Larry Phillips elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame

[HoosierDirtFan]

Larry Phillips elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame

Also elected where Kevin Harvick & Jeff Burton

[over4T]

Well deserved but wish he was still around for it. Terry and the rest of his family, I'm sure, are very proud.

[Dirt Clod]

That's awesome! FINALLY! An honor for him and all the short track racers!

[MRM]

Well deserved but wish he was still around for it. Terry and the rest of his family, I'm sure, are very proud.

It's about time.

[jog49]

Deservingly so but again, no Banjo Matthews!

Matthews began his career racing and working on modifieds, driving to Victory Lane 50 times in 1954. In 1963, however, Matthews traded in his helmet, opting to focus on the mechanical side. He worked for Ford Motor Company before starting his own shop, Banjo’s Performance Center.

It was estimated that in the 70’s Matthews built cars for at least half the Cup field. From 1974-85, cars built by Matthews won 262 of the 362 Cup races held (72%). In 1978, his cars won all 30 races of the season, including the third consecutive championship for a Matthews car.

The Richard Petty of NASCAR chassis builders!

[Morgs153]

^^^^ What that guy said. Banjo was "that" car builder and dominated construction for a long time. For all the people who come on this forum and speak of one chassis brand or another becoming the dominance in dirt racing, they would have a ways to go to be as dominant as Banjo was for building cars for NASCAR. Not just Cup but also the Sportsman (what became BGN, Now O'Reilly). Whole entire fields of cars.

But back to Larry Phillips. That's great news to see him get into the NASCAR HoF. First time I seen him race was in 1978 at the Milwaukee Mile when he finished second to Bob Senneker. All the times I think I saw Larry race it was only on pavement and he could do just as good on pavement as he could on dirt.

[over4T]

The scribe that wrote up the piece on Larry re the Hall of Fame obviously wasn't around for his heyday. Said he started on dirt and didn't switch to pavement till 1989 about the time he started focusing on the Weekly Championship. I saw him more times than I can count on pavement from the east coast to the west and winning of course. I admit that, at my age, some dates are a little foggy but one I'm sure of is a win at Stockton, CA in 1976. My son was only a few weeks old when me and his mom took the 400 mile ride up from our home in southern Cal for that one on the 1/4 pavement track that is still operating to this day. Also, a dirt win in 1979 at a dirt track in Arizona with one of the coldest and windiest shows I ever attended. Wife and daughter went to sit in the car but my son insisted on watching the whole thing. Knew he would be a racer for sure after that and he's still going around in circles, all dirt.

[klemmabyna]

Finally.

a glimpse into part of his accomplishments:

Larry Phillips - The Third Turn

HistoricRacing.com | Larry Phillips

[Morgs153]

^^^^ In those results you posted from The Third Turn it shows what Larry did in those dominating years between 89-99 at the weekly racing tracks. Two of those tracks, Bolivar and I-44 were owned by Bill Willard. Bill Willard brought an up and coming young driver out of kart racing and put him in late models because he was tired of Larry Phillips winning everything at his race tracks. That kid was Jamie McMurray. Although Bill passed away some years ago the name of his company still adorns the fenders on some dirt late models - Willard Quarries.

[lurker]

This one digs deep for me personally.


Larry was one of the main reasons for my passion for racing as a spectator and crew in my early teens. And he is one of the reasons I am here today, and not in prison or dead. His inspiration and passion for racing got me on the straight and narrow. At that time I was not on the right path in life.


In my later teens when I could drive, I would call the shop in Springfield to see where he would be racing locally that weekend. Be it Muskogee, Bolivar, Monnett, Lebanon, Ft.Smith, or wherever in the tri-state area, I was there to cheer him on.


In my early 20’s I had the opportunity to go on the road with Willy Kraft with the WoO v1, and USAC. Larry and Willy were very chummy at that time, as both were Bullit chassis guys. Early mono spring and swing arm era.


As I finally got my chance to know my racing hero firsthand, I thanked him for keeping me out of jail or dead. He was very flattered.


Best memory for me while on the road? I will always remember him fixing fresh cut steaks on the grill for both the Kraft team and Phillips team at Bob Harris race cars in Iowa. It is still today the best steak I’ve ever had.