If you tuned in last week, you are aware that many RASN/Steve Hatley fans traveled at great expense from distant lands to attend the RASN/SHR appreciation night at Orange County Speedway, only to witness the near destruction of Steve's Pontiac Grand Prix Late Model on lap 7. In a wreck not of his making that took out almost half the field, Steve was forced to park the heavily damaged car early in the evening. Well, after a week of furious activity, the team managed to get everything fixed in time to make this weekend's race. It wasn't pretty, but it was ready to race.

As the day unfolded, things just got stranger and stranger. By the end of the day, The #41 Steve Hatley Racing Team had Winston Cup driver Jeremy Mayfield in the driver's seat, and a Rick Hendrick Motorsports crew working on the car after an unpleasant incident involving 1996 Winston Cup Champion Terry Labonte and 1997 Rookie of the Year candidate Mike Skinner.

Confused? Sounds like something out of the "Twilight Zone"....

Here's how it all went down from your humble web guy's perspective:

In practice, I was concerned because Steve's lap times were consistently at 15 seconds flat as opposed to the 14 50's to 14.80's I recall from previous visits. I was comforted a little when I timed Barry Beggarly in the 14.60's. He's usually faster than that. So I chalked it up to track conditions and hoped Steve's practice tires were ancient.

This was the weekend of the big "Renegade's Race" featuring several WC drivers racing each other in borrowed late models. Kenny Wallace, Mike Skinner, Jeremy Mayfield, Sterling Marlin and Terry Labonte were there.

The first thing I noticed at the track was that in the adjoining pit, was a bright, shiny new hauler from Hendrick Motorsports, carrying the #07 Quaker State sponsored late model of one Ricky Hendrick. Yep, you guessed it...Son of THE Rick Hendrick...That made two Hendrick Motorsports late models at OCS. Eddie Dickerson drove the other one.

The second thing I found out at the track was that Steve's car had been chosen for some reason to be one of the borrowed cars for the WC renegades race. Equal amounts of excitement and fear welled up inside of me. We didn't know until right before qualifying who would be driving the #41. Finally, as we rolled through inspection, a guy came up to inspect the cockpit, advised Greg to put some roll bar padding over the bolt that attaches the steering column, and a track official tells us it's going to be Jeremy Mayfield.

Qualifying would be followed by 5 laps of "renegades" practice, followed by the renegades race (two 12 lap races with field inverted in the second). Then there would be an Allison Legacy Car race followed by the Late Model 150 lap feature.

Steve drew 28th qualifying position out of about 30 cars. Beggarly's lap was a 14.51, so I was further comforted that Steve's practice times weren't that far off the mark. Beggarly started second to Maurice Hill, but I don't know what his time was. Steve's first lap was a heart-stopper as he got loose in turn two for a lap of 15.10. Not good. But the second lap was good for a 14.70. The car was ugly, but it was no worse for the wear after the big wreck last week. Things were looking good. I'm not sure exactly where we qualified, but it was somewhere around 10th to 15th.

Jeremy showed up shortly after that, had a good long conversation with Steve and then headed out for his 5 practice laps. They must have drawn for starting positions. Jeremy lined up on the outside of the front row, next to Sterling Marlin. Here was an interesting sight. The unknown, non-stars got to stand there and criticize the superstars for 12 laps. Steve and Greg were saying "he's braking too early, too hard...he's too low, he's not running the right line..." Jeremy led the first 2 laps, but finished 4th out of 5, which put him back on the outside of the front row for the second segment.

They raced close, but clean for about 5 laps. Jeremy and Terry Labonte ran side by side for a couple of laps, but were giving each other plenty of room. Then...it happened. Jeremy was on the inside of Terry when Mike Skinner decided to take it 3 wide through turn 2. Skinner drove to the apron, drifted into Jeremy, Terry backed off, and the #41 was sideways as it left my sight. Steve was on top of the truck and actually smiled, but when I looked into the grandstands at Kathy and the Hatley crowd, they didn't look so happy...

Jeremy got back before the car did and sheepishly apologized to Steve. Steve smiled and said "that wasn't your fault". Before the car came back on the hook, Mark Cash's crew had arrived on the scene with their crash cart, ready to help put the car back together. They undoubtedly had the largest assortment of pop rivets in this hemisphere...

As the car came down pit road, Steve trotted alongside, assessing the damage and yelling out instructions. Terry hit the left front tire like a bullseye, causing significant damage to the left front suspension. The fender and door panels had been torn away back to the rear quarter panel. They lay in a mangled pile in the pit. Then, something relatively amazing happened. Mark Cash's guys and some other locals were already helping to drill holes and re-rivet loose sheet metal. Then I turned around to see an army of crewmen in Hendrick Motorsports uniforms headed toward the car with a welder, generator and miscellaneous parts SHR could only DREAM of having in their inventory. They went right to work removing the coil-over assembly and welding the cracked "A-arm" bracket. A Hendrick Motorsports team was crawling all over the wrecked #41. Another Hendrick guy was in the pit pounding out the sheet metal. "Pop" Hendrick was supervising. Unbelievable...

I'm not sure, but I think Sterling won the race.

Work continued as the Legacy race started. I prayed for several loooooong cautions. I got my wish. Unfortunately, the Hendrick guys had to go about repairing their brand new wire feed welder instead of the #41 car. After attempting to get it running a couple of times, they gave up, apologized and went about getting ready for the impending race. Someone from Cash's team found another one. Then someone had to go get the generator that left with the Hendrick welder. It was part "Swan Lake"...and part "Keystone Cops"...

Welding commenced as the Legacy race ended. Most of the sheet metal was back in place...more or less. We were out of time. At this point Steve was close to calling it a day, pointing to the steering arm that was, in Steve's words, "bent like a pretzel". An official made the scene to ask us how much time we needed. Pete shouted out "15 minutes" (we could have used an hour). The official gave us a half hearted thumbs-up. There was no time to replace some of the suspension components, but almost everything looked OK. We'd have to race to find out for sure. And, we had to complete a lap to collect last place money. So, what could it hurt? Go out and see what happens, right?

Steve and the crew frantically went about checking and adjusting the toe-in as the field began their pace laps. Steve strapped in and made it out onto the track in time to line up on the green flag lap. The crowd went wild! I'm serious. I looked into the grandstands, and as well as being able to hear the roar above the engines, I could see hats waving throughout the grandstands. We may come in last, but we picked up some fans today...

On that final pace lap, Steve and Greg made plans over the radio on how to gracefully lose laps and stay out of the way. Steve gave up his qualifying spot and started at the tail of the field since there was no chance he could run with the leaders. In the first 20 laps, Steve picked off 5 cars. We knew then that at least we could finish the race. And almost in unison, there was a gleam in the eyes of the crew and the unspoken yet universally celebrated realization that we weren't going to finish last!

During the first caution (which involved Ricky Hendrick), Steve came in because the exhaust pipe had popped loose, sending exhaust into the cockpit. This was a quick fix. Ricky Hendrick came in and had the crew tear away his left front fender (with a little payback help from our man Wes Carpenter). He was out of the running. The second caution was a close call for us. Two cars spun in front of Steve and he had to slide it sideways, just nudging the turn one wall with the right rear bumper. No harm done. As the race continued, Steve was the fastest of the wounded cars, picking off Ricky Hendrick, Eddie Dickerson (who had no visible damage), and a slew of regulars. The car was getting looser with every lap, with a few very sideways excursions out of turn 4. During the next caution Steve decided to come in and had Wes drop the air pressure in the right rear. I'm not sure exactly what he said over the radio after they went back to green, but I think it was "wrong way...".

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful with Maurice Hill taking the win, and Barry Beggarly limping home with engine problems. There were no major pileups like last week.

As Steve climbed out of the car, I said "That is the ugliest race car I've ever seen..." Steve laughed. I'm glad he laughed, because I figured he'd either laugh or knock me upside the head. And, come to think of it, "ugly" doesn't even begin to describe it. Heinous, wretched, hideous, grotesque, abominable...something along those lines...

Post-race socializing commenced with a veritable love-fest between the SHR crew and the Hendrick guys. They literally saved the day for us today.

As I stood at the front of the SHR rig talking to Ricky's crew chief, who comes lumbering down between the haulers but Rick Hendrick himself. He was moving slow, hat pulled down low over dark glasses, but he was easily recognizable. He looked pretty good, but tired. Kathy had just gotten his autograph on an OCS T-shirt. As he came by, I stuck my hand out and said "I don't know if you were here to see it, but your boys saved our life today..."

He said "Yeah, I saw some of it"...

I shook his hand and said "You have no idea how much that means to us. I can't tell you how much we appreciate it..."

Where else but in racing would you see that kind of camaraderie between competitors from unknowns to one of the most successful "moguls" in the business?

Thanks again to the Mark Cash Racing team, Rick Hendrick Motorsports and all the others who helped get us into the feature after another hard luck day at the track. We couldn't have done it without your help.

Amazing...