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| Photo Credit: Getty Images |
By Zane
Miller
In the almost
80-year long history of NASCAR racing, no other driver has been connected to
the operation longer than Hershel McGriff. The native of Portland, Oregon first
became interested in competing in NASCAR following a chance encounter with
founder Bill France in 1950, which led to a racing career spanning at least the
next 68 years. As one driver put it, “I think Moses even raced against Hershel
McGriff.”
Born on
December 14th, 1927, McGriff showed interest in going fast before
even reaching grade school. At age seven, he obtained a goat from his uncle and
used the artiodactyl to pull him around his family’s property on a cart. His
penchant for driving at any opportunity continued to blossom, as by the time he
turned 15 years old he not only owned his own car, but had also worked as a
train operator, ambulance driver, milk delivery driver and a bus driver for the
church his father served at as a pastor. The heavy workload took its toll on
McGriff’s classwork, and he decided to drop out of school sometime around
eighth grade.
McGriff certainly
had an impressive amount of automobile experience given his age, which came in
handy as he ran in his first organized race in 1945. Now, many auto races at
the time were set up by track owners themselves rather than a sanctioning body,
so official records are hard to come by. That being said, according to McGriff,
he finished his debut race 12th in the 40-car field, driving his dad’s
1940 Hudson. He continued to race in various events on half-mile and short dirt
tracks around the Pacific Northwest, culminating in a 1949 campaign in which he
won eight of the 12 races entered. Adding credence to this claim is what
happened when McGriff took part in the inaugural Carrera Panamericana in May of
1950.
The
Carrera Panamericana was a six-day long rally car event which essentially entailed
racing the entire length of Mexico, starting in the city of Ciudad Juarez (a
few miles south of El Paso, Texas) and finishing in Ciudad Cuauhtemoc, near the
Guatemalan border. Although McGriff would have a co-driver in Ray Elliott, who
had served as his crew chief the year before, and the race would have breaks to
allow the drivers to sleep, the field of nearly 200 participants were in for a
grueling week ahead. On top of that, McGriff drove the same Oldsmobile that he
would be using in the race from Portland to Ciudad Juarez, making for an
exhausting journey before the race even started (keep in mind this was also
before the US Interstate Highway System was developed). However, McGriff was
about to receive the biggest break of his career.
Also
competing in that year’s Carrera Panamericana was none other than Bill France
himself, the founder of NASCAR with his descendants in charge of the operation
to this day. While he had started the NASCAR Strictly Stock Division (now
NASCAR Cup Series) a year prior, France was still a driver at heart and sought
to add to his already impressive list of career accomplishments with a win at
the cross-country battle royale.
In case
you were wondering, safety for the event was not set at a high standard for the
competitors nor spectators, as the drivers not only had limited protective
equipment but also faced steep cliffs and jagged rock-filled embankments should
they go off course. Meanwhile, crowds were allowed to congregate dangerously
close to the racing surface. Two drivers, Jesus Reyes Molina of Peru and
Enrique Hachmeister of Guatemala, lost their lives in separate accidents, while
one spectator was also killed during the event.
The tag
team of McGriff and Elliott jumped out as the favorites, as the pair took a
commanding lead. France was impressed by McGriff’s skills behind the wheel and
met with him at some point during the week. France pitched his new series to
the Oregon native, but one upcoming race France was particularly excited about
was the Southern 500 at the newly built 1.25-mile Darlington Raceway in northeastern
South Carolina. Though McGriff was previously unaware of the new track and had
not yet raced on a track of that size, he took him up on the invitation to run in
the race that September.
McGriff
and Elliott endured the treacherous conditions across the Mexican landscape, but
at the end of the sixth and final day they would be the ones to lift the trophy
as winners of the inaugural Carrera Panamericana, outlasting fellow Americans
Thomas Deal and Sam Cresap by over a full minute (France’s car DNF’d due to a
broken radiator). Unfortunately, I was unable to find much information
regarding what happened to Elliott after this race, except for the fact that he
competed in what would be the final original Carrera Panamericana in 1954 and
finished 27th with co-driver Edward Stark. However, there was no
doubt where McGriff was headed next.
Racing in
the very same Oldsmobile 88 coupe that he used to win in Mexico, McGriff made
the trek to the Palmetto State for the inaugural Southern 500 and his Cup
Series debut, which would be run on September 4th, 1950. Since he
didn’t have his own pit crew, he stopped by a gas station in the nearby town of
Florence where he was able to convince a handful of employees to service his
car. McGriff would get his money’s worth out of his rag-tag pit crew, as the
500-miler quickly went down in history as being notoriously harsh on tires.
Many teams
severely underestimated the amount of tire wear the brand-new pavement would
create, with the drivers mainly having a dirt track racing background rather
than asphalt. This led to a number of unscheduled pit stops for most of the
field, but Long Beach, California’s Johnny Mantz foresaw this issue and planned
accordingly before the race. Mantz brought truck tires instead of normal racing
tires to the track, making him much slower in qualifying as he started 43rd
in the 75-car field. However, the improved durability of the truck tires paid
off on race day, as he took the lead on lap 50 and never looked back, winning
by nine laps for his first and only Cup Series win. For McGriff, who “never
heard so many tires squeal in all [his] life”, he ended the Labor Day classic
26 laps down, but still finished a solid ninth for his first career top-10 in Cup.
McGriff
ran his Oldsmobile in five more Cup races in 1951, though the most notable of
these was none other than the second running of Darlington’s Southern 500. The
race featured 82 drivers in the starting lineup, a record which has never been
broken, with McGriff taking the fifth spot on the grid. This allowed him to
earn his first-ever lap led in NASCAR as he got by Jesse James Taylor for the
lead on lap 12, but was unable to stay there long. Regardless, he improved on
his career-best finish, being scored 10 laps down in fourth behind winner Herb
Thomas. McGriff ran even more sparingly at the Cup Series level in both 1952
and 1953, though the May 1953 race at Raleigh Speedway saw him have his best
shot at winning to that point. He took the lead on lap 95 and led the way for
just over 100 laps, before a wheel bearing failed and put him out of the race,
handing the lead and eventual win to Fonty Flock. However, the race is most
remembered for Fonty’s brother, Tim, being forced to pit when his monkey, Jocko
Flocko, that he had ride along in the car became agitated and started attacking
the driver. Neither the monkey nor Flock were seriously hurt in the incident,
but Jocko Flocko did not ride with Flock during a race again.
To this
point, McGriff had only used his own cars in Cup races, but that changed during
the 1954 season when he struck a deal to drive for Frank Christian, husband of
NASCAR’s first female driver Sara Christian. This also meant that McGriff would
have the opportunity to run the majority of remaining 23 races, rather than
just a few starts here and there. Using Christian’s #14 Oldsmobile for most of
the season, the arrangement immediately starting paying dividends. He scored a
third-place finish at the same Raleigh Speedway he nearly won at the year
before, then finished second to Curtis Turner at Columbia Speedway in June. Shortly
after, McGriff strung together three top-10 finishes with a seventh at Hickory
Speedway (now Hickory Motor Speedway), a fifth at Monroe County Fairgrounds and
a third at Williams Grove Speedway. With speed like this, it was only a matter
of time before McGriff found himself in victory lane.
On August
22nd, the series made their way out to the San Francisco Bay Area
for a rare west coast race, as 41 drivers would take on Bay Meadows Speedway in
San Mateo. While this was the debut Cup Series race at the one-mile dirt track,
this fit right into McGriff’s wheelhouse as he not only was back on the west
coast where he grew up, but gained much of his expertise while racing on dirt.
Starting from the pole, McGriff successfully held off all challengers for
nearly all of the event. Late in the going, fellow Portlander Bill Amick
started closing in on McGriff despite being the only other remaining car on the
lead lap. However, McGriff’s red Oldsmobile proved too strong to overcome and
he fended off Amick for his first career Cup Series victory. There is a discrepancy
as to whether he led every lap of the race or all but one lap, but most sources
indicate that he indeed led wire-to-wire.
From
there, McGriff was nearly unstoppable for the final two months of the season. He
backed up his first win with a second-place finish at Corbin Speedway, though
an engine failure robbed him of a possible good run at Darlington after
starting third. The series returned to McGriff’s bread-and-butter with a dirt
track in Macon, Georgia known as Central City Speedway. He started on the
outside front row and tailed behind pole winner Tim Flock, who was only racing
on a part-time basis this season. In the late stages of the race, however,
Flock’s car fell off the pace, putting McGriff in the catbird seat. He made no
mistake in the final 20 laps, going on to win what would be the final race held
at Central City Speedway as it was torn down two years later.
The next
race on the calendar saw the drivers visit yet another half-mile dirt oval, which
was just fine as far as McGriff was concerned. He started on the pole at Charlotte’s
Southern States Fairgrounds and whooped the field, winning the event by a full
lap. Unfortunately, lap leader data for this race was lost to time, but it is
certainly possible that he led every lap in this race too. Just two days later,
McGriff tackled the infamous Langhorne Speedway in Pennsylvania (yes, the races
were held on the same weekend despite being over 500 miles apart), where he
collected a third-place finish as the last car on the lead lap.
After a
respectable ninth at Memphis-Arkansas Speedway, McGriff nearly won at Martinsville
Speedway (then a dirt track) but settled for second behind winner Lee Petty. In
the season finale at North Wilkesboro Speedway (also a dirt track at the time)
on October 24th, McGriff started on the pole for the fifth time in
1954, but didn’t even get to lead a lap before being overtaken by fellow west
coast racer Dick Rathmann. McGriff finally got the lead back from Rathmann on
lap 85, but still had to contend with Buck Baker and Herb Thomas for the
victory. He outlasted both in the final laps for his fourth victory of the
season. Tragically, the race was marred by the death of Inglewood, California’s
Lou Figaro, who lost his life in a late crash. This would also be McGriff’s last
win at the Cup Series level.
Despite
missing a large chunk of the beginning of the season, McGriff still rebounded
to finish a career-high sixth in the final standings. However, instead of
following up the breakout campaign with an even stronger championship run, his
racing career came to an abrupt halt. At this time in his life, racing was not
his highest priority as he instead devoted more time to the lumber company that
he had started back in Oregon. Feeling satisfied with what he had accomplished
in NASCAR, he stepped away from the sport, working at his business and raising
his family for the next 11 years. This hiatus came to an end in 1965, as he
dabbled with racing part-time in the NASCAR West Series, which would later
become known as the ARCA Series West.
McGriff started
off his return after the decade-long hiatus with a partial season in the West
Series, then known as the Pacific Coast Late Model Series. In his four recorded
starts, McGriff finished third twice with the other two races ending early due
to mechanical failure. He continued on a similar part-time schedule in the
series for the next few years, which saw him get a win at Yakima Speedway in
1967 and Rogue Valley Raceway in 1970. However, his racing itinerary picked up big
time in 1971 as McGriff not only ran 15 of the 26 races in the West Series, but
also competed in three Cup Series events by virtue of the two series running concurrent
combination races with each other. This marked his first Cup action in 17
years, setting a then-record for longest amount of time between starts in the
main series.
While his
Cup attempts themselves were nothing special that season, taking a best finish
of 12th, McGriff had a breakout year on the West Series side. He
scored six wins on the season, including going back-to-back at his hometown
Portland Speedway and Canada’s Langley Speedway, ending up ninth in points
despite missing 11 races. As the Cup Series entered what is now considered its
‘modern era’ in 1972, McGriff continued to impress with fifth-place runs at
Riverside International Raceway and Texas World Speedway, along with another
top-10 at Ontario Motor Speedway. In addition to the limited Cup starts, he ran
the full West Series schedule for the first time and had arguably the most
dominant season of his career. After a modest start, McGriff hit his stride at
the midway point of the year, finishing either first or second in 14 straight
races. This span also included a whopping five-race winning streak lasting from
early July to mid-August. Once the season came to a close, McGriff racked up 12
wins, 22 top-fives and 26 top-10s, though he finished second in the standings
to fellow west coast racing legend Ray Elder.
McGriff
went back to running a part-time West schedule in 1973, though this saw him
pick up two more victories. On the Cup Series side, McGriff would race in his
first-ever Daytona 500 at the famed Daytona International Speedway. This was
particularly significant for McGriff as a close friend of Bill France. Before construction
even began on the speedway in 1957, McGriff was invited onto France’s private
plane, with the pair flying over Daytona Beach and France pointing out the site
of where he was planning on having the new racetrack be built. McGriff showed
speed throughout the week, qualifying sixth for the 500. He did not disappoint
on race day as he had possibly his best Cup Series race outside of his breakout
1954 campaign. Although race leader Buddy Baker was in his own galaxy, McGriff remained
inside the top-10 throughout the afternoon. Late in the going, however, several
competitors were forced behind the wall due to engine issues. This included the
likes of Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, and even Baker himself, while
McGriff’s power plant stayed intact. As Richard Petty scored his fourth career
Daytona 500 win, McGriff took the checkered flag five laps down for an
impressive fifth-place finish.
McGriff
went winless in both 1974 and 1975 in his limited West Series starts, and both
years saw him make five Cup races with one top-10 each. In 1976, McGriff was
provided with a unique opportunity, as NASCAR itself fielded a pair of entries
in that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans race held in Le Mans, France. McGriff was
tapped as one of the five drivers, as Cup Series regular Dick Brooks, retired
Cup racer Dick Hutcherson and sports car veteran Marcel Mignot took control of
the other entry. McGriff’s co-driver would be none other than his own son, Doug
McGriff, who had also dabbled in the West Series earlier in the decade. Bill
France was appropriately named as the honorary starter for the event, though he
unfortunately wouldn’t have much time to see one of his cars on track. The #4
Dodge piloted by the McGriffs suffered a blown engine just two laps in, forcing
them to watch the other 23 hours and 50 minutes from the pits. The trio of Brooks,
Hutcherson and Mignot had better luck, but they too were done in before the one-third
mark thanks to a broken gearbox. The race was eventually won by a Porsche
driven by Formula One racer Jacky Ickx and two-time Le Mans winner Gijs van
Lennep.
Outside of
the disappointing Le Mans run, McGriff only appeared in two Cup and West races
each, failing to score a top-10. However, in 1977, his West schedule picked up
significantly as he attempted 10 of the series’ 20 races. He was unable to
reach victory lane, but claimed four top-fives and five top-10s for a 13th-place
points finish. McGriff only ran one race each in 1978 and 1979, but that would
change at the start of the new decade as he would run the full West Series
schedule for the first time in eight years. His 1980 season did not see the
same level of success as his previous full-time outing, but it was still quite
respectable as he picked up four top-fives and four top-10s racing for three
different car owners. Despite the chaos, McGriff earned a fifth-place finish in
points.
McGriff
found more stability in 1981, teaming up with owner Gerald Craker for another
run at the West title. After a slow start to the season with the #01 due to
three engine failures in the first five races, McGriff rattled off three
straight top-fives in the summer. However, the gremlins would catch up the team
once again, as McGriff fell out with mechanical woes in each of last four
races. Regardless, he claimed the sixth spot in the final standings. Looking
for a fresh start, McGriff left Craker’s team for the #04 owned by Gary Smith
in 1982. Unfortunately, this pairing also led to a fair share of mechanical
failures, coupled with McGriff missing two races during the summer. As a
result, McGriff fell back to 10th in the final standings, but his most
noteworthy undertaking of 1982 took place with his return to Le Mans.
This time
around in the 24-hour race, McGriff was co-drivers with Brooks, who had been
running in the Cup Series on a limited basis for the past couple of seasons.
Driving the #80 Chevy Camaro fielded by veteran team owner Billy Hagan, McGriff
got much more track time than his 1976 effort, but this isn’t to say that the race
went smoothly for them. Another broken gearbox led to the team being stuck in
the garage for four hours, though they were able to return eventually and still
be running at the finish, completing 141 circuits around the 8.46-mile track.
In 1983,
the partnership with Gary Smith would begin to bear more fruit, with McGriff going
to victory lane for the first time in 10 years after taking the win at Sears
Point International Raceway (now Sonoma Raceway). He would follow it up with
another victory at Riverside as he ended the bounce back year with six top 10s
and a third-place points result. An underwhelming 1984 campaign saw McGriff go
winless and finish 10th in points after missing one race, but he
would return to form in 1985. Starting off the year with a bang, McGriff won
the season opening race at Sears Point in dominating fashion, leading 57 of the
74 laps. In the remainder of the first half, he put together three more
top-fives, then kicked off the second half with four top-10s. Included in that
total were victories at Yakima and the road course of Willow Springs
International Motorsports Park. With two races to go, McGriff looked to be in
good shape for his first career West Series title, though competitors Jim
Robinson and Ruben Garcia were hot on his heels. They would get the slip up
they were looking for at the half-mile short track of Mesa Marin Speedway, as
McGriff was out of the race after just 24 laps with a blown engine. Robinson
later had engine issues of his own, though he managed a decent 13th-place
finish. Garcia cut into the points lead the most, leading 79 laps on the way to
the win. The final race of the season at Riverside, which also happened to be a
combination race with the Cup Series, would be a three-way battle for the
championship. However, McGriff, who usually ran well at road courses,
uncharacteristically struggled and fell multiple laps down. Robinson and Garcia
both went laps down as well, though they were able to keep a comfortable gap
over McGriff. As the checkered flag fell, it would be Robinson claiming the
title with a 12th-place finish (second among West Series drivers) with
McGriff five laps off the pace. Despite the disappointing end to the season, he
held off Garcia for the runner-up spot in points, taking three victories, seven
top-fives and nine top-10s in the process. However, he was determined not to
let history repeat itself in 1986.
With the
West schedule being shortened from 12 races down to just eight for 1986, no
championship hopeful could afford a slow start to the season. At first, it
looked like McGriff could be headed down this path with no top-fives in his
first two starts, but grabbed a solid third at Evergreen Speedway. However,
McGriff would be dealt a massive blow at Calgary’s Race City Speedway, as he
was caught up in an early wreck after leading several laps. This left him needing
to go on a serious hot streak in the second half, and it would have to start
with a great run at a brand new location. The track in question was the streets
of Tacoma, Washington, and the temporary street course would be the perfect
opportunity for McGriff to showcase his road racing prowess. Starting fifth on
the grid, he trailed behind pole winner Derrike Cope for much of the event, but
was still far ahead of the rest of the competition as he and Cope were the only
drivers left on the lead lap. With 13 laps to go, McGriff made his move around
Cope for the lead and the eventual win, touching off what became a three-race
win streak.
At Portland
International Raceway (not to be confused with the Portland Speedway short
track mentioned earlier), McGriff tamed the 1.92-mile road course, thus getting
West Series wins at both of his hometown tracks. In the season’s penultimate
race at Willow Springs, McGriff flexed his road course mastery by leading 30 of
the event’s 50 laps on the way to victory and the points lead. This left a
month-and-a-half long break until the season finale at Riverside, with rookie
Chad Little and fellow series veteran Bill Schmitt still in contention. In
another Cup Series combination race, McGriff had to deal with a familiar foe as
his engine expired with less than 25 laps to go. This left him 26th
in the final running order, but fortunately for him he was still fifth among
the West competitors. Also playing into his favor was the fact that Little had dropped
out of the race earlier with an engine failure of his own, though Schmitt was solidly
inside the top-20. While Schmitt finished first in the field of West Series
drivers, it wouldn’t be enough to overtake McGriff, who clinched his first
career West Series championship from the garage area. Over 40 years after competing
in his first-ever race, McGriff was finally a NASCAR champion, and he did so on
the strength of three wins, five top-fives and seven top-10s.
McGriff
looked for a repeat in 1987 and he made a strong case, grabbing wins at Sears
Point and Mesa Marin along with four top-fives and five top-10s. However, this
time Little would get the better of him, getting top-10s in all eight races for
the West championship while McGriff finished in the runner-up spot, 50 points
back. McGriff continued running the full West schedule in 1988, but he also added
an unexpected event to his plate. On August 14th, McGriff made his
first Cup Series start not in conjunction with the West Series since an 11th-place
run at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1975. Driving his self-owned Pontiac at
Watkins Glen International, he overcame a late spin to finish a respectable 25th,
albeit two laps down to race winner Ricky Rudd. As for his West Series season, which
saw him part ways with Smith and return to fielding his own cars, McGriff went
winless but was able to secure two top-fives and three top-10s for a
fifth-place points finish.
In his
age-61 season in 1989, McGriff set a record for oldest driver to win a NASCAR
event on May 13th, leading the final 13 laps at Mesa Marin en route to victory
lane. He would also be the highest finishing West driver at Sears Point, which
also happened to be the first Cup Series race held at Sonoma. With the series
expanding to 11 races, McGriff took one win, four top-fives and six top-10s for
a fourth-place finish in the standings. However, 1989 would be his latest season
with a win.
After two
years as an owner-driver, McGriff joined up with new owner Bob Lipseia in 1990,
though he still kept his familiar #04. Unfortunately, the 1990 season did not
go according to plan for either side, as the team missed the final four races.
McGriff and the 04 team bounced back in 1991, making all nine races with a best
finish of third coming at Mesa Marin. They picked up three top-fives and six
top-10s, securing fourth in points.
Changes came
about for McGriff in 1992, as he vacated the #04 for the first time in his West
Series career. This was due to another team change, as he drove the #50 Chevy
for TTC Motorsports. The new team struggled almost immediately, missing five
races while suffering race-ending mechanical failures in another three. McGriff
stayed with TTC for 1993, but switched the number back to his traditional 04.
Perhaps this was a good luck charm, as he strung together three top-fives to
start the season, including a runner-up finish at Mesa Marin. The team was
still going strong into the second half of the year, getting two more top-fives
at Shasta Speedway and Evergreen. Sadly, the team closed down abruptly with six
races left in the season, ending McGriff’s shot at a second title as he was
unable to find another ride. Even so, he managed to grab a top-10 points finish
thanks to his five top-fives. 1993 turned out to be McGriff’s last attempt at a
full season for quite a while, as well as the final Cup Series start of his
career with the West Series race at Sears Point on May 16th also being a
combination race. Although McGriff finished last in the field with a blown
engine after just 27 laps, McGriff still had an impressive overall resume of four
wins, 17 top-fives and 31 top-10s in 87 starts at the Cup level.
While his
Cup career was in the rearview mirror, McGriff still had a lot of racing left. Running
part-time in the West Series throughout the rest of the 1990s, he notably
claimed a third-place finish at Portland Speedway in 1995 and took ninth at the
then-newly built Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1998. However, in 2001, McGriff
opted to return once again to full-time competition, as he would run the 14-race
schedule at 73 years of age. Driving the #04 Chevy for Bill McAnally (who would
go on to field a multi-truck operation in the Truck Series), McGriff ended up with
a decent 13th-place points position, highlighted by a fifth-place showing
at Tucson Raceway Park to go along with four other top-10s.
Coming back
to his self-owned team once again, McGriff ran the first three races of the
2002 West season, in which he scored his last top-10 finish to date with a
seventh at Phoenix International Raceway (now Phoenix Raceway). After that
season-opening race, though, McGriff finished outside the top-20 in the next
two starts, before quietly announcing his retirement.
McGriff stayed
retired from racing for the next several years, focusing on his real estate
development business based near Tucson, Arizona, for most of the 2000s. However,
in 2009, McGriff had a change of heart, and made yet another comeback to the
West Series. Despite failing to qualify in what would have been his return to NASCAR
at Infineon Raceway (previously known as Sears Point), he made the field at both
Portland International Raceway and Miller Motorsports Park (now Utah Motorsports
Campus), coming home 13th and 19th respectively. He raced
those same tracks in 2010 to similar results, being credited with 17th
in both events.
With road
courses still being his strong suit, he gave Infineon another try in 2011 in
addition to the races at Portland and MMP. Similar to the previous two years,
McGriff kept up the consistency with top-20 finishes in all three races. He
made a one-off start at Sonoma Raceway (which was using its current name by
this point) in 2012, crossing the line 18th before taking another
break from racing. On May 5th, 2018, McGriff made his way back to
the then-renamed NASCAR Pro Series West at Tucson, the site of his most recent
top-five. He even reunited with the same team owner, as his #04 entry was fielded
by Bill McAnally Racing. Although McGriff finished last in the 18-car field, he
was running at the finish of a race he started off by playing the Star-Spangled
Banner for on trombone. While the run itself wasn’t spectacular, the mere fact
of a driver competing in a NASCAR race at 90 years old made headlines as
McGriff not only became the oldest active NASCAR driver, but also one of the
oldest athletes in any sport.
Although
McGriff has not appeared in a race since 2018, the family name is still active
in the racing world as his granddaughter, Mariah, has competed in Pro Stock events
in Tucson since 2014. This made her the fifth member of the McGriffs to go
racing, as Doug McGriff also made 11 starts in the West Series in addition to his
1976 Le Mans venture and Hershel McGriff Jr., who often served as his father’s
crew chief, ran in lower-level NASCAR series throughout the late 1980s and
early 1990s. Hershel Sr.’s younger brother, Norman, made three Cup Series
starts in 1957, getting two top-10s at Eureka Speedway and Portland Speedway.
After
being named to NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers list in 1998 (and subsequently included
on the follow up 75 Greatest Drivers list), McGriff was inducted into the NASCAR
Hall of Fame in 2023. According to the “NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers” book,
longtime team owner Richard Childress stated that, once McGriff turns 100 years
of age, he’ll field a car for him, though it doesn’t specify which series. Before
the 2020 season, the NASCAR Pro Series West was rebranded as the “ARCA Series
West” following NASCAR’s acquisition of ARCA two years prior, meaning the
series that was McGriff’s bread and butter for most of his career may or may
not be considered a part of the same entity depending on how you look at it,
but that’s a discussion for another time. As it stands right now, McGriff claimed
34 career wins, 100 top-fives and 146 top-10s in 271 starts in the West Series,
but I, along with many NASCAR fans, would certainly love to see another start
added to that total in 2028.
