The memories of a middle aged racing fan; ‘Easy loving’ and a night at The Rock
I’ve been a fan of NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series since its inception back in 1995. So, needless to say, I was perched in front of my television to watch the series’ race at the legendary Rockingham Speedway. I thoroughly enjoyed watching young Kyle Larson score his first NASCAR national series win during the North Carolina Education Lottery 200. I was glad to see a good sized crowd of fans which supported my long time theory that said this series deserves more stand alone events on their schedule. I was also thrilled for speedway owner Andy Hillenburg who, back in 2007, seriously rolled the dice by purchasing this race track and resurrecting “The Rock.”
However, I was thinking about something else while I watched the Rockingham race. It was another one of those memories of a middle aged racing fan.
It was March of 1971. I was a college sophomore living in Charlotte, North Carolina. A buddy and I decided to spend a weekend in Rockingham to take in a NASCAR Grand National, now Sprint Cup, race at, what was then, the North Carolina Motor Speedway.
The plan was to camp out in the race track’s infield. We arrived at the track with all of the basic infield essentials: a tent, multiple bags of Lays Potato Chips and two coolers filled with Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. We found the perfect campsite, between turns three and four, that granted us the maximum view of the track but still within staggering distance to the nearest public restroom and hot dog stand. We also made quick work of introducing ourselves to our racing neighbors. From that point the party was on.
All through the night our NASCAR party was serenaded by someone playing country music over the track’s public address system. It was apparent that this impromptu D J has access to dual turn tables. One of those turn tables was permanently occupied by the song “Easy Loving.” The eventual country music classic was recorded by Freddy Hart and was the number one song on the country charts at the time. The problem with this was: “Easy Loving” was being blasted through the public address speakers about every three minutes. Needless to say, this procedure became old and annoying in a very short amount of time.
Our campsite was located directly in front of a telephone pole that had a set of speakers attached to the top of it. This was one of the old fashioned poles with metal spikes on its sides that, back in the day, made it very easy to climb to the top similar to the way an elementary school child climbs on playground monkey bars. Convinced I could handle the climb to the top of the pole, I announced that the next time I heard “Easy Loving” I was going to to disconnect the wires from the speakers.
Right on cue, approximately three minutes later, there it was again:
“E-E-E-E- Z-Z-Z-Z LOVING, SO SEXY LOOKING.”
Realizing it time to back up my previous announcement, I began my ascent to the top of the pole. I climbed approximately twenty five feet when I heard this deep, baritone, voice say:
HEY BOY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING UP THERE?
I glanced downwards to discover I was gazing into the steely eyes of a North Carolina county mounty. I recall thinking: “damn it, I’m going to get arrested over a Freddy Hart record.” I also quickly realized that my only approach to this officer was your basic “yes sir- no sir- I’m sorry sir.”
With both feet once again firmly planted on the ground, I explained to the officer my line of thinking that got turned into a lack of thinking. Much to my surprise, he admitted that the endless playing of “Easy Loving” was indeed annoying. He offered me a deal: if I agreed to retreat to my tent not to be seen or heard from for the remainder of the night he would give me a break. Just because I was acting like a fool doesn’t necessarily mean I am a fool. I shook the man’s hand, thanked him and crawled into the tent.
Needless to say the following morning I woke up with an extremely fuzzy tongue while my brain played a rock n roll drum solo. Following rounds of aspirin and black coffee, I settled in to watch the race won by my all time NASCAR hero: King Richard Petty.
To this day when someone mentions Rockingham Speedway I think of that weekend and smile. Also to this day, and with all due respects to Freddy Hart fans, I still cringe when I hear the song “Easy Loving.”
It’s just another one of those memories from a middle aged racing fan.
Kyle Larson gets monkey off his back with win at Rockingham
“It finally feels good to get the monkey off my back. Hopefully, we can get some more wins shortly.”
For a 20 year old, it seems a shock to hear those words spoken after his first Camping World Truck Series in just his fifth series start. However, this isn’t any 20-year-old. This is Kyle Larson.
With a multitude of success in sprint cars and in the K&N East Series, Larson is a driver that many are saying is the next big star.
The anticipation for his move to one of the top three divisions in NASCAR was huge.
So far, the young driver has lived up to that anticipation. He has one win, two top fives and four top 10s in five truck starts, well having two top 10s in six starts in the Nationwide Series. There have been three races – two truck, one Nationwide – that the young driver has come close to winning.
In just his third truck series start last year at Phoenix International Raceway, Larson led late in the race till getting passed on the final restart by Brian Scott. The following week at Homestead, Larson would wreck while running inside the top five with Ty Dillon.
This year in the Nationwide Series, Larson has come close to winning once – losing by inches to Kyle Busch at Bristol Motor Speedway.
In speaking of races like that, Larson says he enjoys racings the guys with lots of experience, like Busch.
“It’s only better for us young guys that are trying to gain experience and stuff like that,” Larson said. “We can learn a ton off racing with those guys. It makes it better for our resume or our career or whatever when we go out there and beat them or race hard with them. So I like racing with them.”
Larson added that he knew it’d be difficult racing the veterans, and knew that he wouldn’t be winning and getting top fives every week.
“I understand how tough it is,” he said. “Just trying to take it and learn as much as I can racing with those guys. Hopefully, by the end of the year when I’ve learned a lot more I can be challenging for Top 5s and wins. But right now I understand how tough it is. Like I said, hopefully I’ll learn more and can get better.”
With a career of his nature already, the win at Rockingham in the truck series may seem like a relief to the young driver.
“It was cool to win at Rockingham with how much history it has,” Larson said. “How cool a racetrack it is too. It’s a really fun racetrack. The driver is really important there. You can do a lot as a driver to make your car better. It’s a lot of fun to drive there.
“It was really special too because we had Autism Speaks on the truck. And my crew chief, Trent Owen’s son, his five-year-old son, Gray, has autism. And I know it’s special for him, and it felt good for me to be able to win for Trent, and also give Turner Scott Motorsports their first win of the season.”
Larson also becomes the first graduate from NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program to win a race. The program is aimed at giving drivers from minorities an opportunity.
“It helped with getting me exposure in NASCAR in a series like the K&N East Series, and also being able to race on tracks that I’ll be running on this year,” Larson said. “We got to go to Iowa, New Hampshire, Richmond, Darlington — not Darlington, but Dover, and tracks like that. It helps us gain experience.
“It was my first year racing stock cars too, so it helped all around with driving and introducing me to all the media that I’ll hopefully be having to do in my future. So it was good for me.”
Larson gave the program a shot after seeing the success that MacKenna Bell was having with it. Larson used to race Bell in outlaw cars.
“I decided to sign up and tryout at their little combine they had in 2011 at the end of 2011 and did pretty well there,” Larson said. “So they gave me the opportunity to run the full K&N East schedule last year in 2012.”
When he is not behind of a Nationwide Series car or a Camping World Series truck this year, he has been continuing to race sprints.
“I’m going to try to race as much as I can,” he said. “A lot of people probably think I should focus on Nationwide or whatever, but I think the more you’re in a race car, the more you’re learning. So that’s kind of how I’ve been the last couple years.
“I mean, you see Tony Stewart, and he’s off racing Sprint cars whenever he can. He still runs good. So, yeah, I learn something every time I’m in a race car. So I just keep trying to learn as much as I can, and race as much as I can.”
So far, across the different divisions, he has eight wins. With all the wins, Larson’s says his approach to staying grounded with the success is staying humble and not getting carried away.
“I know these opportunities don’t come very often and you can lose them in the blink of an eye,” he said. “So just stay humble and just understand that it’s tough. I don’t know.
“I’ve just always been pretty humble. I don’t know. My parents have taught me to stay grounded and stuff like that. So I don’t know. I think it’s been good for me and good for my career so far.”
