Smokey Yunick sat in a chair in the infield media center at Lowe's Motor
Speedway and shot straight, just like always, as he talked about his life
in stock car racing and his health problems of the past year.
"If I'm going to die, let's get it over with," he said, looking
me square in the eye. "I'm headed for 78 now, and I've had enough of
everything, with no regrets. I had a good life."
Smokey being Smokey, he then spent an hour recalling tales of the early days in the sport, most of which were too ribald to print in a family publication or too potentially libelous to detail, most involving some form of womanizing, brawling or battling authority figures.
And as he recounted the stories of the day, Yunick was by turns profane and hilarious, cantankerous and poignant, outrageous and outspoken.
Yunick recently decided to quit taking the assorted medicines doctors have given him for bone cancer and other ailments over the past years. Whatever happens, happens.
To the very end - whether it's next week or 20 years from now - Yunick will remain what he always has been: A rebel, an iconoclast, a tough guy and, unquestionably, one of the most brilliant minds in the history of the automobile.
He opened his "Best Damn Garage In Town" in Daytona Beach in 1947, shortly after he came home from World War II, where he was a decorated B-17 bomber commander and flew in 52 missions across Europe, Africa and the Pacific Theater.
When he got into racing, Yunick worked with the best of the best, early heroes of the sport like Herb Thomas, Fireball Roberts, Banjo Matthews and Curtis Turner.
As a car owner and mechanic, Yunick's engineering prowess was legendary. He helped develop the small-block Chevrolet engine, which was introduced in the 1955 model year. It is still used today.
Most of the stories you hear about him involve his "innovations," mechanical tricks he had done to his race cars to push the envelope of legality and beyond.
In 1968, Yunick allegedly drove his race car out of pre-race inspection at the Daytona 500 after its gas tank had been removed by NASCAR inspectors.