Back 40 Racing

Editor

NASCAR driver Carl Edwards told me about Back 40 Racing when I chatted with him at Dover this weekend—basically, it’s an informal field-racing series in which competitors run cars they’ve pulled out of the junkyard. Carl was more involved in Back 40 before full-time racing duties took over—it bears the same name as his record label—but apparently, he still goes out racing with them once in awhile. And yeah, running junker cars through back fields against the current Sprint Cup Series points leader sounds like my idea of a total blast! Check out video of a typical Back 40 lap, below.

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Posted at 9:43 am in Carl Edwards, Dover International Speedway, Jen Dunnaway, Junkyard, Motorsports, NASCAR

Comments

Don
Sep 27, 2008 at 5:33 am

Hey Y’all! What You are witnessing her is nothing new at all! As a matter of fact, this is just a bit older than NASCAR!.
This is the purest form of Stock Car Racing there is. The 200 MPH dayglo billboards at the Lowes Motor Speedway are a mere shadow of the 1939 Ford V8s that used to circle plowed fields. Farmers were only to happy to open a portion of thier land to a bunch of dusty crusty boys that hauled shine for a living. On Sundays, they would spend the afternoon pleasuring large crowds that paid the farmers for the right to witness this very spectacle you see here!
Big Bill France used to drive in those races, but dreamed of a venture where honest races could be done on real tracks meant solely for the idea of continuing Stock Car Races. After all, eventually, the farmer would want his land back to actually … you know… farm…
Dirt tracks became the norm. Paving tracks started with open wheel racers….Mostly the tracks were planks, or bricks. Asphalt wouldnt appear until well into the 1950s…
Any how, its great that a bunch of you have actually taken part in this sport. Sure the speeds are lower because of the loose dirt…But still, you are taking part in a very organic form of true Stock Car Racing. Perhaps someone somewhere will organize this into an event that people could come watch…As long as it doesn’t become too regulated. But always, Safty First…Other than that….Spray some dirt this way!

The History of NASCAR is a field of study of mine. Drop by a Web Site that Fireball22 and I have built. http://www.nascar-gas.com
You will see what I have been going on about…
Peace

SpeedCanHurt
Sep 26, 2008 at 4:16 am

We do that up where I live, we grab a bunch of old crappy cars and hit some nice big paddocks. Great fun, but it’s pretty damn tough on the cars.

Chuck
Sep 26, 2008 at 1:03 am

THATS WICKED! DartDoctor and I would be out in a field right now if I knew of one big enough!

Anonymous
Sep 25, 2008 at 6:37 pm

i broke my finger doing exactly that last friday, i cant type or write well but its sooo worthit

kap0w
Sep 25, 2008 at 4:54 pm

Get those guys to enter the GRM 2008 challenge and then we’re talkin!

Anonymous
Sep 25, 2008 at 3:48 pm

Haha! That’s sick. Wish I had some property to go tear up like that! Reminds me of Days of Thunder when they trash those two rental cars.

messiahofnone
Sep 25, 2008 at 7:20 am

Get it! hell yeah thats how we used to do it back on the farm growin up, nothin like a set of terra-tires on an old fairlane or olds!

Oafman
Sep 24, 2008 at 2:19 pm

That looks like fun to me. Now if I only knew someone with a field that big…

John Gelnett
Sep 24, 2008 at 1:42 pm

Hell yeah that looks like it would be a blast!

Mr AMC1
Sep 24, 2008 at 12:04 pm

BAck 40 Racing is awesome! Sign me up. Thanks for the NASCAR coverage, Jen.