ChuckLicata Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 Hey folks... I just received my ballot for the TMS Hall of Fame and I'm proud to report that Neil Upchurch is (deservedly) up for an award on the ballot and a spot in the Hall of Fame.. Here's the entire ballot...Obviously, we vote for 1 person in each of the 4 categories.. TEXAS MOTOR SPORTS HALL OF FAME Bobby Labonte (Corpus Christi native, former Cup champion, 3 top 3s at TMS) Bruton Smith (Built one of the finest tracks in all of racing and brought NASCAR to Texas) Cale Yarborough (Won at Texas World Speedway and one of only two three-time NASCAR Cup champions) John Force (Won seven times at Texas Motorplex and is 14-time Funny Car champion) BRUTON SMITH LEGENDS AWARD Richard Childress Rick Hendrick Neil Upchurch TMS RACER OF THE YEAR Carl Edwards (won both Cup races at TMS) Scott Dixon (won Bombardier Learjet 550 Kyle Busch (won both Nationwide races) Ron Hornaday (won both Truck races) SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD Jimmie Johnson Scott Dixon Ryan Briscoe Tony Kanaan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazyhorse Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 that is some wicked competition he's up against. you get my vote neil,,,,,and that says alot, i'm a huge childress fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyRodriguez Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 me too!!! that name is one that goes back many years in my life, I vote for Neil 150%! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FryarFan Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 Chuck Who votes on these awards?? Any chance of getting some of the other names of the voting pool and doing some politicking on Mr. Upchurch's behalf...and stuff some inboxes of those who might only vote for one of the other two just based on name recognition......and not for the one person who has given most of a lifetime to racing in Texas and really deserves it. Just a thought.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jracer98 Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 BRUTON SMITH LEGENDS AWARD Richard Childress Rick Hendrick Neil Upchurch Dang !!!! That's a pretty tough heat race......bad draw Jay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckLicata Posted January 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Chuck Who votes on these awards?? Any chance of getting some of the other names of the voting pool and doing some politicking on Mr. Upchurch's behalf...and stuff some inboxes of those who might only vote for one of the other two just based on name recognition......and not for the one person who has given most of a lifetime to racing in Texas and really deserves it. Fryar Fan, Now, as you can imagine, I'm not allowed to reveal the name of the voting panelists for the Hall of Fame - something about going on double-secret probation, loss of my club mood ring and revocation of the club handshake... However...We all know Nick is a very smart guy...he's a good investigative reporter...my guess is that, by tomorrow, Nick (who reportedly has his 1.8-million dollar house in the Dominion for sale ) will have some info posted about some of the panelists..since voting is due by Monday, I'll bet Nick is very timely with his information... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAPA Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Nick told me it was 1.9 million. I wonder how much his other one up there is worth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickHolt Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 IT took some serious arm twisting and some of these may not be correct, but I know at least some of these are the guys on the voting panel... Richard Durrett, Dallas Morning News. He seems to be the guy who organizes this panel or maybe it is Terry Blount, not too sure about that. Terry Blount, ESPN Motorsports Russ Goodall, Houston Chronicle Anthony Andro, Fort Worth Star Telegram Brad Gille, a sportscaster who works closely with TMS - Maybe even employed at TMS, not too sure. Tim Collinshaw, Espn motorsports show host There are a couple of more, including our own Chuck Licata and his buddy Doug Branch of Interwave Media. There are probably others but I've hit the proverbial brick wall on the rest. Any and all sources from this investigation shall remain anonymous for obvious reasons, but mostly it wasn't all that hard to figure this panel thing out. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FryarFan Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Well, I think I might just be finding me some email addresses and sending nice, polite informational sharing types of emails to some of these............thanks to ol' "Magnum PI" Holt....... here is just a little summary that I got from Mr. Upchurch a couple of years ago.....and all the below is on top of keeping a racing sanctioning body for Texas racers running through all the ups and downs and cycles of racing and the economy. And doing all of it for the love of racing.....without the bank account of the other two....or for that matter, Nick...lol! Race experience: Neil Upchurch 1958 - 1968: Sports car racing in southeast USA. 1971 - 1980: Drove GT, Formula 3 and Pro Sedans at Mexico road course races in Monterrey, Guadalajara, Mexico City and Acapulco. Three races were 24 hours of endurance events at the Autodromo of Monterrey. 1973 - 1980: Drove or co-drove stock cars at Mexico road course races and at Pan American Speedway 250 in San Antonio. 1979 - Drove GT Camaro in 6 hour IMSA race at Talladega, Alabama. 1976 - 1981: Raced in Texas Pro Sedan series at tracks throughout the southwest. 1980 & 1981: Texas Pro Sedans Champion September 1981: Retired from active race car driving and concentrated on race organization of TIDA/Texas Pro Sedans, TIDA Late Model Series, Texas Race of Champions and Texas Grand Prix races at Texas World Speedway, PR and Advertising at San Antonio Speedway and Race PA Announcing at Austin Speed-O-Rama (Longhorn Speedway) and Sooner International Raceway, Altus, OK and San Antonio Speedway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickHolt Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Hey Fryar Fan - go ahead and post whatever email addys you can scrounge up. Let's let them know that Mr. Upchurch is the right choice for this award... Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAPA Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Neil is a WINNER in our book no matter how the voting turns out. Somebody with the right "Know How" should write a Autobiography on him. Im sure there is so much info about him that we dont know but would like to know. P.S. Thanks Neil for all you have done for racing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAPA Posted January 15, 2009 Report Share Posted January 15, 2009 Chuck When will we all know the results? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckLicata Posted January 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2009 Chuck When will we all know the results? PAPA, I do know the voting is due next Monday, Jan. 19th. The results usually don't come out til March, but the new guy (Durrett) is good at the getting the results out before then. Obviously as soon as I know, you'll know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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