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
Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Fox Sports Chairman David Hall believes if races were shortened it would solve the problem of waning NASCAR fan interest.
I’m not so sure.
If the racing is close and exciting, fans will stick with it no matter how long it takes to complete the race.
If the racing is boring, fans’ attention will [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Nashville’s Fairgrounds Speedway, a 53-year-old track where many of NASCAR’s giants competed over the decades, has avoided the wrecking ball – at least temporarily.
Metro Council on Tuesday voted to hold off on demolishing the track as part of a “redevelopment” of the 114-acre city-owned property.
The vote was a major setback [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
NASCAR deserves credit for its reported change that will limit drivers to one championship a season. It is intended to provide some relief for its second-tier Nationwide Series, in which
Nationwide-only teams are gasping for air.
Unfortunately it probably won’t help.
The new rule will prevent big-league Cup drivers from making off with [...]
Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
A few years ago I interviewed Michael Waltrip for a magazine story about his quick wit and sense of humor.
I asked the Clown Prince of NASCAR where he acquired his funny bone.
“From my mom,” Michael said. “She was the one in our family who always had a joke or a funny [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
He was racing’s un-sung hero, reeking of gas fumes and laboring in obscurity, and now he’s no more.
We’re talking, of course, about the catch-can man, for decades an integral part of every NASCAR pit crew. Starting this season he goes the way of the passenger pigeon and the do-do bird.
If [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Junior Johnson is generally credited with the classic quip: “Know how to make $1 million in racing? Start with $2 million.”
A lot of folks who stumbled into the sport with illusions of grandeur over the years would have been wise to have heeded Junior’s advice. More men have gone bust trying [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
While stranded in Upstate New York recently, watching the snow pile up six feet outside my motel window as the temperature hovered at zero, I had time to ponder the consequences of Global Warming.
I’m glad NASCAR is doing its part to save the polar bears and shaft the oil sheiks [...]
Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
About this time every year, sports writers gaze into their crystal punch bowls and predict what the New Year holds.
Here’s what I see swirling around in the ice and Jack Daniel’s:
– Jimmie Johnson, bored with the incessant winning and his life of wealth and luxury, decides to forsake the worldly pleasures [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
One of the more interesting but largely overlooked stories of the recently completed season brought back a flash from the past.
NASCAR busted driver Michael McDowell and his crew chief after discovering “weight pellets” hidden in their car’s frame during the October Talladega race. That’s one of the oldest tricks in [...]
By Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
On Jan. 9 Mark Martin will blow out 52 candles on his birthday cake and – once he catches his breath – get ready to go racing.
It will continue a ritual that began decades ago when a teen-aged Martin raced against “green-toothed pulpwood-haulers” on dirt tracks in the boondocks of [...]