NASCAR Racing Champions Blog: Valleydale

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Stub Fadden #16 NAPA Buick

    Hiya folks, welcome back to the blog~ Today's post has a bit of a unique story to it, and I'll do my best to tell it right~ We're gonna be looking at Stub Fadden's #16 NAPA Buick, which he drove in 2 BGN races during 1994, and 1995~ He also drove the car in the Busch East Series, where he had more success~

    Since he only ran the NAPA car in 2 BGN events, I'll write about both of those, and then delve into his 1994 Busch East Series season, which was his best season with the NAPA sponsor~ He ran NAPA cars in the Busch East Series until the end of the 1998 season~ Stub won over 230 feature races, during his five decade long career, and was always a threat on the short tracks~

    Stub Fadden on the track in the #16 NAPA Buick~

   Stub was a native of New Hampshire, born in North Haverhill, on October 18th, 1933~ He ran his first race in the NAPA Buick @ Loudon, in the 1994 NE Chevy 250~ Of the 65 cars trying to make the 44 car field, Fadden qualified in 25th place~ He was collected in a crash on lap 65, when Kenny Wallace spun out race leader Randy LaJoie, who then collected Dale Earnhardt, Mike Wallace, and Fadden, who was being lapped by the leaders at the time of the incident~

    The race was probably most well known as the first and only BGN win for long time racer, Derrike Cope, who was driving a very low funded car~ Bobby Dotter also had a great race, finishing runner up to Cope~ Fadden finished the race in 38th place, and was awarded $4,600 for his effort~ The crew chief for all of his BGN series starts, as far as I know, was Frank Stoddard~

                                                        Stub Fadden promo from 1995~

Fadden was back at Loudon the following season, for the 1995 NE Chevy Dealers 250, in what would be his final BGN series race~ 58 drivers attempted to make the field, and Stub barely squeaked his way into the 43 car field, with a 42nd place starting position~ Mike McLaughlin won the pole, in the #34 French's Mustard Chevrolet~

Stub managed to finish the race, and bring the car home in one piece, but he did so six laps down to race winner Chad Little, who was driving the #23 Bayer Ford~ Busch North driver Tom Bolles picked up the first of 2 BGN career top 10's, with a 9th place effort~ Stub finished in 27th, and was awarded $6,520 in race winnings~ Although this was the end of his BGN career, Stub raced in the Busch East Series until 2003, at the age of 69~

Stub with the #16 NAPA Chevy - 1996 Busch East Series~

    The 1994 Busch East Series season was by far his best in that series, which is pretty awesome, considering he was 60 years old at the time~ He started the season out in the Tri-State Megabucks Twin 125's @ Loudon, where he started 5th in the 50 car field, and came home in 3rd place~ Two races later, in the Busch 150 @ Monadnock, Stub finished in 7th place in his #16 NAPA Buick~

    Fadden qualified 3rd in the Fisher Snowplow/Minute Mount 150 @ Williamson, and brought the car home in 10th place~ In the Busch 150 @ Holland, he again had a top 10 finish, with an 8th place run~ He matched that finish in the Watkins Glen 125, where he again finished in the 8th spot~

   The Stubster then qualified 4th for the Chevy 200 @ Jennerstown~ He went on to lead 148 laps of the 200 lap event, on his way to his first victory of the season~ He passed Martin Truex Sr. on lap 70, and never looked back~ Stub finished 3rd in the Auto Palace/Slick 50 150 @ Loudon, and also finished 3rd in the GMC Truck 150 @ White Mountain, after starting from the outside pole~

      The front of Stub's Racing Champions card~

Notice it doesn't have a signature.. what's with that?~

Stubby won the pole for the "Scranton Pontiac - GMC/NAPA 100" @ Riverside Park, but had issues with the car during the race, and only managed an 18th place finish in the event~ Jerry Marquis ended up winning the race, in the #23 Temporary Environmental Technicians Buick, followed by Glenn Sullivan, in the #34 Christy's Markets Chevrolet, and Bobby Dragon's #71 Talarico Dealerships Chevrolet finished in the 3rd spot~

The next race on the schedule was the Bud 200 @ Lee Speedway in New Hampshire~ Stub qualified 5th for the event, while Tom Bolles won the pole in his #76 Bolles Racing Buick~ Robbie Crouch led 121 laps of the 200 lap event, but ol' Stubonator came though in the end, passing Dave Dion's #29 Berlin City Ford machine with 55 laps to go, and never looking back, on his way to the final victory of his Busch East Series career, at the age of 60~

Stub ended the 1994 Busch East Series season with 1 pole, 2 wins, 5 top 5's, and 10 top 10's, in 18 events~ He led a career high 203 laps, and finished 6th in the final points standings~ Dale Shaw, who didn't win a race, nor lead a lap all season long, ended up winning the series championship, thanks to a very consistent season in the #7 Skoal Racing Pontiac~

Back of the Stub Fadden Racing Champions card~

                                                       No signature on the back~

    Stub ended his Busch North Series career at the age of 69~ His final race came in the 2003 True Value 150 @ Thunder Road Speedbowl, in Vermont~ He qualified 19th, and by the end of the race, ended up with a 9th place finish to end his career on a high note~

    The final race of his entire racing career came a few months later, also @ Thunder Road, in the "Milk Bowl", where he finished in 21st place~ Less than 6 years after that final start, on March 11th, 2009, Stub passed away, at the age of 75~ In the New England states, if you're a race fan, you know who Stub Fadden was.. he's a legend up there.. but not many race fans know of him outside of the New England area~

    I don't know why both sides of Stub's card is missing the signature~ I know Stub could write, because I've seen autographs of his before... so I'm guessing some worker was slacking on "Stub Fadden" day, and just forgot to print the signatures on the cards~ As far as I know, this Stub card is the only Racing Champions card with this error, and I don't know if they ever corrected it, or if all of them are like this, but all the ones I've ever seen were like this~

                                                      Stub Fadden #16 NAPA Buick~

Click pics to enlarge~

    Well, the first thing I notice is the no signature thing, and the fact that it doesn't have the contingency stickers~ In the pictures of the real car, there never was that many on there either.. so I don't know if they left them off for that reason, or just forgot to put the stickers on~ Maybe the workers were under the influence during this whole "Stub Fadden" car day~

It's funny holding the Racing Champions version of a 1995 Buick~ Also, Stub just may be one of the last drivers to drive a Buick~ If anyone knows that for sure, leave a comment below~ All in all, I give this car an A- on the Racing Champions quality scale, with a few points taken off for the signature thing, and the stickers~ I'm just happy that it was made, and it's a part of my collection~

It's sad, but drivers like Fadden, who stood the tests of time, driving till almost 70, or in Morgan Shepherd's case, past 70, are all gonna be gone soon~ And I don't think they'll be drivers like them, that want to race that long~ These days, driver get paid multi-million dollars per season~ They don't need to hang around for 50 years, they can afford to retire, and they are doing so much earlier these days~

   I'm embarrassed to say, that there isn't any videos of Stub Fadden on the entire internet~ I've tried for 2 days, everything I could to try and find at least 1 video, but I just couldn't find one~ So below are just some random NASCAR clips, along with a bonus car~ Enjoy them, and thanks for stoppin' by the blog!~ Please share this post on any social media sites you are a part of~ :)

                            **Bonus Car** Diggity Dave #50 Valleydale Honee Weenee Ford~