Fantasy NASCAR Racing

three races in 1973 and three more in 1974.  In 1973 they had a best finish of fifth and in all three races they posted finishes of ninth or better.  The following year didn’t go well as in all three races they fell out with mechanical issues.  In 1976 Nelson took a floor sweeper job at DiGard Racing in the South East with young Darrell Waltrip, driving.  The team won Waltrip's first big track race at Darlington in 1977.  Nelson moved through the ranks to become DiGard's Chief Mechanic in 1978 as the team won at most NASCAR tracks from 1977-1979.  Finishing 2nd to Richard Petty in the 1979 Winston Cup Championship.  Nelson took a one-year break to help a friend start a new business, Ron Eaton, of Lakewood Washington. Nelson moved into his first full time crew chiefs position in 1981 working with driver Ricky Rudd and DiGard Racing.  The two didn't win a race but finished in the top five 14 times; and sixth in the points.  Bobby Allison replaced Rudd in 1982 at DiGard.  The duo teamed up to win eight races that season, and finished second in the Cup championship.  1983 and 1984 was also productive.  Allison won six more races, and the Cup Championship in 1983; and won twice in 1984; finishing sixth in points.  Things began to unravel between Allison and the team owners of DiGard in 1984 and 1985.  Frustrated with the internal battle between Allison and DiGard Nelson built a R&D car and took it to Daytona in July 1985 to prove his ideas.  Greg Sacks was offered a one race ride to drive the car.  The team won what many call the biggest upset in NASCAR history by winning the 400 mile event.  Instead of ending the Allison, DiGard dispute as Nelson had hoped, the Sacks victory caused even more internal conflict.  When Rick Hendrick called asking Nelson to help start a second team for Hendrick Motorsports Nelson decided to take Rick up on his offer. Nelson was paired with Geoff Bodine and charged with building a complete Cup race team in less than 4 months.  The new team's first race together brought another win for Nelson, the 1986 Daytona 500.  The team went on to win one more race in 1986 at Dover.  Hendrick Motorsports began to struggle with many engine failures and crashes making 1987 a difficult year for all involved.  Nelson worked part-time in 1988 for ESPN as a booth announcer alongside Bob Jenkins and Ned Jarrett.  Felix Sabates hired Nelson late in 1988 to build a new team called Sabco racing.  Kyle Petty became Sabco's driver.  Petty had one win and 14 top tens.  Nelson finished out his crew chief career working for Sabates; but in 1991 Sabates had four different drivers.  Petty ran 18 of those events, with one win.  Other drivers were Kenny Wallace, Bobby Hillin, and Tommy Kendall.  Nelson was know to be one of the most "innovative" crew chiefs; Having a history of stretching rules, Nelson was hired as chief enforcer for NASCAR in 1992.  Seemed the thinking by NASCAR was - "if you want to catch the cheaters, hire one of the best of them."  He has held several roles in the organization.  He was the NASCAR Sprint Cup series director, Vice President of Competition, and Vice President of Research and Development.  Nelson worked for NASCAR as it's Cup Director during its biggest growth period 1992 through 2001.  NASCAR promoted Nelson to Vice President of R&D in 2001 giving him the task of building the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, NC.  The first task of the R&D Center, led by Nelson was to improve the safety of racing.  NASCAR had lost 10 drivers in its top three National racing series between 1991 and 2001.  Of all Nelson's success in racing, Nelson is most proud of the safety improvements.  Dale Earnhardt lost his life on February 18, 2001. Since that date to the time of this writing (April 1, 2018) there has not been another life-threatening accident in any of NASCAR's National racing series.  Nelson left his position at NASCAR in 2007 to form his own company, Gary Nelson & Associates.  NASCAR became the first client for Gary Nelson & Associates.  For his crew chief career, Nelson posted 21 wins.  His most successful days came with Bobby Allison when he had 16 wins. Most notable wins included Daytona 500 (1980); Southern 500 (1983); World 600 (1984) all with Allison.  Also, he won the Daytona 500 again in 1986 with Geoff Bodine.