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72-year-old will attempt to qualify for Talladega race
James Hylton isn't ready to let go of the steering wheel just yet. The eternally young 72-year-old, who came within a few laps of qualifying for the Daytona 500, wants to give the Nextel Cup Series another try -- this time at Talladega Superspeedway in April.
"We've still got the car we ran Daytona with, the same car," Hylton said. "We've prepared this car for Talladega, which is not a real big jump. Unless something drastic happens, we'll be at Talladega, because we're set up to go there."
Hylton, piloting a No. 58 Chevrolet formerly driven by Robby Gordon at Richard Childress Racing and set up by RCR engineers, stood eighth in Daytona's first 150-mile qualifying race before a clutch problem shuffled him out of line and knocked him out of contention. He's in talks with the sponsor of that car, Retirement Living TV, to back him again in the April 29 event at Talladega.
The Inman, S.C., resident had originally hoped to try to make last weekend's event at Bristol Motor Speedway, but couldn't get a Car of Tomorrow built in time. Yet the two-time winner and former rookie of the year on NASCAR's premier circuit is still buzzing over the publicity generated by his attempt to make the Daytona 500.
"As far as fan support, I've never seen anything like it," he said. "It's just constant sending out autographs. The middle-aged and retirement-aged people are really supporting me, and I'm getting a lot of stuff from the kids, too. I get more support now than I got when I was winning races back in the Cup days."
Part of that comes from the natural fascination in watching a driver seven years beyond retirement age attempt to compete in what's become a young man's sport. But Hylton also believes he's tapping into the latent dissatisfaction of traditional race fans, who are happy to embrace a vestige of the sport's past.
"I understand their feelings. It feels like I'm the cheerleader or something. I think they're looking at me and saying, 'Hey, we've got a guy out there our age that's doing what he loves to do. Now we've got somebody to pull for.' I'm definitely building a Hylton senior citizen group that's backing me. I'm tickled to death about that," he said.
"Everywhere I go, I have people out at shopping centers and stuff coming up to me and recognizing me. It's pretty amazing. I kind of like that, to get that kind of attention after all these years. It's definitely built us a fan base. I can't say enough about it. If I never do another race, we accomplished something right off the start to help racing, to bring a lot of these race fans back from back in the Petty days and Allison days. Now they've actually got a driver out there they can root for."
As for all the questions about whether a 72-year-old driver should even be competing in NASCAR, Hylton hopes his performance in the Daytona qualifying event put them to rest. But he hill bristles at critics, one radio host in particular, who insist he should have parked his racecar long ago.
"She really stuck a knife in my back pretty hard about, NASCAR shouldn't have let me out there, that I was a hazard, that I could have taken half the field out and endangered people from running for the championship and all that. As far as I'm concerned, I was running eighth there until we had transmission problems, and was mixing up with the guys," he said.
"I didn't take out half the field, thank God. I didn't have any problems, and I didn't see any guys having any problem with me, other than they hung me out on that last restart. We don't have to overcome that now. I don't think we're going to have a problem with, should somebody my age be out there driving, and blah, blah, blah. Now we're going to race, when we go again. That part of the hoopla is done with."
James Hylton isn't ready to let go of the steering wheel just yet. The eternally young 72-year-old, who came within a few laps of qualifying for the Daytona 500, wants to give the Nextel Cup Series another try -- this time at Talladega Superspeedway in April.
"We've still got the car we ran Daytona with, the same car," Hylton said. "We've prepared this car for Talladega, which is not a real big jump. Unless something drastic happens, we'll be at Talladega, because we're set up to go there."
Hylton, piloting a No. 58 Chevrolet formerly driven by Robby Gordon at Richard Childress Racing and set up by RCR engineers, stood eighth in Daytona's first 150-mile qualifying race before a clutch problem shuffled him out of line and knocked him out of contention. He's in talks with the sponsor of that car, Retirement Living TV, to back him again in the April 29 event at Talladega.
The Inman, S.C., resident had originally hoped to try to make last weekend's event at Bristol Motor Speedway, but couldn't get a Car of Tomorrow built in time. Yet the two-time winner and former rookie of the year on NASCAR's premier circuit is still buzzing over the publicity generated by his attempt to make the Daytona 500.
"As far as fan support, I've never seen anything like it," he said. "It's just constant sending out autographs. The middle-aged and retirement-aged people are really supporting me, and I'm getting a lot of stuff from the kids, too. I get more support now than I got when I was winning races back in the Cup days."
Part of that comes from the natural fascination in watching a driver seven years beyond retirement age attempt to compete in what's become a young man's sport. But Hylton also believes he's tapping into the latent dissatisfaction of traditional race fans, who are happy to embrace a vestige of the sport's past.
"I understand their feelings. It feels like I'm the cheerleader or something. I think they're looking at me and saying, 'Hey, we've got a guy out there our age that's doing what he loves to do. Now we've got somebody to pull for.' I'm definitely building a Hylton senior citizen group that's backing me. I'm tickled to death about that," he said.
"Everywhere I go, I have people out at shopping centers and stuff coming up to me and recognizing me. It's pretty amazing. I kind of like that, to get that kind of attention after all these years. It's definitely built us a fan base. I can't say enough about it. If I never do another race, we accomplished something right off the start to help racing, to bring a lot of these race fans back from back in the Petty days and Allison days. Now they've actually got a driver out there they can root for."
As for all the questions about whether a 72-year-old driver should even be competing in NASCAR, Hylton hopes his performance in the Daytona qualifying event put them to rest. But he hill bristles at critics, one radio host in particular, who insist he should have parked his racecar long ago.
"She really stuck a knife in my back pretty hard about, NASCAR shouldn't have let me out there, that I was a hazard, that I could have taken half the field out and endangered people from running for the championship and all that. As far as I'm concerned, I was running eighth there until we had transmission problems, and was mixing up with the guys," he said.
"I didn't take out half the field, thank God. I didn't have any problems, and I didn't see any guys having any problem with me, other than they hung me out on that last restart. We don't have to overcome that now. I don't think we're going to have a problem with, should somebody my age be out there driving, and blah, blah, blah. Now we're going to race, when we go again. That part of the hoopla is done with."
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