Men Behind the Wrenches - Smokey Yunick

Hatton's famous pipe, forthright manner and sly smile created a personality, but it was these incredible mechanical skills with the automobile that made him a legend. Join us with the men behind the keys as we look at the cool smoking unit through its history. NASCAR racing has been full of innovators, none have been able to match the ingenuity and genius of one man. Smokey Unique. His name may make many mechanics smile, but his legend has been an inspiration. Hello and welcome to the men behind the keys. I'm Jeff Hammond mechanically. Smokey's passion for automobiles led him to create many racing parts.

He developed these innovations in his famous laboratory, the best garage in the city, growing up in poverty north of Philadelphia. Henry Smoky, the only one, tinkered with tractors and motorcycles when he was a child. Motorcycle racing led to his The announcer with the famous nickname did not remember my name and the motorcycle he drove smoking as if his health was very controversial. Smokey dropped out of high school when his family fell on hard times and even lied about his age to join the air force. Smokey piloted b. -17 during World War II, it was during this time of service that he was educated in the air force.

I spent a lot of time, we didn't have any good dirty books to get, but that's all I have are physics and chemistry books, which is my second choice and I found physics to be very intriguing; In other words, I was quite surprised to discover that what seemed so complex and complicated to me was actually very simple if I studied it from scratch. When Smokey returned from the war he spent a little time in New Jersey before heading to the warmer climate of Daytona, It was there that he got his first taste of auto racing when a friend, Marshall Teague, introduced him to the sport.

I got interested in stock cars because it was the only game in town here. at Daytona and there was a lot of history here, there was quite a bit of interesting records on the beach and the stock cars were available for me to work with and then the rules, I guess they were made by myself, something that intrigued me. because I didn't race like anyone else, the people I raced against were Mother Nature and the centrifugal force of gravity trying to go the furthest distance on a given amount of fuel trying to get the most power out of a certain size engine at his arrival.

On the beach Smokey found a place to work on his cars and a slogan that would be synonymous with him for life when I first came here every garage had explosives in the 47 days so I started thinking some call to this place like this. I got the name copyright patent from the state of Florida that didn't really say Smokey was a character because he had a big patch on his back that said Smokies, the best damn garage in town and you know, just by looking at the word Damn it was a Smokies thing back then. The cars came out of the best damn garage in town and we're about to create a car race just like theirs.

It's not a damn romance, it's smoking a widely acclaimed autobiography to hear stories from the days when stock cars were truly original and drivers were as fast off the track as they were on duty 866

smokey

2 or visit online at

smokey

Las Unicom stock car racing was just warming up with Smokey installed in Daytona Beach. Early pioneers like Marshall Red Teak Byron Tim Showoff, Curtis Turner and Fireball Roberts were stirring things up on the beach, Smokey eagerly set out to make his mark. In those days, the rules were pretty much the same; In other words, if you drove a Ford, you couldn't do anything, not an ocean view, not a Hudson, not anything, so if you ran a factor in someone else it would have to depend on your ingenuity, I think because the rule told you. says very strictly, actually when the race was going on for years we would run with a stopwatch I would decide how fast we were going to run a given lap and then sometimes I would adjust it in the race and we could be leading or he could be running 12, but if, for example, at Darlington, if the initial 50 100 laps were, in my opinion, too fast, we decided before the race how fast we were going to run, assuming that I always felt that it was very silly to compete with a car in particular until you reach the last 50 miles.

There was no manufacturer loyalty in those days, so Smokey looked to each partner for an advantage. You know, one day I'm in Hudson, Chevy. the next day and those who feel the next day of taxes Buick and Ford and we're jumping all over the place, no one told them he was going to drive the cars and he left the showroom and picked the one that we thought was the fastest car, so if we were in fourth place last year and we thought, oh, they would factor this year, since we didn't have any clue. All Ludacris interacted and achieved what was the fastest smokey sought at one time, paid for by 1951 Hudson, who asked to build engines for the driver. the famous Hudson Hornet for $200 engine Thomas won the 1951 Southern 500 with Smokey's engine and it was the beginning of a successful partnership during their years together.

Thomas won 49 times including three Southern 500s and they had two championships in 1951 and 53 during this time Lee petty challenged him to do it for the crown creating a rivalry for the mistake, yes he was a dirty racial, he won't appreciate me liking Lee and I don't have to say I like it, of course, I know that your offer wins or blows. when that couldn't afford to blow up, so if he had to settle for a second and a third to get enough money for that race, then that's what he did while Smokey was experimenting with his racing cars, his ingenuity was became legendary.

After the inspection, he took out the gas tank and asked for a third step with the dummy holding a little more: and jumping on it, starting it and driving it back to the shop, I would work as hard as we could to use the head joint. for next week, but today, if I do it, we understand that they will penalize me because their new philosophy on racing is that we want everyone to have the same feat and I think things from the band's point of view are probably correct, no they will feel. a real race to the last inning, breaking back then what we thought was important was just saying repeat this or you drawing roses with no one after that was the important thing and maybe I could do that for the teachers but then Always I had a deal and I still believe that the sun doesn't shine on the same dog's butt all the time and sooner or later that guy you couldn't be to find the weak spot.

Righetti, that's what was fun to discover. This Sunday, who was going to be the cat we couldn't beat? Something new taught them better in 1955. Smokey and Thomas demonstrated their versatility in the Evan 500 International and took home the victory. Smokey's success was gratifying, but he was not one to sit still; he still had much more to accomplish in the mid-1950s. Smokey made a name for himself on and off the race track. At times his interpretation of NASCAR's rules led to heated debates with senior Bill French, who saw Smokie's creative approach as a trap, but through all the frustration, his mind never stops coming up with innovation after innovation, eventually the big guys in the Detroit auto industry realized and looked for the smoke to improve cars, you can call him a genius, then the calls called him a cheater and he really didn't do it. he cheated, he went around the room and if it wasn't written in black and white he thought it was fine, but he was brilliant, he changed the way our cars are today, so his genius, which started with racing, tried to get around the rules and make the cars go faster actually helped the cars, they are no longer production cars, but at the time they were and some of the things he developed we still enjoy in 1956, the unique relationship As Thomas was cooling down after that season's beach race, Smokey fired his band.

He hired Paul Goldsmith to drive his car. Two years later, Goldsmith won the famous beach race in a Pontiac on smoke. I was most impressed by the driver in Paulie. Yes, he had the most natural talent. He invented trash. GONNA. It was around this time, at the end of the fifties, when it was spoken. started a new type of race track, a super race track that the France family was planning to build in Daytona, the race track turned out to be something bigger than Smokey ever imagined when I found out something about it, why would I know he had plans for rough plans like he's a good enough developer to build a racetrack and in ten days I was pretty involved, probably did separate pieces for nuts and the Rotary Club and was trying to get t25 stock in the track racing, in fact, I bought it and so most of us were working and doing everything we could to help make things happen when she sucked, it started to the point where her friend at the corporation for me, which I thought we build now if you say, did I have any idea what would result?

For the size of the Assizes race, I never in my life imagined anything like what happened today in the early '60s. Smokey was frustrated with NASCAR but not auto racing, so he turned his attention to the open wheel indy cars. The environment seemed to be the perfect outlet for the frustrated smoke genius. He liked Indianapolis because he called it a thin little rule book. By then, the NASCAR rule book had gotten bigger and thicker and more restrictive, and Indianapolis said the car had to be this long and be this wide and have to weigh this much and beyond that, you could actually Let your imagination fly and he did it with his Koren capsule with the car's first wing in Indianapolis, he really enjoyed that freedom of thinking about a team with Jim Rassman to win the Indy 500 in 1960, but what Smokey considered his greatest achievement he never received credit officially because they deceived him.

The Indy race he won fought for that recognition, but it never came. In 1960 there was a co-team leader and at that time. It was all said and done, the cocaine crew chief wasn't even on the property most of the time Dad did all the work and he was erased from history, but he was proud of it, he knew what he had done was just in Annapolis. The success Smokey returned to stock cars this time teaming with one of the sport's first superstars as NASCAR headed into the '60s. Smokey and his contemporaries balanced fun and hard work on and off the track, they were a group fun-loving in those days, all the boys were alive Barbara Roberts was there and little Joe Weatherly was there and all these people who have now become legends were just people and they should have a good time and they would run around and party and then They would go home and leave. work until next weekend and then they would race they didn't make a living there it was there it was their hobby it really was there it was their party in 1962 smokey teamed up with fireball era superstar roberts despite watching the ball race of fire For years, Smokey was skeptical of the driver.

I didn't particularly like the fireball as we raced along the rocks and the fireball went from being modified to stock cars. It was obvious to me that he was very good, he could have been a very good stock car driver. The pink modified drivers didn't affect, I felt like he was, but he was just as good of a driver and possibly better than most, so since we lived in the same city we eventually got together and raced together, we would probably race together a lot more before . If I hadn't liked him personally, I finally found out that Carbo was a loner and unfortunately I am too and we didn't get along very well, but from May onwards we got along well, but we were never very close friends, for example, Paul.

The ghost Ness and I were very close friends and we are still the perpetrator. Thomas and I had a much calmer relationship than he had with the fireball and that's what held him back for a while, but once we started running together, I understood that in him he understood his ability and so on and I think that he understood mine and we finally got to where we could form a team. I don't think Fireball thought Smokey had the best drive in the world and a lot of that was, you know. There were some occasional arguments that got a little heated between Smokey and Fireball about, you know, how to drive the car, I have to turn things around, Nokia can't just go straight and, but together, they were a fabulous team.

Roberts ran the race. wheels of Smokey's Pontiac winning the coveted Daytona 500 in 1962 Roberts earned nine poles and three wins that season finishing eighth and points standings in 1964 Smokey dabbled in all forms of motorsports, he and Roberts had parted ways as team but they were still friends. during that season, a smoky feeling that Fireball had lost some of the desire for him, we had to capture the Indianapolis card and I was having trouble and FireballHe came to see me alone for the Charlotte race and he, if the truth were known, would like to have not run the Charlotte race.

He told me that he had a contact with a beer company and that that would be his last race, he wouldn't even finish the season and Then I found out and I think he came on purpose to tell me that I was right. and he needed to get away and I said, well, you wouldn't be worse off here destroying the capsule and I asked him if he wanted to drive it because we were having problems with what was going on there and he said no, I'm going to go down and run that thing and see it after which ends and then of course you know the rest of this story.

Fireball was seriously injured in a fiery accident in Charlotte with Jr. Johnson and Ned Jarrett never recovered. Oh, he was heartbroken. He really liked fireball a lot and he had felt that his career in fireball racing was over. He had something called looking for space when the driver was driving, he had to be relaxed and once they started. lean forward and grab the steering wheel if there was that space in the seat, that meant to him that they were nervous and he watched that and that meant to him that they weren't as comfortable in the danger that they were putting themselves in during the '60s.

Smokey continually tested his ideas, stock cars and other forms of racing that always challenged the limits of the machine and the rules of the sport. A big laugh came out of the smoke. He was running. Trans Am got the car up, why can't we be in New York? And this was in 1969 and 1970, he came in, he had a Camaro and he stopped, he started unloaded, he acknowledged that I walked, if you know what smoking is, you have problems, he said what. You mean they never really inspect you? What do you talk about after they tell you?

But when they went there and started inspecting, when all these college boards, you know they would go around, they would grab all these college students that you know and they would specialize. all these big cars came up and started measuring all of Smoker's car and he just didn't go into orbit, I couldn't think, hey, okay, you know, they were fully charged, he didn't make it, but Smokey was a contender. I enjoyed winning. I was proud to win, but that was yesterday. For me, every race that ended ten seconds after finishing, ended, ended and for me the important thing is what the hell are we going to do next Sunday.

I was proud to have won this Sunday, but I didn't see it as something special, it didn't give me any special privileges in any way because in real life, the fact that you won this Sunday doesn't do you any good next Sunday, you have to read, win again. In 1969, a frustrated, chain-smoking Unni walked away from stock car racing only to venture into it when Spidey retired from NASCAR racing. Fumar continued to develop new ideas for the automobile industry. I think people are surprised to find out how funny he was and how insightful he was. was and had a forward-looking view of health was involved with energy conservation and alternative energies when it was not fashionable or politically acceptable to do so was concerned about preserving the environment not only for his grandchildren but for generations to come was also very concerned about the safety aspect in NASCAR and racing in general, not just NASCAR.

Smokey's genius was truly ahead of his time. Many of his innovations are still used in racing cars and his automobile. Nowadays, we have created so many different innovations in the sport and he was also very innovative and creative in avoiding that you lose the atomic. He found the gray areas or the white areas of the orbit between the black letters that were not covered and took advantage of the geography. He didn't read the rule book and said, "Okay, you know two and two." There are four that he was going to add and to get to five, I mean, he always went a little further, but that was the genius, there was no one.

I think he had immunity to horsepower in his day. You were a true innovator. He, huh. He seemed to figure that out and thought about what he had to do to get around the rules and most of them tried to get George to execute Andrew, listen and they have a lot of rules by which a land can be returned, but it took a lot of work and knowledge and what you were doing. to break that rule and still be a legal ace one of those people when you say he did everything right, he did everything, I mean he's one of those people that when he was walking through the garage area, kids who didn't I really don't know who I was going to pay, I ask a question and all of a sudden this guy says he was the best at one time and that's pretty much what Smokey was.

Here is a man who will do things you never thought of and do things. with a burst you've never seen before and then he can talk about them in a way that is uniquely his and injects a lot of flavor into the sport and of course the reputation of it. Smokey was one of the best. people who ever happened to NASCAR what he put into his life is incredible, he didn't waste a minute, he lived for today and thought about tomorrow and planned, but he was in the moment and got more in his life than most of us . can he ever fit his shoes is just amazing what he did he loved it and he lived it and he enjoyed every minute for Smokey there was only one way he wants to be remembered that I was at the level where he remembers that I spoke frankly He remembered that I was not a liar and he agreed that I gave a little and also received that I tried to put something back into the deal and he agreed that I was serious about what I was doing.

I wasn't looking. for ink i wasn't looking for a great name for smokey but i did what i did because i believed in it because i was interested because i enjoyed doing it and i hope someone else gets something out of it besides the work i did that would suit me after years of defying the rules and finding solutions. Smokey may have retired, but he continued to think of ideas for making cars safer and faster, even after his death in February 2001. Many young crew chiefs continued to carry Smokey's legacy. While they searched for the winning age, the men behind the keys.

I'm Jeff Hammond, thanks for joining me.