1on1: Dale Inman

As a crew chief he claimed eight championships, one more than even his far more famous second cousin, Richard Petty.

He has in recent years been through so much -- the deaths of many close to him, a battle with prostate cancer. But through it all Dale Inman remains not only arguably the greatest crew chief to ever pick up a wrench, but also one of the finest storytellers in NASCAR's garage.

Q: Talk a little bit about what you're doing these days?

Inman's Legacy

• Crew chief in eight championship seasons: seven with Richard Petty, one with Terry Labonte.

• Crew chief for 198 of Petty's record 200 race victories.

• Petty's second cousin; they used to race each other on a track they made through the woods behind their homes in Randleman, N.C. -- on bicycles.

• Noting how times have changed, he recently spotted a picture of himself and Richard and Richard's brother Maurice in a magazine after eating breakfast at Cracker Barrel. They were working as the pit crew for Petty's father, Lee, in an early race. None were wearing shirts.

• Now spends much of his off-track time attending the various sporting events of his grandchildren.

Inman: I actually retired in 1998. And really I did retire. Richard was kind enough to keep me on the payroll for my insurance and everything going, for me and wife, which I really appreciated.

I lived right next door to my mother, and I had a sister who was mentally handicapped. And mother had taken care of her all her life. She never was able to take care of herself one day in her whole life. A year later, my mother passed away, and left me and my brother to care for our sister. We took care of her for probably four or five months, and my wife worked real hard to try to find her a good nursing home that was convenient for us. She found a good rest home in Asheboro and I went to see her every day, sometimes three or four times a day. I went every day of my life after I retired, so that kept me busy for a couple years.

Q: What was your sister's name?

Inman: Shirley Ann Inman. She was born [with a mental disability]. Her left side just never did develop. She could walk at one time, but she never could take care of herself. And it finally got to be that she couldn't walk as she got older. She passed away in 2002.

Q: What did you get into after that?

Inman: So I knew Hugh Hawthorne was starting the Victory Junction Camp. He was a good friend of ours. So I went over there one day and I said, 'Sure, I'll help you for a couple of weeks.' That wound up to be more like two years.

He had bulldozers and all that stuff. He had borrowed them from a John Deere Company. Heck, we must have saved Victory Junction the first million and a half [dollars] maybe. He would get volunteer helpers and have the equipment there. I had never been on a bulldozer or nothing in my life.

Q: So you were actually driving those things?

Inman: Oh, heck yeah. He had bulldozers and backhoes and the big end-up trucks. I mean, it was the time of my life. I enjoyed it. You'd get on a big bulldozer and go knock a tree down. Hell, that was fun. Then it would be so muddy you could hardly get around and it would be so dusty you couldn't see the ground because of the trucks and stuff like that.

They also kidded me. When they finally started getting some buildings up over there, they said they had to take the bulldozer away from me. They were afraid I'd go knockin' down something they had just built. (Continued)