On a day when 59-year-old Tom Watson came within inches of winning the British Open, a guy who was 22 years old when Watson was born was trumping him. Hershel McGriff, 81 years old, not only ran on Sunday in Portland, Ore. in NASCAR's Camping World West series, he finished 13th in a field of 26. And in so doing, he became the oldest driver ever to run in a NASCAR race.
McGriff has run in one series or another in NASCAR for most of his life, and over the course of his career won 4 races in 85 Sprint Cup-level starts. Over the course of more than 40 years, he ran in 27 seasons, stopping to take care of his family along the way. He now manages a copper mine near Tucson, Arizona, but apparently still has the competitive urge, and so has gotten behind the wheel once again.
And before you make the usual "driving with his blinker on" or "45 mph in the fast lane" jokes, listen to what the winner of the Portland race, Jim Inglebright, had to say: "There were a lot of other cars out there that were a lot slower ... I followed him for a little while and I couldn't get around him."
Here's how long McGriff, a member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame, has been around: he first raced at this particular Portland track before it was even paved, in 1945. That was five years before NASCAR was even born; Bill France heard of his racing exploits and invited him to join the nascent series.
Before this year, McGriff hadn't raced in seven years, but has entered three events in 2009. He failed to qualify in June for a Sonoma, Calif. race, and is planning to try to qualify for an August race in Tooele, Utah. So what's your grandfather doing, huh?
81-year-old is oldest to drive in NASCAR event [AP via Yahoo! Sports]
81-year-old driver will outdrive you punk kids any day [From The Marbles]
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