Where is ... Greg Sacks? (cont'd)

Sacks says that he and his father bought the car he drove that day from Harry Rainer. Cale Yarborough had raced the car, and won with it. Sacks had previously driven it to a sixth-place finish in the 1985 Daytona 500. It was then leased by the Sackses to DiGard when the R&D deal went down.

Nelson, Sacks says, changed some of the front-end geometry. The car, Sacks insists, was legal, although various sources have hinted Nelson admitted to trickery.

"Everything was well within the rule book," Sacks concluded. "It might've been a little bit ahead of its time, and a lot of that credit goes to ... Waddell Wilson. He worked at Ranier's when they built that car, and that car spent a lot of time in the wind tunnel prior to ever seeing the speedway.

"I had a guy say, 'You won the race, but they took away your points and your money because you had a big engine.' I kinda laughed because I know I got paid. That's all I know."

Bobby Allison, angry because he felt the R&D team was detracting from his own effort, quit DiGard less than two weeks after Sacks' win. Sacks would take over, but the once-mighty team soon found itself in dire financial difficulty. Again, Sacks was bouncing from team to team.

He landed for a time with Hendrick Motorsports, at first helping in the filming of Days of Thunder and then in a fourth team car. After that, Sacks would drive for a multitude of team owners, including, but certainly not limited to, Larry Hedrick, D.K. Ulrich, Dick Brooks, Felix Sabates and Cale Yarborough.

In 1996, Sacks ran a handful of Cup races for Diamond Ridge Motorsports owner Gary Bechtel. During that tenure, he also drove a July Busch Series event at Talladega.

He won it.

"It was kind of a confirmation," Sacks said. "I have always prided myself in the speedways, and my ability to draft and be in the right place at the right time. I didn't have the best car that day, but I won it."

Two years later, Sacks sustained injuries at Texas that initially left him in intensive care and later with edema -- or swelling -- in his spinal column. He says he couldn't walk for a couple of months after the accident.

That was then. This is now.

Sacks runs three to five miles a day, three times a week. And on New Year's Day this year, just for the heck of it he says, he ran eight miles.

"I don't know if it's through determination, God's will or whatever ..." Sacks said.

Six years passed before Sacks returned to Cup competition. He qualified for three races in 2004, and two more the next year. He has attempted a few races here and there, but failed to make the cut.

Nevertheless, because of the deal he's working on and evidently so close to finalizing, Greg Sacks has a positive outlook on the future.

"I don't look to drive for Sacks Motorsports in 2008," Sacks said. "I look to race to win for Sacks Motorsports in 2008. I don't want to go out there and drive. I don't want to be a racecar driver. I want to go out and race to win."