NASCAR’s Forgotten Hub: Spartanburg's Rise and Fall

If you took a time machine back to 1970 and wanted to go to the hub of stock car racing in America, there's a very good chance that time machine would plop you in Spartanberg, South Carolina. Spartanberg was the home to many legends back in the day, including Bud Moore, David Peterson, Cotton Owens, Buck Baker, Mario Rossi, Rex White, and many others. Today, we're going to give you the whole history tour of Spartanberg and where the legends were, where the cars were built. And we found the perfect guy to do that. Perry Allen Wood grew up in Spartanberg with the Moore family. pretty much. Perry co-authored books with Bud Moore and Bud's son, Greg Moore, both of which I have read and were fantastic. We'd like to dedicate this video to Greg Moore, who passed away 5 days after we recorded it. Greg is actually how I got connected with Perry in the first place. So, without Greg, this video does not exist. And I just absolutely loved growing up in Spartanberg with all the race teams and and we stayed very busy visiting race teams. My father was a city policeman. He knew everybody in town. He should have been the mayor. Daddy's favorite was Bud Moore. You know, he would visit with Bud and I would sit in a race car and play and I would pretend I was Buck Baker, but I'd look on the door and it said Buck Baker. Bud Moore had three shops here. The middle one isn't here anymore, but next to it was a beauty parlor. My mother would go there to get her hair done and drop me off at Bud Moore's so I could play, you know, as a babysitter. And I would they would be, you know, working on the race cars. That was back in the Jack Smith and Joe Weatherly and Buck Baker, those days. And I'd play in their race cars. And not once, not one single time did anybody ever tell me, "Don't touch that. Don't get in there. Don't do this." I mean, it was just it was Disneyland to me. I mean, it was much better than Disneyland. Next corner after we crossed Asheville Highway, Cotton Owens. He lived in the house here and uh his shop, he had several shops once again, you know, scattered all over his property, but the main shop I stopped in yesterday and it's a it's an active uh repair shop now. And I talked to Jesus and Jesus said, "Sure, come on in. I wish I could have I could clean it up in time." And I said, "Don't worry about it. It looks fine like this." That's where Cotton Owens lived in that White House there. Yes. And all these outuildings here were uh were his, but I spent many a day in there just reminiscing with him. Now, that shop we're looking at with the two windows right here is this blue one on the right. There pictures from cottonwowens.com and it has all kinds of history and explanations and pictures of inside the shops, all the race cars. Highly recommend checking that out. But just to get your bearings to show you exactly what we're looking at here, that building, the tinier one behind the big one. And then up where it says Messa Auto Repair, that is kind of like the big Mopar factory shop. The one that we'll go check out in a minute here. We actually get to go inside this one. He had when he died, they had his auction in that building right there. And I mean, everybody and their brother was down here. He sold everything he had. I know Ray Everham was down here and Junior Johnson was down. A lot of people were here for that. I begged Cotton to let me write his biography on him and he wouldn't do it really. But I had a meeting with him and I thought I was going to talk him into it. Now, you can see the sign here. It's Cotton On's Drive. Yeah. Uh, and so I was all excited and getting ready to go interview him one day when uh it came on the news that famous racing personality's garage burns down and it turned out to be cotton and it was that one right there. Wow. And uh somebody had tried to some genius had tried to kill a beehive, a hornets nest or something. You kidding me? with flaming with a flaming rag on the end of a pole and he burned a whole thing down and I'm like, "Oh, he's going to be in a good mood to write a book now." Which one was it? That one right there. Which one? Well, I was pointing to it, but there's like four buildings over there. That that little one? Yeah, that little one. Was that the original one? Well, I mean, they repaired it, but Yeah. So, that was the first Cotton Owens garage. No, I I think that was probably added later. This was the main one right here. This is the I mean, for a long time, this was the only one I knew about. Let's go in here and see if Jesus remembers me stopping by yesterday. I told him it'd be about 1:00. I love when these old pictures line up like this. This one is taken almost from the exact same angle where we parked and got out of the car. And we weren't sure if the guy Perry talked to beforehand was in there or not, so he didn't walk in with the camera turned on. But when it comes back on, we'll be standing right about where this picture is taken here. So, actually, that's about the same angle we're at. Yeah, it is. So, you spent time in here when you were younger? Oh, yeah. Give us play in the race car and Daddy and Cotton would be in that office right there. The glass partitions in the office look like they're the same ones in this picture here. If not, they're in the same place. There's some 66 Dodge Chargers. You can just send me those and Yeah, I will. I'll overlay them. There's out front. That's right outside that door right there. Cotton was real good at fixing cars and making a lot of safety features in the cars. He first wanted to put door bars in the side of a door. They start out with two. Then he wanted three door bars and then NASCAR app proved that then he put four. It wasn't just a win lose situation. He was also concerned about his drivers as far as their safety. Everyone in races wanted to drive Cotton's car including Nhard, Andred Jr., Alford and Allison. But the most meaningful win was 197500 in our home state with Buddy Baker. Cotton says, "You know, this is the only big race I ever really really wanted to win." The checkered flag is out and Buddy Baker takes it to win the Southern 500. And you think the Continental crew isn't happy? He cared about the organization and he cared about the racing and he cared about the people. He was thankful to to make a life doing something that he loved. Not many people can do that. Is there any evidence of Cotton Owens racing left in here? Like stuff on the wall? I don't think Well, did he draw in any of the concrete? Was this You just You're your guess would be as good as mine. I don't know. Were these paint booths or something? It looks like paint booth. That's what I would guess they were. The last cars that came out of here were uh he built for Marty Robbins, the country singer. And Marty Robbins uh drove Cotton's cars for I don't know four or five years. And those were the last ones. But Pete Hamilton uh I think was the last cup race. What was Cup? It was Grand National. Then won a qualifying race at Daytona out of here in Plymouth. But David Pearson won a championship out of this garage. I mean, everybody Al Luner drove cars out of here. This is just uh you know, everybody drove for somebody in Spartanberg at one time or another. All the big names. We just had had them everywhere. It was a great place to live as a kid to come around and visit all the race shops. Didn't Bobby Allison race for Cotton at one point for a little bit and then he was mad because he couldn't do what he wanted to do to the car and then he left. Kind of like Bobby Allison drove for Cotton. Bobby Allison drove for Bud Moore and Bobby Allison drove for Mario Rossi, which uh he's on the tour. Oh, maybe we should get out of here now. Most of these people have no idea what we're doing. And they look like they're getting ready to ask. But now, this is Lewis Clemens. That's Jeremy's. I guess it could be a great uncle, his grandfather's brother, whatever that is. That's who Lewis Clemens is. He was Rex White's mechanic. Rex White won more races than anybody. He won 28 races. You hear about Fred Lorenzan and Fireball Roberts and Ned Jarrett and Richard Petty, but Rex White was the man. But this one right here was Rex's shop. And this is the one he won all those races out of. Yes. Back in the late 50s. Yeah. And I got some pictures of it uh on my phone and I can supply some more for you that uh show how it used to look. Wow. This is neat. I never knew any of this stuff. A Ricky Rod something right there. That's 15. I wonder which car that is. I don't know. Greg and I looked at it one day and he told me immediately. Is that the Long Truck Arms Speedway car? I don't know. Greg could tell you. I I I really don't know. Now, we couldn't get into this building and there wasn't much more to see, but there is this cool picture here that was taken on this same pad in front of the door we're looking at right now. Hopefully we can figure something out and maybe do a little bit more history or specific video on this building at a later date. Now, one of the people on the sheet right here is Roger Mandal. That's his shop right there. He went to Daytona 24 hours like three times. He won Sebring and his class, which I guess was I think it was called GTU. He's not here. I talked to him yesterday. What years was he doing that? In the 80s. 70s and 80s. and uh and he's still very active in building sports cars, but we can't get in there. He's the He can be arranged though. I can tell you that. John Finger Racing. I just talked to him a couple weeks ago. Okay. He's a big hill climber. He lives over in Greenville and the last I heard he had the last Bud Moore car. I believe he does. That ever won a race. Well, he brought it over here to a to a book signing bud I did for his book. In fact, Greg lived there for 20some years in those apartments. He tells some good stories about Nhard and them playing poker up there. Buck Baker lived there. Used to have trophies in those front windows. That wouldn't last 5 minutes today. No kidding. He had his Southern 5 He won the Southern 500 three times and the championship twice and had all those trophies in that big window. There's where Bud Moore left right there on the corner 500. Yeah, the 500 was very appropriate, I thought. And we lived on 500 Furler Drive and Bobby come by and I had my my telescope out and I had a refractor refractor type telescope uh you know with the borrow lens and all that stuff and and I was really good at spotting all kind of planets. I mean, you know, and I remember I couldn't think who was with him, but but they I sat there and he got look through the telescope to see the rings of Saturn through his proof of his moon Jupiter was able to look at the moon and it was cold as a son of that that was the way you had to do it. But that's Budmore's original garage from uh back in the 40s. This place here. Yeah, we're going to pull in there. So, this is the first Budmore shop with the salon or saloon next to No, that was the second one. That one doesn't exist at all anymore. Would this been a farmers market, a barber shop, and uh Budmore's first garage? When did he move in here? I don't think that you Well, he sold used cars. They sold used cars and repaired them and got a Well, it was in the Budmore book. They somebody traded them a a race car for a car. And that's when he and Joe Eubanks decided to go race it. And the rest is history. They have to hunch over in here. I don't know. Bud Moore is about 6' 6. Yeah, that's what I was thinking is like the roof is really low. I don't know how they worked in there. Well, you know, it's I guess it gets taller. Yeah. Where was the car door area? See, I don't really know. Uh, I always figured it was right there, but I've never walked around this one. So, you can't actually see where the door was to pull the cars in, but it could have been on the back side. It could have been on the back side. And you said that red roof area was not there. No, that's not part of it. Okay. It's built kind of to look like it, but it ends right where this it goes down and stops. And I'm going to tell you, I went to Buzz Funeral. I did, too. A lot of people there. I was there. But I used to drive for Bud. And old Bud, if you know Bud like you say you do, Bud's my hero. I grew up with Bud Moore. Let me tell you a story about Bud. A lot of people know Bud. They said, "Well, we sorry we should have warned you. Bud was as good as gold." He was going there. Uh-huh. Coming back. Trump. I can remember. That's why he had you, Greg. And what's the other boy with long hair? His other son. Well, Greg's the one with the long hair. Okay. What's up? Daryl and Brent. Brent's the middle. Daryl's the whole Daryl built the engine. He that's that's him. He's smart. He remember me. So the first experience I had race number two coming out of Martinsville. Now you ain't supposed to be drinking piss. That was NASCAR's rule back then. Yeah. Bud didn't follow those rules. So we got ready to leave and D them tell me they packing up the car and I don't know who's driving it then. But he didn't do too well. Bud paid me well. He's respectful to me. But I had enough sense to know. On the way back I got to deal with some BS cuz it was drunk. Yeah. He said he said first the first encounter just like what he said. Hey, hey, hey, stop. I got to pee. I said, bro, we on that full lane highway. I said, bro, we I No. I said we on a full lane highway. I don't give a I'm going to piss in the car if you don't stop. So, he was always good. The farther we had to go, the more he drank, but it not one time did I get back to that shop. Regard payment check, boy. All right. Have a good one. See you next racing. I go to my car. It's $23. You know what? We might have to have you on the show. I'm not kidding you. Hey, I love for the people who don't know Bud, they be like, "How random is that though? We're just walking around and like, "Hey, what's going on? I know Bud more." Oh, yeah. Now you're having to work. This was his original shop. I had no idea. And he moved from here to He had one before they widened all the roads on the corner of St. John and Pine on the corner where Converse College is. Okay. And then he moved on on Fairview. Nice to meet you. You too. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Thank you so much, William. I appreciate I can't wait to tell Greg I met you. Yeah, he'll know. What do you say, old black guy to clean your car? I love when stuff like that happens. Like, you can't you can't plan this. We had no idea. I'm dead serious. I'll have him on the show in a heartbeat. That's awesome. That's all I want to do. What are the freaking odds? William Detail across the street worked for Bud Moore. He didn't even know he was across the street from Bud's shop. And he does a really good job detailing, too. He's been open for 35 years at least. Well, he must be good cuz he's clean. He's got somebody else doing all the work. Where are we going now? Well, the Pedmont Interstate Fairgrounds, it ran uh the Grand National Tour from 1953 until 1966, and everybody raced here. Could you imagine doing this today? In 1964, they got the top four people in the point standings in the middle of the season, a 64 race season. I think it might have been 62. I mean, they raced three times a week in those days, but they got Richard Petty, of course, drives for the Petties. Cotton Owens, uh, David Pearson, who drove for Cotton Owens, Ned Jarrett, and Billy Wade, who drove for Bud Moore, had a match race, a 20 lap match race for $1,000 at the at the where we're going at the fairgrounds. I mean, could you imagine today getting the top four people in points to race on a short track for, you know, for anything? I mean, they wouldn't get out. First of all, they wouldn't get out of bed for $1,000. Oh, we passed a Hawthorne Drive back there. Isn't that where David Pearson used to live? Yes, it is. Do you know where that house is? I do. Yeah, we should drive by that place. I saw the sign. I'm like, why does that sound familiar? And I'm like, that's where David Pearson lived. There was a picture of an old check that was paid to him by somebody. And I looked up the address at one point and didn't know it was right here. I'm going to go down here and see if the gates's open. If the gates's open, we can go in there. Channel 4, that same station in Greenville, interviewed me right there when David Pearson passed away. And uh now that big match phrase, that's the one where uh Billy I wrote about it and we can get in. Billy Wade's engine broke and they went and changed it in 45 minutes and they're like, "Where'd you get that car?" And it's not. Yeah. I thought they changed the car and he uh um this is wild. They the thing that blew me away was they were changing the engine going to the shop. I there were two guys in the back on the in the truck, you know, doing it. Was it in the truck or on the truck back there? On the truck. So, they were just outside flapping in the breeze flinging wrenches, taking bolts out going down the road on an open trailer. Times were different back then. the Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds. I saw some of the best races of my life here. All the big names. I mean, Fireball robbers. Oh, I think we set off an alarm. I think we did. They'll be out here in a minute and I'll introduce myself. I probably know the guy anyway. But this was the first turn. Where there's the grand stand. This would be the main straightaway. There was a flag stand right there. Wooden fence that they used to go through. really had to rebuild it after every race. Yeah. There were horse stables. It was originally a horse track. And right where that white building is, that little that was a a long row of a horse stables that with hay and all that stuff in it. And uh if we could get down there. I don't know if you want to do it. Might as well. But uh what are they going to do? Tackle us? Right through there. You can see the guardrail. See through the trees? Oh yeah. So that would be the turn two. And uh I'd like to go look at that. If you don't think we get shot, maybe we should talk to them first. If you want to. When you start going up the stairs, I was just like, I'm just going to let him do this. He's knows what he's doing. I've been there a lot of times. I used to know the guy. I don't know who's in charge now, but the first book I wrote was about old racetracks. And this was the this was the genesis of it. This is what gave me the idea. And it's called Silent Speedways of the Carolinas. Every She said, "Don't worry about that. It's got every uh track that ran at least one Grand National race that is no longer holding any kind of races at all. And there's uh I think five in South Carolina, five or six, and 29 in North Carolina. And I covered all of them, but this was the one that gave me the idea. And we are in the first turn here where uh the famous crash that you read about with Billy Wade and Ned Jarrett when they took each other out right here. I don't know how many times I sat right there on the Pierce Motor Company record and uh watched the races and it was it was a great childhood. My father was a policeman and he of course got us all in free. I can imagine back in those days whenever seemed like laws and rules were pretty lax anyway. If your dad Oh, absolutely. If your dad was a police chief, you could probably do whatever you wanted. Well, he was a police he was a highranking police man. He wasn't the chief, but you can see the curvature. I mean, the banking Mhm. There's a float to this. When was the last time they raced cars here? In 2001. I hadn't moved back here yet. I was in Charlotte, but they had the idea, and Greg knows all about this, Greg Moore, but they had the idea to build a racing museum in Spartanber. I mean, they raised a bunch of money. Where it is now, I don't know, but they held two or three uh races here to raise money for that. So, they redid the…