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The McNeely Files: Racing the King in the Carolinas
By Tommy McNeely
In 1965 Dick Harrell burned up the wiring in his Retribution Chevy II during a match race in St. Louis. A week later, he and I flew there to pick-up the car and go on to another race in Greensboro, NC.
Dick had the habit of buying gas and then curling up and going to sleep. On that trip, he turned the truck over to me after fueling. Sometime in the morning he woke up to find me passing several cars and trucks while going straight uphill. He decided it was his turn to drive.
After getting safely to Greensboro, we checked into a small mom-and-pop motel. The next morning we rewired the car and did some normal maintenance. Next we pushed the car across the parking lot. Dick jumped in, fired it and proceeded to carry the front wheels nearly back to the truck.
I don't know how he did it but I swear the motel manager beat us to the truck. He had the nerve to tell us to leave – NOW!
Greensboro didn't count false starts; they felt it only added to the drama. If one driver got an unfair jump, they just stopped the race and backed you up to try again. We spent Saturday night talking to the flagman and made some arrangements (that's legal isn't it?) making sure that we understood just how things were run.
Sunday morning, Richard Petty showed up with the 43 Jr. on a trailer behind a truck that appeared to have a machine shop in it. In the first round, Dick did a few false starts and then, zap! A four- or five-car-length holeshot. Richard caught him right before the lights and won.
Petty came over between rounds and told Dick he had a radiator on his car so Dick could do whatever he wanted to because Petty’s car wouldn’t overheat. But… no matter what, he was going to blow him into the weeds anyway.
Dick tried all his tricks, but King Richard still won three straight!
Tommy McNeely
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