Milwaukee race brings back memories for many

CONCORD, N.C. -- This weekend's NASCAR Busch Series race at The Milwaukee Mile has been named the Alan Kulwicki 250 in honor of the 1992 NASCAR champion and Wisconsin native who died in a plane crash in 1993.

	Derrike Cope

Two competitors in Saturday's race hold special memories of Kulwicki. Harold Holly, crew chief for Bobby Hamilton Jr., worked for Kulwicki's independent team. And Derrike Cope, who drives the No. 49 Ford, raced full-time against Kulwicki for more than five years.

Both had nothing but good things to say about Kulwicki.

"Alan Kulwicki was the epitome of what sports is all about," Cope said. "He was focused on his goal, which was to be the best in his sport, and he worked as hard as he could to get there. He didn't have as much money as a lot of teams but he and his guys outworked everybody else, and they won races and they won a championship.

"That gives hope to everyone, from the biggest teams to the smallest. Even today, great things can be done by anybody. It's hard but as long as you keep working, you have hope. It reminds me a lot of Jay Robinson Racing and the Advil Ford team."

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Holly worked as a mechanic and tire specialist for Kulwicki for two years and called the time with him a great learning experience.

"I learned so much working for Alan," Holly said. "I had just moved to North Carolina after working for Mickey Gibbs, and now I realize how lucky I was to work for Alan. He was so far ahead of time in the things he did to racecars. A lot of what I use today on the geometry of my Team Marines racecars I learned from Alan. Back then no one else even thought of building racecars the way he built them."

Holly was on Kulwicki's crew in 1988 when Kulwicki won his first Cup race at Phoenix.

"Back then I was just doing what I was supposed to do, a lot of it didn't make sense to me," Holly said. "It took a few years until I finally figured out how smart Alan really was with his work on the tires and the front-end geometry of the race cars. Not only was Alan brilliant at working on the race cars, he was an awesome racecar driver that we lost way to early in life."

Atwood has history on his side

Casey Atwood became the Busch Series' youngest winner in 1999 when he went to Victory Lane at Milwaukee at age 18. That was also Atwood's first career victory, scored on July 4, 1999.

	Casey Atwood

Atwood started on the pole and lead a lot of laps during the race, but he was running second in the closing laps to Jeff Green. In a controversial move, Atwood bumped Green out of the groove on the last lap to score the victory.

"There's no doubt about it, I had the car to beat that weekend," Atwood said. "My car unloaded pretty good. A few small changes here and there and it was perfect. I didn't fare as good my last two times at Milwaukee, but I think we've got a good shot of getting it done this weekend. It doesn't hurt anything to think positive, that's for sure."

Lucky break for Szegedy?

David Reutimann took advantage of a special program last year to finish fourth at Milwaukee, and that result helped him get a full-time Craftsman Truck Series ride with Darrell Waltrip.

This year, the Hills Bros./Pick 'N Save "Coffee Break of a Lifetime" will put 2003 NASCAR Modified champion Todd Szegedy in a NEMCO Motorsports Chevrolet for the Alan Kulwicki 250.

"Todd Szegedy has all of the same qualities we saw in David Reutimann," owner Joe Nemechek said. "Todd comes from the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series where many of NASCAR's top performers developed their racing skills. He's the champion from that series and we think he can win in the Busch Series as well."

Szegedy will have Jerry Nadeau spotting for him Saturday. Szegedy and Nadeau were childhood friends, so the pairing is natural.

Green, Leffler remember famous names

David Green and Jason Leffler love coming to the famed Milwaukee Mile, the track that has held races in some form since 1903.

	David Green

"It's so cool to have the racetrack right in the middle of the city and see how the community supports it year after year," Green said. "I can remember my first ASA race there back in the mid-1980's with the who's who of stock car racing. That was before anyone knew who Matt Kenseth was. I made the race driving our family-owned car and was honored to race with guys like Alan Kulwicki, Dick Trickle, Butch Lindley, Jim Sauter, and Bobby Allison. Wow, what an experience that was. It's something I will always remember."

Leffler has similar memories.

"Milwaukee is cool," Leffler said. "They have been racing there almost 100 years. This track just has so much history that it's just exciting to still be racing here. Growing up, I spent a lot of time in Parnelli Jones' shop, and he was the king at Milwaukee. Parnelli won something like six out of seven races at Milwaukee in the 1960s, and other guys like Roger Ward, A.J. Foyt and Bobby Unser have all won there. That's a pretty impressive list, and one I would really like to add my name to."