At age 15, Rick Mast sold a 4-H project steer for $575 to get money for his first race car. He rebuilt the wrecked ’57 Chevy with the blown engine and began winning dirt-track races at Natural Bridge Speedway in western Virginia. That $575 deal led to a solid 15-year NASCAR career that left Mast, now 58, comfortable and content. Mast’s career highlight was winning the pole and leading the first two laps of the inaugural Brickyard 400 at Indy in the #1 Skoal Ford of Richard and Leo Jackson. At 45, chronic carbon-monoxide poisoning ended Mast’s career. He began suffering early in 2002, lacking energy and enduring headaches, fatigue and nausea. “It’s like the worst hangover in your life,” he said at the time. “You want to throw up but can’t; your head is pounding; you feel awful.” After struggling through 50 laps at Charlotte in May of that year, he stepped away from the No. 90 Ford of owner Junie Donlavey. “Those 50 laps wore me down,” Mast says, “so I knew I was done. I’d tried to gut it out since March because racers never want to show weakness. Nobody knew what it was for a long time. I just knew that racing wasn’t important on the days I couldn’t get out of bed. I wasn’t worried about racing, I was worried about dying.” Mast retired early in 2003. He talked with NASCAR brass about the dangers of carbon-monoxide exposure, which led to the organization moving headers to the right side of its cars and improving cockpit ventilation. He and his wife, Sharon, live in western Virginia, where he owns a hazmat cleanup company. His son works for Major League Baseball, and his twin daughters attend James Madison University and the University of Virginia, respectively.(Autoweek)(7-28-2015)
