Jerry Glanville #56 Atlanta Falcons Buick

    To many current NASCAR fans, Jerry Glanville isn't really a name that rings a bell~ His name probably isn't too memorable to many NFL fans either, though he's more known for his tenure as an NFL coach than anything else~ But there was a time when Jerry Glanville was both an NFL coach, and a NASCAR driver~ In 1992, at 50 years old, Glanville entered his first BGN race, and today, I'll share with you the outcome of that dreadful, yet amazing event~

    Although you wouldn't know it from his on-track performance, Glanville was taught by Dale Earnhardt Sr. at Richmond International Raceway~ His first attempt to start a BGN race came in the Nestle 300 @ Lanier Speedway in Gainesville Georgia on Saturday, April 25th, 1992, in which he failed to qualify~

    At basically any other track, Glanville would have made the field.. but Lanier was a small, .375 mile track, which only fielded 28 cars~ There were 29 entries scheduled to qualify, and Glanville was the slowest, thus being the only driver to DNQ~ Track owner Bud Lunsford pleaded with NASCAR to let Jerry into the race, being the lone qualifier, but NASCAR wouldn't allow it~ This was also the final race ran at Lanier Speedway, as well as the first and only major NASCAR even for Brad Sorenson, Reed's father~

                                                          Jerry Glanville trading card~

    Jerry made his first official start in the Roses Stores 300 @ Orange County Speedway in Rougemont NC, on Saturday, June 6th, 1992~ He qualified 26th in the field of 29 cars, and finished in the 22nd position, after being involved in a crash on lap 211~ His earnings for this race were a measly 890 dollars~ Robert Pressley was the race winner~

    Glanville's next race was the Carolina Pride/Budweiser 200 @ Myrtle Beach Speedway, in which he qualified 27th in the 29 car field, and finished 28th, after a lap 5 crash involving himself, and Jason Keller~ His earnings for this event were 1,005 dollars~ The amazing thing about this race, was the fact that race winner, Jimmy Spencer came from 3 laps down to win the event, driving for Dick Moroso, in his son's former BGN car~ Rob Moroso got his first career BGN victory at this very track, and this was the first win for the team since Rob's passing~

                                              Back of the promo packaging for Jerry's car~

    Jerry's final race in the #56 Atlanta Falcons Buick came in the X-1R Firecracker 200 @ Volusia County Speedway in Barberville, Florida~ Glanville qualified the car 23rd, which sounds nice.. but the field was only 23 cars~ He managed to crawl to his first and only top 20, finishing 20th, 9 laps off the pace of race winner Steve Grissom~

    This was also the final race ran at Volusia County for the BGN series, and the first career start for David Bonnett, Neil's son, who finishing 9th, his best career BGN finish~ There were 15 cautions in the race, largely due to the fact that huge chunks of asphalt were coming apart all over the track, causing cars to hit the ruts left behind, leading to multiple crashes~

                                               Jerry Glanville #56 Atlanta Falcons Buick~

                                                                 Click pics to enlarge~

                                   

                                                                  Rear of the car~

    This car is cool on so many levels~ I never was much of an Atlanta Falcons fan, but I did like their logo back then, and I was a Deion Sanders fan~ I especially liked their red alternate helmets.. anyway.. back to the car~ I don't think I've ever seen a black RC car this shiny~ It's like they put super gloss on it~ The back of the car shows a secondary sponsor for Racing Radios~ I think the yellow around the numbers should have been red, but other than that it's a great looking car~

    The card is one of the coolest ones RC ever produced~ While on the stand with the car, it looks like Jerry is popping out of the hood of the car, driving the wrong way~ That helmet is one of the coolest helmets ever~ Jerry kinda looks like George Costanza from Seinfeld in the pic too, which is also amusing~ Overall, I give this car an A+ rating on the Racing Champions quality scale, and I still can't believe they made such a thing, though I'm pleased they did~ :)

    Although his time in the car was brief, I was able to find 1 video of Glanville in the Falcons car, and it was just uploaded by someone I'm subscribed to on Youtube yesterday oddly enough~ Thank you, NascarNixon of Youtube for the upload~ :) I've also added a couple other videos featuring Glanville in various cars/trucks that I was able to find~ Thank you all for stopping by the ol' blog, I'll see ya' on the next post~

                                                         Glanville's career in a nutshell~

                                                       Glanville almost dies from a fire~

                                               Glanville crashes a truck: Louisville 1995~

                                             Glanville spins in a truck: Richmond 1995~