Where is ... Lake Speed? (cont'd)

According to Speed, when he built the 10,500-square-foot shop in 1986, it was the biggest facility in NASCAR. The team built its own cars from the ground up ... chassis, engines, everything ... with his biggest payroll ever coming in at maybe 16 or 17 people.

It was truly a David-against-Goliath effort. Early in 1988, things were clicking for Speed. He started 10th in the Daytona 500 before his engine let go. He was sixth at Richmond and second to race winner Neil Bonnett at Rockingham. Despite another engine problem at Atlanta, the team seemed to be heading in the right direction.

Speed finally got over the hump at Darlington, where he beat runner-up Alan Kulwicki to the finish line by nearly 19 seconds.

"It was just a huge relief, because I had all the confidence in the world that we could win races," Speed said. "It was like, 'Whew ... dadgum ... how many long fly balls have you gotta hit before you get one to go over the fence?'"

Finally, Speed had arrived. When his sponsor left, he thought that surely another company would jump on board. It didn't work out that way.

At the last minute, just before the start of the 1989 season, Speed settled on a deal for "peanuts." He would never again visit Victory Lane in a Cup event.

"I had bought into the lie that if you went out, ran fast and won races, the sponsorship money would come to you," Speed said. "I was operating under [the assumption] that if I could get this thing to the front and win a race or two, everything would work out. At the end of that year, there wasn't anybody knocking on the door."

After the 1989 season, Speed drove either limited schedules in his own equipment or for other car owners, most notably Cale Yarborough, Bud Moore and Harry Melling. In late June 1998 while driving for Melling, Speed crashed hard while making a practice run on the road course in Sonoma, Calif. Although an initial exam in California revealed no broken bones, the car was turned over to Butch Gilliland -- Cup driver David Gilliland's father -- for the race. A week later, he crashed at New Hampshire.

It would be the last race of Speed's NASCAR career. Subsequent tests revealed a cracked sternum and four broken ribs.

Today, Speed has four grandchildren by Lake Jr., his son from his first marriage. He and Rice also have two daughters and a son: Sara Ann, who is finishing up her sophomore year in college; Maurie, a high-school senior who plans to attend college in California in order to pursue a career in drama; and Chris, a junior who plans to follow his sister to school in California.

After his injuries healed, the phone never rang. There were a few deals on the table here and there, but they were all with what Speed calls "start-up teams" that had little potential for success. For all intents and purposes, Speed was out of NASCAR.

Looking back, Speed feels there was a reason for his departure.

"This is a God thing, as far as I'm concerned," Speed said. "He knew the only way He was gonna stop me from racing was probably to put that concrete barrier in front of me and break me up, so that I had to stop. My kids were at the age then that they really needed Dad at home. To be able to not have your mind focused on the next race all the time and be able to give them some attention and time was monumental. (Continued)