GARLAND, Texas -- Greetings, race fans! It’s been more than four years since I wrote about the sport I loved and publicized for more than 17 years as Director of Public Relations for the World of Outlaws, but I’m back. The fine people at WhoWon.com are giving me the opportunity again, and I couldn’t be more thankful.

WhoWon.com, The Internet Source for Motorsports News and Information, is a division of RaceFan, Inc. The Binghamton, N.Y., company celebrated its 10-year anniversary this year. I’ll be writing columns and articles as well as editing the website.

Many people are unaware of this, but I had never even seen a sprint car when I noticed “World of Outlaws” in the Sports Promotions section of the Dallas Yellow Pages in January of 1987. Maybe it was just a case of being at the right place at the right time – I prefer to think of it as divine intervention – after Gary Guehler left the series a month or so earlier and the series needed a publicist. I still don’t know if (the late) Ted Johnson was a genius or desperate when he said, “You’ve covered a lot of sports, so I figure you can do a good job for us.” I thanked him for the opportunity to publicize the greatest auto racers in the world then and – with my hard work – every day I worked for the man who took sprint car racing to the big time.

Ted Johnson (left) with 1995 World of Outlaws champion and current NASCAR Nextel Cup racer Dave Blaney (Photo by Joe Orth)

“Uncle Ted” put me on a crash course in sprint car racing for several weeks before sending me to my first race: the Midwinter Winged Nationals at legendary Ascot Park. That weekend, I learned plenty from Ascot Park’s Executive Vice President – the late Ben Foote – former World of Outlaws Director of Competition Beryl Christian and ex-World of Outlaws Videographer Greg Stephens.

Dave Swindell, who has worked at many racetracks on the West Coast, was the first sprint car driver I met. Early in our conversation, Dave said – without any disrespect to Jeff or Sammy – “I’m not related to those other Swindells” before I could make the obvious rookie mistake of asking him about his ancestry.

Several minutes later, I met Brad Doty, and we became instant friends. No matter how long I live, thinking of Brad will send me on a roller-coaster of emotions. Doty, the World of Outlaws’ Rookie of the Year in 1982, swept the feature races at the Midwinter Winged Nationals. During the next 17 months, I had the privilege of getting to know him as an outstanding racer and, even more as a special human being. It was also my pleasure to watch Brad record a couple of top-10 finishes at Colorado National Speedway in early July of 1988. Two weeks later, a crash during the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway ended his racing career.

Ralph Sheheen (left) and Brad Doty at Devil’s Bowl Speedway (Photo by Cyndi Craft)

But, like the old saying goes, when one door closes another one opens. Brad returned to sprint car racing as a color commentator on TNN: The Nashville Network when the World of Outlaws hit the airwaves in 1995. I thoroughly enjoyed feeding little-known facts and statistics to Brad and play-by-play announcer Ralph Sheheen during the live telecasts.

Ralph, who always had a flair for the dramatic, was particularly impressive during the 1997 Knoxville Nationals. A split-second after he said, “You know you’re in a special place when the tallest building in town is the press box at the local race track,” torrential thunderstorms hit and a tornado was spotted near Knoxville Raceway. Ralph and I immediately looked at each other and said to Brad, “We have to get you to safety.” So we grabbed a couple of television cameramen and each of us held a corner of Brad’s wheelchair as we carried him down 20 flights of stairs and into the press room.

Eleven months later – 10 years to the day following his fateful crash at Eldora – Brad fulfilled his dream of circling Eldora Speedway again when he paced the Kings Royal. With his family, hundreds of fans in the stands and thousands watching live on television – all with their eyes full of tears – Doty took hot laps around the high-banked, ½-mile oval in a #18 Coors Light sprinter – complete with a hand throttle and hand brakes – re-created by Larry Wood.

“That was absolutely awesome,” Doty said. “What a great feeling.”

Brad Doty with the #18 Coors Light Gambler he drove as the pace car in the 1998 King’s Royal (Photo by Fred Fehlhaber)

Brad's nine-year-old daughter, Brittani, saw her father drive a sprint car for the first time that night. His other daughter, Brandy, and son, Braden, stood with his wife, Laurie, as Brad circled the track where his career ended 10 years before.

“It's been a long, drawn-out deal,” an emotional Laurie said. "This is just Brad's way of saying farewell to this part of the sport.”

I know what it means to say farewell to the sport, too, and – like Brad – I appreciate the opportunity WhoWon.com has given me to return to sprint car racing in a different capacity.

Few people know I attended only about 10% of the more than 1700 races about which I wrote, but it’s true. Mr. Johnson reasoned that I could do more for the series by working in the office than traveling more than 50,000 miles every year. His plan allowed me to answer media, sponsor and fan requests, write feature stories and news releases, produce press kits for each event, and publish a bi-monthly newsletter and the souvenir yearbook, in addition to writing about every race the series ran. Of course, I couldn’t have written those reports without the help of others. Christian and succeeding World of Outlaws Directors of Competition Gary Watson, Bobby Watson, Rick Ferkel and the late Bob Jackson were my eyes. They provided the notes, quotes and results I used to produce the post-race press releases until announcer extraordinaire Johnny Gibson assumed those duties in the late 1990s. I always considered it a compliment when people told me they felt like they had attended the races after reading my press releases.

During late 1980s and early 1990s, the Directors of Competition called at all hours of the day and night with the information I used to write the race stories. Many times, those phone calls lasted more than two hours as I wrote everything they relayed onto legal pads. After formulating the reports and results, tele-copying the information to the major racing publications took hours. I always had the utmost respect for Karl Kinser, whose teams won 17 World of Outlaws championships, but I must disagree with his claim that the series could have been run out of the back of a pickup truck.

I welcomed advances in technology with open arms, but that progress brought more demands from the media and fans. Robin Hartford, the associate editor of Open Wheel magazine, told me I was the first major auto racing series Director of Public Relations to publish press releases electronically. CompuServe’s Racing Information Systems forum provided that opportunity. I was also fortunate to be introduced to the World Wide Web during its infancy, and the people at goracing.com volunteered to provide free web service to “the greatest show on dirt.” It was also a pleasure to work closely with the fine people at RacingOne.com who still manage http://www.racingone.com/series.aspx?seriesID=6&subID=6.

I gained a whole new perspective – and respect – for sprint car racers when Charles “Smiley” Sitton gave me the opportunity to attend his Outlaw Driving School in 1996. Sitton, the first to drive a top-fuel racecar 200 M.P.H., owned the car Norman Martin drove to victory in the World of Outlaws’ first preliminary feature race in March of 1978. Tom Motter, who co-owned the #71M EcoWater Systems Maxim with his brother Dan, and EcoWater marketing representative Jerry Johnson joined four other “wanna-be” racers and me at Boyd Raceway for my first taste of what driving a sprint car is all about. I also attended the driving school with several members of the sprint car media a few years later at its present location: 85 Speedway in Ennis, TX. I encourage every sprint car racing fan to attend the Outlaw Driving School. It’s awesome!

My position with the World of Outlaws also allowed me to meet some of the greatest drivers in auto racing history, including A.J. Foyt, Johnny Rutherford, Richard Petty, Bill Elliott and Jeff Gordon. Petty, Andy Hillenburg’s guest at the 1994 Knoxville Nationals, described sprint car drivers as “crazy” many times. When speaking with NASCAR fans, I’m quick to mention that when Gordon raced with the World of Outlaws in the late 1980s he never won a feature race.

The World of Outlaws raced on 14,000 cubic yards of dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2000 and 2001 (Photo by Todd Battin)

Another fact I like to point out to NASCAR fans is that the 138.442-M.P.H. lap Sammy Swindell ran around Bristol Motor Speedway in 2000 when the World of Outlaws covered the high-banked, .533-mile oval with dirt, is 10 M.P.H. faster than the NASCAR Nextel Cup qualifying record at the home of the Food City 500 and Sharpie 500.

Of course, nobody can write – or even think – about the World of Outlaws without mentioning Steve Kinser. Some drivers say they compete simply for the chance to beat “The King of the Outlaws,” but they rarely do. I could feel my fingers typing K-I-N-S-E-R in my sleep in 1987 – my first year with the series. Steve won 46 of the 69 main events … that’s two out of every three! In all, “The King” won more than 500 main events and 20 series championships in 26 full seasons with the World of Outlaws.

Everybody in sprint car racing looks up to “The King” (Photo by Mike Spitzer)

Steve Kinser celebrates his 1994 Knoxville Nationals championship with his family. That’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series racer Kraig Kinser on the right. (Photo by Randy Jones)

Danny “The Dude” Lasoski celebrates his International Race of Champions victory at Texas Motor Speedway (Photo courtesy of Texas Motor Speedway)

Jeff Swindell performs his signature wing dance at The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Photo by Mark Funderburk)

Stacy Johnson’s World of Outlaws Awards Banquets were as stylish and immaculate as any in auto racing (Photo by Cyndi Craft)

Three of the four members of the Schatz team watch a Knoxville Nationals heat race from atop their team’s trailer (Photo by Cyndi Craft)

“Family man” Casey Luna hugs Bobby Davis, Jr., at the 1988 Knoxville Nationals (Photo by Jim Butler)

Nothing in auto racing is more beautiful or exhilarating than sprint car racers honoring their fans by circling the track in the “Four Abreast” formation. (Photo by Dennis Krieger)