Not quite nostalgia...but this is
from a few years back.
After Gary Ormsby died, the Castrol TF deal was steered towards
Pat Austin. Crew chief Lee Beard was involved for awhile, but
anyone could see that the chemistry was just not there, and the
relationship soon ended on a sour note.
Fast forward to the Memphis race the following season. In the
first round of eliminations, Austin was up against the Darrell
Gwynn car, and had a hard time staging. The lights were flickering,
and seemed to be acting a little weird. Finally when all four
lights were on, Buster hit the switch and the Gwynn car won.
Seeing the lights act a little strange, Buster started looking
around the beam enclosure and came over the radio, "y'all
ain't gonna believe this, but there's a damn frog hoppin' around
these here lights". At about the same time Walt Austin was
storming the tower demanding a re-run. I'll dispense with the
details, but I couldn't really prove what had happened and we
didn't rerun anything. The Austin's were not happy campers, and
they probably had a case. (it's not a perfect world)
There was however, someone who found some humor in the incident.
About an hour after it all happened, one of my emergency crew
guys brought me a cute little toad to the tower, with this message
written neatly on its white belly..."IF FOUND, PLEASE RETURN
TO LEE BEARD". |