Humble Beginnings for a Dying Series: NASCAR Touring Series

"We were hoping to keep everything the same, because we always called it 'Poor Man's Racing,' where you keep everything stock," says Triplett. "What we were doing was trying to keep the cost of racing down. And it did real well for 5, 6 years, maybe 10. I can't remember how long we kept the limit on the stock engines, but then Pontiac decided that they would get in it. Then they started booking races at Daytona and Charlotte and Darlington and Rockingham, and then the cost of everything started rising. Then it just kept escalating, and after a while all the original guys just sort of had to fade out of it."

With stable sponsorships basically unheard of in the series, teams were faced with two challenges: They had to compete at a higher level, and they had to pay their own tabs in the process.

"We never had that many good sponsors in the Dash Series," says Combs. "We just never picked up the immaculate deals. I had the deal with the Datsun people in Richmond, Virginia, and they basically paid all the bills and paid me a percentage to drive the car. That was probably one of the best deals to come along at that time, but I felt like we had done a lot for the Dash Series through our progress just by racing, because we tried to stay a step ahead of everybody. And we did it with just good ol' country boys who just loved racing. They didn't get a dime for it. Just buy them a bologna sandwich, and have a cooler with drinks in it, and head down the road. That's just the way we did it. We raced back then."

A Price Too High

The next major blow to hit the Goody's Dash Series came in 1998 when NASCAR made a change from a four-cylinder engine to a V-6, opting not to make the full jump to a V-8 engine, which would have allowed teams to purchase old or used Winston Cup or Busch Series parts. With a V-6 engine, teams were forced to buy all new parts and engines--or leave the series.

"It was a lot better racing when it was four-cylinders," recalls Hamby, the former Dash and Winston Cup team owner. "I think if anything, the six-cylinders definitely hurt the series. It put a lot of people out of racing when they did that, because the motors cost so much money it was unreal."

With the growth of NASCAR from a regional sport to the mainstream sport it is today, the smaller Dash Series has become an innocent bystander in the sanctioning body's quest to grow the sport.

"I don't think NASCAR got behind it (in recent years)," says Combs. "They never really did their job--that's my honest opinion. They just kind of let it do its own thing. Like when we got Goody's for a sponsor, shoot, they didn't give us anything. They might have put about $10,000 in the championship, just nothing. Then they go to Daytona and give the Busch Series more in one race than what they give us all year, just deals like that.

"We were just a throw-in for NASCAR for a sponsor. In other words, NASCAR says, 'Well, you come in and we'll give you the Permatex 300 (a Busch race at Daytona) for a $150,000 sponsorship and we're just going to throw the Dash Series in for $10,000 for extended advertisement.' That's the way they did us. And then as NASCAR has progressed in the last, say, 10 years, they just kept shoving it aside. They just didn't have time to mess with it. They had people over it that we called, but it just seemed like when you called NASCAR and talked to the people that are supposed to be over us, they just weren't interested. It was like they were just down there to get their check from NASCAR and to heck with us. I think that was the main fall of the series, is that NASCAR never did its job."

"NASCAR is for NASCAR, and if there is a dollar around, they want most of it," says Hamby. "They weren't making any money on the Dash circuit and that's why they're dropping it. It's just money. That's the bottom line, and that's why NASCAR is dropping it."

For Triplett, the series' first president, the possible end of the Dash Series is something he doesn't like to think about, but through his experiences with NASCAR over the years and with the demand for the sport on a nationwide level, he says he understands the "changes that have to be made."

"It was something else, and it is sad when I stop and look at the souvenirs or collectables that I've got from the past," says Triplett. "It's sad that it's going to happen this way. But it's like NASCAR said, changes have to be made."