GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. may not be competing in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series as the 2016 season begins to wind down, but the series' most popular driver still has plenty to keep him busy.
"Going to the races, doing all my (sponsor) appearances, doing everything I was doing before, just not driving," Earnhardt said Wednesday during a stop at the corporate headquarters of Wrangler.
"Take the driving part out of it and everything else I'm still doing."
Earnhardt was joined by team owner Richard Childress to help kick off the second annual "Jeansboro Day" celebration and reminisce about the long relationship Wranger has enjoyed with Childress and Earnhardt.
Earnhardt has been sidelined since midseason after suffering concussion-like symptoms following a pair of crashes. In his absence, drivers Jeff Gordon and Alex Bowman have handled the driving duties in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet.
After missing two races in 2012, this marks the second time in his premier series career that Earnhardt has missed races due to a concussion or concussion-like symptoms.
Although he won't be back behind the wheel this season, Earnhardt told the crowd that he plans to be back in the car when the 2017 season gets underway atDaytona International Speedway.
"It's coming along pretty good," Earnhardt said when asked about his recovery. "We got dinged up, had a lot of wrecks this year, got dinged up pretty good. …
"(I'm) starting to feel real good, starting to be able to get out and do things, enjoy myself.
"I miss being in the car but we have every expectation of being in the car come February for the Daytona 500."
The Sprint Cup Series heads to Talladega Superspeedway this weekend for Sunday's Hellman's 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It is the final race of the Round of 12 in this year's Chase, with only the top eight advancing to the next round.
Earnhardt, who has six career victories on the 2.66-mile track, said he plans to be at Talladega "all three days."
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The first round of the first Chase for NASCAR's XFINITY Series trimmed the field of championship hopefuls from 12 to eight.
The three-race subset also served as a learning tool for those who advanced to the second round, which begins Saturday with the Kansas Lottery 300 (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) here atKansas Speedway.
"I learned that in the first race of the first round the intensity level was very high,"Daniel Suarez (Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota) said Friday. "It was definitely more high than what I was expecting."
Elliott Sadler (JR Motorsports No. 1 Chevrolet) won the Chase opener held atKentucky Speedway. Suarez was a close second, won the following week at Dover and finished third last weekend at Charlotte, unofficially taking the mantle of Chase favorite with four races remaining.
"I thought everyone was going to go out there to try to be consistent and to try to make it for the next round and that wasn't the case," Suarez said. "Everyone was going for the win and everything got a little crazy in the first race in Kentucky.
"But, honestly I'm very proud of everyone …. We had three races with three top-three finishes which I think is something really good for the first round. We have to do exactly the same thing for the second round and after that try to put ourselves in a good position for Homestead and pull everything we have for that last race and the most important race of the year."
Sprint Cup Series regular Joey Loganowon the Charlotte event, the only race not won by an XFINITY Series regular in the Round of 12.
Suarez, 24, said he expects the level of intensity seen in that opening race to return here this weekend as drivers and teams try to knock out an early win and qualify for the Round of 8.
"For some reason everyone – I thought everyone was going to be more relaxed in the first race but for some reason everyone was very, like I said, the intensity level was very high," he said. "And, then for the second race it was lower and everyone was more relaxed because everyone was a little bit too crazy in the first one. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same in this second round.
"I don't think that I was myself, I don't think I got super crazy in Kentucky and we ended up with a pretty good result. Actually I felt like we should've won that race, we just came up one lap short.
"I felt like everything that we learned the whole year we are trying to put that in the most important part of the year in the Chase in the first round and second round in order to get to the last race at Homestead and so far it's been working out. So, hopefully we can keep it up and move forward."
Suarez, Sadler and Jones are the only drivers in the postseason with victories this season.
Gaughan, who has 15 top 10s, including a season-best runner-up at Road America, said the first round taught his team that "organizationally, to make sure we are prepared.
"Make sure … we have everything kind of set and ready.
"Another thing Shane (Wilson, crew chief) and I learned was (we) still are clowns that do it our way. It works for us. We don't scream and yell. … He doesn't get down on me when I hit a wall twice at Kentucky. And I don't bark at him when I think he makes the wrong call on pit road or we unload and it doesn't handle quite the way I want.
"We're going to do it the way we think it needs to be done, stay patient and stay on each other’s team. A lot of pressure comes on these guys … and a lot of people succumb to that pressure."
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers have won the last three XFINITY Series races at Kansas.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Martin Truex Jr. and his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team won't take part in next week's organizational test for NASCAR Sprint CupSeries teams, even though the 1.5-mile track hosts the season-ending, championship-determining event for the series next month.
"There's a lot that went into it," Truex said Friday about the decision. "We actually skipped the Chicago test as well and went there and we won, so … that certainly plays into the decision a bit."
The single-car organization is based in Denver, Colorado, also plays a role into such decisions, he said, noting that "Homestead is a long way from Denver."
"Just trying to make sure we are focused on the right things. We feel like testing has not really done anything to help us along. We feel like our time is better spent at the shop getting prepared.
"It seems like every time we've tested this year, we've gone to the race track and spent the first day-and-a-half trying to regroup and figure out where we need to be, so it seems like it's probably hurt us more than helped us and it's just kind of our mindset going forward that we feel like we'll be better off if we don't go."
The season's fifth and final organizational test is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 18-19. Unlike Goodyear tire tests which normally feature only four teams among the three manufacturers, organizational tests are open, but limited to one team per organization.
The following drivers are scheduled to participate in the test, including each of those currently in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup:
Truex has won four times this season, including twice in the opening Round of 16 of the Chase -- at Chicago and Dover.
The team is scheduled to take part in Monday's Goodyear tire test here atKansas Speedway, but Erik Jones is listed as the driver for the No. 78 entry. Jones, who competes in the XFINITY Series for JGR, will move to Furniture Row next season to drive a second full-time entry for the organization.
Truex and his team were participants for Goodyear tests this year at Charlotte, Pocono and Michigan. Of the four previous organizational test, the team tested one day only at Kentucky and Watkins Glen and both days at Indianapolis. It did not take part in the most recent at Chicagoland Speedway.
"It just seemed like every time we talked about (the Homestead test), it was just like 'I don't really think that we should do it. I think we should continue to focus on the things that we've been doing,' and ultimately I think Cole (Pearn, crew chief) made the decision to say, 'Alright, that's it. We're not going to do it,' and he feels good about that, so I'm with him. I think he's making the right decision," Truex said.
Because of a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing, which fields four teams, theFurniture Row Racing group will have access to data gleaned during the Homestead test from the No. 19 team of Edwards as well as TRD (Toyota Racing Development).
Edwards said there are two sides to the opportunity to test at Homestead in the midst of the Chase.
"There's an opportunity to test for the ultimate race -- the race that finishes the year," he said, "but it's also an interruption in your Chase and you have to go do it and it can take away as well."
Dave Wilson, President and General Manager for Toyota Racing Development, USA said while Toyota officials were aware of the move, "ultimately it's their decision.
"In their case, I think it's just a balancing of priorities," he said.
"The good news is with the technical alliance that Furniture Row has with Joe Gibbs Racing, they will still get some of the benefit that JGR will bring back from that test.
"I think the value of testing is considerably different today than it was five years ago, just the influence of technology, the influence of simulation is so great now. And the predictive tools that all these teams have are very powerful; it's amazing how good they are, so it's not as much of a must-do, must attend (event) as it has been in the past."
Truex finished 13th in last week's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the opening race of the Round of 12. He enters Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas (2:15 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) seventh in points. Only the top eight advance to the Round of 8 for stops at Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix before the top four from that group move on to Homestead to determine the 2016Sprint Cup Champion.
Open campfires, long a staple of fans attending NASCAR races at Talladega Superspeedway, will not be allowed on track property during next weekend's race events at the track featuring the Sprint CupSeries and the Camping World TruckSeries.The ban is in conjunction with a Drought Emergency Declaration signed by Alabama Governor Robert Bentley that covers 46 counties, including Talladega County. "We're not going to allow any open fires," Grant Lynch, Chairman of the 2.66-mile track, told NASCAR.com Thursday. Campfires, fire pits, fireworks, flying lanterns and other similar outdoor activities or items will not be permitted. The use of grills for cooking will still be allowed "but you can't use it as a heat source (to stay warm)," he said. "We are probably just a couple of days ahead of the state putting the same (restrictions) on maybe all the counties that are currently under the burn ban. It's just really a tough situation in the fact that our parking lots, our campgrounds, everywhere is just bone dry and crunches under your feet. "I've been here 23 years and we've never had to do this. There are fires everywhere in Alabama right now. And it's depleting the resources. We are doing the thing that is safest for our fans and to protect the folks that are going to be here having to put out any potential issues we have anyway." While the Carolinas coastal region continues to recover from Hurricane Matthew's heavy rain and high winds, Lynch said last week's wet weather never made it far enough inland to impact his facility. "Not a drop. It never got this far," he said. "We would have taken all we could have gotten. There is no green grass on the property; it's all brown." Approximately 1,200 acres of track property is used for parking and campgrounds. The infield alone accounts for nearly 250 acres. "People say, 'Well, you should water everything,'" Lynch said. "You can't water 1,200 acres." If there's a bright side to the situation, it's the weather outlook for next weekend's doubleheader. Currently, the extended forecast calls for unseasonably warm temperatures. "It's not like we're telling fans you can't have a campfire and it's going to be 30 degrees at night," Lynch said. "A nice jacket and you should be fine all weekend. "If everyone cooperates, it will keep everyone safe here and we don't have unnecessary, runaway fires. We've already had a fire by the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. We put it out and about three hours later it came back. We put it out again. This stuff can go down into the ground and come up somewhere else. "We're not doing this without a lot of thought and a lot of concern for taking care of everybody that's going to come to our property in the best way we can and we have to enforce this. It's our duty to do that for our fans."
NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Paint peels and memories fade but the echoes of the past still ring off the hillsides here.
Twenty years ago today, the checkered flag fell on the final NASCAR premier series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Bob Flock won the first race, in 1949 and on dirt. Jeff Gordon won the last, in 1996 and on asphalt. The two races serve as bookends for a track that even after 20 years of silence serves as a reminder of the sport's colorful past.
For 48 years and 93 races, NASCAR teams made the trek to the secluded .625-mile track in the Brushy Mountains of northwestern North Carolina.
"It's one of the sport's most historic tracks, one that really helped put NASCAR on the map," car owner Richard Childress said. "A lot of people overlook that. But a lot of great things happened there. (Former series sponsor) R.J. Reynolds really supported it; Holly Farms back in the day … all those things were important to building our sport to what it is today."
Built by Wilkes County resident Enoch Staley and partners Lawson Curry and Jack and Charlie Combs, North Wilkesboro Speedway was a venue unlike any other -- in part because the front straightaway ran slightly downhill and the backstretch uphill.
It opened in 1947, two years before the debut of NASCAR's Strictly Stock Series, and hosted its first NASCAR premier series event in October of '49.
The Wilkes 200 featured a 22-car field and was the final race of the inaugural season for NASCAR's new featured series. Flock won the race but it was Red Byron, finishing 16th, who captured the series' first championship.
RELATED: Veterans share fond memories of track
'I felt like I was lost'
Thirty-eight drivers made it to Victory Lane at North Wilkesboro through the years, including 19 members currently in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Richard Petty mastered the track, winning a record 15 times; Darrell Waltrip won 10 times.
No active full-time driver competing in the premier series today made a single start at the track.
Gordon was the last to win at North Wilkesboro in NASCAR's top division and the last active driver to compete there.
"I saw somewhere this year the last eight laps or so of the (final) race," Gordon told NASCAR.com. "That's the cool thing about it. If you look at the cars, there were no splitters, the air dams weren't on the ground, nothing was all sealed up. It was all about mechanical grip. Springs and shocks played a role. The driver played a role. Managing the tires and the brakes played a role. It was nice to be able to go there and focus on those things.
"North Wilkesboro was probably one of the most challenging short tracks that we went to. Hard to get ahold of, very slick, really unique. The banking and radius of the corners as well as the uphill, downhill aspect of it. It was just really old school. Very old school and I felt like I was lost the first couple of times that I went there.
"That's why that pole meant a lot to me the year before, because I felt like 'Boy, I don't know if I have what it takes to get around this track' and then the next year to win the race? I'm sure that's what was going through my mind; I thought I'd never win at this place."
Ray Evernham helped guide Gordon to three championships as crew chief of the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. But it took some doing, and eight career starts, before the duo solved the riddle of the unique little track.
"I just loved that place," Evernham said. "The fact that it would change throughout the day and you really had to manage your car and you really, honestly, had to worry about mechanical grip back then. The fact that it was two completely different corners. Any of the tracks that had a real history to me and were real challenging were tracks I really wanted to win at. Just because of the design and surface (at North Wilkesboro), it didn't matter if you had a good motor, none of that mattered.
"It was really about the pureness of what stock car racing was -- you had to get your car to handle, you had to get your driver to hang in there, your pit crew guys had to be good. It wasn't about all the latest and greatest technology; it was about pure racing."
The first race NASCAR race at North Wilkesboro came in 1949 -- and it was on dirt.
Through the years
North Wilkesboro Speedway was the site of so much throughout its four-plus decades as a part of NASCAR's annual schedule. Close finishes and close calls; rivalries renewed and rivalries begun; and at least one finish that's memorable because it wasn't close at all.
Just a few that stand out:
• The spring race of 1955, the Wilkes County 160, saw Buck Baker edge Dick Rathmann for the win. The margin of victory, officially 3 feet, was the closest winning margin in the seven-year history of the series.
• Two years later, in the spring of 1957, Fireball Roberts won the 100-mile race without making a single pit stop. The big news, though, was that this was the last race on dirt at North Wilkesboro.
• Lee Petty's first North Wilkesboro win came in 1959. And it was his only victory with the Petty Enterprises' No. 43, a number later made somewhat famous by his son, Richard.
• The win for Junior Johnson in October of 1965 was the hometown favorite's 50th and final as a driver. In all, Johnson won four times at North Wilkesboro. His teams went on to earn 15 more victories with the Ingle Hollow, North Carolina, native as an owner.
• On Oct. 1, 1967, Richard Petty won the Wilkes 400 for his 10th consecutive victory and his 27th on the season. Both records remain unmatched.
• Another Petty item -- this one involving Bobby Allison, who was one of the King's biggest rivals back in the day -- took place in '72.
"There wasn't a winner's circle; you just stopped on the race track," Petty's championship winning crew chief Dale Inman recalled. "I guess Richard and Bobby, the last five or six laps got to bumping each other; got to bumping each other pretty hard.
"We just stopped on the race track and that was the winner's circle. Richard got out of the car and handed Maurice (Petty, Richard's brother and the team's engine builder) his helmet and somebody came up and put their hands on Richard. Maurice hit him right in the face with the helmet.
"When Maurice hit him, he staggered over and I caught him. He said, 'What'd he hit me for?' I said, 'Hell, I don't know.' "
• In 1989, Goodyear officials successfully debuted the company's radial race tire in a race won by Dale Earnhardt.
Earnhardt won five times at North Wilkesboro and finished second on six occasions. It was a rare race that didn't see the "Intimidator" in contention, much as Waltrip and Petty had been dominant earlier.
RELATED: How end of "tire war" started at track
Dale Earnhardt won five times at North Wilkesboro, including the 1989 race that ushered in the ending of the "tire war."
Earnhardt passed us so often one time there we thought there were two of 'em on the track," said Wood Brothers Racing co-owner Eddie Wood.
• The Tyson Holly Farms 400 in 1994 featured only one driver on the lead lap at the finish -- race winner Geoffrey Bodine. It was the last premier series event in which the winner lapped the entire field.
• Terry Labonte tied Richard Petty's consecutive starts record at North Wilkesboro; Ernie Irvan returned to competition at the track after being critically injured 14 months earlier; Harry Gant's streak of four consecutive wins in the month of September came to an end at North Wilkesboro.
So much happened at such a tiny facility. But that was what made the track so enjoyable and so memorable.
'Just an awesome race track'
Former NBA all-star Brad Daugherty became a race fan in part because of the numerous treks with family to watch the NASCAR races at North Wilkesboro. Today he remains involved in college basketball and the NBA as an analyst for ESPN.
He's also involved in NASCAR -- he's the Daugherty in the JTG Daugherty Racing team that fields the No. 47 Sprint Cup team with driver AJ Allmendinger.
"I used to go there a lot … I mean we went every year," Daugherty said. "We'd go watch that Holly Farms race every year. Just awesome.
"Actually that's where I got to know Junior Johnson really well as a young fella. Me and my dad and my uncle, I've got to give my uncle all the credit, we used to go to North Wilkesboro and Bristol a lot. But he loved going to North Wilkesboro and I did, too. It was great. We'd spend all day, driving over from Asheville, winding our way up through there and getting to the race track.
"I remember getting there and seeing all the cars -- the Tide car, the Levi Garrett car, the Skoal car. It was just a wonderful race track and I was just so disappointed that it went away. It was just an awesome race track."
Childress, an owner/driver for just over a decade before turning his attention solely to ownership, called the track "one of my favorites."
"That and Martinsville were my two home tracks," the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, native said. "I had some good runs and good finishes there. The fans, how they got into it, was just amazing. Those fans were true to Junior Johnson. It was just quite a deal to go back up there and race.
"I can remember back when I ran there; I remember spinning out one time, it had just rained and the track was wet. Enoch Staley owned the track … I never will forget. I spun out, went across the grass back there on the back side of the track and tore down one of his fences.
"He came over there raising hell about me tearing down his fence; he didn't care anything about the fact that I had my old car torn all to pieces. But that's just the way he was."
Jeff Gordon went down in history as the final winner at North Wilkesboro Speedway in 1996.
One last hurrah
The weekend of Sept. 27-29, 1996, was the final NASCAR race weekend at North Wilkesboro. Two races were held -- the Lowe's 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday followed by Sunday's Tyson Holly Farms 400.
The Truck Series race was stop No. 20 of 24 for the season and it was just the second time the series visited the legendary facility.
Sunday's premier series race was No. 27 of 31 for the 1996 season. It was the last season in which the schedule consisted of 31 races. The following year at the request of the track's new owners, the spring date at North Wilkesboro was moved to Texas Motor Speedway while the fall date went in as the second of two dates at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Friday, Sept. 27: Following a 3 p.m. ET start, rain interrupted first-round qualifying with 13 of 40 drivers still waiting to get on track. Bobby Hamilton, driving the popular No. 43 Pontiac fielded by Petty Enterprises, was fastest before the delay.
After a 2 1/2-hour wait, Gordon was first out on the track, and the defending series champion quickly put his Chevrolet on top with a lap of 117.937 mph. The run held until Ted Musgrave, driving the No. 16 Family Channel/Primestar Ford Thunderbird for car owner Jack Roush, won the pole with a lap of 118.054 mph. It was Musgrave's first pole of the season and the fifth and final No. 1 starting spot of his career.
Hamilton wound up third, with Mark Martin and Irvan completing the top five.
In the Truck Series, all but five drivers had made qualifying attempts when rain returned and darkness forced officials to postpone the remainder of the program until Saturday. Rookie Johnny Benson had the fastest lap when qualifying was stopped. Rain was in the Saturday forecast and had it continued, leaving officials to set the lineup by the rule book, Benson would have failed to qualify as he had only two previous starts that season.
Saturday, Sept. 28: Second-round qualifying was still in place for the Cup Series, allowing drivers to stand on their first-round times or make a second attempt. Only the top 25 locked in times from first round the previous day. The practice was done away with following the 2000 season, with only one round used to determine the lineup.
Six drivers made second-round attempts, with Hut Stricklin fastest and Dale Jarrett also improving on his first day's effort. Provisionals went to Bodine, Lake Speed, Robert Pressley, Jeff Green and Darrell Waltrip (past champion's provisional).
Ward Burton, Dick Trickle and Gary Bradberry failed to qualify.
Rain following the Truck Series race cut short final practice for Cup teams. Gordon completed just 15 laps when his car developed engine problems, later traced to debris in the carburetor.
In the Truck Series race later that day, Mark Martin won in just his second start in the series to become only the third driver at that time to win at least one race in all three of NASCAR's national tours.
For posterity, the entire field posed for a picture prior to the last race at the fabled .625-mile track.
Sunday, Sept. 29: More than 40,000 fans were on hand to witness the final premier series race at North Wilkesboro. Many carried signs with, "We'll miss you North Wilkesboro," "Farewell Old Friend" or similar messages.
Television coverage was provided by ESPN Speedworld; it was the 30th premier series race broadcast from the track by the network, which had begun airing races from Wilkesboro in 1982.
The race featured eight different leaders, but it was Gordon who had the dominant car. He led at halfway, collecting a $10,000 bonus, and moved past Earnhardt after a restart with 79 laps remaining to grab the lead for the final time.
When the checkered flag appeared, it was Gordon across the stripe first, with Earnhardt, Jarrett, Jeff Burton and Labonte rounding out the top five.
Evernham said the win was special because "we knew it was going to be the last race there."
"For a little bit of time there the short tracks had almost been our Achilles' heel and we got a handle on it," he said. "And that's the year we won 10 races, so we were pretty proud of that accomplishment; I was really proud of that even though we had won the championship in '95. I felt like we were becoming one of the dominant teams.
"When you could beat guys like (Dale) Earnhardt, Junior Johnson's cars and those people at North Wilkesboro, you deserved to be there."
In addition to being his 10th win of the season, it was also Gordon's third in a row, coming on the heels of victories at Dover and Martinsville.
"We were on a pretty good roll that year," Gordon said. "Winning wasn't outside of the realm but at the same time, knowing it was the last race there … now looking back on it, it's extremely special to me because it was the last race and because it was such a tough, challenging race track.
"To be good on the short tracks meant a lot back then."
Bill Brodrick, known as the Hat Man, was waiting in Victory Lane, situated on top of a building in the infield. So, too, was team owner Rick Hendrick and the rest of Gordon's crew.
Several hours later, the gates swung shut at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The fans had departed. And this time, NASCAR had, too.
MORE: Classic Dale Jr. story: Angry dad, purple gas jug.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn't begin his career in NASCAR's premier series until 1999, three years after the series had moved on from North Wilkesboro Speedway.
But Earnhardt Jr., a student of NASCAR history, did compete at the .625-mile track, racing a Late Model entry on at least a couple of occasions.
"I ran the Sun Drop (sponsored) car there," Earnhardt Jr. recalled. "Actually, I think we went there twice. With the Sun Drop car I remember qualifying 19th or something; I don't remember how many cars were there but I'm sure they sent a few home so it was cool to make the race."
The contentment was short-lived. According to Earnhardt, he "T-boned a guy and had to run the rest of the race with no fenders or hood or anything. So it wasn't a whole lot of fun."
The following year, all three Earnhardt siblings -- Earnhardt Jr., older brother Kerry and older sister Kelley -- made the trek to the legendary track to compete in the Late Model race.
None of the three managed to qualify, a situation that didn't sit well with their father and team owner, Dale Earnhardt.
"Dad had assumed that I would make the race because we'd been running so good at Myrtle Beach," Earnhardt Jr. said. "He said, 'You guys run this race' and there was a race at Myrtle Beach that night; he was going to fly us in his King Air to the beach so we could compete that night and stay in the track points (battle)."
But when Dale Jr. failed to make the show, "He told me and my guys to screw off, that we had to drive the damn van all the way from North Wilkesboro to Myrtle Beach to try to make the race.
"We had to hustle; we barely made it. He was pissed off that all three cars missed the race."
MORE: How end of "tire war" started at track
Failing to qualify and having to drive all day to that night's race wasn't the only issue. An incident with "questionable" fuel also took place, but Earnhardt Jr. laughs when he recounts the incident today.
"I had a jug of trick fuel for my car," he said. "It was a purple gas jug. We kept it in that purple gas jug so we wouldn't mix it up with the other fuel. It was probably Elf fuel or something just to give my car a little more speed. Or it might have had some propylene oxide in there or something.
"One of Kerry or Kelley's guys walked over to get some gas for their car and grabbed the purple jug and a fight ensued between their crew and my crew; it sort of let the cat out of the bag that whatever was in that jug was pretty special. That was kind of comical."
Something to laugh about, no doubt, on the long drive from the hills of North Wilkesboro to the sands of Myrtle Beach.
