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~

                 
   
   

Loy Allen Jr. #19 Hooters Ford

    Hello and welcome back to the NASCAR Racing Champions diecast blog~ In today's post, I'm going to be looking back on Loy Allen Jr.'s time in the #19 Hooters Ford, owned by Mark Smith~ Allen drove this car in 19 races during the 1994 Winston Cup season, as well as failed to qualify for another twelve~

                                                      Allen poses with the Hooters Ford~

     Of all the drivers I can recall, Loy Allen Jr. stands out as one of the biggest busts in NASCAR history~ During his 6 year Cup career, which spanned a total of 48 races, Allen amassed a total of 3 poles (Daytona, Atlanta, Michigan), all coming in 1994, 1 top 10 (Talladega), and 29 DNQ's, including 12 during his rookie campaign alone~  His biggest accomplishment was winning the pole for the 1994 Daytona 500, although he never led a lap of the race~

                                                           Allen celebrates a pole win~

 
    Allen suffered a severe neck injury, and broken shoulder during the 1996 Goodwrench Service 400 at Rockingham, halting the race for 9 minutes and 15 seconds while he was removed from his car and air lifted to a Charlotte medical center~  After this accident, Allen never really bounced back.. making only sporadic starts the rest of his career~ He ran his final 2 races in 1999 for SBIII Motorsports, finishing 40th in both events~ He was replaced by Hut Stricklin, and never raced again~

                                             Loy Allen #19 Hooters Ford Thunderbird~

                                                               Click pics to enlarge~

  

      As you can see in the photos, they did a great job with this car~ All the paint is pristine, and the card compliments it nicely~ The car has Hoosier tires, whereas usually with R.C. cars, the tires will say "Racing Champions"~ Allen changed to Goodyear tires for the 94 Daytona 500 due to drivers being uneasy about being around drivers who chose Hoosiers, due to the recent deaths of both Neil Bonnett, and Rodney Orr~

   There was a lot of hype when Loy Allen first came into NASCAR~ I can remember people feeling like he was given a free ride to the top, and wasn't worthy of being in NASCAR's top division~ And perhaps they're right.. Allen lucked into his ride with an ARCA win in a car that was sponsored for 2 races by Hooter's~ The Hooters execs were in the stands that day, and the rest is history~ Sadly for Allen, it wasn't much good history~ Now on to the bonus car~

                                **BONUS CAR** Coy Allen #37 Naturally Fresh Foods Ford~

    This was the car Loy drove during his first Cup races~ His best race in the car came in the 1993 "DieHard 500" @ Talladega, where he started 18th, and finished 26th~ Along with the 4 races he made in this car, he also failed to qualify for 3 more races~ (Michigan, North Wilkesboro, Charlotte)~

    This car was made by Matchbox, and was never released by Racing Champions~ As you can see, they misspelled his name, calling him "Coy" instead of Loy~ I'm not a big fan of Matchbox cars, but I do pick them up if Racing Champions didn't make a version of the car~ It's cool to have a diecast of Loy's very first Winston Cup car~ Thanks for stopping by the blog again!~ Below are some videos from Loy's career... enjoy them, and until next time.. Stay alive, don't drink and drive!~ :)

                                                       Loy on the pole @ Daytona 1994~

1994 Food World 300~

                                                                    1996 Napa 500 Atlanta~

                                          1996 Goodwrench 400 Rockingham (Skip to 3:55)