What a finish at Daytona yesterday. IT IS THE ONLY Nascar race I can watch in it's entirety. I certainly remember being at Ch . 2 GETTING Ready to put the "Sports Sunday" show together when what looked liked an innocent wall banging turned into the death of Dale Earnhardt. I combined with author Mickey Herskowitz to produce a book about A.J. Foyt. Foyt won Daytona but didn't appear thrilled later in life. The cover the publisher selected for our book had A.J. standing next to his stock car at a long ago Daytona 500. "Hell, why don't they put me in a taxi" said Super Tex. The book wasn't published.
A Daytona story I always liked involved my friend JIM HURTIBISE. "Herk" died in Port Arthur in 1989. He was only 56. Ironically that number 56 was his Mallard Roadster at Indy and his various stock cars. He ran Daytona in the "not so lucrative years of the 60's and '70's. His biggest pay day at the 500 was $3600 driving for Roberts Racing. Charlie Roberts (no relation) owned the car but one of the sponsors was KENNY MORAN ELECTRIC in INDY.
Herk wasn't having a good day and according to those in the know, Kenny Moran was not happy since 56 was getting no closer to the front and the TV cameras had only been on him at the start. Herk decided he had to get his pal some publicity. He yanked the steering wheel coming off a turn and sent the NO.56 into the infield..DIRT FLEW EVERY WHERE and all eyes were on him. EVERY TV camera AT THE TRACK watched the car spin and finally stop. They zeroed in on the driver's door. There in big red letters just above the door was the moment the sponsor had waited for. It read KENNY MORAN ELECTRIC, INDIANAPOLIS. Herk knew how to rise to a tough decision. Sponsor money was hard to come by. Nascar is now off to Atlanta, where Jim won his only 2 big time stock car races.