| A run-in with greatness |
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I have had the privilege over the years to be around some of my favorite and some of my least favorite Nascar personalities. I would like to share the ones that stand out and would love to hear about encounters some of you may have had.
Summer 1998 We were racing at Watkins Glen in the Nascar Featherlite Modified Tour. I was a crewmember of the Spafco Chassis #21 driven by Mike Ewanitsko(pronounced "you-a-numb-skull" to those that know him) Sorry Mike! Anyhow, we blew the motor in practice and were scrambling to get the car ready for the new engine which was on it's way to the track. My task was to take all the oil lines and fittings to the parts washer and get any and all metal shavings out. I was pretty focused on the job at hand, because if these lines weren't cleaned properly and metal chips got in the new motor, it would certainly make for a disastrous race. I finished cleaning the parts and was walking back to the car in the garage and BLAM. Some idiot runs square into me. Now, keep in mind that at the time I weighed about 230. I like to say that I am in training to be a Winston Cup jackman. They say you have to be 250+ to get the car up in one pump. So, I turn just in time to see this skinny guy in a cowboy hat nearly fall over and the guy he is with says "Man, you almost killed him." Then I realize that the guy who plowed into me is none other than Richard Petty and his "Friend" is Benny Parsons. Richard, says, "oh sorry man, it's raining hard out there and we wanted to get in here where it was dry." I told him it was no problem and they walked away. That same summer, we were running Loudon as a companion to the Indy Racing League. The big thing that bugged me that weekend was, we were not allowed in the Indy garage only the Modified area, but the Indy guys had full access to both areas. Anyways, we were sitting out by the car on pit road getting ready to qualify and this guy comes walking up and sticks his head in the car and starts looking around like he has every right in the world to be nosing around our car. I instantly recognized him as Tony Stewart. This was Tony's last year in the IRL and it was already announced that he was going to Gibb's and Nascar in 1999. He had run some Busch races and had some run-ins with Dale Jr and therefore I did not like him very much. He looked at me and said "Nice car". I thanked him. He put out his hand and said, "Hi, I'm Tony Stewart." I shook his hand and said, "Hi, Rob Faiella." He wished us luck and turned to walk away. I decided to get a cheap shot in and said rather loudly to one of my teammates, "Who the heck is Tony Stewart??". He turned to look at me with disbelief that I could be involved in racing and not know who is was, especially since he qualified on the pole earlier in the day. It was a cheap shot at his ego and I felt it necessary at the time. I have since grown to like Tony and I am one of few who still likes his attitude, even though he does get out of hand at times. Again in 98, we made another trip to NHIS in Loudon and this time as a companion to the Busch North and Winston Cup Series. Jeff Gordon was on the Cup pole and we were on the Modified pole. We brought 2 cars that weekend, the 12 and the 21 and our crew chief and car builder was set to drive the 12 as a rookie. Ray Evernham approached our owner and asked if he could take one of our cars out in practice to prove a point to Jeff that he could drive. For those that don't know, Ray used to drive in the Modified Series. We agreed to let Ray take the car out and as he was climbing in, I was torquing the tires. He looked at me and said, "Make sure those wheels don't fall off." And I just smiled and said, "No problem." After Ray took some laps he came back in and as he got out he thanked me for keeping the wheels on and I thanked him for not wrecking it. We tried to negotiate laps for us in the 24 car, but we had no luck. I did get a picture of me and Ray which I still have in a frame to this day. Summer 1996 We ran the #12 car locally at Stafford Motor Speedway every Friday night and the #21 on the tour through out the season. Steve Park was running Stafford weekly and in the tour also. We spent many a Friday night pitted next to Steve and sharing laughs with him and his crew. I remember the first time he mentioned that he was going to run the Busch Series for DEI and I was thinking of how lucky he was to get such a shot. I knew he would do good things, but I was pleasantly surprised when he set all those rookie records and moved to Cup right away. At the time, these run-ins didn't seem all that big, but as I reflect I think it's pretty cool. Granted, they are just human like the rest of us, but, being able to rub elbows with the big boys on occasion is a neat feeling. I look forward to more of these, and as I continue my quest to get to a Nascar team, the possibilities will increase. Of course, I will go from fan to "co-worker", but respect for these guys will always be there. Got any stories? Feel free to share them with me. Thanks, Rob |