The Saga of the Seven
He’s not yet into his fifth season of
big-league racing. Nonetheless, Casey Atwood has the promise of greatness and
has gotten one of the most historic rides in the sport. He also got a sponsor
that may not rub NASCAR quite right – Sirius Satellite Radio, a rival to the XM
Satellite Radio system that carries NASCAR’s official radio network, which of
course carries MRN Radio, Performance Racing Network, and Indy Racing Radio
Network coverage of the Brickyard 400. But then such situations are common –
remember the battle of the tobaccos in Winston and Skoal, the battle of the soft
drinks in Gatorade and Mountain Dew, and so on?
But it is the ride itself that continues
to offer interest. Jim Smith’s Ultra Motorsports team has – pun warning – become
something of a Ray Evernham Motorsports satellite. The equipment comes from
Evernham’s shop and Atwood supposedly will drive the car until Bill Elliott
decides to retire – when that might happen of course nobody knows.
The color scheme is a trip into recent
nostalgia, featuring a bluish scheme reminiscent of when Philips Electronics was
primary backer of the team with Geoff Bodine and Michael Waltrip as its drivers.
Such is the start of yet another chapter
in this team’s history. The team is known as The Seven, and longtime fans
remember its legacy quite well.
Bill Terry was a businessman from
Greenville, SC, and the owner of the #32 Ford that was entered in Richmond’s
Capital City 400 in September 1985. The car had Hardees backing, one of two such
sponsorships by the restaurant chain – the other being the famed Cale
Yarborough/Ranier Racing tandem. The driver crashed the car in qualifying, and
the crew "came pretty close to loading it up and going home. To this day
(1992) I don’t know what would have happened if they’d done that. But they
decided to stay and fix it," and the driver ran the 400 and finished 19th.
The driver was Alan Dennis Kulwicki, an
ASA campaigner running in Winston Cup as part of his sponsorship agreement with
the Hardees chain in ASA. The Bill Terry Ford next ran the Delaware 500 at Dover
and finished 21st. Next up, Charlotte’s National 500, Kulwicki finished 13th,
and at the American 500 at Rockingham, Kulwicki broke his transmission and
finished 27th.
Kulwicki had raced in ASA and other short
tracks around the Wisconsin area from which he came, and as he told writer Peter
Golenbock in 1992, "I said to myself, ‘Now is the time to make this
move.’" But Alan’s career was almost shot before it started; a week before
he was slated to leave for Charlotte his trailer caught fire and was destroyed.
With Bill Terry’s car numbered 35,
Kulwicki expected to run at least a third of the 1986 season. "When I got
down there, I learned that ‘as far as we can’ meant one race." Quincy’s
Steak House backed the car for one race, and that one race was slated to be
Daytona. But Kulwicki finished 18th in the 1986 125 at Daytona and thus missed
the 500. "We still owed Quincy’s a race," he wrote in 1992, so they
entered Richmond and timed sixth, but after that qualifying was rained out, and
with Bill Terry’s entry arriving late the car was not eligible for the field set
by owner points and entry arrivals. STILL owing their sponsor their one race,
the team ran the Carolina 500 at Rockingham and finished 15th. Kulwicki then
purchased the team – "(Bill Terry) wanted to do it as a hobby (but racing)
was going to be my career." Kulwicki leased part of a shop, acquired
$200,000 in Quincy’s sponsorship for twenty races, and raced with two employees
and also volunteer help.
He followed Rockingham by finishing 14th
at the Atlanta 500, posted another 15th at Bristol, and finished 11th at the
Rebel 500 at Darlington. His first top ten came in rather spectacular fashion –
fourth place at Martinsville’s Virginia 500. The next top ten came at the
Firecracker at Daytona, tenth, and on the lead lap. A split oil line knocked him
out at the Summer 500 at Pocono and he was felled by a burned clutch at
Talladega; he then jumped into Rodney Combs’ Chevrolet but was knocked out in
the first turn within 20 laps of the finish. This was followed by 14th at
Michigan, tenth at Bristol, 12th at the Southern 500 at Darlington, 15th at
Richmond, and seventh at the Delaware 500 at Dover. When it was over Alan had
finished 21st in points and was Rookie Of The Year.
Kulwicki had a degree in engineering, and
it gave him an insight into the nuts and bolts of racecars not particularly seen
before. For 1987 he signed up a high-profile sponsor in Zerex Antifreeze and
changed the car’s number to 7; every penny he made went into the race team; a
new shop was built and a few more employees were hired. After 15th at the
Daytona 500 Kulwicki won the pole at Richmond, led 65 laps, and came home sixth.
He blew up at Atlanta and Harry Gant socked the wall in Kulwicki’s oil. Alan
then was caught in a wreck at Darlington but limped home 14th. Then came fourth
at North Wilkesboro and fifth at Bristol.
But the sophomore slump hit, and lasted
race after race, until the Summer 500 at Pocono. Tim Richmond won what would be
his final pole and Kulwicki timed second. He ran with the leaders all day and
passed Dale Earnhardt on Lap 198. Earnhardt retook the lead but on the final lap
Kulwicki nosed ahead on the Long Pond Straight, but as he passed Earnhardt got
into him, sent him bobbling just enough to lose the lead, and Kulwicki had to
settle for second. "I’ll have to learn how it’s done to win a race,"
Kulwicki said, biting his tongue afterward.
>From there, though, the strong
finishes continued – sixth at Watkins Glen, Michigan, and Martinsville, seventh
at North Wilkesboro, and sixth at Atlanta.
Kulwicki was close to Rusty Wallace, who
by that time had become a regular winner in Winston Cup, and at Rusty’s
recommendation Kulwicki hired Paul Andrews, who’d worked with Rusty when they
ran ASA, as his crew chief. "Alan flew me into Charlotte for an
interview," Andrews wrote in 1998. "I knew what Alan was about,
because I had called Rusty and we talked about him." For the 1988 season
the team had only four cars, six employees, and volunteer help, at least some of
whom Kulwicki never really trusted. Kulwicki ran a tight ship and it produced
competitive efforts. In 1988 the Zerex Ford ran well much of the season, and at
Phoenix Ricky Rudd’s blown engine sent Kulwicki to victory. As celebration,
Kulwicki ran a clockwise victory lap, something never seen before; Dick Beaty of
NASCAR politely recommended they not repeat the quirky lap.
1989 began on a strong note as Kulwicki
earned enough top fives and tens to lead the points, but at the World 600 he won
the pole, led the most laps, but blew up chasing down Darrell Waltrip. From
there he fell out of the top ten in points and failed to win that season. For
1990 Zerex increased its sponsorship to $2.5 million and Kulwicki had a modern
shop built. But $2.5 million was almost more than Zerex could spend anywhere,
and another up-and-down year ensued, with Kulwicki acing his second career win
in October at Rockingham. With Zerex unable to stay, Kulwicki thought he had
lined up Maxwell House as sponsor, but Junior Johnson offered Alan $1 million to
drive for him. Kulwicki, however, felt no confidence in being a hired gun, so he
turned down Johnson’s offer, then found Junior had taken Maxwell House
sponsorship out from under him.
Despite that, Kulwicki kept running,
sporting the colors of the Army at Daytona in an RJR promotion of America’s
armed forces in the Gulf War, and at the Atlanta 500 Kulwicki got a one-race
deal from Hooters restaurants. The one-race deal became a season deal, but at
less than a million dollars wasn’t much; Kulwicki nonetheless kept going and won
at Bristol in August. "And a funny thing happened," Peter Golenbock
wrote in 1992 – namely that Hooters’ connection with racing enabled it to sell
more restaurants, this aside from drawing more customers into its existing
franchises.
Kulwicki, Paul Andrews, chief engine man
Ron Vicarro, and the crew were ready for 1992, and Andrews "made a
statement, ‘We’re going to have an excellent year in ’92. We’re going to run in
the top five in points in ’92.’" And they won the championship. Feeling
liberated, the team entered 1993 with confidence and posted two top fives and a
top ten in the first five races. Kulwicki was also getting business advice from
Felix Sabates, and a kinship had developed between Kulwicki and Kyle Petty.
But flying to Bristol in a
Hooters-supplied aircraft, Kulwicki was killed when the plane crashed in
Blountville, TN. Suddenly the team had lost its genesis, its lifeblood. Paul
Andrews now had decisions to make. "It was a tough situation to get
through, and Felix Sabates helped us get through it…..Felix Sabates, Gerry
Kulwicki (Alan’s dad), and I talked with Bob Brooks about who would replace Alan
in the car." The team wanted Jimmy Hensley, but Brooks, who’d lost his son
Mark in the plane crash, wanted Loy Allen Jr., an ARCA driver – "If you do
not put (Allen) in the car, you will not have a sponsor," Brooks told the
team. "Bob wanted Loy Allen to be the driver, and the other thing he
insisted upon was that Loy’s father buy the team," Paul Andrews wrote.
"That was not the way we wanted it."
Hensley wound up in the car with occasional
backing from Purolator, and there was also the task of selling the team. "A
lot of other people (wanted to buy the team) so they could liquidate it and make
money," Paul Andrews wrote. "But that’s not the way Gerry Kulwicki
wanted to sell it." Nor did Sabates, who became a partial owner of the team
pending a sale. "Geoff Bodine convinced Gerry that he would be the right
one to buy it," and the announcement was made before the May Sears Point
race. By September Bodine, who’d been driving for Bud Moore that season, was let
go from Moore’s team and jumped into the #7. "It made Gerry and everyone
else happy," Andrews wrote, "and it was a good deal for
everyone."
But there was still the need for a sponsor
for 1994, and in stepped Bob Newton of Hoosier Race Tire. Wanting to reenter
NASCAR’s big league divisions after a 1988-9 sojourn, Newton contacted Bodine
and helped the #7 team acquire Exide Batteries as sponsor. The team now became
the works outfit for Hoosier Tire. The 1994 season began amid huge controversy
over Hoosier Tires following three horrendous single-car crashes – Neil Bonnett
and Rodney Orr were killed, Andy Farr flipped head-first into the fourth turn
wall and pushed the impact section back over a foot. After a dismal showing in
the 125s Hoosier withdrew its tires from Daytona. After this fiasco Hoosier came
back at Rockingham and at Atlanta made a bid for the win with Jeff Burton and
Darrell Waltrip. At Bristol Bodine went to the front and appeared a sure winner
until an ill-timed yellow during green-flag stops trapped him a lap down. Second
at Sears Point then preceded victory in one of the wildest Winstons ever, and in
the ensuing 600 Bodine showed strength all day.
But wins in point races hadn’t come yet.
The team tested more than most due to its deal with Hoosier, and this kept
making it stronger and stronger. It was not until the Summer 500 at Pocono that
Bodine aced the victory. Despite growing chaos in his personal life – being seen
palling around with Tanya Tucker caused his wife Kathy to leave him; in the
Brickyard a scuffle with Brett led to a crash and a rift that took years to heal
– Bodine continued to run stout, winning Michigan and then lapping the field at
North Wilkesboro. But a growing number of engine failures was keeping him out of
the points chase, and at the end of the year a hard crash came at Atlanta –
followed by even worse news as Hoosier withdrew from Winston Cup. This deprived
the team of the engineering help it needed to beat the multi-cars, and dismal
results ensued in 1995. Exide Batteries left and QVC came on board for 1996, and
at Watkins Glen Bodine pulled out a surprise win, what would be his last.
By 1997 Paul Andrews was gone from the #7
and a new engine builder came in – drag racer Bob Glidden. It proved a costly
affair as engines failed race after race, and during the year Bodine sold the
team to businessman Jim Mattei; after the sale, he won poles at Charlotte and
Atlanta and managed three top fives and seven other top tens during the year.
The team also acquired a new sponsor in Philips Electronics.
But 1998 was not to be kind to Bodine, and
for 1999 a new driver was named in Michael Waltrip, and a major change came –
the #7 would run Chevrolets with engines provided by SABCO, in effect becoming
the third SABCO Chevrolet after the #46 team was closed down. 1999 began on a
high note for the Mattei Motorsports #7, as Michael Waltrip emerged from a
ferocious multi-car showdown in the event’s final dozen laps to finish fifth. He
was thus eligible for Winston’s revamped Big Five program with the coming Las
Vegas 400. At Vegas Michael timed second, but was never a factor in the race.
Thus began a frustrating season; only at Talladega did Michael show serious
muscle – in April he led a large portion of the Diehard 500 and made some nervy
four-wide passes but got swamped at the end and finished mid-field, while in
October he rocketed to the lead, fought it out all day, and was leading when the
engine smoked out with some 35 to go.
For 2000 the team acquired Nations Rent
sponsorship but by September Mattei wanted out and sold the outfit to Craftsman
Truck team owner Jim Smith. Ultra Motorsports was one of the top Ford teams in
the Truck Series and the Winston Cup car duly became a Ford with Mike Wallace,
fresh from victories in Smith’s #2 Ford Truck, as the new driver. A stellar
effort at the Daytona 500, however, soon gave way to weeks of frustration and
infighting – by the Pocono 500 Ted Musgrave was in the car and at Sears Point
Robby Gordon took the car to a victory bid ruined by Kevin Harvick, who was
racing to unlap himself and finally did so. Wallace returned to the #7 after
this but was gone for good by autumn, replaced by Kevin Lepage.
Now the #7 changes makes and drivers
again, and as in 1999 becomes a satellite effort of another team, this time
Evernham Motorsports. Who would have foreseen the journey the team that Alan Kulwicki
built has taken?