All of it, p.23
All of It, page 23
We got a push to get us started, and down the run we went. I did great! I zigged and zagged perfectly and made it around the last corner. Bruce stopped us perfectly, and I was really pretty excited. We got out of the sled, answered questions from all the reporters that were there, and then I turned to Bruce and said, “I want to do it again!”
And fortunately, Bruce agreed to let me make another run as the driver. Again, we got a push to get us started, and down the run we went. I went through the zig-zag, and I zigged okay, but when I zagged, I came off the corner late, and the sled almost rolled over.
Bruce started yelling, “Turn off sooner! Turn off sooner!”
I couldn’t hear him. Bobsleds make a lot of noise traveling on ice, but I knew what I had done wrong. So, going down the last straightaway to the last corner, I prayed to God and asked Him to help me get through this last corner without killing Bruce and me, and I would never do this again.
As we entered the last corner, I turned the sled to the right, not too late but too soon. The front of the sled hit the inside wall hard, and then the back of the sled hit the inside wall even harder. It hit so hard that it knocked the wind out of Bruce, and as he was trying to catch his breath, he brought the sled to a stop and asked me if that was the last run of the day, to which I replied, “For sure!”
Again, I was answering questions from reporters, and Bruce was standing behind the sled and asked me to come over and take a look. As I got to the back of the sled, Bruce pointed down to his frame, which was bent six inches to the left. By that time of the day, I had learned a few things. One was I wasn’t big enough to be a bobsled athlete, I wasn’t strong enough or a fast enough runner, and that driving a bobsled was a little different than driving a racecar. But I realized what I wanted to do, and so I made a mind-blowing statement.
“Well, Bruce, I guess I’ll have to build you a bobsled!”
Of course, after making that statement, I had to tell the reporters what I meant; first, that I was going to repair Bruce’s bobsled, but even more importantly, I wanted to build American-made bobsleds for our American athletes. Probably everyone there thought I would fly back to sunny North Carolina, get in my NASCAR, keep racing, and forget all about what had happened in Lake Placid and what I said. But I was taught growing up that when you say something, it means something.
On the flight back to North Carolina, I was thinking and wondering how I was going to build bobsleds and keep racing. That’s when the lightbulb went on. I teamed up with friends in Connecticut, Bobby Cunio and Bobby Valencourt, who owned Chassis Dynamics. In 1980, we built a modified racecar which was called Bo-Dyn Chassis. I called up Bobby C., who I hadn’t talked to in several weeks, and after both of us said hello, I said, “I bet you don’t know why I’m calling you.”
He said, “Yes, I do!”
“You can’t, I haven’t said anything yet!”
“We saw where you went for a ride at Lake Placid in a bobsled, and you want us to build you a bobsled.”
I replied, “Will you?”
Of course, the answer was yes, and that’s how the Bo-Dyn Bobsled project started. Bobby’s first estimate of how much money it would take to design and build a bobsled was $25,000. That seemed doable for me and my family. It was about the end of the first month into the project when I received a phone call from Bobby C. informing me that they could use a little bit more money to continue designing and eventually building a bobsled. Of course, I asked how much, and the answer was $25,000 more would help. That might have lasted another month to a month-and-a-half! Again, the phone rang. Need more money! I got several more phone calls like that before the first Bo-Dyn Bobsled was designed and built.
The next step would be to go to a bobsled track and test the sled, just like we do in NASCAR, to make adjustments and finetune the chassis. The track we went to do our testing was the bobsled track in Calgary, Canada. At that time, the track in Lake Placid was too rough to be able to get a good test session in.
The bobsled pilot who gave me my first ride in a bobsled at Lake Placid was our test driver, Bruce Rosselli.
The cost of designing, testing, and building the first Bo-Dyn Bobsled was in the $500,000 range, a little more than the initial $25,000 investment. We got a lot of resistance from the bobsled federation as the project went on. It seemed like they didn’t want us to be building bobsleds for our American athletes. But the more they seemed to resist, the more determined I became to see the project continue because I’m a hard-headed Yankee, and it didn’t matter how much money it was going to take!
Having only two years before the next Winter Olympics, the Bo-Dyn Project built a few two-man and four-man bobsleds, which was an incredible feat for everyone involved.
From the first Olympics for the Bo-Dyn sleds in Lillehammer to the last Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, the American teams won twenty-two World Cup medals and six Olympic medals, including two gold medals in the two-woman competition in 2002 and the four-man competition in 2010. Two thousand eleven was the last year for the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project supplying American-made bobsleds to our U. S .A. bobsled teams.
The Bo-Dyn Bobsled head engineer, Bob Cunio; marketing director, John Morgan; and project founder, yours truly, were all inducted into the USA Bobsled/Skeleton Hall of Fame, for our involvement with the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, supplying American-made bobsleds at no cost to our athletes.
Honored Again
During NASCAR’s fiftieth anniversary, I was among the fifty drivers chosen to be part of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers. Twenty-five years later, I was again honored as part of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers. I wish it would say that God and Geoff Bodine are part of the seventy-five because, without God, I wouldn’t be who I am and be able to accomplish what I have in life and in racing.
NASCAR had a celebration for their seventy-fifth anniversary at Darlington Raceway on May 14, 2023. There were about thirty of us there, including past and present drivers, who got to partake in the weekend festivities. I hadn’t seen many of my former competitors in a long time, so it was nice to catch up with many of them. Some of the conversations involved racing, but of course, most interactions were about how everyone’s families were doing and what the drivers were doing nowadays.
One of my fiercest competitors was 1989 champion Rusty Wallace. He and I got to chat about some of the racing days. He reminded me that Dale Earnhardt gave me the nickname “Conehead.” I reminded him Dale called him “Rubberhead.” We both laughed at that.
Another past champion, Bobby Labonte, and I visited, and I had to rib him about racing modifieds.
“Why are you racing modifieds? I raced them at the beginning of my career,” I told him.
“They’re a lot of fun!” he said.
Former Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman is racing modifieds too from time to time, and we had a similar conversation.
Another competitor from my era was 1988 champion Bill Elliott. He, four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon, and I got to ride around Darlington before the race in a flatbed trailer with chairs screwed in to wave to the fans. Bill didn’t seem that happy.
“I don’t know why we’re doing this,” Bill said.
“What’s wrong with you? Enjoy life,” I said.
“Worst thing I did was own a race team; I spent all my money doing that,” Bill said.
Bill was an owner-driver in the Cup Series from 1994 to 2000, around the same time as me.
“I know a thing or two about that,” I said.
We talked more, and I assured him he had made great contributions to the sport. Plus, his son Chase is already a NASCAR champion and is one of the best drivers currently on the circuit.
Since Jeff Gordon was in close proximity, I gave him a friendly reminder about the check in the mail. He laughed about it, but I still haven’t gotten it. He and I enjoy going back and forth on it, but I guess they didn’t think I was serious.
Another of the honorees, Herschel McGriff, really surprised everyone. He’s ninety-six, but you’d never know it! He looked great (younger than me), sharper than a tack, and told great stories. A lot of us enjoyed what he had to say.
Sterling Marlin, my former teammate at Junior Johnson’s team and long-time competitor, was there too. He’s battling Parkinson’s disease, but it was very nice to see him and catch up. He stands strong. He has a lady friend helping him get around.
NASCAR Hall-of-Famer Donnie Allison was there, too. He and I chatted a little bit about racing. I asked him about what he would do with his left foot when he was racing at Daytona and Talladega because when you’re racing there, your right foot is on the gas, and you hardly need to use the brake.
“I’d stick it under the front of the seat,” Allison laughed.
Then, talking with NASCAR champion Bobby Allison, he said he remembered when my wife at the time, Kathy, and I went to the hospital to see him after his career-ending crash at Pocono in 1988.
Daytona 500 champion Ernie Irvan was there, too. My wife, his wife, and I, along with our friends Terry and Ron Bray, stayed at the same motel, and we ate at the same Mexican restaurant nearby on Friday and Saturday night of the race weekend. We got to visit, catch up, and enjoy some margaritas. Whoever was making them made them strong the second night.
I saw and visited with Carl Edwards briefly. Edwards won many Cup Series races and a NASCAR Xfinity Series title. Standing at over six feet tall, he’s very well known for his fitness and conditioning, and looks like he could play in the NFL. He also may or may not know jiu-jitsu. I told him that I was as big as him when we were all in a racecar, but of course, I don’t want to fight you out of a racecar. We got a laugh out of that.
We got to see and hear about Geoff’s career when he got voted as one of NASCAR’s Greatest 75. It was cool to be able to chat with him and visit with him. I raced with him and his brothers.
Greg Biffle
Before the race started, all of us were gathered in a room to take a formal picture. I looked to my left and to my right. Holy cow, I was the shortest guy there!
After we took the picture, we were all introduced on a stage that was positioned along the frontstretch at Darlington. It was cool to hear everyone’s names and to look out into the grandstands and see a sea of race fans. Afterward, all of the honored racers posed with a race trophy and NASCAR CEO Jim France for pictures.
“This is really neat,” I told Jim as we shook hands.
“We’re going to do this at more tracks in 2024,” he said.
“Count me in!” I said.
Jim and I go back a long time. When NASCAR purchased the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series in the 2000s, Jim wanted me to race one of the Rolex cars. He said he would line me up with a really good ride. I drove a bright yellow No. 8 BMW sports car with polka dots in three events. The results in the car were not the best. I blame the polka dots.
“I credit you with ruining my road racing career,” I told Jim before I left. We got a chuckle out of it.
The next week, NASCAR returned to North Wilkesboro for the All-Star Race. It was truly historic because the track rose from the ashes to host national series racing again for the first time since the 1990s.
As a former North Wilkesboro winner (and the last one to lap the entire field), I was invited back to the track during the week and race weekend to help promote and celebrate the return of NASCAR to the famed North Carolina track.
During festivities leading up to weekend racing, Darrell Waltrip, a multi-Cup Series champion and one of my competitors, and I were on the frontstretch with an emcee asking us questions about our old racing days. D. W. was asked about his engine that blew up during the cool-down lap at his All-Star Race victory. He said it just blew up.
Another story came up about when I drove for Cliff Stewart in 1982, and we had power steering in the racecar when we came to North Wilkesboro. I always drove with power steering in my racecars, and North Wilkesboro was going to be no different. I asked Darrell if he remembered going to then-NASCAR president Bill France about getting the power steering banned. He said he didn’t remember, but I did. We all got a laugh out of that one.
The absolutely best part of being one of the seventy-five honored, and that two-week stretch of appearances at the track, was seeing and talking to all of the drivers that could attend. As a competitor, I couldn’t be a real friend to any of the drivers that I raced with, but now, not competing against them, I appreciate and like them all for who they are and what they’ve accomplished with their lives.
Faith
Growing up as a kid in Chemung, New York, God was kind of a part of my life. There was a Methodist church my family and I would go to on occasion, but not regularly. During the race season, the Chemung Speedrome races were on Saturday nights, so my Sundays were occupied by picking up trash at the track and doing other post-race track jobs. Going to church on Sunday didn’t fit into my race season schedule. When I started racing at the Speedrome after I graduated high school, my time for church became even less because I was not only working at the track and on the farm but also maintaining my racecar.
When I started racing modifieds in 1969, like in my younger days, I knew there was a God, but I didn’t have a relationship with Him.
One day, Aunt Rhonda Lou was at my racecar shop visiting while I was working on the racecar. It wasn’t uncommon for me to cuss like a lot of race guys did back in those days. Of course, my aunt didn’t like it, especially when I uttered the Lord’s name in vain.
“Geoffrey!” she said with concern in her voice. “You shouldn’t use the Lord’s name in vain! That’s not right; that’s bad.”
While racing in the modified series, I designed, built, and drove all the cars I raced. Along with going to the Corning Community College, joining the National Guard, and racing, I still thought that I didn’t have time to go to church and study the Bible. I worked hard at designing and building fast racecars, which helped me to win a lot of races in my modified career. When I moved into the NASCAR late model series, now known as the Xfinity Series, again, I designed and built cars that were fast, which helped me win a lot of races in 1980, 1981, and 1982.
In 1982, I won the TransSouth 200 at Darlington Raceway, and two days after that win, I was offered a Winston Cup Series ride with car owner Cliff Stewart. I had a great family, a nice home, and a dream job. But I wasn’t happy. I was searching for answers.
“Why am I not happy?” I’d ask myself.
One day, when I was at home, there was a knock at my door, and when I opened it, there were two gentlemen who were Jehovah’s Witnesses wanting to give me some literature about their faith. I let them in, we talked for several minutes, and they left me with several pamphlets about being a Jehovah’s Witness and about God. That’s when I realized why I wasn’t happy and what was missing in my life. I thought that I was the reason for all my success in life and didn’t realize that God had placed me with the right parents, given me the talent to build and drive racecars, and given me the opportunities and people throughout my career that led me to open the door that started my journey with God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit!
I started going to church when possible and reading and studying the Bible. Racing was great, and my family life was wonderful, but there still were ups and downs in both.
In 1984, I became Hendrick Motorsports’ first NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver. My racing career just kept getting better by winning Hendrick Motorsports’ and my first Winston Cup Series race at Martinsville, Virginia, in only our eighth start together as a team. We had a lot of success in the next several years, but in racing, everyone loses more races than they win, which is very similar to everyday life.
In 1986, driving home late one night to Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, from the race shop in Concord, North Carolina, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and asked Him to forgive me of my sins and asked God to come into my life and asked Him to accept me into His life. I still experienced highs and lows in racing and in life, but it was easier to deal with them, knowing that God was there to help me get through them.
In 1988, MRO, the Motor Racing Outreach, was formed for drivers, crews, and their families to attend a church service while at the racetracks on Sundays. The first MRO Bible study was during the weekend of the first Atlanta race in March at a local hotel conference room, which a few other race people and I attended. It eventually started having church services at the racetracks on race mornings.
After leaving Hendrick Motorsports in 1989, I drove for Junior Johnson in 1990 and 1991 and then for Bud Moore in 1992 and 1993. Again, I had ups and downs driving for their teams. On April 1, 1993, a tragedy occurred when NASCAR champion Alan Kulwicki was killed in a plane crash. Almost immediately, the executor of Alan’s will, Felix Sebates, approached me and said I needed to buy Alan’s team, which I did the next month. During the negotiations to buy the team, my wife Kathy said that if we bought the team, it would cause us to separate.
Kathy and I divorced in September of 1994, just before the Winston Cup race in Martinsville, Virginia. While I was racing and staying very busy testing tires for Hoosier Tire Company, mentally, I survived. But when I went home and was alone, I started drinking a bottle of wine just to go to sleep. I knew this wasn’t good, so I started asking God to help me go to sleep without having to drink.
He showed me that if I prayed and talked to Him, He would help me replace the bottle and help me go to sleep. Unfortunately, during the next couple of years, I did a lot of stupid and sinful things (topless car washes, strip club nights, bars, and affairs with women). Fortunately, God understood and forgave me of all my sins. Along with divorce, I dealt with team sponsors cheating me out of sponsorship money, and one in particular, QVC, a home-shopping network, cheated me out of roughly $18 million in sponsorship, which created a situation where I spent a lot of my money, keeping the race team going and ended up getting partners to buy into the team and they eventually forced me to sell my part of the team to them and replace me as their driver.
And fortunately, Bruce agreed to let me make another run as the driver. Again, we got a push to get us started, and down the run we went. I went through the zig-zag, and I zigged okay, but when I zagged, I came off the corner late, and the sled almost rolled over.
Bruce started yelling, “Turn off sooner! Turn off sooner!”
I couldn’t hear him. Bobsleds make a lot of noise traveling on ice, but I knew what I had done wrong. So, going down the last straightaway to the last corner, I prayed to God and asked Him to help me get through this last corner without killing Bruce and me, and I would never do this again.
As we entered the last corner, I turned the sled to the right, not too late but too soon. The front of the sled hit the inside wall hard, and then the back of the sled hit the inside wall even harder. It hit so hard that it knocked the wind out of Bruce, and as he was trying to catch his breath, he brought the sled to a stop and asked me if that was the last run of the day, to which I replied, “For sure!”
Again, I was answering questions from reporters, and Bruce was standing behind the sled and asked me to come over and take a look. As I got to the back of the sled, Bruce pointed down to his frame, which was bent six inches to the left. By that time of the day, I had learned a few things. One was I wasn’t big enough to be a bobsled athlete, I wasn’t strong enough or a fast enough runner, and that driving a bobsled was a little different than driving a racecar. But I realized what I wanted to do, and so I made a mind-blowing statement.
“Well, Bruce, I guess I’ll have to build you a bobsled!”
Of course, after making that statement, I had to tell the reporters what I meant; first, that I was going to repair Bruce’s bobsled, but even more importantly, I wanted to build American-made bobsleds for our American athletes. Probably everyone there thought I would fly back to sunny North Carolina, get in my NASCAR, keep racing, and forget all about what had happened in Lake Placid and what I said. But I was taught growing up that when you say something, it means something.
On the flight back to North Carolina, I was thinking and wondering how I was going to build bobsleds and keep racing. That’s when the lightbulb went on. I teamed up with friends in Connecticut, Bobby Cunio and Bobby Valencourt, who owned Chassis Dynamics. In 1980, we built a modified racecar which was called Bo-Dyn Chassis. I called up Bobby C., who I hadn’t talked to in several weeks, and after both of us said hello, I said, “I bet you don’t know why I’m calling you.”
He said, “Yes, I do!”
“You can’t, I haven’t said anything yet!”
“We saw where you went for a ride at Lake Placid in a bobsled, and you want us to build you a bobsled.”
I replied, “Will you?”
Of course, the answer was yes, and that’s how the Bo-Dyn Bobsled project started. Bobby’s first estimate of how much money it would take to design and build a bobsled was $25,000. That seemed doable for me and my family. It was about the end of the first month into the project when I received a phone call from Bobby C. informing me that they could use a little bit more money to continue designing and eventually building a bobsled. Of course, I asked how much, and the answer was $25,000 more would help. That might have lasted another month to a month-and-a-half! Again, the phone rang. Need more money! I got several more phone calls like that before the first Bo-Dyn Bobsled was designed and built.
The next step would be to go to a bobsled track and test the sled, just like we do in NASCAR, to make adjustments and finetune the chassis. The track we went to do our testing was the bobsled track in Calgary, Canada. At that time, the track in Lake Placid was too rough to be able to get a good test session in.
The bobsled pilot who gave me my first ride in a bobsled at Lake Placid was our test driver, Bruce Rosselli.
The cost of designing, testing, and building the first Bo-Dyn Bobsled was in the $500,000 range, a little more than the initial $25,000 investment. We got a lot of resistance from the bobsled federation as the project went on. It seemed like they didn’t want us to be building bobsleds for our American athletes. But the more they seemed to resist, the more determined I became to see the project continue because I’m a hard-headed Yankee, and it didn’t matter how much money it was going to take!
Having only two years before the next Winter Olympics, the Bo-Dyn Project built a few two-man and four-man bobsleds, which was an incredible feat for everyone involved.
From the first Olympics for the Bo-Dyn sleds in Lillehammer to the last Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, the American teams won twenty-two World Cup medals and six Olympic medals, including two gold medals in the two-woman competition in 2002 and the four-man competition in 2010. Two thousand eleven was the last year for the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project supplying American-made bobsleds to our U. S .A. bobsled teams.
The Bo-Dyn Bobsled head engineer, Bob Cunio; marketing director, John Morgan; and project founder, yours truly, were all inducted into the USA Bobsled/Skeleton Hall of Fame, for our involvement with the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, supplying American-made bobsleds at no cost to our athletes.
Honored Again
During NASCAR’s fiftieth anniversary, I was among the fifty drivers chosen to be part of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers. Twenty-five years later, I was again honored as part of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers. I wish it would say that God and Geoff Bodine are part of the seventy-five because, without God, I wouldn’t be who I am and be able to accomplish what I have in life and in racing.
NASCAR had a celebration for their seventy-fifth anniversary at Darlington Raceway on May 14, 2023. There were about thirty of us there, including past and present drivers, who got to partake in the weekend festivities. I hadn’t seen many of my former competitors in a long time, so it was nice to catch up with many of them. Some of the conversations involved racing, but of course, most interactions were about how everyone’s families were doing and what the drivers were doing nowadays.
One of my fiercest competitors was 1989 champion Rusty Wallace. He and I got to chat about some of the racing days. He reminded me that Dale Earnhardt gave me the nickname “Conehead.” I reminded him Dale called him “Rubberhead.” We both laughed at that.
Another past champion, Bobby Labonte, and I visited, and I had to rib him about racing modifieds.
“Why are you racing modifieds? I raced them at the beginning of my career,” I told him.
“They’re a lot of fun!” he said.
Former Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman is racing modifieds too from time to time, and we had a similar conversation.
Another competitor from my era was 1988 champion Bill Elliott. He, four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon, and I got to ride around Darlington before the race in a flatbed trailer with chairs screwed in to wave to the fans. Bill didn’t seem that happy.
“I don’t know why we’re doing this,” Bill said.
“What’s wrong with you? Enjoy life,” I said.
“Worst thing I did was own a race team; I spent all my money doing that,” Bill said.
Bill was an owner-driver in the Cup Series from 1994 to 2000, around the same time as me.
“I know a thing or two about that,” I said.
We talked more, and I assured him he had made great contributions to the sport. Plus, his son Chase is already a NASCAR champion and is one of the best drivers currently on the circuit.
Since Jeff Gordon was in close proximity, I gave him a friendly reminder about the check in the mail. He laughed about it, but I still haven’t gotten it. He and I enjoy going back and forth on it, but I guess they didn’t think I was serious.
Another of the honorees, Herschel McGriff, really surprised everyone. He’s ninety-six, but you’d never know it! He looked great (younger than me), sharper than a tack, and told great stories. A lot of us enjoyed what he had to say.
Sterling Marlin, my former teammate at Junior Johnson’s team and long-time competitor, was there too. He’s battling Parkinson’s disease, but it was very nice to see him and catch up. He stands strong. He has a lady friend helping him get around.
NASCAR Hall-of-Famer Donnie Allison was there, too. He and I chatted a little bit about racing. I asked him about what he would do with his left foot when he was racing at Daytona and Talladega because when you’re racing there, your right foot is on the gas, and you hardly need to use the brake.
“I’d stick it under the front of the seat,” Allison laughed.
Then, talking with NASCAR champion Bobby Allison, he said he remembered when my wife at the time, Kathy, and I went to the hospital to see him after his career-ending crash at Pocono in 1988.
Daytona 500 champion Ernie Irvan was there, too. My wife, his wife, and I, along with our friends Terry and Ron Bray, stayed at the same motel, and we ate at the same Mexican restaurant nearby on Friday and Saturday night of the race weekend. We got to visit, catch up, and enjoy some margaritas. Whoever was making them made them strong the second night.
I saw and visited with Carl Edwards briefly. Edwards won many Cup Series races and a NASCAR Xfinity Series title. Standing at over six feet tall, he’s very well known for his fitness and conditioning, and looks like he could play in the NFL. He also may or may not know jiu-jitsu. I told him that I was as big as him when we were all in a racecar, but of course, I don’t want to fight you out of a racecar. We got a laugh out of that.
We got to see and hear about Geoff’s career when he got voted as one of NASCAR’s Greatest 75. It was cool to be able to chat with him and visit with him. I raced with him and his brothers.
Greg Biffle
Before the race started, all of us were gathered in a room to take a formal picture. I looked to my left and to my right. Holy cow, I was the shortest guy there!
After we took the picture, we were all introduced on a stage that was positioned along the frontstretch at Darlington. It was cool to hear everyone’s names and to look out into the grandstands and see a sea of race fans. Afterward, all of the honored racers posed with a race trophy and NASCAR CEO Jim France for pictures.
“This is really neat,” I told Jim as we shook hands.
“We’re going to do this at more tracks in 2024,” he said.
“Count me in!” I said.
Jim and I go back a long time. When NASCAR purchased the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series in the 2000s, Jim wanted me to race one of the Rolex cars. He said he would line me up with a really good ride. I drove a bright yellow No. 8 BMW sports car with polka dots in three events. The results in the car were not the best. I blame the polka dots.
“I credit you with ruining my road racing career,” I told Jim before I left. We got a chuckle out of it.
The next week, NASCAR returned to North Wilkesboro for the All-Star Race. It was truly historic because the track rose from the ashes to host national series racing again for the first time since the 1990s.
As a former North Wilkesboro winner (and the last one to lap the entire field), I was invited back to the track during the week and race weekend to help promote and celebrate the return of NASCAR to the famed North Carolina track.
During festivities leading up to weekend racing, Darrell Waltrip, a multi-Cup Series champion and one of my competitors, and I were on the frontstretch with an emcee asking us questions about our old racing days. D. W. was asked about his engine that blew up during the cool-down lap at his All-Star Race victory. He said it just blew up.
Another story came up about when I drove for Cliff Stewart in 1982, and we had power steering in the racecar when we came to North Wilkesboro. I always drove with power steering in my racecars, and North Wilkesboro was going to be no different. I asked Darrell if he remembered going to then-NASCAR president Bill France about getting the power steering banned. He said he didn’t remember, but I did. We all got a laugh out of that one.
The absolutely best part of being one of the seventy-five honored, and that two-week stretch of appearances at the track, was seeing and talking to all of the drivers that could attend. As a competitor, I couldn’t be a real friend to any of the drivers that I raced with, but now, not competing against them, I appreciate and like them all for who they are and what they’ve accomplished with their lives.
Faith
Growing up as a kid in Chemung, New York, God was kind of a part of my life. There was a Methodist church my family and I would go to on occasion, but not regularly. During the race season, the Chemung Speedrome races were on Saturday nights, so my Sundays were occupied by picking up trash at the track and doing other post-race track jobs. Going to church on Sunday didn’t fit into my race season schedule. When I started racing at the Speedrome after I graduated high school, my time for church became even less because I was not only working at the track and on the farm but also maintaining my racecar.
When I started racing modifieds in 1969, like in my younger days, I knew there was a God, but I didn’t have a relationship with Him.
One day, Aunt Rhonda Lou was at my racecar shop visiting while I was working on the racecar. It wasn’t uncommon for me to cuss like a lot of race guys did back in those days. Of course, my aunt didn’t like it, especially when I uttered the Lord’s name in vain.
“Geoffrey!” she said with concern in her voice. “You shouldn’t use the Lord’s name in vain! That’s not right; that’s bad.”
While racing in the modified series, I designed, built, and drove all the cars I raced. Along with going to the Corning Community College, joining the National Guard, and racing, I still thought that I didn’t have time to go to church and study the Bible. I worked hard at designing and building fast racecars, which helped me to win a lot of races in my modified career. When I moved into the NASCAR late model series, now known as the Xfinity Series, again, I designed and built cars that were fast, which helped me win a lot of races in 1980, 1981, and 1982.
In 1982, I won the TransSouth 200 at Darlington Raceway, and two days after that win, I was offered a Winston Cup Series ride with car owner Cliff Stewart. I had a great family, a nice home, and a dream job. But I wasn’t happy. I was searching for answers.
“Why am I not happy?” I’d ask myself.
One day, when I was at home, there was a knock at my door, and when I opened it, there were two gentlemen who were Jehovah’s Witnesses wanting to give me some literature about their faith. I let them in, we talked for several minutes, and they left me with several pamphlets about being a Jehovah’s Witness and about God. That’s when I realized why I wasn’t happy and what was missing in my life. I thought that I was the reason for all my success in life and didn’t realize that God had placed me with the right parents, given me the talent to build and drive racecars, and given me the opportunities and people throughout my career that led me to open the door that started my journey with God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit!
I started going to church when possible and reading and studying the Bible. Racing was great, and my family life was wonderful, but there still were ups and downs in both.
In 1984, I became Hendrick Motorsports’ first NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver. My racing career just kept getting better by winning Hendrick Motorsports’ and my first Winston Cup Series race at Martinsville, Virginia, in only our eighth start together as a team. We had a lot of success in the next several years, but in racing, everyone loses more races than they win, which is very similar to everyday life.
In 1986, driving home late one night to Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, from the race shop in Concord, North Carolina, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and asked Him to forgive me of my sins and asked God to come into my life and asked Him to accept me into His life. I still experienced highs and lows in racing and in life, but it was easier to deal with them, knowing that God was there to help me get through them.
In 1988, MRO, the Motor Racing Outreach, was formed for drivers, crews, and their families to attend a church service while at the racetracks on Sundays. The first MRO Bible study was during the weekend of the first Atlanta race in March at a local hotel conference room, which a few other race people and I attended. It eventually started having church services at the racetracks on race mornings.
After leaving Hendrick Motorsports in 1989, I drove for Junior Johnson in 1990 and 1991 and then for Bud Moore in 1992 and 1993. Again, I had ups and downs driving for their teams. On April 1, 1993, a tragedy occurred when NASCAR champion Alan Kulwicki was killed in a plane crash. Almost immediately, the executor of Alan’s will, Felix Sebates, approached me and said I needed to buy Alan’s team, which I did the next month. During the negotiations to buy the team, my wife Kathy said that if we bought the team, it would cause us to separate.
Kathy and I divorced in September of 1994, just before the Winston Cup race in Martinsville, Virginia. While I was racing and staying very busy testing tires for Hoosier Tire Company, mentally, I survived. But when I went home and was alone, I started drinking a bottle of wine just to go to sleep. I knew this wasn’t good, so I started asking God to help me go to sleep without having to drink.
He showed me that if I prayed and talked to Him, He would help me replace the bottle and help me go to sleep. Unfortunately, during the next couple of years, I did a lot of stupid and sinful things (topless car washes, strip club nights, bars, and affairs with women). Fortunately, God understood and forgave me of all my sins. Along with divorce, I dealt with team sponsors cheating me out of sponsorship money, and one in particular, QVC, a home-shopping network, cheated me out of roughly $18 million in sponsorship, which created a situation where I spent a lot of my money, keeping the race team going and ended up getting partners to buy into the team and they eventually forced me to sell my part of the team to them and replace me as their driver.
