Interesting story? True or False? Help me?

[JSJLW]

In 1978 Coke 600, Humpy had an idea to bring in a driver.

Driver failed to do the first two practice sessions with a Bud Moore prepared car, he was prompley fired.
They brought in a local to drive the car, the local ran at Charlotte a couple of times with no success,

The local driver finished 17th, I think, but impressed the owner, his name was Will Cronkite (not sure if he was in any relation to Walter?), to put him in the car for a couple of more times, and he did get a Top 10.

The local driver was named Dale Earnhardt.

The other driver had some success, but the rumor was he did some stuff after being fired that get him in trouble and possibly sidetracked his career for a while.

Story was appearently confirmed by Tom Higgins, a long time Charlotte Journalist, what do you know about him? Just wondering.

[TonyGeorgeWasRight]

That was Willy T. Ribbs. He was also arrested that weekend for driving the wrong way down a one way street.

[JSJLW]

The story's somewhere on the NASCAR.com archives...Put Willy T's name on Wikipedia and there is a link, how much was NASCAR bashing a driver that doesn't like them, and how much is true I don't know.

And apparently Earnhardt had a Top 10 for the Pepsi 400 later on, and that led to two more races for Cronkite, it impressed Rod Osterland enough to get him hired there.

And sorry, it was Cronkrite...No relation like the whole Yarborough's Story, although you never know I have heard stories of imigrants spelling their names differently or changing spelling, etc, so who knows.

[jandj]

A great read. 407F8FBC-5ADA-46EB-9992-8B9796B91651.jpg

[jandj]

A good listen.
https://www.dirtymomedia.com/dalejrd...he-storyteller

[JSJLW]

Sounds like Oil and Water from what I have heard about Ribbs, including Direct Quotes from Willy.

Podcasts don't interest me, in the past I had this IPad, lost the password, can't seem to get ITunes on my new Computer, the other (With all my information) crashed, can't seem to transfer information from old to new computer, I thought Google Chrome would be a deal, it is somewhat...

I thought I heard Junior was friends with Willy, then again Junior was always one to talk about drivers from the past. That is why I like him, he's better off with the podcasts than Calling races.

I remember Buddy Baker in the old days, he was OK at calling races, he knew to be a professional, then towards the end of his life when he was doing shows on Sirius, he was hilarious.

[JSJLW]

From what I heard he actually wound up Stealing a Pace Car, good idea, parking at a College, and playing Basketball, good idea, he was 22 at the time so makes since right?

Janet Guthrie was brought in the year before, or was it 76, when she missed the show, apparently Lynda Ferrari, any relation? had a car NAPA sponsored it, she ran decently. She had a solid NASCAR career, but couldn't get ahead because he never had the money to really step into the Upper Tier Driver unfortunately.

Some stuff he probably didn't know, he was a Black Man in college that was just about all white, and FEMALE. The name of Queens College I think?

It is not that he is black, it's just that the story was so funny, don't know if it was true or not, or how much is true, If I could get my IPod back together and replace my PIN Number, maybe I will get it off the ITunes Store?

Also from what I understand you had to be careful with Willy T., he was friends or mentored by the great Muhammad Ali, and he has slugged a couple of drivers in Trans Am for taking him out. But in IndyCar he was pretty much calm and got along with most of the driver from what I know.