HICKORY, N.C. — There’s always been a connection between short-track racing and big-time NASCAR stock car racing.
That connection will be on display during the fifth Throwback 276 on July 30 at the legendary .363-mile oval.
With throwback paint schemes in abundance, CARS Tour Late Model Stock regular Chad McCumbee is ready to pilot a car that throws back to the 1979 Daytona 500 — the race that helped NASCAR emerge on the national sports landscape.
McCumbee, driver of the No. 1 in the Late Model Stock Car division, will honor NASCAR legend Donnie Allison, who helped propel the 37-year-old McCumbee into a career in racing.
The scheme will don the colors of the No. 1 1979 Oldsmobile 442 that Allison drove for famed car owner Hoss Ellington, including the simple Hawaiian Tropic logo and crimson red paint.
“Early in my career, the first stock car if you will, that we moved to after go-karting was the Allison Legacy Series,” McCumbee said. “Really and truly, I feel like that was probably the first pivotal moment in my career, because Donnie (Allison), I think was the first guy who told myself and my father that, ‘Hey, you can do this as a career, and you should pursue it.’
“So I think that his tutoring and mentoring was certainly what made me push to be involved in motorsports, and pursue a driving career, and this be my path,” McCumbee continued. “(I) just wanted to do that, because I felt like that Donnie’s coaching and his mentoring and his belief in me is what kind of pushed me to move to Charlotte and pursue that in 2002 when I moved up there. Him and Andy Hillenburg really were the two main guys outside of my family that really helped me in this sport to get things going early on in my career.”
McCumbee enters the Throwback 276 third in the standings with one victory this season.
The Throwback 276 features both the Late Model Stock division and Pro Late Models and will be broadcast LIVE by SPEED SPORT affiliate CARSTour.TV.