Harry Hyde

Racing career

Harry Hyde was born in Brownsville, Kentucky on January 17, 1925. He learned his mechanical skills in the Army during World War II, then worked as an auto mechanic and drove race cars for a couple of years before shifting to building cars for local events in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. His NASCAR career began in 1965 when Nord Krauskopf hired him as crew chief for the K&K Insurance team. With driver Bobby Isaac, the team won 17 races by 1969, and in 1970 they claimed the NASCAR championship, earning Hyde the Mechanic of the Year award. The K&K team remained a strong contender through most of the 1970s, but in 1977 Krauskopf sold the team to J.D. Stacy. Though the team still won some races, Hyde’s relationship with Stacy soured, and he left in mid-June 1978. Later that year, Hyde sued Stacy and eventually won the case.

In 1979, Amelio Scott hired Hyde to be crew chief for his family team, with Scott’s son Tighe as the driver. Their first race was the 1979 Daytona 500, where Tighe finished sixth. At the next race at Rockingham Speedway, Tighe recorded his best NASCAR result, a fourth-place finish. They ran 15 more events that season and ten more in 1980 before splitting up. Hyde then opened his own racing engine shop in 1980, supplying engines to various teams. In 1984, Rick Hendrick hired him as crew chief for All Star Racing, a team Hendrick was part of. The partnership didn’t work out, and Hendrick bought out the team to form Hendrick Motorsports. That year, with driver Geoff Bodine, the team won three races.

Hyde was then paired with Tim Richmond, a young open-wheel racer from Ashland, Ohio, as Hendrick expanded to a two-car operation. Richmond’s brash, outsider attitude clashed with Hyde’s famously irascible personality at first, but after a few races they built a relationship and started winning. This season became the basis for much of the plot in the movie Days of Thunder, with Robert Duvall playing a character inspired by Hyde. In 1986, the team was highly successful: Richmond won seven races and finished third in the points standings behind Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip. Richmond, known for his womanizing, was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987 and missed most of the season, telling the public he had pneumonia. He returned for the Miller High Life 500 at Pocono, overcoming a shifter problem to win in the Folgers No. 25 Chevrolet. The next week, he dominated the Budweiser 400 at Riverside for his final Winston Cup victory. Jimmy Means drove Richmond’s car in the Oakwood Homes 500 at Charlotte, but the No. 25 was reversed to No. 52, and he crashed on lap 20, finishing 40th. Rick Hendrick drove the Folgers No. 25 in the Winston Western 500 at Riverside but left on lap 75 with transmission trouble, finishing 33rd.

Ken Schrader took over the No. 25 team in 1988, but by then Hendrick had three cars, and Hyde sometimes felt overlooked. He left after the season to become crew chief for Stavola Brothers Racing, working there through the first half of 1991 before moving to Chad Little’s No. 19 Bullseye BBQ/Tyson Foods Ford. Hyde finished his career with 48 victories, known for his skill at setting up cars for specific tracks. His race shop remains part of the Hendrick Motorsports facility, and a road inside the complex is called Hyde’s Way. He died in 1996 of a heart attack caused by a blood clot and was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2004. Over his career, he worked with teams including K&K Insurance (No. 71, drivers Gordon Johncock, Earl Balmer, Bobby Isaac, Buddy Baker, Dave Marcis), Jim Stacy (No. 5 and No. 6, drivers Neil Bonnett and Ferrel Harris), Russ Togs (No. 30, Tighe Scott), All Star Racing (No. 5, Geoff Bodine), Hendrick Motorsports (No. 5 and No. 25, drivers Geoff Bodine, Tim Richmond, Benny Parsons, Rick Hendrick, Ken Schrader), Stavola Brothers (No. 8, Bobby Hillin Jr. and Rick Wilson), Chad Little (No. 19, Chad Little), and Larry Hedrick Motorsports (No. 41, drivers Greg Sacks, Hut Stricklin, Dave Marcis).