The driver takes a big swig of Pepsi at this point (to get his TV bonus check) then continues thanking the boys back at the fabrication shop, the boys in the motor shop, the guy who held the door open for him in the rest room, etc. All this time his agent is standing off to the side checking off all of his sponsor mentions and how many times he turns to get the sponsor logos plastered all over his driving suit into the picture. Welcome to the modern day NASCAR where drivers not only have to be drivers but shills for their sponsors and teams. Oh the political correctness of it all!
Very polite, user friendly, politically correct—the consummate sponsor representative. However, I’m thinking this would not be A J’s type of guy.
Foyt is notorious for his temper. He has always been fairly clear and concise as to his meaning when he speaks. For example, I always knew that whenever I heard him say, “Now looky here, cowboy” or “Listen up, cowboy” to someone he was arguing with, that the next noise I was going to hear was “smack!”
Foyt is a very emotional person. That is one of the great things about him and one of the bad things about him, but it is what makes him the great competitor that he is. Unfortunately, Foyt would feel totally out of place in today’s politically correct NASCAR. Tony Stewart is the modern-day version of Foyt. But he is a much milder version—believe it or not.
Pearson and Petty were much calmer than Foyt around the track but they could also have their moments. Petty would usually just bite his tongue and say “It’s just one of them racing deals” whenever he was involved in a wreck. Pearson had a very laid-back demeanor most of the time as well.
However, I did witness one time when he lost it at Daytona. Pearson was already having a bad day because he was driving a race car with a green No. 13 on it (he is notoriously superstitious) when he and the late Tim Richmond tangled on the track.
Person’s one exception to his laid-back personality was that he would go berserk if you flipped him the bird. Richmond flipped him off after they had wrecked on the track so when they made it back to the garage Pearson confronted him about the indiscretion. Richmond told Pearson that old men needed to stay out of the way out there. The next thing everybody heard was “smack!” Which resulted in Richmond doing an involuntary backflip over the hood of his car.
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