Deb Williams, Senior Writer
An award winning motorsports journalist, Deb Williams has covered auto racing for more than 30 years. She began her career covering weekly short-track races in Asheville, N.C., while a student at East Tennessee State University and continued after becoming the sports editor at the newspaper in Waynesville, N.C. Upon joining United Press International in Raleigh, N.C., as a general assignment reporter, she began covering NASCAR's top two series and continued to do so after being named UPI's Charlotte, N.C., bureau manager. After leaving UPI, she spent 18 years with the publication NASCAR Winston Cup Scene, serving as its editor for 10 years. Her numerous honors include the Henry T. McLemore Award, the Russ Catlin Award and the George Cunningham National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year award. She has received NMPA awards for columns, news, features and magazine stories. She has written three books. Her most recent, “The Evolution of NASCAR, A Historical Collection, was released in November 2010. Williams has taught the Evolution of Southern Motorsports at Appalachian State University, and has been interviewed for historical motorsports shows that have aired on ESPN and SPEED. She resides in Concord, N.C.
Articles by Deb Williams
By Deb Williams | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
CONCORD, N.C. – A cup of coffee in one hand and a cigarette in another. Those were legendary driver Dick Trickle’s staples, but it was his sense of humor and willingness to help others that will always endear him to those who knew him.
Perhaps that’s the reason it came [...]
Deb Williams | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
CONCORD, N.C. – Spencer Massey successfully defended his Top Fuel title in Sunday’s Dollar General NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway, while Matt Hagan snapped a Funny Car winless streak of more than a year to give Don Schumacher Racing a sweep of the NHRA’s top two categories.
It was the [...]
CONCORD, N.C. – Always expect the unexpected in racing, especially when it comes to the Dollar General NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway where Funny Car rookie Chad Head earned his first-ever No. 1 qualifying position Saturday.
With an ET of 4.014 seconds – 315.19 mph – one could say Head even surprised himself.
“I’m just lucky [...]
By Deb Williams | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
CONCORD, N.C. – Spectators seated in zMAX Dragway’s East Grandstand escaped serious injury Saturday when the carbon fiber body from Robert Hight’s Funny Car hit a portion of the seating area following an engine explosion during the Dollar General NHRA Four-Wide Nationals final qualifying round.
NHRA officials said two people were [...]
By Deb Williams | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
CONCORD, N.C. – Rain washed out Friday afternoon qualifying in the Dollar General NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway shortly after Pro Stock began its first round and Pro Stock Motorcycle had completed its inaugural session.
Qualifying for the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series resumes Saturday at 12:15 p.m. as [...]
By Deb Williams | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Entering the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup season the motorsports community pointed to the demanding Martinsville Speedway as possibly Danica Patrick’s biggest challenge in her rookie year.
The flat, half-mile, paper-clipped short track had been the nightmare for many drivers, both rookies and veterans, throughout its storied history. [...]
By Deb Williams | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Frank Scott, son of the late NASCAR driver Wendell Scott, said Saturday there were two words his siblings were never permitted to use – “can’t” and “never.”
Scott’s remarks came in the Martinsville Speedway media center just a day after his hometown of Danville, Va., honored his [...]
By DEB WILLIAMS | SENIOR WRITER
RacinToday.com
MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Johnny Sauter made it 2-for-2 on the 2013 season Saturday with a victory in Martinsville Speedway’s Kroger 250, a race where tire management was critical, but it was young Jeb Burton who walked away with everything except the grandfather clock.
Burton, who started on the pole [...]
By Deb Williams | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Twenty years ago Tony Gibson was a fabricator and the gasman for Alan Kulwicki’s 1992 NASCAR Cup championship team. Danica Patrick was 10 years old.
Neither person knew the other existed and until last fall, it never seemed probable their career paths would cross. Yet, last October Stewart-Haas Racing decided Gibson [...]
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Less than an hour after being inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame Friday night, an emotional Rusty Wallace admitted the honor made him feel different.
“I feel so happy. I feel like my career finally has a period on the end of it,” the 1989 NASCAR champion said in a very humble [...]