Paul Goldsmith started and ended his racing career in Michigan. But there was a whole lot of success -- on both two and four wheels -- in between.

Goldsmith competed in the first two races at Michigan International Speedway in 1969, finishing sixth in the inaugural race, and then blowing an engine in what would be his final NASCAR start in a race originally scheduled for 600 miles but shortened because of rain.

“

I thought it was a pretty darn good race track. ... I think any race track where you need to back off on the throttle to go into the corners is better for the fans.

”

-- PAUL GOLDSMITH on Michigan

"That was the last race I ran, in 1969," Goldsmith said. "I never raced again after that. I blew an engine, and I don't know what position I was running at the time, but I think I was running pretty good."

He explained in a recent telephone interview from his Indiana workplace why he decided to hang up his helmet.

"Chrysler and everybody was talking about quitting, and I had an airport to run and an engine business to run," Goldsmith said. "So I thought it was time. If they're not going to go racing, then the heck with it."

Goldsmith, now 82, still works at the aviation engine shop and airport in Indiana. But he remembers Michigan as being a track built with both the driver and fan in mind.

"I thought it was a pretty darn good race track," Goldsmith said. "It might have used a little more banking. But I think any race track where you need to back off on the throttle to go into the corners is better for the fans. Real high banks, like Talladega, where you don't need to back off, I'm not so sure is a good way to race."

Goldsmith retired with nine wins in 127 career Cup starts, but that barely scratches the surface of his racing career. He won five American Motorcycle Association races in the 1950s, earning him induction into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame. He raced six times in the Indianapolis 500, recording two top-five finishes. He won a pair of USAC stock car championships and is fifth on the all-time victory list.

A native of Parkersburg, W.Va., Goldsmith and his family moved to Detroit just before World War II. He became interested in motorcycles, and decided racing might be a way to make some money. So he headed to Partington's Pastures, near Warren, to give it a shot.

"I liked to eat a little bit better than what I was eating," Goldsmith said. "I was racing for Harley-Davidson at the time in AMA. [Earl Robinson], a Harley dealer, and one of his mechanics helped me fix up one of the bikes that I had. I went out there and raced and got second or third, I can't remember.

"I think I made $27, to be truthful. And I thought, 'Wow, this is a lot of money.' That was right after the war."

Impressed with the young cyclist's success, Robinson entered Goldsmith in the next AMA race.

"The next real race I ran for Harley-Davidson was in Marshall, Mich.," Goldsmith said. "It was a dirt track fairgrounds. And they didn't have enough experts to run. The AMA director came to me and asked if I would race in the expert class.

"In those days they had three classes: novice, amateur and expert. And it took you three years to get through that. But I got through that in the first race. I was a novice but I ended up being an expert and they never let me go back. I raced with the experts from then on." (Continued)