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Scenes from the track
Cooper, who lived in Statham, Ga., during his racing days, was one of Georgia's short-track standouts in the mid-1980s as he set speed records in his V6-powered dirttrack cars. He went on to a brief career in the Busch Series, where he won the Big Star/Nestle 200 at his home track, now Lanier National Speedway, on May 13, 1989. In that era, like today, Cup drivers often dominated Busch events, but Bobby Hillin Jr. and Rick Mast were no match for Cooper's Buick. He also outran Busch regulars who went on to become Cup stars, including Jeff Burton, who was 10th that day, and Kenny Wallace, Jimmy Spencer, Steve Grissom and Bobby Hamilton. Cooper's biggest challenges during that May 13, 1989, race came from Busch veteran Tommy Houston and the late Rob Moroso, who made a late-race run on Cooper but came up short at the finish line. Cooper ended his driving career in 1994 after 72 Busch starts in which he recorded six top-five and 17 top-10 finishes. He returned to AMS to visit one of his former crew members, Mike Brown, now general manager for Bill Davis Racing. "It's one of them things where, if you're not doing it, you just stay away from it," Cooper told reporters at the track. "It's funny, walking on pit road and all, I sort of got a thing in my throat thinking about how much racing has changed. "I know a lot of times when we used to try to go get sponsorship back in the late '80s, people said, 'Well, you know that's sort of a redneck sport. You won't ever see our name on a race car.' "But when you walk up and down pit road now, it's nothing but corporate sponsors. It's amazing what racing has become in the last 12 years." - Rick Minter, Cox News Service |
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