By Steve Waid
Lake Speed came to the 1985 Daytona 500 at the end of his rope.
Although he had tried mightily, he could not come up with a sponsor for his new team.
“It was dialing for dollars for me, but I couldn’t come up with anything,” he said.
As a result, his team showed up at Daytona with a pure white car and only a glimmer of hope. If a sponsor could not be found in time for the 500, that would be Lake’s last race.
Just before the last practice session, Lake met a man who confided in him. He said he had never been to a race before and didn’t know much about what was going on – and, he added, he had money to spend on sponsorship. But no one would talk to him.
Lake jumped at the chance. He told the man he had a plain white car that was praying for a sponsor’s name to be on it.
On race day Lake headed toward where he thought his car would be. It wasn’t there. He was told it was nearby, behind a fence.
Lake arrived and a man hand painting – hand painting! – the sponsor’s name all over the car. It was Nationwise.
The 1985 Daytona is memorable because it was won by a dominating Bill Elliott, whose powerful Ford was so much stronger than any other car in the field that he lapped all of them – except one.
Lake finished second to notch his best career finish. But there would be more to the story.
After the race an enthusiastic man came up to Lake, pulled back his car’s window net and told him that he didn’t care where the money was coming from or how much there would be. And the man, the CEO of Nationwise, also said his company would be Lake’s sponsor for the entire season.
For Lake Speed, the 1985 Daytona was far more memorable than a second-place finish.
For more than 32 years, Grand National/Winston Cup/NASCAR Scene writers and photographers were there to record NASCAR history as it was being made. Join hosts Rick Houston and Steve Waid each week on The Scene Vault Podcast Presented by Q Ware as they take a look back at the extraordinary people, places and events woven into the rich tapestry that is our sport.
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