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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > July > 04 > Entry
The Greatest NASCAR Souvenir?… (and a cool Richard Petty video)
It was 25 years ago today that I got one of my most memorable sports souvenirs ever.
Or, maybe not.
As I used to do every year on the Fourth of July, I was covering the Firecracker 400 stock car race at Daytona International Speedway. And the 1984 race turned out to be one of NASCAR’s most celebrated moments ever.
Richard Petty won the 200th and final race of his long, legendary career that day as President Ronald Reagan watched from one of the speedway’s overhead suites.
Reagan had given the command to start the race while he was still airborne in Air Force One. And when his plane finally did touch down at the Daytona airport right next to the track, a classic photo was made of it landing in the background while Petty’s No. 43 Pontiac made its way around the track.
With three laps to go, I remember Doug Heveron lost control of his car just past the tri-oval. His Chevrolet went airborne, rolled and landed upright again. He wasn’t hurt.
Meanwhile Petty and Cale Yarborough were slamming their cars together at full throttle as they raced back to the start/finish line after the yellow flag was waved.
Petty beat him to the line by six inches and then cruised the final two caution laps on fumes. He actually ran out of gas before the checkered flag but coasted across the line.
“We all shook hands and then the President and I talked,” Petty would say later. “I think it blowed his mind that Cale and I were really running into each other at 200 m.p.h..”
I was outside his pits as the race ended and in the jubilation that followed, my fellow sportswriter and good friend, the late Shelby Strother joined me and we edged our way in with Petty’s crew and helped push the out-of-fuel race car into Victory Lane.
When Petty headed across the speedway to meet Reagan, we followed. Another sports writer — Norm Froscher from Gainesville — was somewhere up ahead of us. As we worked our way through the phalanx of security, we eventually were able to follow Petty — and a few yards behind him, Norm — up the the long flight of outer stairs to the press box.
Petty was smoking one of his trademark thin cigars as he started up the steps. Supposedly Norm — also known for his cigars — was puffing away, too.
Petty dropped his cigar on one of the top steps before going through the door to the press box and suites. Norm probably did, too.
A couple of minutes later when I got to that point on the stairs I saw the ground-out but still-smoldering stogie. I picked it up, tamped it out and carefully wrapped it in a napkin.
Today I still have that now-crumbled cigar in a sealed plastic bag.
Sportswriters aren’t supposed to get autographs and I never, ever do. Well, except for that day. Petty signed my media credential.
I have it with the cigar.
Of course the way Shelby used to delight in telling the story, I had really picked up Norm Froscher’s cigar.
I’m not sure.
But even if it is Norm’s, it’s made for a good tale all these years and, after all, that’s all a storyteller is ever looking for.
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