Retro Rewind

Inseparable

PETTY AND INMAN: BEST FRIENDS FOR 85 YEARS

BY BEN WHITE

OIn NASCAR racing, one would be hard pressed to find two people with a closer relationship than seven-time champion Richard Petty and eight-time championship crew chief Dale Inman. They are cousins with Inman being one month shy of a year older – and they are closer today than they’ve ever been.

The two attended church together as young children, rode bicycles together and played in the woods and fields around their homes in Level Cross, North Carolina. As they got older, they played high school football together for the Randleman Tigers.

When they became old enough to turn wrenches on Lee Petty’s Oldsmobiles, son and nephew went to work making sure the race car was ready before anything else was done. Starting in 1949, racing was how the Petty family put food on the table.

In 1958, when the boys were in their early 20s, Lee Petty pointed to a car in the corner of the race shop and said that one could be Richard’s to drive. It was in pieces and that’s when Inman officially became Richard Petty’s chief mechanic.

Over the next 32 years, the two were inseparable.

As driver and crew chief, they earned 193 of Petty’s 200 victories. Throughout that time, there were countless discussions about how cars were performing on the race track and what to do to make them better. Inman was a master at making sure every nut, bolt and screw on the car was doing its job.

“When I worked at Petty Enterprises while in high school, I remember Dale was a stickler about having all the screw slots pointed in the same direction,” said Kyle Petty, son of Richard Petty and a 10-time Cup Series winner. “It would drive him crazy if he came by and they weren’t done that way. But the fact is he built great race cars and he wanted them to look nice, right down to those screw slots. He says Richard Petty won all those 200 races but don’t let him fool you. Dale was a huge part of those wins.

“And another thing was this; Dale Inman was right most of the time. But he wasn’t afraid to say he was wrong. That’s what made him a great crew chief.”

Inman is extremely modest about his role in NASCAR and working with Richard Petty and Petty Enterprises. The two are still together today in consulting roles with Petty GMS Racing. In essence, they’ve been together for 85 years, whether in the woods and fields around Level Cross or winning Daytona 500s.

“(Laughter) Richard has said many times over the years he would have won a whole lot more races if I hadn’t been his crew chief,” Inman said. “Richard was a great driver throughout his career, that’s all I can say. I was just there to help put all the pieces together. We didn’t set out to win seven Daytona 500 and seven championships. They just came together for us. We were extremely blessed.”

Both Petty and Inman have been inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Taking a Shine to Style

DAVEY ALLISON’S CHROME WHEELS WERE SHARP IN 1987

BY BEN WHITE

When Davey Allison began driving the No. 28 Havoline Ford Thunderbird for team owner Harry Ranier in 1987, his car was painted a mix of black and white with gold numerals and sponsorship lettering on the rear quarter panels.

A unique addition to the sleek color combination were the chrome wheels that carried the white Goodyear tire markings of the era. The chrome wheels set Allison’s Thunderbird apart from the other Cup Series cars with painted wheels.

Allison’s ride, whether on short tracks, intermediate ovals, superspeedways or road courses, was fast all season, thanks to engines built by the legendary Robert Yates.

Yates, who bought the Ranier operation in 1989, was a longtime engine builder for the storied Ford race car factory known as Holman Moody in the early 1960s and earned Cup Series titles with driver Cale Yarborough in 1976, ’77 and ’78. Yates’ engines also powered Bobby Allison to the 1983 series championship.

In 1987, the Ranier team encountered an unexpected problem.

“We loved having those chrome wheels on the car in 1987 because they looked so good on the car on the track,” said Joey Knuckles, the team’s crew chief during Allison’s rookie-of-the-year season. “We glued the wheel weights on the wheels like we normally would, but we would have an equalized tire and when that happened, our cars were all over the place on the race track.

“So in 1988, we went with a powder-coated wheel and we didn’t even have to glue the wheel weights. The weights just wouldn’t stay on the chrome wheels. As far as pit stops, we did OK and with the inner liner, they were OK. But because the wheels were chrome in ’87, the wheel weights wouldn’t stick to the wheels and they just wouldn’t work.”

During the three years – 1987-1989 – that Allison drove the black-and-white paint scheme, the second-generation racer won twice at Talladega and once each at Daytona, Richmond, Dover and Michigan.

“Davey really loved the black-and-white paint scheme we initially ran during those first three seasons,” Knuckles said. “The first time we ran that paint scheme during Speedweeks of 1987 at Daytona in our first race for Harry Ranier, we didn’t have a sponsor. Still, we started on the pole for the Daytona 500. That helped us to land the sponsorship with Havoline and Davey won 19 races for them. We had some incredible wins together and it all started with that memorable paint scheme.”

Allison died on July 13, 1993, a day after the helicopter he was piloting crashed at Talladega Superspeedway.

Perfect from the Start

PEARSON AND THE WOOD BROTHERS WERE MAGIC

BY BEN WHITE

On April 16, 1972, David Pearson climbed aboard the No. 21 Wood Brothers Mercury for his very first NASCAR race with the Stuart, Virginia-based team. The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion had just signed a deal with team owner Glen Wood a few days prior to that Sunday afternoon race at Darlington Raceway.

Actually, signing was done through a simple handshake that would keep Pearson with the team into the 1979 season.

Motorsports icon A.J. Foyt had driven in six NASCAR races for the Wood brothers early in the 1972 season. He won the Daytona 500 and Ontario 500 but was no longer available due to his Indy car obligations.

Making his first start with Wood Brothers Racing, Pearson qualified the marron red-and-white ride on the pole at 148.209 mph around the 1.366-mile egg-shaped track. Pearson was immediately fast, proving the chemistry between he and crew chief Leonard Wood held great promise.

In the race, Pearson led four times for 202 of the race’s 293 laps, dominating lap after lap in convincing fashion. After the fifth caution period slowed the race on lap 245, Pearson pitted for tires and fuel while being a lap ahead of secondplace Richard Petty. When the race resumed on lap 252, Pearson led the remaining 41 laps.

Just after Pearson took the checkered flag, he removed his helmet and circled the inside of the track while lighting a cigarette. One of his few requests for taking the job in the Wood brothers’ car was to have a cigarette lighter installed on the dashboard.

“David was one of the very best drivers we had in our cars and hardly ever wrecked a car,” said Eddie Wood, son of Glen Wood and co-owner of Wood Brothers Racing. “I’ve said this many times but he would never tell us what was going on with the car during races and kept us completely in the dark about what the car was doing during the race. We would ask him on the two-way radio and he’d say, ‘It’s Ok’ or ‘it’s fine.’ At the end, he would usually come out of nowhere and win. We never knew what we had at the end. He was extremely smart about how he raced.

“We knew he was a great race car driver when we got him in 1972, especially after he won in his first start for us. He was so good at Darlington. He was a master of the place and won 10 times there. Everywhere we went with him, we expected to win. He was quite a race driver and a tremendous friend. We really miss him. We remained close friends even after he stopped driving for us.”

Pearson passed away on Nov. 12, 2018, at the age of 83.