Manic Monday

Memories of Darlington's Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend

"...but they grabbed my arms and put them up behind me and face-planted me on the hood of the car. I never did get my tow money."

Ricky Rudd, driver of the #21 Motorcraft Racing Ford Taurus makes his 792nd career start at Darlington in the final Labor Day weekend running of the Southern 500. Here are some of his memories of this historic event and track.

Ricky Rudd has 358 top-10 finishes in his 791 starts. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

This is one of those memories you really don't think about as time goes on, but in 1976 we went to Darlington to race, and we had a car we didn't know much about. It was a new chassis that we had bought and we put the car together. It had some bad design flaws in it and we failed to qualify.

The guys who were racing back then, I think it was Cecil Gordon and those guys, said, 'Hey, if you don't make the race, you go outside the track and go to the promoter and they'll usually give you tow money.' That would help to pay the tire bill and some of what we spent to get there.

This was all new to me, but the guys had said to go out and get the tow money, so I went up to Barney Wallace's office to see him. I went to knock on the door and the sheriff's guys were standing there guarding the office, and they wanted to know what I was doing there. And I told them that I had come to see Mr. Wallace to get my tow money. And they weren't going to let me see him.

At that time I was about 19 but looked like I was 14. I told them, 'You don't understand, I didn't make the race and I've come to get my tow money.'

I didn't get very far. The next thing I knew these two big guys in uniform (and at that time I'm about 5'5" and about 120 pounds) had me on the hood of the car face down. They didn't ever put me in handcuffs, but they grabbed my arms and put them up behind me and face-planted me on the hood of the car. I never did get my tow money.

The Southern 500, for years, ran on Labor Day Monday. I think we went down there and practiced on Thursday, practiced and qualified on Friday with second-round qualifying and practice on Saturday.

On Sunday, you had the day off, whether you stayed in town in Florence or went to the beach, and then you came back and raced on Monday. That's just the way it was.

I always hung around Darlington. I think a lot of them went to the beach to buy beer and party. I wasn't a big beer drinker so I always stayed around town.

Unocal sponsored the Darlington Record Club, and I became a member in 1981. In the Southern 500 qualifying you had to run the fastest speed for the manufacturer, so it is a pretty elite club.  Years ago, I was the president twice. The purpose of the club was to train the rookies as they came along. The rookies could not qualify the first day at Darlington. It was mandatory that they qualify the second day. And before they could qualify, all of the rookies had a test they had to go through that was observed by a panel from the members of the Record Club.

I remember I was the president of the Record Club the first year A.J. Foyt came to race at Darlington. He had to go through the rookie test, and that was pretty interesting. When I was a little kid, A.J. was my hero because I followed Indy racing a lot, and then to have him have to pass the rookie test and be observed by us...

One of the things that was required was that they had to watch a film, and the film that they showed was nothing but telling the rookies to get out of the way, pull to the curb and ride around, and here is what happens if you don't. And then they showed about 100 wrecks in this film.

I thought it should be something different, so I got with Bill Joyner with Unocal and we remade the film. And I told them what highlights I wanted to see in the film and how I'd like to see it done. I wanted it to show how you pass -- you don't have to be scared to death. There is a procedure and you need to understand it. They shot film during the race, looked at it and assembled it. Unocal basically created a budget so they could do it. So that was what they began to use.

The rookie test is not around any more, so I'm not sure if anyone sees the film now or not.

Ricky Rudd drives the No. 21 Motorcraft Racing Ford Taurus owned by Wood Brothers Racing.