yates 48 was born in the Queen City and grew up here 4 ii str! $1 graduating at Garinger High i It 4' A His late father John Yates j'4 was a minister serving at Shamrock Baptist starting in 1943 and then at Eastway lir Baptist until retiring in 1968 i Naturally even the normally low-key Yates gets excited about winning at Charlotte as Tom his team did last Sunday when Allison took The Winston spe- Higgins dal event in a runaway That victory gave Yates all rommonommono the more right to put a decal if he wished on the black No 28 Thunderbird today reading "There's No Place Like Home" Adding The Winston victory he counts seven Wins at Charlotte five as an engine builder dating to 1972 and two as a team owner The "engine-man" victories came in 600s with Darrell Waltrip in 1978 and '79 and Bobby Allison Davey's dad in '84 Then in the fall 500-milers of '72 with the elder Allison and '73 with Cale Yarborough The first local win for Robert Yates Racing he purchased the team from Harry Ranier to start the '89 season took place last October as Davey took the Mello Yello 500 Yates' operation had scored three victories earlier at other tracks Yates is a soft-spoken sort but once tempted into talking can tell several auto racing anecdotes including some on himself example he revealed that 20 years ago in Me 600 of 1971 he worked on both Ford and Chevrolet entries "I was a full-time employee of Holman Moody the Ford 'factory racing' shop but I knew Ford was getting out of the sport 'cause the factory program was ending" recalled Yates "Richard Howard then the president of Charlotte Motor Speedway was concerned about his crowds since there was no competitive Chevy He wanted to create one with Junior Johnson as team owner and Charlie Glotzbach driving "Junior got me to come up to his shop at night after I got off at Holman Moody and build that Chevy engine I took hand tools up there to work including a Sears-Roebuck die grinder because Junior didn't have the first piece of equipment You know that engine helped Charlie sit on the 600 pole but Bobby Allison won the race in a Holman Moody Mercury I got a pretty good chuckle out of that" Yates has enjoyed the excitement of racing since Soap Box Derby days as a youth in Charlotte And he conceded sheepishly to doing a "good bit" of drag racing and street racing around Charlotte when he was in high school "Our 'tracks' were Independence Boulevard right after they poured the concrete on it Plaza Road Extension and Albemarle Road" he said "Oh Albemarle Road after you pass the railroad trestle near Wilgrove that was our high-speed Talladega-type place If you really felt brave you'd get some Cars and go out Independence and run from the old Babe Maloy's drive-in out Albemarle Road to Midland turn around at the red light there and race back "I worked at Babe Maloy's three shifts everything from hopping curbs to frying chicken to make enough money to buy parts to go over to the Shuffletown Drag Strip and race competitively" Yates whose team won $375000 last Sunday smiled and shook his head at the recollection Yates went to Mars Hill with the intention of getting a degree in civil engineering Not far away was Asheville-Weaverville Speedway which in the 1950s and early '60s was among NASCAR's most infamous tracks noted for wild shenanigans "It was at Asheville-Weaverville that I got close to the people in the sport for the first time" said Yates "I remember one day standing right near to Junior Johnson he was among the most famous colorful drivers then and he looked at me rubbed his belly and said 'I believe I've eat too much chicken' He spoke to me! Junior has been a hero since then" After college Yates worked for a time with a heavy equipment dealership in Charlotte then got a chance to join Holman Moody because he was good at math "Eventually I moved into research and development wing fitting bearings and parts and pieces for about 30 engine builders" he said "I kept my eyes Open and learned all I could After I solved a couple of problems that got John Holman's attention and my career moved on from there" Oh how it has moved on On to a point that the Yates lealll'S Ford figures strongly to give its owner an eighth Charlotte victory today That's not counting of course those he scored in the '50s on Independence Boulevard and when lie shuffled (Hi down to Shuffletown 500 By LEONARD LAVE Sports Editor You see Bobby Allison stroll through the garage area and you don't know whether to laugh or cry Laugh because he's made it he's winning another one grinding up bigger odds than he ever faced on a race track by just being around at all Cry because for years to see Bobby Allison was to see a whirlwind a man so in love with his sport and so consumed by his will to win that he never stopped "I have my good days and my bad days" Allison said this week at Charlotte Motor Speedway "Every time I start feeling sorry for myself I see someone who's in worse shape I'm fortunate" Life has changed dramatically for Allison now almost three emotionally and physically painful years removed from a fateful crash at Pocono International Raceway And because of it the face of Winston Cup racing has forever been altered too as the series completes its annual May stop in Charlotte with today's Coca-Cola 600 On a typical Charlotte weekend in the past Allison would have crammed his schedule with daytime practice and competition at the speedway and flights out of state somewhere for short track shows on Friday and Saturday nights Today he still flies his own airplane "as good as he ever did" said his brother Donnie Allison himself a veteran of NASCAR's top series But almost everything else has changed Waltrip: 'I could cry' Allison 53 still looks much the same The external injuries have healed and the only visible mark of that 1988 accident is a once-lean waistline that expanded during long periods of inactivity The other injuries the massive ones to his head and legs have all but healed and their effects show only to those who knew watched and lost to Allison through about 25 seasons and 717 starts in major-league competition "Every time I see Bobby I could cry and I have on occasion" said Darrell Waltrip once a bitter rival of Allison's "It's sad to see somebody who was so energetic so busy so active not going like they once did "But at the same time I see him and I think how fortunate it is he's doing so well It could have been so much worse" Allison's racing these days consists of a gradually increasing role in his race team which provides Winston Cup cars for Hut Stricklin And he still lives the sport through his oldest son Davey now one of the series' top drivers "Davey's success has helped Bobby a lot during all this" said Donnie Allison "But I'll tell you this as competitive as he is if he was getting in a car today to run against Davey he'd want Davey to finish second He hasn't lost that" Gant Irvan compete for chance to capture million-dollar prize Continued from page 1 Dreaming of a comeback Allison doesn't dwell on getting his career back He admits though that he still thinks about climbing back through the window settling into the seat buckling up and firing the engine into a roar that was once one of life's sweetest sounds At Phoenix last November Stricklin and the crew worked on the car not getting exactly what they wanted Allison watched standing alone with his thoughts on top of their truck "I said to myself 'I wonder how that would feel to me' he said "And I smiled" He allowed himself eight laps of practice not long ago at a Montgomery half-mile track getting in son Clifford's racer just to get the feel hack "It felt goodr Allison said "I ran six laps real slow then I just eased down on it a little bit on the last two laps "II the right circumstances come up I think I might get in the car again probably at a short track somewhere during a test "In a way it's pretty important to me I feel like if I do get hack in the car and could do it it would assure me I would have recovered" No regrets Through the recovery Allison never allows himself to say never at least not for more than a fleeting moment And he never not for one blasphemous instant permits any thoughts of regrets to sap the richness of his career 'One of those first days in the hospital one of the first things I remember one of the therapists asked me 'Gosh don't you wish you had never gone into Allison said "I told her 'There are people all over this hospital with broken bones hurt real bad some of them worse than me and they've never raced a day in their life' Bobby Allison has And the memories will forever leave him laughing no matter how great the temptation to cry lone) "We'd rather be starting at the front of course and I think Harry would like us to be there" Irvan said Saturday "See each of the two races he has won the past two years I started from the pole He'd love to have that pattern for the 600" On the pole is Mark Martin who qualified at 174820 mph Wednesday in a Ford and proclaimed his team that almost won the circuit's championship in 19110 ready to roll out of this year's early-season slump Holding positions two through five are Michael Waltrip Pontiac Ken Schrader Chevy: Sterling Marlin Ford and Brett Bodine Buick Starting eighth to 10th are Alan Kulwicki Ford defending WO champion Rusty Wallace Pontiac and winner of The Winston special event at Charlotte last Sunday Davey Allison Ford Winston Cup standings leader and current champion Dale Earnhardt has the 11 th slot and Ricky Rudd only four points behind is in the I 7th starting position Both drive Chevys Five-time 600 winner Darrell Waltrip who has charged into title contention just 85 points back in third place starts alongside Rudd in a Lumina One of big-time NASCAR racing's most respected engineers an authority on analyzing performances in practice rated the strongest drivers and cars for The Observer on condition of anonymity "If track conditions don't change drastically which they can do easily at Charlotte Allison looks about as awesome as he did in making a runaway of The Winston Schrader is almost as good and maybe a bit better as tire wear increases "Behind these two the best in my estimation in order are Darrell Waltrip Brett Bodine Bill Elliott (starting a Ford I th) Earnhardt Irvan and Gant Earnhardt's there because its hot and the track is slick conditions he handles better than anybody "Between Gant and Irvan? Well Ernie is fast but I wonder if he can be consistent for 600 miles Harry looks better for the long haul" So would he rate Allison the favorite? "If this's asphalt is the same Sunday as it has been most of the week yes" Help from his family Time spares no one in taking its toll race drivers or not And the day would have come when Allison climbed out of a race car for good as such top-of-the-sport peers as David Pearson and Cale Yarborough have done Clearly though Allison wasn't ready when the crash forced him out He's had help dealing with it from his family from racing's extended family from fans who flooded him with so many cards and letters that it took two trucks to carry them away from the hospital "It's been tough On (wife) Judy but she's been right there all the way through doing everything she can" Allison said "You can't believe all she's (1( me I can't put into words how I feel about her" Brother Donnie who suffered similar but much less severe injuries in a 1981 wreck of his own in Charlotte knew it His experience helped him hell) Bobby tfl I 1.