FANTASY NASCAR Racin

HARRY RANIER – 02-25-1937 – 07-21-1999 -
was a NASCAR Cup racing team until 1987, fielding Cale Yarborough during the 1980s late in its operations. The team was based in Charlotte and co-operated by Harry Ranier and J.T. Lundy who left in 1987. Ranier was a Kentuckian coal mining magnate. Ranier's entry into the sport predates magnates such as J.D. Stacy and Billy Hagan. The team later became Robert Yates Racing after Yates, an engine builder and crew chief with the operation, bought the team in 1988. The team largely fielded General Motors vehicles for its various drivers until switching to Fords in 1985. Harry Ranier started entering race cars into NASCAR's top division sporadically starting in 1967 and consistently starting in 1978 with driver Lennie Pond and later Buddy Baker. The Kentucky native and cola mining magnet, Harry Ranier dreamed of NASCAR success. Over hamburgers in the car, Ranier looked at his future wife and shared a big aspiration. "I'm going to win that Daytona race some day," he said. Says Juda Ranier now: "He was a dreamer. He always was. And I was such a cheerleader type, I just looked at him and said 'Why not?'" So before it was over; for a fleeting period, the Eastern Kentucky mountains would have their own stake in NASCAR glory. Yet in an era before NASCAR went fully mainstream, the state of Kentucky paid little heed to Ranier's success. There are few businesses more prone to booms and busts than coal. In the mid-1970s, the coal business was in an all-time boom. In 1977, Harry Ranier sold one of the largest independent coal-mining operations in Kentucky. "The coal boom hit in 1974," says Joe Gearheart, a long time employee of Ranier's. "By the time it was over, Harry sold five companies, made a lot of money, about $33 million." After he

cashed out of the coal business, Harry Ranier decided to try to break into stock-car racing's big leagues. He soon wound up on the phone with Waddell Wilson. "We hit it off," Wilson says of going to work for Ranier. "I thought I'd been hired to build engines. It turned out, I was also hired to be crew chief and (team) general manager." In 1978, Ranier's team won its first race at the Talladega 500. Pond beat a stout field; while at the same time the race was both the most competitive race ever run to that point, and also the fastest race ever run, as Lennie Pond broke

Buddy Baker's 500-mile record from the 1976 Winston 500. Ironically, Baker would win the record back in the 1980 Daytona 500 driving for the exact same team. There were 67 "official" lead changes; but many other lead changes during the lap. I was lucky enough to be there and many laps the lead would change three or four times. The race record speed was a whopping 174.7 mph. Pond would end the season with the Talladega win, 11 Top 5 and 19 Top 10 finishes. Buddy Baker drove for the team starting in 1979; and in his first year he visited victory lane

three times; had 12 Top 5's but only finished 15th in points. In 1980, with Waddell Wilson was crew chief and engine builder; Baker won the 1980 Daytona 500 for the team. Letting Ranier achieve the dream he had spoken of many years before. Baker drove the legendary "Gray Ghost" (pictured) and the car was so fast that NASCAR asked the team to add bright orange pin strips so the other drivers could see him coming as he was coming up to lap them. Baker would get a second win in 1980 winning at Talladega. Bobby Allison was brought in for the 1981 season to wheel the Tuf-Lon machine. Allison would grab the season opening and season ending races at Riverside's

road course. He would also have three more wins; but finish second in the points chase to Darrell Waltrip. Baker was brought back in for the 1982 season; but was unable to find the glory of the earlier seasons, having no wins and only three Top 5's. In 1983, Cale Yarborough was hired to pilot the #28 Hardee's Chevrolet owned by Harry Ranier, competing in just 16 events. That year he won four races, including his third Daytona 500, his sixth Atlanta Coca-Cola 500, and swept both events at Michigan, along with three poles. The Daytona win was certainly hard earned. In his first start driving for Ranier; during qualifying Yarborough

posted an impressive 200.5 mph speed on his first lap. On his second qualifying lap as he was exiting turn #4 the car got sideways; lifted into the air and flipped. This was the only car the Ranier team had at Daytona; and the were in a bind. They did have a short track car on display at a local shopping mall; so they retrieved it and got it ready to run in the 500. He would start the race in eighth place; and lead only 23 laps. As the zipped down the back straight on the final lap; Yarborough pulled out to pass Buddy Baker; Joe Ruttman drafted up behind Yarborough and pushed Yarborough past Baker and on to the win. Cale would have four wins; running just 16 of the seasons 30 races. All three years Yarborough drove for Ranier they just ran in 16 events. In 1984 he repeated by winning his fourth Daytona 500, becoming the second driver to score back-to-back wins, the Winston 500 at Talladega, a race that featured 75 lead changes, and the Van Scoy Diamond Mine 500, along with four poles. In 1985 after Ranier's team switched to a Ford, Yarborough won his first Talladega 500 and scored his final win in the Miller High Life 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Prior to the 1987 season, car owner Harry Ranier tapped Davey Allison to replace veteran driver Cale Yarborough in the Ranier-

Lundy #28 Ford Thunderbird. Yarborough was leaving the Ranier-Lundy team to start his own operation along with the team's sponsor, Hardee's. Ranier negotiated a sponsorship deal with Texacos Havoline motor oil brand, a deal that was signed during the NASCAR edition of Speed Weeks at Daytona International Speedway. He also hired Robert Yates as his engine builder and Joey Knuckles as the #28's crew chief, who paired with Allison for years. On qualifying day, Davey signaled that he was in the Cup Series to stay when he qualified an unmarked, but Texaco-Havoline painted #28 Thunderbird second for the 1987 Daytona 500, becoming the first rookie ever to start on the front row for NASCAR's most prestigious event. A pit miscue which allowed a rear tire to fall off on the track ended his hopes of a good finish in the race, but success for Davey Allison would be just around the corner. Allison would get his first win at Talladega; and score a second win just two races later at Dover. Allison would add two additional wins in 1988. After that Ranier would essentially be out of NASCAR racing. As his businesses diversified, Ranier left his native Prestonsburg, KY and

moved his family to Central Kentucky. In an area identified with horse racing, Ranier's NASCAR involvement was a curiosity. Living in the Bluegrass Region, Harry Ranier's passion started to shift from horsepower to horse racing. He bought Shadowland Farm in Woodford County and built a 20,000-square-foot home on the property A Ranier horse, Midway Lady, won the English Oaks and One Thousand Guineas, two prestigious races in Great Britain. Eventually, Ranier's horse operation began to have financial problems. Lorin Ranier says the thing that pushed his Dad's financial standing over the edge was an ill-timed re-entry into the coal industry just as a bust cycle began. "He was fighting so hard to save his horse operation that he sold the NASCAR team," Juda Ranier says. "It was only after (selling the race team) that Harry had second thoughts. He was like 'What have I done?'" By the late

1990s, Ranier and Juda had moved to North Carolina so he could work on a return to NASCAR. "He was not through," Juda Ranier, who now lives in Lexington, says of Harry. "He had a comeback in him." Lorin Ranier helped his Dad scout for a young driver around which they could build a team to return the top. The driver they found, Tony Stewart, ran nine races for Ranier in what is now the Xfinity Series in 1996. On July 21, 1999, Harry told Juda had finally cut a deal that would provide the financing to make his new team full time. "This is it," he said. She turned away for just a moment to watch TV. When she turned back, Harry Ranier's racing days were over. A heart attack had ended his comeback and his life. He was 62. For his career as an owner Ranier fielded cars for 277 starts. His drivers claimed 24 wins; 108 Top 5, and 151 Top 10 finishes. Notable races that Raniers drivers won include Daytona 500 (1980, 1983, 1984); World 600 (1981)