Butch's first race in the Food Country car came in the 1991 running of the True Value 250 @ Oxford, where he qualified in the 31st position, and finished 22nd~ He ran the remainder of the 1991 season with the team, with a best finish of 3rd in the Texas Pete 300 @ Rougemont~
Miller grabbed his first pole with the team in the SplitFire 200 @ Dover, where he finished in 12th~ In his 13 races with the team that season, Miller scored 4 top 10's, and failed to qualify for the All Pro 300 @ Charlotte~ He was finished the season 16th in the final points standings~
The Food Country team in 1989 with driver Rick Wilson~
The 1992 season would be the only full season Miller ran with the Food Country team, and he did quite well in the car that year~ He picked up his first top 10 of the season in the Miller 200 @ Martinsville, finishing in the 7th position~ He followed that up a week later with a 3rd place finish in the Mark III Vans 200 @ Darlington~ The next week @ Bristol for the Budweiser 250, Miller put the car on the pole, but finished 23rd after having issues with the car, along with horrid pit stops, a trademark of the Food Country team~
The next race on the schedule was the Mountain Dew 300 @ Hickory, where Miller qualified, and finished in the 9th position~ In the 13th event of the season, the Goodwrench 200 @ Dover, Miller picked up another solid top 10 finish, coming home in 7th place~ The following race was the Roses Stores 300 @ Rougemont, and Miller again scored a top 10, finishing in 8th place~
His next decent run came in the 20th event on the schedule, the Kroger 200 @ IRP, where he drove to an impressive 4th place finish~ Miller put the car on the pole again in the Winston Classic @ Martinsville, and finished 3rd in the race, after having to come from the rear of the field following a lap 1 incident~ In the season finale @ Hickory, Miller finished in the 2nd position, behind race winner Bobby Labonte~ At seasons end, Miller had accumulated 4 top 5's, 10 top 10's, and 2 poles, while finishing a career best 7th in the final points standings~
The remains of a car similar to the one Miller drover~
Miller signed on with the team again for the 1993 season, and was off to a great start again, finishing 12th in the season opener @ Daytona, and following that up with a 9th place finish in the Goodwrench 200 @ Rockingham~ The next race was the Hardee's 200 @ Richmond, where Miller finished 10th~ In the 7th event of the season, the Roses Stores 300 @ Rougemont, Miller finished in 5th place~ The following race @ Martinsville, he scored what would be his final pole in the car, but finished 20th due to engine failure~ In the Laneco 200 @ Nazareth, Miller picked up what would be his final top 5 in the car, finishing in 5th place~ In his final race of the season, the Champion 300 @ Charlotte, he finished 15th~
Now, this is where I get mad~ Due to an extremely boneheaded move by then car owner Charlie Henderson, Miller was let go after only 10 races, while he was 11th in the points standings~ He was replaced for the rest of the season by a slew of middle of the pack drivers that includes Rick Wilson, Scott Lagasse, Glenn Jarrett, Jimmy Hensley, and Jim Bown~ This is where the Food Country team basically met their demise, as they were field fillers for the remainder of their time in the BGN series~ From 1989 until this point, they had built a team that was very capable of winning races, if not for their horrible pit stops~ I believe the guys at the shop gave up on Henderson after the horrible call to fire Miller 10 races into the season~
Butch Miller #75 Food Country/Tombstone car~
Butch was called back to race for the team again in 2002, but by this time, the team was not even close to being competitive anymore~~ In 11 races, Miller's best finish was a 16th place @ Nashville~ He ran his final race for the team in the Sam's Town 250 @ Memphis, and called it quits with them for good~
Things eventually got so bad by 2007 that the team folded, after making only 1 race with driver Caleb Holman~ They are currently running in the Truck Series with Parker Kligerman as their driver, with 1 win thus far~
Butch Miller #75 Food Country USA Oldsmobile~
This car was one of my shining moments as a child~ My father was a supervisor for Food Country for 21 years, so I grew up with Food Country being a very big part of my life~ The picture on the card was taken at the team race shop in Abingdon Virginia, a place I spent a lot of time in as a kid~
Racing Champions did a superb job on this car, and it looks exactly as the real car did on the track~ I always loved the gold rims they ran, and was happy to see them on the RC car as well~ This was my favorite paint scheme used by the team, and I give this car an A+ on the Racing Champions quality scale~
Charlie Henderson has since became Chairman of the Board, handing leadership of the company down to his son, Don Henderson~ Don is a graduate of Emory & Henry College, and has many years in the grocery store business, working his way up through the company to present day, where he is now at the full helm of day to day business with the company~
Food Country continues to expand into new markets, with stores now located in Max Meadows, Va., and New Castle, Va~
Below I have added some clips of the Food Country car from back in the day~ As always, I thank you all for visiting the blog, and I hope you have a wonderful day~ I'll see ya' next time~
**Bonus Car** Rick Wilson's 1995 Food Country Ford~ Custom~
Butch Miller spins @ Volusia County~
I really like Butch Miller for some time, I even bought myself the nascar raybestos truck from b.miller in racing champions, my last request and to buy myself diecats #75 from racing champions from miller!
ReplyDeletea big big thank you for your blog homie greetings from France and GOD BLESS YOU