Men Behind the Wrenches - Smokey Yunick

the famous Hatton pipe is outspoken manner and sly smirk created a persona but it was this incredible mechanical skills with the automobile that made him a legend join us on men behind the wrenches as we look at the genius smoking unit [Music] throughout its history NASCAR racing has been filled with innovators none have been able to match the ingenuity and genius of one man smokey unique his name may bring a smile to many mechanics face but his legend has been an inspiration hello and welcome to the men behind the wrenches I'm Jeff Hammond mechanically Smokey's passion for the automobile led him to create many parts for racing he developed these innovations right in his famous laboratory the best damn garage in town growing up poor north of Philadelphia Henry smoky unique tinkered with tractors and motorcycles as a kid racing motorcycles led to his famous nickname announcer didn't remember my name and the motorcycle I was running with smoking like health was very polemic smokey he dropped out of high school when his family fell on hard times and even lied about his age to get in the airforce smokey piloted b-17s during World War two it was during this time of the service that he educated himself in the airforce I spent a lot of time we didn't have any good dirty books to get but it's all I got physics and chemistry books which is my second choice and I found that physics very intriguing in other words I was quite shocked to find out that what seemed so complex and complicated to me was actually so very simple if he studied it from the ground up when smokey returned from the war he spent a short 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 in Daytona and there was a lot of history here there was rather interesting on the records on the beach and the stock cars was available to me to work on and then the rules I guess they're self-made a stock car thing intriguing to me because I didn't race like anybody else my the people I raced against was Mother Nature and gravity centrifugal force trying to go to the furthest distance on a given amount of fuel trying to get the most power out of a certain sized engine upon his arrival at the beach smokey found a location to work on his cars and a slogan that would be synonymous with him for a lifetime when I first come here all the garages had explosives back in them days 47 and so I started think there's some call this place so I got the name patent copyright state of Florida that didn't that really smokey was a character cause he had the big patch on his back it said Smokies best damn garage in town and you know just to see the word damn back then was something Smokies cars came out of the best damn garage in town and we're about to create an auto racing like theirs ain't no damn romance it's smoking widely acclaimed autobiography [Music] to hear stories of the days when the stock cars were really stock and the drivers were as fast off the track as they were on call 866 smokey 2 or visit online at smokey Unicom [Music] [Music] stock-car racing was just heating up with smokey settled into Daytona Beach early pioneers like Marshall teak red Byron Tim flaunt Curtis Turner and fireball Roberts were stirring things up at the beach smokey anxiously set out to make his mark in those days the rules were pretty equal in other words if you run a Ford you wasn't allowed to do anything or an ocean view or Hudson or whatever so if you were to run factor in someone else it would have to depend on your ingenuity I think because the rule tells you very tightly actually when the race was going on for years we raced by a stopwatch I decided how fast we would run a lap given lap and then sometimes it would adjust it in the race and we might be leading or he might be running 12 but if for example at Darlington if the initial 50 100 laps was in my opinion too fast we decided before the race how fast we were going to run assuming that I always felt like that it was very foolish to race any particular car until you got down to the last 50 miles there was no manufacturer allegiance in those days so smokey looked at every mate for an advantage you know I'm on Hudson one day Chevy the next day and those who feel the next day of taxes Buick and Ford and we're jumping all over the place nobody told you he'd go drive the cars and he's off the showroom floor and pick what we thought was the fastest car so if we were running fourth last year and we thought oh they will factor this year which we didn't have any leads everybody Ludacris interacted hit what was the fastest smokey searched for an age paid off by 1951 Hudson asking to build engines for driver kerb Thomas and the famous Hudson Hornet for $200 a motor Thomas won the 1951 southern 500 with Smokey's engine and it was a start of successful Association during their years together unique and Thomas won 49 times including three southern 500 and they earned two championships in 1951 and 53 during this time Lee petty challenged to do it for the crown creating a rivalry for the error yeah he was a dirty racial he won't appreciate that I like Lee and I don't have to say I like right know her bid either win or blow up when dat couldn't afford to blew up so if he had to settle for a second a third in order to get enough money to good than that race then that's what he did as smokey experimented with his race cars his ingenuity became legendary the story about him after the inspection then take the gas tank out and he asked for third through with the doll holding a little more : and jumping in it and cranking it up and driving it back to the shop I would work all we could get a head joint use for next week but today if I do then we get that I'm going to be penalized because your new philosophy on racing is that we want everybody the same feat and I think stuff from the band's point of view is probably correct won't feel real racing down to the last entry break the back then what we thought was important was just simply stated repeating this or for you to rock this one out roses without anybody after that was what was important and maybe I could do that for teachers but then we always had a deal and I still believe that the Sun don't shine on the same dog's ass all the time and sooner or later that guy that you couldn't be to find the weak spot Righetti that that was what was fun to find out this Sunday who was going to be the cat that we couldn't beat that had something new taught them better in 1955 smokey and Thomas proved their versatility by international Evan 500 and taking home the victory smokey success was rewarding but he wasn't one to sit still he still had much more to accomplish by the mid 50's smokey made a name for himself on and off the racetrack sometimes his interpretation of the NASCAR rules led to heated debates with Bill French senior who saw Smokies creative approach as cheating but through all the frustration his mind never cease to come up with innovation after innovation eventually the big boys of the Detroit auto industry took notice and looked the smokey to make automobiles better they can call it genius then the calls they called him a cheater and really he didn't cheat he went around the room and if it wasn't black and white written he figured it was okay but he was brilliant he changed the way our cars are today so his genius which started with the racing trying to get around the rules and make the cars go faster actually helped the cars they're not stock cars anymore but at that time they were and some of the things that he developed we still enjoy by 1956 the unique Thomas relationship was cooling off after the beach race that season smokey fired her band hired Paul Goldsmith to drive his car two years later Goldsmith won the famed beach race in a Pontiac for smoke the driver impressed me most in Paulie yeah he had the most natural talent invented garbage IRA been around it was around this time the late fifties that talk began of a new type of racetrack a super speedway that the France family was planning to build in Daytona the racetrack turned out to be a bigger deal the smokey ever envisioned by the time I knew anything about it why it was gonna you know had plans for rough plans like he's a developer good enough to construct a racetrack and in ten days I was fairly involved I probably made separate pieces to the walnuts and the Rotary Club and it was trying to get t25 stock in the racetrack matter of fact I bought and so most of us were working and doing anything we could to help thing happen when she sucked started to the point where his buddy at the corporation for me what I thought we built now if you're saying did I have any idea that it would turn out to be the size the race of the Assizes used without never in my life juice that I ever imagined anything like what happened today by the early 60s smokey was frustrated with NASCAR but not with auto racing so he turned his attention to Indy cars the open wheel environment seemed to be the perfect outlet for smoke's frustrated genius he liked Indianapolis because he called it a little skinny rule book by this time NASCAR's rule book had gotten bigger and thicker and more restrictive and Indianapolis said the car had to be this long and had to be this wide and had to weigh this much and beyond that you could really let your imagination go and he did with his capsule Koren with the first wing on the car in Indianapolis he really enjoyed that freedom of thinking a team with Jim Rassman to win the Indy 500 in 1960 but what smokey considered his greatest achievement he never officially got credit for he was cheated of it the Indy race that he won he he fought for that recognition but it never came in 1960 there was a co crew chief and by the time it was all said and done coke crew chief wasn't even on the property a lot of the time dad did all the work and he got written out of the history but he was proud of it he knew what he done fresh off was in Annapolis success smokey returned to stock cars this time team with one of the sports first superstar as NASCAR headed into the 60s smokey and his contemporaries balanced hard-working fun on and off the racetrack they were a fun-loving Bunch in those days all the guys were alive Barbara Roberts was there and little Joe Weatherly was there and and all these people that now have become legends they were just people and just ought to have a good time and they would race and they would party and then they'd go home and go to work until the next weekend and then they would race they weren't making their living in it was there it was their hobby really it was there it was their party in 1962 smokey teamed up the superstar of the era fireball Roberts despite watching fireball race for years smokey was skeptical about the driver I didn't particularly like fireball as we raced along the rocks along and fireball moved from modified into stock cars it was obvious to me that he was very good he could have been a very good stock car drivers roses modified drivers not affect I felt like he was but as good as drivers it was and possibly better than most and so since we lived in the same town we eventually got hooked up and run together we'd probably to run together a lot more earlier if I hadn't liked him personally then I finally got to knowing carbo was a loner and unfortunately so am i and we did not get along the best but then from May we got along good but we were never a real close friends for example Paul ghost Ness and myself we were very close friend and still are the perp Thomas and I had a lot more easygoing relationship than I did with fireball and so that's what held it off for some time but once we got the racing together I understood in him I understood his ability and so forth and I think he understood mine and we finally got to where we were able to make a team I don't think fireball thought smokey had the best handle in the world on handling and a lot of that was you know there were some occasional discussions that got a little heated between smokey and fireball about you know handling the car I've got to turn the things nokia can't just go down the straightaway and but together they were they were a fabulous team Roberts raced the wheels off of Smokey's Pontiac winning the coveted Daytona 500 in 1962 Roberts took nine poles and three wins that season finishing eighth and the point standings by 1964 smokey dabbled in all forms of Motorsports he and Roberts had split up as a team but continued to be friends during that season a smoky sense that fireball had lost some of his desire we had to capture card Indianapolis and I was having trouble affair and fireball come to see me just for the Charlotte race and he would if the truth was known he would like to have not run the Charlotte race he told me that he had a contact with a beer company and that would be his last race he wouldn't even finish the season and then I discovered and I think he came for purposely to tell me that I was right and he needed to get away and I said well you would be no worse up here driving the capsule apart and asked him if he wanted to drive it because we had problems with what was going on there and he said no I'm going down and run that thing and I see it after it's over and then of course you know the rest of this story fireball was seriously injured in fiery crash at Charlotte with jr. Johnson and Ned Jarrett he never recovered oh he was grief stricken he really was very fond of fireball and he had felt that fireballs racing career was over he had a thing he called seek gap when the driver was driving he should be relaxed and once they started to lean forward and grip the wheel if there was that seat gap that meant to him that they were nervous and he watched that and that meant to him they were not as comfortable in the danger they were putting himself in through the 60s smokey continuously tested his ideas and stock cars and other forms of racing always challenging the boundaries of the machine and the rules of the sport one big laugh I got out of smoke it was running a Trans Am car up it why can't we in New York and this was 1969 and 1970 he came in he had him a Camaro and he pulled in started unloaded acknowledged I walked around if you know what smoking you've got trouble he said what do you mean up you never get truly inspected what do you talk about after them tell but when they went over there and started through inspecting when all these college boards you know they'd go around get all these college kids you know and they go major all these big cars up and they come on started measuring all over smokers car and he just went no orbit he couldn't think hey fine you know they totally loaded up he didn't get to him but smokey was a competitor I enjoyed winning I was proud of winning but that was yesterday to me every race that ended ten seconds after it was over it ended it's finished and to me what was important is what the hell are we gonna do next Sunday I was proud that I won this Sunday but I didn't see it as any special it didn't give me any special privilege in any way because in real life the fact that you won this Sunday don't do you one damn bit of good next Sunday you got to read win it again yourself in 1969 a frustrated smokey Unni walked away from stock car racing only to dabble in it for the Spidey's retirement in NASCAR racing smoking continued to develop new ideas for the automobile industry I think people are surprised to find out how funny he was how insightful he was and health forward thinking he was he was involved with energy conservation and alternate energy when it wasn't trendy or politically acceptable to do so he was worried about preserving the environment not just for his grandkids but for generations to come he was also very concerned about the safety aspect in NASCAR and well in racing at large not just NASCAR Smokey's genius was truly ahead of his era many of his innovations are still used in race cars and in your automobile today we've created so many different innovations in the sport and also was very innovative and creative in circumventing you lose the atomic he found the gray areas or the orbit white areas between the black letters that weren't covered and took advantage geography he didn't read the rulebook and say okay you know two and two is four he was going to add up to and to make it five I mean he would always went a little bit further than but that was the ingenuity there was nobody I think that in his time had the horsepower immunity you was a real innovator he uh he seemed to settle that and figured what he needed to do to get around the rules and and most all them tried to George ran Andrew listen and they have a lot of rules that you could give a land back but it took a lot of work and knowledge and what you were doing to to break that rule and still be legal ace one of those people when you say he did it all well he did it all I mean he's one of those people it when he walked through the garage area kids that didn't really know who he was to pay ask question and all of a sudden that guy say he was the best at one time and that's pretty much what smokey was here's a man who will do things that you never thought of and he will do things with a gust that you've never seen so and then he can talk about them in a call for way that is just uniquely his and just inject so much flavor into the sport and of course into his reputation smokey was just one of the absolute greatest people that ever happened to NASCAR what he crammed into his lifetime is beyond belief he didn't waste a minute he lived for today and he thought about tomorrow and planned but he was in the moment and he got more in his life than most of us ever can shoehorn in it's just unbelievable 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 on the level that it's agreed that I was a straight talker it was agreed that I wasn't a bullshitter and it was agreed that I gave a little as well as taken that I tried to put something back in the deal and that it agreed that I was serious about what I was doing I wasn't looking for ink wasn't looking for a big name for smokey but I did what I did because I believed in it because I was interested in because I enjoyed doing it and hopefully somebody else got something out of beside just the work that I did and that would suit me after years of challenging the rules and coming up with solutions smoke you may have retired but he continued to think of ideas to make cars safer and faster even after his death in February of 2001 many young crew chiefs continued to carry off Smokey's legacy as they searched for the winning age the men behind the wrenches I'm Jeff Hammond thanks for joining me [Music] [Music] you

Channel: HODIUSDUDE

Views: 240,912

Keywords: NASCAR, IndyCar, Auto Racing, Lee Pettty

Id: 8oFJo17EGr0

Length: 22min 44sec (1364 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 04 2020