NASCAR Then and Now - Ben White [25]
Mark Martin raises the trophy in triumph. Note that he has changed his hat from the other picture. Victory lane celebrations include a sequence of hat changes to make sure every sponsor’s hat and logo is photographed.
Post-Race Interviews
Years ago, even the race winner’s media duties didn’t go much further than brief interviews for radio (possibly TV) and offering some commentary for NASCAR beat reporters. For today’s NASCAR driver, the job doesn’t end with the checkered flag. Win or lose, drivers are expected to be available to the media immediately after the race. In fact, drivers will often have to face TV cameras and microphones before they have even climbed out of their cars. In the case of a driver who experienced some controversy during the race, the media’s goal is to catch the driver in the heat of the moment, before he or she has a chance to simmer down, in hopes the driver says something newsworthy. For the fiercely competitive racers who make up NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, keeping your temper under control after the race can sometimes be a bigger challenge than keeping your car under control during the race.
Chris Economaki interviews Junior Johnson after taking the checkered flag at the 1962 Southern 500. Johnson’s mood would sour considerably a few hours later when it was determined a scoring error had been made and that Larry Frank was the true winner of the race.
Tony Stewart (left) and Stewart-Haas teammate Ryan Newman look tired but relatively happy as they hold court for reporters following the 2009 Southern 500 at Darlington. Stewart is legendary for his willingness to speak his mind and not mince words; many fellow drivers (and reporters) have felt his wrath over the years. The two have reason to be cheerful here, though, as they finished a respective third and fourth in the race.
War Wounds
Anyone who doesn’t think NASCAR drivers are true athletes should try putting on several layers of clothing and a full-face helmet, climb into a car that is 100 degrees or hotter inside, and spend four hours driving at lethal speeds surrounded by dozens of other cars. The sport’s grueling nature is sometimes overlooked, but 500 miles is a long trip, especially in the heat of summer. The majority of today’s drivers take their conditioning seriously and work with personal trainers and nutritionists to keep themselves in peak condition. This sort of approach would have seemed ridiculous to the many heavy-smoking, hard-drinking drivers of yesteryear, but it’s just another way to gain an advantage over your competitors.
An exhausted Cale Yarborough takes some oxygen as he sits beside his Wood Brothers Ford after a race in 1968.
Frank Warren gets a smile from his daughter as he cools his feet following a very hot race at Talladega Superspeedway in 1977.
Dave Marcis displays the wounds suffered trying to control an ill-handling Dodge at the 1971 Southern 500 at Darlington. The big cars raced in the 1970s didn’t have power steering. Today’s drivers are required to wear fireproof gloves.
David Stremme looks drained after 400 miles of restrictor plate racing at the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona. Drivers can lose as much as 10 pounds in water weight over the course of a hot race, despite today’s cars being equipped with “cool box” systems that circulate (relatively) cool air through their helmets.
Packing Up
The show is over and the fans have gone home, but the work is far from done. For the crewmembers, it’s time to pack up everything and hit the road for a long drive back to team headquarters or to the next track on the schedule. In the early days of the sport, the owner, crew chief, and driver did a lot of the work themselves. Today, once the drivers