NASCAR Racing Champions Blog: Steve Grissom #31 Big Mama Meat Snacks Oldsmobile

    Welcome back to the NASCAR Racing Champions blog~ Today's post is going to be on the #31 Big Mama Meat Snacks Oldsmobile, driven by Steve Grissom during his impressive 1990 BGN season~ This diecast was only produced in promo form, and was never part of Racing Champions' standard issues~

    I don't currently own the car, and it is pretty hard to come by~ A version of the car was "misplaced", and put into the 1990-1992 packaging, for some reason with a Bobby Allison card~ These are also pretty rare, and don't usually come up for sale that often~ A loose version of the car recently came up for bid on Ebay, but a friend of mine was bidding on it, so I didn't compete with him~ That's what got me wanting to do a post on this car, so here it is~

                                            Grissom poses with the car @ Charlotte - 1990~

Steve Grissom #31 Big Mama Oldsmobile Racing Champions 1/64 NASCAR diecast blog 1990 BGN First Win

    Grissom started the 1990 BGN season with a new sponsor, "Big Mama Meat Snacks"~ This would be the only season he ran this sponsorship, but it proved to be one of his best~ I would go as far as to say that it was his best season, even though he won the championship in 1993~ Things looked good in the season opener @ Daytona, with Grissom qualifying 8th for the event, but the good times were short lived, as he was involved in the huge pile up on lap 13, knocking him out of competition, resulting in a 33rd place finish~

    Steve's first decent run in the car came four races later, in the Mountain Dew 400 @ Hickory~ He qualified 15th, but was able to pick up his first top 10 of the season, with an 8th place finish~ His next accomplishment came a couple of races later, in the U-Can-Rent 200 @ Lanier, where he picked up his first top 5 of the season, with a 5th place run~ Chuck Bown led all 200 laps of the event, dominating on his way to the checkered flag, driving the #63 Nescafe Classic Pontiac~ This is about the time Grissom's season started building momentum~

In the Roses Stores 200 @ South Boston, Grissom qualified 4th, and finished in 3rd place, behind Jeff Burton, and race winner, Chuck Bown~ He qualified 7th for the Pontiac 300 @ Nazareth, and strong all day, leading 99 laps on his way to a 5th place finish~ On to Hickory, for the Granger Select 200, Grissom qualified 4th, before settling for a 7th place finish in the end~ The race was won by Chuck Bown, who had won 3 of the last 4 races~

    Grissom on track in the #31 Big Mama Oldsmobile~

Following his brief success, he was met with a stint of bad finishes in the next three events~ He finished 27th in the Champion 300 @ Charlotte, 21st in the Budweiser 200 @ Dover, and 22nd in the Roses Stores 200 @ Rougemont, and fell from 9th, to 11th in the Series points standings~ Steve then started picking up momentum again, and was well on his way to his first career BGN victory~

After qualifying 6th for the Firecracker 200 @ Volusia County, Grissom managed to stay up front all race long, and finished in 4th place~ He finished 11th in the Carolina Pride/Budweiser 200 @ Myrtle Beach, and 8th in the True Value Oxford 250 @ Oxford, and then had a hiccup in the Budweiser 300 @ Loudon, where he qualified 29th, and finished 23rd, after battling his way to the lead, where he led for 24 laps~ 78 drivers attempted to make the field for the event, and the race was won by Tommy Ellis, in what was his final BGN victory~

Grissom qualified 2nd for the Coors 200 @ South Boston, and Jimmy Hensley won the pole for the event, in the #25 Crown/Fast Fare Oldsmobile~ Hensley led the first 17 laps, and was passed by Grissom, who led the next 41 laps, before being passed by Chuck Bown~ Bown led the next 115 laps of the race, before he was passed by Tommy Houston, who went on to win in the #6 Rose's Stores Buick~ Grissom finished in 5th place, and was in 8th place in the Series points standings~

Steve Grissom and the #31 @ Charlotte - 1990~

The next race on the schedule was the Granger Select 200 @ Dublin, and Grissom made his name in the sport with style, by winning the pole, leading 150 of the 200 laps, and winning the race, picking up the first win of his BGN career~ Chuck Bown was pretty much the only competition of the night, leading 34 laps, and finishing in second place~

The bad news for the competition was that the Grissom team was just getting started~ The next race was the Kroger 200 @ IRP, and Grissom qualified 17th for the event~ He quickly worked his way to the front, and led for 77 laps, on his way to back to back BGN series victories~ Ernie Irvan finished 2nd, driving the #75 U-Can-Rent Oldsmobile, owned by Charlie Henderson~

Grissom started 31st for the Jay Johnson 250 @ Bristol, and was able to work his way to the lead, which he held for 6 laps, before fading away to finish in 3rd place~ The race was won by Rick Mast, in the #22 Raven Boats Buick, and this was the first of 3 BGN wins for Mast during the 1990 season~ The 1990 season also marked the final time Mast would win in the series~

Steve Grissom custom Racing Champions card~

In the Autolite 200 @ Richmond, Grissom started from 4th, and worked his way to the lead, where he stayed for 82 laps, before being passed by Rick Mast for the win~ Michael Waltrip also had a good race in the #30 All-Pro Auto Parts Pontiac, as he led for 78 laps, before finishing in 3rd place~ Grissom then went on to finish 7th in the Ames/Splitfire 200 @ Dover, in a race won by Harry Gant, driving Ed Whitaker's #7 Skoal Buick~

    Steve then had a string of three bad races in a row, and he would fall from 3rd, to as low as 5th in the Series points standings~ He finished 21st @ Martinsville, in the Zerex 150, 32nd in the All Pro 300 @ Charlotte, and 26th in the NE Chevy 250 @ Loudon~ With two races remaining in the season, Grissom was going to make sure to end his time with Big Mama Meat Snacks with a bang~

    He qualified 32nd for the AC-Delco 200 @ Rockingham, but like the true race he was, he blazed his way up to the lead, leading the final four laps of the race, before taking the checkered flag~ Mark Martin dominated the day in the #1 Carolina Ford Dealers Ford, but gambled on old tires following a late caution~ He was quickly gobbled up by Grissom, who had fresh tires, and ended up finishing in 4th place~ This race was also the first official BGN start by a guy named Jeff Gordon~ He crashed out~ :P

   Grissom qualified 4th for the season finale "Winston Classic" @ Martinsville, while Chuck Bown won the pole~ The race was dominated by Kenny Wallace, who was driving the #36 Cox Treated Lumber Pontiac~ He led for 107 laps, but ran out of gas with three laps to go, handing the lead over to Grissom, who led the final 3 laps (his only laps led during the race) on his way to the checkered flag~ He ended the season 3rd in points, with 1 pole, 4 wins, 11 top 5's, and 15 top 10's, having led a career high of 486 laps throughout the year~

    Steve Grissom #31 Big Mama Meat Snacks Oldsmobile~

Click pics to enlarge~

Even though this diecast is usually pretty poor quality, I'm a big fan of this car~ I really don't understand why Big Mama didn't stay with the team following their success, but I'm guessing it was a financial decision~ I dolled this car up for the post, it's actually pretty ratty looking, even for the early Racing Champions days~

I'm going to give this car a D+ on the Racing Champions quality scale, because it's flawed all to pieces, pretty much every one of them that I've seen look like rejects~ I do like the car, and would love one for my collection, but I'm going to have to find a decent version before I invest any money into it~ I'm pretty sure from pictures that I've seen that the little pig logo is just a sticker, and it tends to yellow over time, and peel up, which is why I hated cars with sticker logos~

Another reason for the low score, is this car never came with a card~ I had to custom make the one shown, and I do love that card, I just wish it originally came with the car~ Whenever I get this car, I'm taking it out of the promo package, and getting the card printed for it, and putting it in a 1990 standard issue package~ I just think it will look so much better like that~

**Bonus car** DIY Food Country Matchbox Convoy custom set~

Brad Teauge #75 Food Country Matchbox Convoy 1/64 NASCAR diecast blog Custom

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you, I just posted a Matchbox set on the Racing Champions blog~ I got bored yesterday, and just decided to Photoshop this up, just out of curiosity, and I liked it so much, I just had to share it with y'all here on the blog~ I'm now in the process of having this set custom made, but I'd say it will be a year or so before the finished product arrives~ I'll be sure to post pictures when that time comes~

I've always loved these old Matchbox Convoy sets, and I always wondered why Bill Elliott's Convoy set came with a truck, instead of a van, or extra car~ I think this set looks amazing, although I got the color a bit off on the car.. it all started out as solid white diecasts, so I had to paint it all, and I'm not the greatest at doing that, so that's just the best I could do~ After I got done, I found the van, and added it into the picture after I was done dolling it up~

Brad Teague and the Food Country team were a huge part of my childhood, and I'll always be dreaming up little Food Country diecasts, probably until the day I die~ They had such awesome paint schemes back in the day, though I wasn't fond of the white car years~ I love the car hauler from this set!~ It's the coolest looking Matchbox hauler I've ever seen, and I just can't wait until it's a reality~

Thank you all for once again stopping by the blog here!~ I appreciate the emails that you send, and enjoy helping others learn more about Racing Champions diecasts, as well as finding out things that I never knew about them~ Please click the "follow" button at the top right hand side of this page, and share this post on any social media sites that you're a part of~ Below are some videos from Steve's career, enjoy them, and I'll see ya' next time, here on the NASCAR Racing Champions Blog!~ :)

Finish of the 1990 Kroger 200~ Grissom win~