Thursday, July 30, 2015

Jay Fogleman #5 Innkeeper Buick

    Greetings once again fellow Racing Champions enthusiast~ Today I'll be reviewing Jay Fogleman's #5 Innkeeper Buick that he ran in 1991~ Jay ran this car, owned by the legendary Sam Ard, in 4 races during the 1991 season~ Ard's career ended following a vicious crash in 1984 at the North Carolina Speedway, which left him with severe head trauma~ After the crash, he began fielding cars for other drivers~ Fogleman first raced for Ard during the 1989 season, where he ran 6 races, with a best finish of 11th @ Hickory in the Pepsi 200, driving the #5 Winner's Circle Buick~

     Jay again drove for Ard in the 1991 season, this time in the Innkeeper car~ His first race came in the 14th race of the season, the Roses Stores 300 @ Rougemont, where he qualified 6th in the 31 car field, and finished 11th, 3 laps off the pace of race winner Robert Pressley~ He next raced in the 20th event of the season, the Coors Light 300 @ South Boston, qualifying 17th in the 28 car field,  and came home in the 8th position, 2 laps behind race winner Steve Grissom~

                                  Richard Lasater also drove the Innkeeper car below in 1992~
Jay Fogleman #5 Innkeeper Racing Champions 1/64 NASCAR diecast Richard Lasater

    Fogleman next raced the car 3 races later in the Texas Pete 300 @ Rougemont, where he rolled off 13th in the 30 car field, and drove the car to an 8th place finish after getting involved in a crash near the end of the race, and finishing 3 laps off the pace of race winner Jimmy Hensley~ His final ride in the car came in the final even of the season, the Winston Classic 200 @ Martinsville~ Jay qualified 11th in the 32 car field, and finished 13th, 3 laps behind race winner Harry Gant~ This race also was known for being the only time Jeff Gordon ever drove an Oldsmobile, as he crashed his primary car and had to drive Bobby Labonte's back up car~

    Jay ended his BGN career with 19 starts spanning 6 seasons, with 0 poles, 0 wins, 0 top 5's, and 2 top 10's (South Boston and Rougemont in 1991)~ He led a total of 51 laps, all coming in the 1989 Texas Pete 200 @ Rougemont~ His race winnings for his career totaled $40,420, with 22,000 of that coming in his final 2 starts of his career in 2000 @ South Boston and Myrtle Beach~

                                                     Jay Fogleman #5 Innkeeper Buick~
Jay Fogleman #5 Innkeeper Racing Champions 1/64 NASCAR diecast blog BGN
                                                              Click pics to enlarge~
Jay Fogleman #5 Innkeeper Racing Champions 1/64 NASCAR diecast blog BGN

                                          Promo card with white card back~ Different card~
Jay Fogleman #5 Innkeeper Buick Racing Champions white 1992 promo diecast 1/64 blog NASCAR

                                                         
     Even though he didn't run but 4 races in this car, this is again one of my favorite Racing Champions cars~ The bright yellow really pops on the display shelf among the other cars, and the Innkeeper logo looks pretty cool too~ When I was a kid, I banged this car to pieces having pretend races on the floor~ I used to let him win a lot of those races~

    One of my favorite things about this car is the logo on the deck lid reading "Drug Abuse A race you can't win"~ I always thought that was cool~ Jay kind of looks silly in the picture for the card~ He reminds me of a nerdy Dad~ lol~ All in all, I easily give this car an A+ rating~ Most of the Innkeeper cars I see have Racing Champions tires, but this one has Goodyear's on it~ This doesn't make it more rare.. it's just that they had some left over after they switched to putting Goodyear's on the cars, so this is one of the later models~

    Looking back on Jay's BGN career, it's kind of hard to figure out why he never got a solid ride~ He averaged a 16th place start, and 17th place finish for his career.. numbers that are definitely worthy of getting a decent ride, it just never panned out for him~

     He continued racing following his stint in BGN, and is known as a short track ace who still races Late Models~ His son Tate also races~ I was only able to find 1 video of Jay's career, a full race of the 1991 Winston Classic~ I have added it below, along with some videos of Jay's career in PASS South Super Late Models~ Thanks for stopping by the blog!~ Your support is greatly appreciated!~ :)

                                                        1991 Winston Classic (full race)~

                                    Victory lane interview with Daniel Hemric and Fogleman~

                                                          Dogwood 150 Fogleman win~

                                               1992 Hickory (Fogleman spin) #00 car~

5 comments:

  1. The Goodyear tires tell me that this is a 1992 issue- back in those days RC would put a car into the lineup and keep it there for more than just that season that it ran in. This car was also available as a promo, which was just the regular release and regular card on a yellow back instead of black. I have both and the car and card is identical.

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    1. Yeah, I've got the yellow promo one too~ I need to add it to the post~

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    2. Well, instead of posting the yellow one you mentioned, I posted the more rare white card back version of it~ Also, the promo one doesn't have the same card as the standard issue~ It has the card that this white card back promo has~ The car is the same, though... so you got that much right~ :P

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  2. Do you know what model Buick this car is supposed to be?

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    1. I'm pretty sure it was a Buick Regal~ Not 100% on that, though~

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