Larry Woody, Senior Writer
Larry Woody is a native of Nashville, Tenn. He was the motor sports beat writer at the Nashville Tennessean from the early 1970s until 2008. He continues to live in Nashville.
Articles by Larry Woody
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
When Adam Petty, an effervescent teenager with the trademark Petty-sunbeam smile, died in a crash at New Hampshire Speedway in 2000 his parents decided to build a lasting monument.
Kyle and Pattie Petty, on a plot of North Carolina land donated by Adam’s famous grandfather Richard, built Victory Junction Camp, an [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
I became acquainted with Jeremy Mayfield when he moved from Owensboro, Ky., to Nashville as a teenager, following the career path of his hometown hero Darrell Waltrip.
Mayfield, like Waltrip, began racing at historical old Fairgrounds Speedway while working at Sadler Racing. He swept floors, did body work, handled odd jobs around [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
I met Kevin Grubb only a couple of times but I was impressed by what a nice guy he seemed to be.
He was always open and friendly, smiling and outgoing even as the first dark clouds began to rumble over his racing career.
In 2004 Grubb was suspended by NASCAR for [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
As you drive into Darlington, having wound your way through miles of fertile cotton fields and pine forests, up ahead you’ll see a water tower on the horizon. It boasts a simple banner:
NASCAR.
‘Nuff said.
Darlington, S.C., is NASCAR country. Has been since 1950 and continues to be today, an old-fashioned track [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Nashville – It hasn’t won yet, but it’s getting closer.
Nashville-based Baker Curb Racing, with veteran Jason Keller at the wheel, has put together back-to-back top-10 finishes to climb to 7th in the NASCAR Nationwide Series ratings – the highest in the team’s history at this juncture of the season.
“We’re showing [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
It is race fans’ guilty little secret: We love wrecks.
We crave crashes, we delight in demolitions, we’re wowed by wipeouts. We can’t get enough of that tumbling stuff.
I’ve been covering NASCAR for 40-some odd years (some odder than others) and I continue to be puzzled by why so many race [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
He’s up. He’s down. He’s up. He’s down.
Mark Martin’s Comeback Season reads like the diary of an elevator operator in the Empire State Building.
One minute he’s enjoying a bright and shining view from the penthouse, the next minute he plunges down into the dark parking garage where the rats squeak [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Tom Wolfe once penned a famous Esquire article about moonshiner/racer Junior Johnson titled “The Last American Hero.”
Nothing against Junior, understand – I’ve always admired his gritty individualism – but I think the sobriquet might better be applied to one of Johnson’s fellow NASCAR competitors, Bud Moore.
Moore, crusty, craggy-faced and cantankerous [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Talladega Superspeedway, with its skyscraper banking, oxygen-sucking speeds and 200-mph traffic jams, has always been a beast of a different breed.
It’s the one track that keeps drivers awake the night before a race.
At 2.66 miles Talladega the biggest, baddest slab of asphalt in NASCAR. Predictably, after last Sunday’s wild crash-o-rama, [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
I was sitting at my desk working on a racing story awhile ago when I got a call that David Poole had just suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 50 years old.
Ironically the story I was writing was in response to David’s column about Sunday’s crash-fest at Talladega. He [...]