Inside Bobby Allison's 90s NASCAR Race Shop: Jimmy Fennig Revisits History

This building used to be Bobby Allison Motorsports. And we're going to meet Jimmy and Jeffrey Fenning here. Find out what it used to be like back in the day when it was built. I can see right now that circle up there used to be where the Bobby Allison BA logo was. Hey, how you doing? Nice to meet you. Been looking forward to doing this for a while. Yeah. Jimmy was what make made Mark Martin a million there. Have no good. I had a bunch of good ones. When was the last time you were in here? I was telling the easy guys I've been with uh Jack for I think 29 years so and this was the last place I worked so doing the math you know I don't know and thing really hasn't changed much looking at it we used to have a wall over there you know different stuff I mean all the rooms are the same that used to be the gear room over there the wall was right after the first ridge right there me and Keith Almond laid this place out to get built. Nathan Sims built it. The same guy that built Dale Nard's. Keith was responsible a lot of this stuff too. He's very sharp person. Is that the same lift that was in here back then? I believe so. And then we have one outside too cuz we had one outside to wash the cars and we put drains in. So when the car come back from the racetrack, we could pressure wash it. It would drain and everything was combined. then bring it in here, debrief it, take it apart. Kind of made this a rotating system where we had a wall I would say back over here and then from there you could go back to the body shop once the car was built and then the body shop come back here and go out together. So it was a big circle we kind of planned it out to do be efficient, try to be more efficient. When did So you came down here first before Yes. this right. And he stayed in Wisconsin for a little bit, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then he come back down. Then he come down here. I was with Bobby over at Stabola Brothers. Um fact I was with Bobby at Dyard one year, too. Yeah. The all all the race cars we hung the bodies over here. There's a plate couple plates here. We'd hang two cars at a time. get done, put them through that through that door over there and uh to the body shop that we that was a like a machine shop for the mechanics, you know, or building the cars if we needed something milled or drill press or punches, you know, hole punches, whatever. What that's where we kept everything right there in that little room there. I don't remember what was in that room, but that hole right there used to be a sheet metal rolling cart that we slid all our sheet metal in for building the cars. Cuz you'd get a 4x8 piece of sheet metal and that's how you build your cars back to him. We buy the chassis from Ronnie Hopkins or Mike Laughlin and uh bring them in here and put them together and then roll them over here, put them on the plate, you know, put suspension on here, put them then bring them over here and then the body shop and then backing the wire and everything else. So, was he working in the body shop? No, he was in the he was fabricating then. Yeah, I was a fabricator. They wouldn't let me in there. When did you start working here? 198. Well, I came down here in 1989, October 19. I missed Hugo by couple days. Wow. I mean, I was hearing about Hugo on the way here and I'm think a motorcycle gang come through here and tore this place up. I didn't, you know, I wasn't listening, but I heard it destroyed this area and I'm thinking, wow, what am I getting into? Yeah. And the closer I got here, the more I seen trees and and big post that the truck stops and everything bent over and I said, "What happened here?" And then to find out Huga was a storm. Yeah. And it was a big one, but that was October 89. So, were you both here when the team started? He he was here or was he here already? Yeah, I was down here. I come down the fall of 86. I was down here with Bobby, but that was over at Stavola Brothers. Then I was up that we were at Stav Brothers. The Bobby got hurt in 88. And then I think we finished 88 at Seo Brothers. Then we started building up a team for Bobby, you know. Uh we were by Norman Agrees, rented a shop out by Norman Agrees where we started putting all the cars together. Oh, okay. Building them up there first, you know, before this place was built. And he went that was his office door. Yeah, the office is the only thing the same really. Oh, that definitely looks like I was hoping there would be paneling in here. Yeah, it is. I mean, his race cars are built out there. They use the 50 by 100 to build a their new team in. Huh. The 12 car uh Ray Bestus, I think it was. I was wondering about that. He did show us that part of the building, but I wondered what was going on between 88 and 90 cuz I thought in my head that 90 was the first year for this team. probably was first year for here, but the team was put together anyway up in uh Marman's shop up there. So, we rented a spot from him and Bill Cars and worked out of there for I think about a year and then uh while this place was going out. Yeah, I was actually here three months at Norman's before I saw my first race car because I came down to start building the equipment, tables, steel racks, and stuff like that. And then when the first race car showed up, I says to Jimmy, I says, "Well, where's the body?" You know, like the ESA cars, you know, it's well, you got to make that. It's like, what did I get into? Speaking of where's the bodies? We brought something with us we want you guys to take a look at. Okay. Yeah. I don't know if we should do that real quick. Yeah. Before we forget about it. Exciting. Is that right there where the big BA logo used to be? BA. Yeah. Frank Pleasinger owned it then. You know, kitchen's the same. Everything's the same. Did you have an office? Yeah, I think my office was right over there. This was Carolyn K, our PR lady. Bobby's um brother-in-law. Uh Tom Concincaid ran the business. The president or you know, whatever you want to call him back then. Tom Concincaid. That was Bobby's uh sister's husband. He was a lawyer and whom I just got it started and it was running a business. That's all hand lettered. Yeah. This one. Yeah. Look at that. Holy. Yeah. That's what All right. So, what I got to do to get that from you. Well, this is just what we fit in the truck. We actually have the entire body. Really? Yeah. somebody whose dad was worked for Gunderman's. Um, he had this in his barn out in Wisconsin somewhere and we bought it from him. We just didn't have room for the whole thing. So, we even the windows. I don't know if it was an ASA body cuz the nose was probably Arca Arco. It was really really slanted like really aggress aggressive looking. Yeah. I think we took this car out the the Phoenix for the Copper Classic. Copper Classic out in the Phoenix. We took this car to Bobby Don. Huh? Out of Gunman's shop. Yeah. We wanted you to you guys to sign the fender where it has your names on it. Where do you want it? Wherever you think it should be. You built it. Well, I'll put it next to here. That is awesome. This is still a survivor. I know. And he when he told us about that, I was like, "Oh my god, how did how did all the pieces stay together? Those things usually get pilered and split up. And this is this is what is this 8 uh 84? Yeah. 83 84. 834. Yeah. Yeah. The funny part about the the miller naturally being from Wisconsin. Miller's in Wisconsin. They always come out to our shop and look at the cars. And they were upset the way I painted the car with all the red and everything. So they came out one day. Yeah. that that there that there was and they uh I don't think that racetrack but that racetrack in Phoenix. I don't know what that place they brought the art department with them and uh they said you can't have the red on the car car strips everybody. Yeah. And uh that was a long time ago. It's got to be all white cuz that's how Bobby's cars were down here when he reached for the Yeah. So I say Yeah. Yeah. And they made a big fuss about it and Gunerman was there and I'm shaking my head. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm listening. So, and then he says, "How did you come up with the miller has to be on a certain angle?" And they don't talk English like we do. Like, uh, let's just say a 45 degree angle. Then our people, they come up with different ways of a formula. Let's put it that way. And I said, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." He, "Oh, it looks like you got it right." I said, 'Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I do. The Miller people left the building and Jerry says, looks at me. He said, 'D did you understand anything they said about the way that Miller is on there? I says, "No." He said, "I didn't think so." He said, "How'd you get it right?" I says, "I went to the refrigerator. I took the can of beer and I put it there and I went like this and then we drank the beer for the rest of the day." But uh he said another thing is you're going to get all that red off the car. I said no. He said I ain't think so. And then down the road Miller started Bobby's cars was starting to show up with more red on them. So and uh Kenny Young Bloodood was the guy that was the art artist that designed all a lot of the cup paint schemes. And I have an artist rendering from him, signed by him when the cars went gold. And uh nobody knew what happened to that thing, including me, because it was in my show. It was in my I had it and I wasn't going to let it go because it was a Kenny Young bug. And I guess he still does it to this day. Designs a lot of paint schemes. That's cool. So where did you say the motor room was? Behind this wall here. I'll see what they're doing in there now. Dino room. This is right where they dino them all. Had the dino set up. Jaws going out the doors there. Yeah, you can tell that. Yeah, it had a desk that's right here with controls for the dial. That's what the dino This was the d. Well, that wall was all the way closed off. See that partial one? And right there is where all the motors were assembled. Is that like the metal rack cart you were talking about? Yeah, we built the cart to fit in that hole. So it wouldn't be laying out like that. So, but yeah, here's where they assemble them. Then this uh side over here was actually his machine shop where he'd have his balance cranks had he had at that time. We were very fortunate. We ended up with a CNC mill and a CNC lathe, you know. So, we at that time back then that was up and coming and we were fortunate enough to be able to get a couple of them. I don't know what was inside that one. What they did in there was like cylinder head grinding or something. If that it could have been bench was original. Could have been there. That's where they were grinding head work. I don't know. You have to look the vent system. Yeah, this could be where they were doing some of that stuff. But this was the whole Keith motor room and he could make some power. He made good power. Keith was a fantastic engine builder. I still got the original intake off of the car. He wanted Daytona. He put the intake manifolds or the cylinder heads in here. put the welding gloves and carry them out by me and then I weld on them. Oh my gosh. Yeah, this looks like the same oven. Like this is this is like a Jimmy told me the kitchen's exactly the same. You should paint it. Yeah. I have to say it. They don't make them like they used to. No, microwave could freaking melt somebody. My grandma had this exact microwave. Did Keith get any crap for putting car parts in the oven? I went at home. Not like you would at home. We all We all worked together to try to cheat the best. What' you do? Would you do any uh rule bending here that you can remember? That intake was a bender cuz it was illegal and I I spent me all all day it took me to weld it together back together. Probably I consider myself one of the best grinding people around. Talked people at Hendricks out of grind. You couldn't tell anything. And then they shot peened it to make it look like it was a casting. Couldn't even tell. You could look down the runners. You couldn't see nothing but factory look. This did a lot of cool stuff for a team like this size. You know it. Jimmy made a lot of people do a lot of things and spot on, you know, without 20, 30 people like they got, you know, I do crush panels, I do quarter windows, I do this. We did everything. How many people were working here at the prime? I don't know how many Keith had. I don't without a family. Seven. Yeah, maybe seven out there. Well, that's not that many. No, no, Keith. Keith maybe had probably maybe the same amount, maybe six. No, we our budget wasn't that big. So, we had to do what we had to do. When you were assembling the crew for this place, you already kind of have in mind like I'm calling these guys or like did you have to look? Well, we took a lot of people from uh Stabola Brothers that used to work at Stavola Brothers and uh brought them brought them with us when we left there. How did they feel about that? Well, they were fine because that uh uh Billy and Mickey were going to be shutting down that side anyway. They were shutting down. You know, I think they ran with Bobby Healing for one more year or something after Bobby got hurt. But after once Bobby got hurt, they were going to, you know, close that part off. They weren't going to bring another car in play. I think we ran out the year with Trickle, Mike Alexander. Maybe we ran one or two years there. I can't remember. But so this place kind of absorbed the second team of almost. Yeah. The people that worked for Bobby over there and Bobby was, you know, a great guy. I mean, he was a super nice guy, super super car owner, super driver, you know, I mean, he's a legend. So everybody liked him and he he come in, he knew everybody first name, talked to you, said, "Can we do this? Can we do this?" And the guys loved it, you know. So that's how that ended up and that's why a lot of them came over here. Body man came over here, car builders come over here. They used to build cars for him over there and suspension guys. So we more or less absorbed the whole team. How did he convince you to come down here from Gunerman's? How'd that happen? Oh well he actually he came up there Bobby come up there and uh race one of Gunman's cars short track racing and I was you know kind of in charge of it or building it. uh on that note and he liked the way I did stuff. So then uh he said to me, I think it was 84 he says or 83 84 he says uh I need you down in Charlotte. Can you think about coming down there? So I says, "Yeah, I'll, you know," left that and went down to dieard for probably 84, I think I was in Dyard. And then Bobby and Garners were having difficulty, you know, and Gary Nelson wanted to sign me to a 5-year contract. And Bobby says, "Don't sign it. Go back to Milwaukee and I'll get back with you." So that's what I did. I loaded up all my stuff, went back to Milwaukee. And then I think the year after that, Bobby left dieard and got with Stavola Brothers. And soon as he got to Stava Brothers, he called me up and says, "Come on up. Come on back." So I came back down and was with him ever since. And in that interim, you were with Mark Martin. And the after Bobby After Bobby shut this place down, that's when I went to work for Jack Roush. But before that, I was with Mark Martin running ASA cars. Yeah. Yeah. It's like he went from Bobby to Mark, Bobby back to Mark. Yeah. So, so but the thing of is Jack gave Mark opportunity. Bobby gave me opportunity to come down here and work for him and that was that was, you know, awesome. You know, you couldn't couldn't believe what you felt when he asked you to come down, you know. And then when uh Mark had opportunity when Jack called him to come down and, you know, go racing, too. So, that's what happened there. How'd you get him to come down here? No, I don't know. He Nobody else was left up there. You didn't have much choice. Yeah. And you're still at Rous RFK now. Still at RFK right now. You know, so you're a loyal guy. Well, Jack's been good to me. You know that, you know, as long as they want to Jack wants to keep me around, I'll keep working for him. So, where did you spend most of your time in here? Take us over to your zone. It's in wrecks building cars. By the cars came, we just had to skin them. 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And they handed you the nose and tail. I said, "Well, where's the rest of the body?" Said, "Well, you got to make all that." I kind of knew about the English wheel. Plus, I read about them growing up in the Hot Rod books, but when we first got it, it was like it would it would aggravate you cuz I didn't know how to use it. When I would start making a fender, I had a bunch of what I thought was scrap. It would oil can. And actually, if you kept working it, you could get that worked all out. And then the sides, we made a big roller. And then Mike, the one fabricator here, him and I work together mostly. We had three fabricators, Doug. But Doug was worked with Jimmy more like R&D stuff, you know. We had to put the crease in the side and roll the bodies and we had to make everything. Not like nowadays, which was good. I mean, I knew how to do some of it. some of I didn't know how to do. So, we all learned together, you know, and it was kind of neat. We all worked together. We all got along together and and it was just a neat thing. Yeah. So, this is where the wall was. Okay. In this picture right here, that is that breaker box. The thermometer is in the same spot. Light switch in the same spot right there. Kind of what's going on here. wall. The wall tool boxes are back there. Everybody's in this little room. Yeah. That it wasn't open over there. And uh and then they had the big welder in there with Heath would bring stuff over, weld it up in there, you know, cuz they had a lot of power in there for electricity to run that machine. And then uh we would build a car here, open that door that led into the bondo wound for the body guys. They would do all the bondo work and get it ready for paint. And then when it was ready, then they would put it into the spray booth, paint it, bake it, and they would come back through here. And we had a big door that…