1on1: Dale Inman (cont'd)

Q: That takes us up to roughly 2004. What happened with you next?

Inman: When I got through with that, Richard asked me to come back and see if I would kindly be a consultant, to see if I could help. That's sort of where it's been for me since then. I've been to about every race since. I went through a prostate cancer deal, but I think I only missed one race with it.

I had the 25 radiation treatments, then they went two weeks and put the seed [treatment] in the prostate. I missed Pocono, probably two and a half years ago, and that was about it.

Q: Is everything OK now?

Inman: Yeah, the numbers are real good. In fact, I got back [soon] to get checked. But they said they checked my whole body and it hadn't got outside the prostate. But as I talk, a lot of people have had that, you know?

They found it in my blood. But, in fact, going through all the tests, right up to the biopsy, they were just sure I was OK. Then the doctor told me, 'I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is you've got cancer; the good news is I'm gonna take care of you.' He took good care of me. He was Richard's doctor, too, and so far it's been good. ... They keep getting more advanced with it.

Q: You look great and seem to always be in good spirits?

Inman: I'm not tryin' to be macho or nothin', but I didn't let it bother me, you know? I just kept going to the races. I scheduled my appointments where I could keep going to the races.

Q: Well, that's what you love doing, right?

Inman: It's a bad disease, racin' is. It gets in your system, and it's bad.

Q: Could you quickly tell us one of your favorite stories from the early days?

Inman: I tell the boys about coming to Martinsville when the place was dirt, and they had that little bit of grandstand right there on the frontstretch. And on the backstretch, they had a dirt bank where people would sit and watch the race. And from the bank down to the racetrack there was no fence there.

One time a couple of men got in a fight on that bank, and ended up falling out on the racetrack. This was way before Richard was even driving. It was when Lee [Petty] was still driving. I was going to the races eight years before Richard ever started driving.

Q: No one ran over those men, I hope?

Inman: No, no, no. I don't remember what year it was, but they came out of it OK.

Q: Do you have one or two other memories that stand out from over the years?

Inman: There have been so many of them, so many highs and so many lows. Losing Kyle's son, Adam, of course. I wasn't there, but Lord, that was so tough. And then, of course, we lost Lynda's brother at Talladega [Lynda Petty is Richard's wife] in the pits on a freak accident. Losing those two hurt as much as losing my mother and my sister, or maybe more. I mean, losing my mother hurt terribly, don't get me wrong. But she was 89 years old. Losing those two young men was just devastating.

But I always tell people who ask me what my greatest moment or my biggest high was, and I tell them about 1999. My son-in-law was going to spot for John Andretti the year after I retired. But he went down to Daytona and got pneumonia, so they brought me down to spot for him. I guess about an hour before the Busch race, they ended up asking me to spot for Adam. He ended up finishing sixth, I think, but that was a thrill, you know what I mean? Then we lost Adam after that.

But that was big. And I think maybe I helped him some. He was wild as a buck. They talked one time during the race, and they were under a caution. He had seen a wreck and he came in and they said, 'You flat-placed all four of your tires.' And I came on and said, 'Yeah, you flat-placed them the second time through the wreck!' But he was a fun kid. Boy, you just wanted to break his neck sometimes -- and then all of a sudden he changed. When he got the racin' bug, he was a fine young man. But golly, did he give us a hard time when he was a kid. Nothing bad, just mischievous stuff. I used to think he was just out to worry me. But when he got serious about his racing, buddy, he really got serious. It's just a shame that talent was lost.

Q: Adam was so enthusiastic, with that infectious grin, wasn't he?

Inman: My son-in-law was his crew chief at the time that it happened. He tells the story where they got into some racetrack late. I think they flew in and it was already dark. But Adam wanted to see the place because he had never been there. They went to the racetrack and climbed up onto the fence where they could look in and try to see the track, and Adam said, 'Boy, I'm going to like this place!' And you couldn't see nothin', it was so dark. But he just knew he was going to love it anyway. (Continued)