There was a joke among people in South Boston, Virginia that if you wanted to find Joe Chandler he would be either at the offices of the Gazette-Virginian newspaper, at a high school sporting event, his home, or at South Boston Speedway.

For 43 years Chandler worked as a sports writer and editor at the Gazette-Virginian, and said there were very few Saturday nights when he wasn‘t at his local race track covering the races.

Chandler had a great career at the paper and was still enjoying the work in his fifth decade, but earlier this year an opportunity came up that interested him, prompting him to retire from his reporter job and switch gears as the public relations director at South Boston Speedway — a NASCAR-sanctioned 0.4-mile asphalt banked oval track in South Boston, Virginia.

Chandler knew if he was going to get a part-time job after retiring he wanted to go somewhere where he was familiar — and there wasn‘t anywhere more familiar to him than South Boston.

“It just made sense because I‘ve been here at South Boston Speedway practically all my life,” he said. “I‘ve been coming to races here since I was probably three or four years old and there have been very few Saturday nights over all of these many years that I haven‘t been here.”

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A South Boston native, Chandler remembers playing with little toy race cars in the dirt of the stands at the track when he was little. One of his uncles had a modified that was raced at South Boston, and his mother, father, and him would meet several other families for races.

“This feels like home to me,” he said.

After high school, Chandler attended Elon College in North Carolina, just over an hour away, and he would come home on weekends to help with his dad‘s photography business. At the time he would also periodically write stories for the local newspaper.

He graduated from college on a Sunday, and started working at the Gazette-Virginian on the following Tuesday.

Going from a newspaper to a PR role was a natural transition for Chandler. Through the years he would, from time-to-time, do some PR work writing releases and post-race stories for the speedway outside of his newspaper job.

South Boston Speedway schedule

Writing press releases and taking care of the track‘s photography came naturally because it is something he did for more than 40 years. There was some office work he wasn‘t used to, but he‘s thankful his new coworkers have been so patient with helping show him the ropes.

“I am enjoying it. There are some things that are the same. As you can imagine, doing the press releases, it‘s writing stories. It‘s writing news stories,” he said. “The photography is the same thing I was doing at the paper. With the addition of some office duties I‘m doing and taking on, it‘s a lot of fun. I‘m thoroughly enjoying it.

Plus, he‘s known South Boston CEO Nick Igdalsky, the Mattioli family that owns the track, and general manager Cathy Rice for decades. He said he‘s worked with every owner South Boston Speedway has had in the more than 60 years it‘s been open.

Having been going to races at the speedway for decades, first as a fan then as a reporter and now as an employee, Chandler knows firsthand what South Boston Speedway means to his home town and the community where he‘s always lived.

He‘s grateful for the track to now give him a chance to be a part of it as well.

“South Boston Speedway has always been a great neighbor in the community. It has pitched in with different things in the community. The community holds South Boston Speedway dear in its heart,” he said. “It really makes me proud to be here. The great thing is I‘m with a great group of people and I‘m sincerely grateful to the Mattioli family and Nick Igdalsky and Cathy and everybody here to welcome me on board. It‘s great to be here and I‘m very comfortable here because I know the drivers, I know the crew members, I know the racing people in the community. It‘s just a wonderful fit. I‘m very proud and very happy to be here.”

For the past 50 years, Cline Motorsports has been racking up wins at short tracks across Virginia.

Current driver Dale Cline estimates the team that was started by his grandfather in 1970 has won more than 400 races in that time.

Even though Dale Cline‘s plans to add to that total have been put on hold this season, his hope is to get back on the track soon to continue carrying on his family‘s legacy.

Earlier this year Cline, his dad, Ed, and uncle, Doug, built a new limited late model they planned to run at Motor Mile Speedway, where they finished fifth in the points standings and won the final race of the season last year.

Instead, Motor Mile – a NASCAR-sanctioned 0.416-mile paved oval track in Dublin, Virginia – canceled their full season for 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and many other tracks delayed their openers. So this spring and summer, for Cline, has instead been about trying to work on where he can get better as a driver and getting in the gym to be in better shape and improve his endurance.

Cline plans to run his late model at Kingsport Speedway — a NASCAR-sanctioned 0.375-mile concrete semi-banked oval track in Kingsport, Tennessee — and Hickory Motor Speedway — a NASCAR-sanctioned a .363-mile semi-banked oval asphalt track in Hickory, North Carolina — early next month. He also plans to test his limited late model at Lonesome Pine Speedway in Coeburn, Virginia and run a race there next month.

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Last season was the 20-year-old Cline‘s first full year of racing. He started racing in 2016, running four times at a local dirt track where he finished in the top-5 three times and won the last race of the season. The next year he ran a late model that had been sitting for about 12 years, coming away with several top-5 and top-10 finishes in about eight starts.

The early success was due in large part to the success Cline saw from his family. His grandfather, Walt, finished third in his first ever race at Wythe Raceway in Rural Retreat, Virginia, and won for the first time the next week. Walt raced on dirt for 17 seasons before moving to asphalt at Motor Mile in 1987, where the team stayed for another 19 years.

Ever since he was little it‘s been Cline‘s dream to continue driving the “Cline Blue” No. 99 car his grandfather popularized.

“Probably when I was 2, I had a steering wheel in my hand,” he said. “Whether it was driving up and down our driveway on my dad‘s lap or whatever. I‘ve always been interested and wanted to race.”

Cline didn‘t race competitively until he 15, but he ran go-karts for fun for about nine years before that, which is where he learned how to drive. He played football and baseball growing up, but the desire to get behind the wheel never wavered.

“I‘ve seen a lot of rough spots already, trying to outrun guys that have 20 or something years of experience over me, but it‘s made me better,” he said. “I‘d rather run every week against the best that you can give me because then I can see where I need to work.”

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The driving gene skipped a generation with the Clines. Ed and Doug never drove themselves, but Cline said they‘re some of the best at working on cars and getting them ready. If it wasn‘t for them his driving career wouldn‘t be possible.

“They are the backbone as far as getting us a new car built and everything,” Cline said. “Whatever we‘ve needed to,they‘ve taken care of.

“In my opinion they‘re some of the best guys, as far as racing and knowledge and stuff. They‘re probably two of the smartest guys you‘re ever going to meet. They‘ve been around it for so long and a lot has changed as far as the technology side but there‘s nothing that they can‘t learn. They want to figure out how to get it as good or better than somebody else. They‘ve just got a knack for it. That‘s the people they are.”

Coming from a family that is well-respected in the racing world is something Cline takes great pride in.

“A lot of people know us from racing. When we were running 6-cylinder cars and limited cars a long time ago we were dominating across the mid-Atlantic region,” he said. “The one car we‘ve got that we were winning all those races with, we‘ve still got it. Most people have seen that car or they know about the car. So you take a lot of pride as far as the craftsmanship and all the work they put in over these years.”

Cline’s hopes is to continue to represent his family in a professional manner and continue to rack up wins in the No. 99, no matter what racetrack he goes to.

“It‘s just what I love to do and I‘m glad to have the family that I do and the friend and support and most importantly I‘ll always have the Lord,” he said. “I feel like I‘m being placed in positions, whether they‘re good or bad, in my career and at the end of the day I hope I‘ll be remembered as someone you want to follow in the footsteps of my career.

“It‘s a never ending process with me. The racing is on my mind all day long. When I go to bed I‘ll stay up until four or five in the morning thinking of racing, thinking of stuff to do. It‘s an obsession really, but it‘s an obsession I want to do the rest of my life and I think I‘m good enough I can make something of it. It‘s just something I love to do. It‘s a passion.”

Racing returned to Kingsport Speedway on Friday with the Legends Tribute Nite – Twin Pure Street featuring Late Model Stock Car, Sportsman, Pure 4, Mod 4, Pure Street (Twin.).

Kingsport Speedway Schedule

NASCAR racing as Hickory Motor Speedway is on Saturdays with Late Models, Paramount Limiteds, Street Stocks, Carolina Custom Golf Carts Super Trucks, and Renegades.

Hickory Motor Speedway Schedule