James Hylton Interview - Nascar Driver - Still At It

Although James Hylton is, in a sense, another one of those forgotten heroes of the sport, he's still active in racing, still ready to strap into a car.

While growing up in Roanoke, Virginia, Hylton's hero was Curtis Turner, a Roanoke native who became one of NASCAR's early stars. The very first race that young Hylton attended was a Grand National event at the Roanoke Stadium in 1960. Hylton wanted to see Turner run that night, but he didn't have enough money to get into the race. He was determined, so he decided to swim across the sewer-like Roanoke River with a friend in order to sneak into the back side of the stadium. Coming out of the river, sopping wet, the two sprinted across the broad field, hopped the fence, and took a seat in the backstretch grandstand. One of the security guards spotted them climbing over the fence and came storming up the aisle. Hylton, with a smile, recounts what happened next.

"We were sitting about halfway up the stand with puddles of water at our feet when the guard stopped in front of us. 'You boys been swimming?' he asked. 'Yes sir,' was all I could say. Then he smiled and said, 'If you boys want to see this race bad enough to swim across that damn river, I'm not going to throw you out.' Curtis Turner won that night. It was perfect."

It was this kind of determination that set the standard for the rest of Hylton's life.

Grand Start
He joined NASCAR's elite division, then called Grand National, full time in 1966 with the goal of becoming Rookie of the Year. He was successful beyond his wildest dreams. By the time the 49-race season was over, Hylton not only was named Rookie of the Year, he also finished Second in the point standings behind Richard Petty.

Over the next 10 years, James Hylton's record was as good as that of any driver who ever strapped on a helmet in NASCAR competition. In that time span, he finished in the Top 10 in the point standings nine times and eight times finished in the Top 5, including three Second-Place point finishes, four Thirds, and two race wins. During his 23-year career in Cup, he finished in the Top 10 in 301 of the 601 races he ran.

Surprisingly, Hylton accomplished all of this without help from the manufacturers, even though those were the days when the factory teams ruled NASCAR. Hylton ran his entire career as one of the so-called independent drivers. From the onset of his racing days to this very day, Hylton runs his racing operation out of his small garage in Inman, South Carolina, where he maintains a car for the ARCA circuit. Cars are built and painted there, and motors are assembled. Hylton still employs a homemade engine dynamometer that was originally built by Robert Yates and Bobby Allison.