It's Not the Car Brakes, Boots, and a Stock Car in France — (Le Mans + Cale, 1981)
For July Fourth, an American tale: Big ambition! A mutant Camaro! A crashed mutant Camaro! Success! Failure! Wisconsin!
Plus: a NASCAR man, in France, with his name on his boots.
(Gave proof, through the night, that our flag was still there.)
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our semi-regular deep dive into an epic moment from racing history.
In this case, that means the time in 1981 that NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough took a short-track "outlaw" Camaro to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He made it 13 laps. The whole thing was excellent.
RELATED TRIVIA: If you want to read a good thing, google the words, “Heck, Mes Amis.”
THE GARAGE 56 IN-CAR LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMQaqkW0iuE
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
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ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.