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News13’s Stephen Gunter is committed to giving you stories of the Panhandle’s top athletes, intriguing match-ups and unusual sports you may not even know exist.
sgunter@wmbb.com

Monday, January 29, 2007

Carter, legendary crew chief, returning to racing

Up at this end of NASCAR’s long, long Boulevard of Broken Dreams - which stretches past what used to be Butch Mock’s old shop, Chuck Rider’s old place, the Michael Kranefuss bazaar, Ricky Rudd’s, Jim Smith’s and others who didn’t quite make it to 2007 - Travis Carter is suddenly busy again.

Carter is rooting out the old ghosts in his own place, turning the lights back on and ordering more propane for his Peachtree Road operation. It’s been more than 30 years since Carter, then just a 23-year-old farm boy fresh from the Sandhills peach orchards around Ellerbe, pulled off the Miracle on U.S 1. He rebuilt Benny Parsons’ badly damaged Chevy, with the help of more than a few friends, in the final race of the season to give Parsons just enough to win the 1973 NASCAR championship.

“The 13th lap, the 13th lap,” Carter said, reflecting on an early-race crash that appeared to doom their title bid ... until the rest of the NASCAR garage jumped in to help with repairs.

“It was a long time ago ... and we were just a bunch of country guys working on cars.

“Looking back, when I went to (Parsons’ ) funeral the other day, in all my years I never really stopped to appreciate what we really accomplished, and what it was really worth. But now I understand that on that day I probably realized that more than any other day in my whole life.”

Carter now has the calling to take Kyle Krisiloff, 20, under his wing. The call comes from Carl Haas, a wealthy Indy-car man, Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Mari Hulman George, and Paul Newman. The cars will be Fords, with Doug Yates’ horsepower.

When last seen anywhere close to a NASCAR race, Carter was in Miami last fall, but not for the Homestead finale, rather just some personal business. Carter had to call it quits back in 2003 when he lost the National Guard’s Cup sponsorship and with it driver Todd Bodine; he tried to put together a novel package with Japanese racer Hideo Fukuyama, but that deal fell through. So Carter has spent the past three years mentoring his son, Matt.

But now Carter has dusted off his desk, pushed that classic red-and-cream puff ‘56 Ford Fairlane back onto the showroom floor, and straightened all those famous photos of the glory days. Parsons here, there and yon, the inimitable Jimmy Spencer, Bodine, and of course Hal (Smokey and the Bandit) Needham and Harry Gant.

At the moment this is just a Busch deal. But then, Carter said this is not a year he would care to be a Cup owner again, with all the financial and technology chaos, with NASCAR’s expensive car of tomorrow and Toyota’s entry as a fourth Nextel Cup manufacturer.

Getting to Las Vegas next week for NASCAR’s major Busch tour test will be headache enough for Carter and Krisiloff, given the problems with the new asphalt and new tires out there on the new, higher banking and radically faster speeds. “The way they put the asphalt down, the cars are pushing the asphalt and making bigger and bigger bumps, the way the cars are going into the corner, with those soft springs,” Krisiloff said. “I’ve talked to some people who were just out there and they say the entry to the corner is difficult.

“I’ve run that tire before; it’s the Charlotte tire, very hard, and with not much forgiveness.”

Krisiloff certainly has good racing genes - Mari Hulman George is his grandmother. So why not open-wheel Indy cars? “Longevity, and this is where it’s happening in motor sports,” Krisiloff said. “This just looks like a better opportunity. This will be tough, but I think in the long run this is the place to be. So, at the end of 2003, when I graduated from high school, and my godfather, Rick Wetzel, told me Rick Hendrick was looking for development drivers, I moved down here.”

This is an opportunity not only for Krisiloff, but also for Carter to show he still has what it takes. “Now I know l I can do it, and Kyle knows he can do it,” Carter said.

So, is Carter really psyched for this? Is he finally rejuvenated?

“We’ve got a lot of good people helping with this operation that we didn’t have before,” Carter said. “It may be strange, but at this time of the season you always feel you’ve got the whole world on your shoulders. But this time I don’t feel that, because we’ve got so many good people helping us. I know it’s a tough task ahead. But we’ve got good people, and that makes it easier.

“And it’s coming together rather quickly.”

Krisiloff himself seems remarkably mature. He may not have been around NASCAR long, but he has an impressive ‘awareness’ about this sport, from the years working with his dad, Steve, who raced Indy-cars 13 years (finishing a career-best fourth in the 500) and helping manage Indy-car teams.

Krisiloff won an ARCA race at Chi-cagoland in 2005, along with seconds at Talladega and Kansas, so he’s a big-track kind of guy.

“I like to be involved so I know what’s going on ...and if something goes wrong it’s partly my fault and I can’t just get mad at people,” Krisiloff said. “It makes you appreciate getting to the track and getting in the car. It should make me a better driver.

“We haven’t had as much time to get our stuff together as we’d like, but we ran good at Daytona last year, and I think we can race smart. It’s about survival. We have to finish races, because we don’t have a lot of cars. I can’t afford to wad up any cars the first half of the year. But then, hopefully, the second half of the season we can gear up for next year.

“We know we’ve bitten off a lot, but we’re up for it.”

• Mike Mulhern can be reached at .

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