Gary Bradberry #19 Child Support Recovery Ford

    Today's blog post is a somewhat special one, as it is the 50th post I've done~ So I decided I'd do it on one of my favorite cars, the #19 Child Support Recovery Ford, driven by the 1994 ARCA series champion, Gary Bradberry~

    Before we get into Bradberry's time in the car, I'd like to point out that Loy Allen Jr. was actually the first driver to run the Child Support car, doing so in the 1997 Daytona 500, where the car was also co-sponsored by Remington Arms~ Allen qualified 33rd, and finished in 26th, 2 laps off the pace of race winner Jeff Gordon~ He raced it again in the Goodwrench Services 400 @ Rockingham, where he qualified 42nd in the 43 car field, and finished last, after clutch issues~ After the Rockingham race, Allen was let go from the team, and replaced by Bradberry~

     Bradberry's first race in the car came in the Pontiac Excitement 400 @ Richmond, where he rolled off dead last in the field of 43, and finished 38th, 11 laps off the pace of race winner Rusty Wallace~ He then qualified 34th in the Primestar 500 @ Atlanta, but crashed out on lap 252, resulting in a 40th place finish~

    The next race on the schedule was the TranSouth Financial 400 @ Darlington, where Bradberry had his best qualifying position of the season, starting 14th, but was plagued with issues throughout the race, resulting in a 38th place finish~ Gary failed to qualify for the Interstate Batteries 500 @ Fort Worth, and next raced in the Food City 500 @ Bristol, where he qualified and finished in the 37th position~ He then failed to qualify for the Goody's Headache Powder 500 @ Martinsville~

                                              Postcard of the Child Support Recovery car~

    The next race on the schedule was the Save Mart Supermarkets 300 @ Sears Point, and this is the race I gained the most respect for Bradberry~ He started 38th, and finished 43rd in the 44 car field, but what impresses me, is the people he beat out to get into the field~ Long time vets like Rick Mast, Joe Nemechek, Robert Pressley, Chad Little, Dick Trickle, David Green, and a host of other drivers~ There were 56 drivers attempting to make the race, so just to get in goes a long way on Bradberry's part~

    Moving on to the Winston 500 @ Talladega, Gary again failed to make the field~ He raced again in the Coca-Cola 600 @ Charlotte, where he rolled off 38th, and finished 31st~ Sadly, this was his career best finish in the Child Support car~ In the Miller 500 @ Dover, Bradberry started 42nd in the 43 car field, and finished 35th, due to clutch issues~

    The final race he made in the Child Support car came in the Pocono 500 @ Pocono, where he started 36th, and finished 4 laps down, in the 33rd position~ His final attempt in the car came in the Miller 400 @ Michigan, he failed to make the field, and was released by the team~ He ran several more races during the season, driving for Jim Wilson's #78 Hanes team~

                                        Gary Bradberry #19 Child Support Recovery Ford~

                                                             Click pics to enlarge~

     This is by FAR the oddest sponsor for a NASCAR team that I think I've ever seen~ As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it in my collection~ Now, if I could only find one of those Team Child Support hats, I'd be in business~ :) As far as the look of the car goes, it's basically hideous, and utterly bland~ The silly sponsor is all its really got going for it~ The card though, is classic~ Gary stares off into the horizon with his beady little eyes, in that Team Child Support hat, like a true champ.. probably after finishing 37th~ :P

    In all around appeal, I give this car a B+ rating on the Racing Champions quality scale~ As I've said before, I'm not a fan of the larger tires RC used during later releases, and the paint job is a bit shoddy, especially in the blue areas~ As you'd imagine, Bradberry's presence in the NASCAR scene was very small.. so I was able to find only 1 usable video related to him~ I'll post it below, along with a few random NASCAR videos to fill the gap~ Thank you all for visiting the blog, and remember to pay your child support, or you may just get a visit from Gary Bradberry~ :P

                                           2000 DirecTV 500 - Bradberry being Bradberry~

                                                                Funny NASCAR fails~

                                                     Unusual moments in NASCAR~

                                                         WTF moments in NASCAR~