DirtonDirt.com exclusive
Touching stories about the Southern Gentleman
By Kevin Kovac
DirtonDirt.com senior writer
Skip Arp (left) drove Freddy Smith's car to a 2003 victory at Atomic Speedway. (DirtonDirt.com)
A compilation of anecdotes, stories and remembrances compiled by DirtonDirt.com from interviews and other sources about Freddy Smith, the Hall of Famer and native of Kings Mountain, N.C., who died Saturday at the age of 76 after developing pneumonia during a short battle with leukemia:
Great pals
Before veteran driver Skip Arp of Georgetown, Tenn., had ever met Freddy Smith, he was of course familiar with the superstar driver. Smith’s iconic early-’90s GVS Racing car made him stand out even more to Arp.
“It was funny,” Arp said. “I thought he was one of the best, if not the best, out there, and I thought, Man, this guy’s got a bubble-gum sponsorship. I thought it was the Bazooka bubble gum.”
The company emblazoned on the side of Smith’s No. 00 back then was actually Bazooka Bass Tubes — not the chewing gum brand that was well known for being in packs of baseball cards — and Arp learned that soon enough. One night during that general period of time Arp talked with Smith for the first time and an enduring friendship was launched.
“I was at Cleveland (Tenn.) racing too, and actually his earplugs had quit on his radios,” Arp said of Smith. “Me and him had never talked and he wanted to know if I had a set of earplugs he could borrow, and from then on me and him were buddies and talked all the time.”
Arp, 60, also began to travel far-and-wide with Smith as his career picked up steam while driving for Butch Curtis. The two men and their wives became almost inseparable on the road.
“Me and him, I kind of been think about it, we was more like brothers than anything else,” Arp said. “We kind of done everything together when we was traveling. Janice (Arp’s wife) and Naomi (Smith’s wife), and me and Freddy, we kind of knew where all the good restaurants were. We always stopped and ate and hung out together.
“And then when he started driving for (Clayton) Christenberry (of Knoxville, Tenn.) and he moved up to Tennessee (in 1996), that’s when he was around me a bunch. Christenberry and Curtis were buddies, and we got hooked up and traveled around together.”
Through all their “good times” together — including a stretch in the early 2000s when they combined to host a driving school at Tennessee’s Atomic Speedway and I-81 Motorsports Park — Arp only grew fonder of Smith.
“Jeff (Smith, Freddy’s son), said he was his hero, and he was kind of my hero, too,” Arp said. “He wasn’t an old-timer by no means, because it wasn’t like there was a bunch of years between me and him, but I just thought he was one of the best ones out there.
“In all the years that we raced together, I can’t say that he ever run over anybody. I wasn’t brought up that way either, but I said he was my hero anyhow, so I always wanted to drive like him. You didn’t have to run over people to win races, and that was pretty obvious. I seen Freddy do it.”
Arp hadn’t seen Smith very often since Smith and his wife moved back to North Carolina two years ago to be close to their son, but Smith remained close to his heart. In fact, on Oct. 7, just one week before Smith’s passing, Arp clinched the 2023 Topless Outlaws Dirt Racing Series championship at Sugar Creek Raceway in Blue Ridge, Ga., with his car carrying Smith’s No. 00 as a tribute to his pal.
“We had our car lettered up like Freddy’s. I’m glad we did that now, too,” Arp said. “I done it just to honor Freddy because we were buddies, but I feel like he must have been riding with me. I sure didn’t have the best car over there, but we ended up winning the points championship (with a fourth-place feature finish) so he must have helped me get through that too.
The perfect nickname
Black Diamond Race Cars owner Ronnie Stuckey had no doubt how everyone would remember Freddy Smith.
“I’d say the biggest thing you’re gonna hear about him is, that Southern Gentleman (nickname) kind of fit him,” Stuckey said. “And I’m sure that you’ll hear that word ‘humble’ over and over. He just had that demeanor. He hardly never got upset, so when he did something really must have ticked him off.”
Stuckey, 55, of Shreveport, La., was a young mechanic embarking on his first stint working as a crew member for a national team in 1993 when he joined Baton Rouge, La.-based GVS Racing to turn wrenches for Smith. His first trip as a GVS employee made him realize Smith’s talent — and the star racer’s calm outlook — as it was topped by Smith’s fourth Dirt Track World Championship victory at Pennsboro (W.Va.) Speedway.
“Before we come home we won the Dirt Track World Championship at Pennsboro, so when we got home, here I am, a 25-year-old kid cleaning room off on the trophy rack (for the DTWC hardware),” Stuckey said. “And Freddy, he’s humble enough to tell you, ‘This ain’t what’s gonna happen every time. We don’t win like this every trip.’ ”
Nevertheless, as Stuckey pointed out, Smith “believed that when it’s your time (as a driver), someone has to be having a lucky day to even run with you. So when Freddy wasn’t winning them races, he didn’t get out of the car and blame it on the chassis or the shocks or the motor builder. He was a real good fabricator, so when he got back home he just kind of worked in the general area where he thought they were beating him at. He had a little different philosophy.”
Stuckey, whose nearly six-year stint with GVS included nearly two-plus seasons with Smith and three with fellow Hall of Famer Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., analyzed that Smith’s deep technical knowledge, work ethic, smooth driving style and genuine caring for his crew members was “a lot of the reason he ended up with so many good crew guys over the years.”
“You knew you were gonna get your picture taken with him (in victory lane), but you also knew you weren’t gonna be putting a front cap on (the car) every night,” Stuckey said. “That Freddy mentored a lot of good crew guys. He was crafty. He could build the lift bars. He could build the lower A-arms. He could build the birdcages that were steel back then. He would make ‘em all himself. He encouraged me one off-season to go the vo-tech and learn to weld because he could do everything but weld.”
And Smith made his crew guys feel right at home.
“He liked to stop and eat (at restaurants while on the road) where most of the time today you just eat on the go,” Stuckey said. “Him and Naomi, the wanted to get out of that truck and sit down at that Cracker Barrel and eat as a group, as a family, because their family wasn’t with ‘em, so you, as a crew guy, were their family.”
A commanding presence
During the ‘90s and into the 2000s, veteran racer Jack Sullivan worked at GRT Race Cars in his hometown of Greenbrier, Ark. So he was there when Smith had a great run in the cars — including a 2000 Dream victory at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio — and also experienced what seemed like Dirt Late Model royalty when Smith dropped by the GRT shop.
“When he’d walk in, you’d think, My God, there’s Elvis Presley,” Sullivan said. “Everybody was calling him Fred-Man, because he was the man. He didn’t really say a lot, and he always had on them jeans and his button-up shirt.”
GRT co-founder Joe Garrison, who died in May 2019 at the age of 60 after a battle with cancer, revered Smith as well.
“They were real close,” Sullivan said of Garrison and Smith. “Joe would reference, ‘Freddy said this, Freddy said that. Freddy thinks this, Freddy knows this … Freddy, Freddy, Freddy.’ And when Joe had the idea of teaming up and going down the road with everybody, Freddy was the guy who kind of grounded everybody a little bit.
“Freddy was Joe’s hero, and I believe in his mind, when he got Freddy (to drive a GRT car), he felt like he kind of made it as a chassis builder. He had the ‘guy,’ because, in my opinion, Freddy was … I don’t want to say the first superstar, but maybe he was. Every chassis builder, whether they want to admit it or not, has to have a guy, and that was Freddy to Joe. Freddy was his guy, and that’s how Joe looked at it.”
Sullivan, 47, recalled that every GRT constructed for Smith “was a hundred-series car. Like it’d be, number 500 chassis was Freddy’s, number 600 was Freddy’s, because of the zero-zero (representing Smith’s familiar car number). And it was always cool building Freddy Smith’s car, because we massaged it a little more than others. He didn’t really get stuff too different, but it was gonna be perfect.”
The 1,000th GRT car went to Smith, and Sullivan said Garrison “threw a big party” at the shop to celebrate the milestone. The GRT shop was also typically a popular meeting place for teams before the Show-Me 100 at West Plains (Mo.) Motor Speedway and Sullivan will never forget watching Smith, and learning from him, as he toiled on his car during those visits.
“He’d crawl under that thing and work on it,” Sullivan said. “And I’d stay late because I was just a sponge for knowledge, and he’d sit down there and talk, and then he’d pull the rear end out of the car and spin it because he thought it was bent, and it was bent, and he’d show you that. He’d teach you things … at least he did with me. He didn’t have to do that, but that was Freddy.”
Always respectful
Rocket Chassis co-owner Mark Richards witnessed first-hand most of Freddy Smith’s career arch, starting in the late ‘70s when Richards was a young crew chief touring with driver Rodney Combs. He can recall watching Smith win all five of his DTWC and how the Southern standout had the perfect combination (fast car, smooth style, experience with tire management) for success at Pennsboro, and he can remember NDRA-era battles between Smith and Combs in the early ‘80s that included one night at the original Concord, N.C., track when Smith’s sponsor, Beady Lynch, and Combs’s sponsor, J.W. Hunt, made a $5,000 bet on which driver would finish better. (Richards recalls both drivers having problems that night but Combs getting the nod with something like a 22nd-place finish.)
Most of all, though, Richards will never forget two interactions he had with Smith that demonstrated how respectful he was of the sport and his fellow competitors in it.
“I’ll always remember, Freddy came up to me right after (Richards’s son) Josh started (racing in 2004) and he said, Mark, I’ve never seen nothing like this,’ ” Richards recalled. “I said, ‘What are you talking about Freddy?’ He said, ‘Guys usually race a long time before they can race with the top guys. I’m totally amazed that he’s able to compete at this level at this point in his career.’ Freddy was one of the veterans that respected what Josh was doing.”
Another time, during an early-2000s event at I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Neb., Smith approached Richards in his typically cool, calm manner to let him know he wasn’t pleased with the driving tactics of Richards’s then driver Steve Francis.
“Freddy was never in any controversy that I know of,” Richards said. “But he would come over and say something if somebody did something. I remember one time, Francis was driving for me, and Francis slid him on the last lap, and it wasn’t a real clean slide and it was for, like, third. Anyhow, Freddy come over the next day, and I was over there working, and he leaned on the spoiler and said, ‘Do you think that was right he had to race like that on the last lap and do a slide like that?’ I said, ‘Freddy, no I don’t, but you can talk to him if you want to.’
“I don’t think he ever did talk to Steve. And he never come over hollering. He never come over out of control. If somebody did something he thought was dirty, he never got out of control, he didn’t retaliate, and I’ll remember that the rest of my life. That’s how he handled it.
“And I think more of that would appropriate in today’s world,” he added. “We’ve lost that. Freddy was one of the guys who kind of set the standard on how you should represent yourself. He always had an ambassador-type of being of himself around the sport.”
Last big victory
While Freddy Smith was on the downward end of his career when Dirt Late Model racing took its current form featuring two full-fledged national tours, he spent the 2005-08 seasons as a regular on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. The circuit’s director, Rick Schwallie, was honored to have the Hall of Famer chasing the series during its infancy.
“Freddy and Naomi were a pleasure to have on tour with us,” Schwallie said in a statement issued the Lucas Oil Series following Smith’s passing. “I’ve always had the utmost respect for them both, because no matter how important racing was to Freddy, Freddy’s first passion in life was Naomi. They often times parked next to us in the pits and traveled with us up-and-down the road.”
For Schwallie as well as Smith, the highlight of Smith’s years on the Lucas Oil trail was of course his lone career series win on July 11, 2008, at North Alabama Speedway.
“It was one of the first events I moved away (from being) a photographer and into the tower race directing,” Schwallie said. “Understanding the significance of the win to Freddy and Naomi, I quickly asked on our radios to help assist Naomi to victory lane (because) she stayed in the living quarters in their trailer during the racing events. I quickly grabbed a camera to capture the moment. As I made my way to victory lane and I first caught a glimpse of Naomi on our golf cart, the look on both her and Freddy’s face is something I’ll never forget.
“Freddy was a tough competitor on the track and a true gentlemen to be around in person.”
Learning about life
Philip Snellen is best known for his stint as Tim McCreadie’s chief mechanic in recent years, but it’s his background as a crewman for Freddy Smith that molded him on and off the track. He traveled alongside Smith during the legendary driver’s final years behind the wheel.
The bond that Snellen developed with Smith left him distraught upon hearing of Smith’s passing. In fact, Snellen, who left McCreadie’s Paylor Motorsports effort this year, contemplated skipping his plans to help former NASCAR Cup Series driver Bobby Labonte at Sunday's SMART Modified Tour event.
Until he remembered what Smith would think about him skipping a race.
“I wasn’t going to go to South Boston this morning, but I went for a walk, watched the sun come up,” Snellen said. “Freddy would’ve wanted me to (go). Racers race.”
Snellen asserted that he “was fortunate to get to go racing with one of my childhood heroes,” but his years crewing for Smith went well beyond turning wrenches.
“What made it more special was the friendship that developed with my mentor and it continued til his passing,” Snellen said. “It was no secret the last decade or so of his career he didn’t have the funds or equipment. From 2008 though ’12 we just ran whatever engines he could piece together that didn’t have a broken crank and still had the rods still attached to it. I could rattle off dozens of inside jokes and stories, but what I cherish the most was the bond that developed and the life lessons.”
Added Snellen: “He asked me once leaving Cleveland, Tenn., if I knew there was more to life than racing. I laughed, (this) coming from Freddy Smith.”
Nevertheless, the man who devoted his life to the sport showed Snellen plenty about living away from it.
“He was a second father figure in many ways and taught by example,” Snellen said. “Not only did he teach me how to work on a Late Model, how to go up-and-down the road and how to run a Late Model program, but, most importantly, he taught life lessons on how to conduct yourself, at the track and away from it.
“How to represent your team, sponsors, and, more importantly, yourself. How to turn the other cheek when you’ve been wronged — to a point. And how to treat your wife … the love he and Naomi shared always warmed my heart. We’d always go to dinner or lunch before Freddy and I left Seymour (Tenn.), and they always got out of the car and held hands as we walked to the restaurant and talked sweetly to each other. I remember even as a dumb twentysomething-year-old thinking, That’s what it’s all about.
“That’s in a nutshell what I think of when I think about about that man. The Southern Gentleman moniker was on point. I’m sad, but also grateful that he came into my life. I’m a better person because of it.”
Honoring the legend
Up-and-coming driver Carson Ferguson of Lincolnton, N.C., got to know Freddy Smith over the past year. With Ferguson working out of Smith’s son Jeff’s shop in Gastonia, N.C., the Hall of Famer often walked over from his residence next door to hang out in the garage and chat with the 23-year-old racer.
That connection led to Ferguson putting a Freddy Smith throwback wrap — the famous orange-and-blue Bazooka No. 00 — on his Paylor Motorsports car for last month’s World 100 at Eldora Speedway. It wasn’t easy to keep the project a surprise to Smith, but he managed to do it.
“Me and Wesley (Page) had talked about it like four months ago,” Ferguson said. “We weren’t sure about doing it till we got closer to the date though. We went and tested (the new Longhorn car two weeks before the World 100) and it was really good. (Page) decided, ‘Freddy’s getting older, we’re running good right now, so we’ll go ahead and do it.’
“So we took it to Wesley Page’s shop, and that was a big thing, trying to keep it a surprise. Freddy’s grandson Zach (Jeff’s son), helped — he works at Wesley’s — and we worked on it some on Labor Day, we finished it up on Tuesday, got it to (Jeff’s) shop on Tuesday night, unloaded it after Jeff left … then we had it there sitting in the shop ready for Freddy on Wednesday morning (before they headed to Eldora).
“Zack and his stepmom got everybody to get to the shop at a certain time and they were surprised. We had told Jeff that we were taking it to Wesley’s (shop) to do some work on it, and the second or third day it was there he asked Zack, ‘Why are you at (Wesley’s) shop so late? The car was basically ready to go when you took it there. It was brand new.’”
Following Smith’s passing, Ferguson is thankful that he did the tribute wrap.
“Honestly, I was just wanting to wait until next year, because we had so much work to do leading up to the World with getting a new car completed and taking it testing that I just didn’t want to have to add putting a whole deck and body on the car to the list,” Ferguson said. “(Page, Zach Smith and Ferguson) were riding down the road one day and out of the blue Wesley told us that we were doing the wrap this year and not waiting another year. If that’s not God’s timing I don’t know what is.”
Ferguson is planning to bring the Bazooka-lookalike car back out for this weekend’s Dirt Track World Championship at Eldora and likely other late-season events with the “hope to put the famous 00 back in victory lane like I always told Freddy I would.”
In Ferguson’s brief relationship with Smith, he learned just how great he was.
“The most humble and down-to-earth man I have known,” Ferguson said of Smith. “We would talk about old tracks he used to race at, big races he’s won, how the cars used to handle and how you had to drive them back then, and if you didn’t know his history of winning you would just think it was regular Saturday night races that he won instead of the biggest races in our sport because of how humble he was. His humble, caring and genuine charismatic personality isn’t only seen through him, but also through his son and grandson.”
Pleading his case
Bret Emrick’s years as an official with the Renegade STARS Series offered him plenty of opportunities to see Freddy Smith’s talents. It’s two moments he experienced with Smith off the track, however, that stick most vividly in his mind.
The first was during one of the STARS-sanctioned Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park in Gibsonton, Fla.
“Scott Performance Wire was a series sponsor that paid $50 for a heat race win, provided the winner displayed the Scott Performance Wire decals,” Emrick recalled. “Well, Fred won a heat race but didn't have the decals on the car. Fred approached the next day asking why he didn't get the $50. I told him, ‘You didn't have the decals on the car.’ Fred said, ‘Look at my car,’ so I did and the decals were on, but they weren't the night prior. Our pit guys or (tech inspector) Walter (Burson) always checked that night.
“I told Fred, ‘I can't do it.’ He didn't yell, he didn't scream. he didn't cuss. Fred just felt he was due that $50. He kept telling me, ‘If I knew the decals were needed, I would've had them on.’ So, when Brian Scott of Scott Performance Wire arrived that day, I told him the situation. I introduced Brian and Fred and they talked it out. Fred was persistent pleading his case. Brian eventually said to pay Fred the $50. Fred must have really needed that $50!
“Another time was at the Blue-Gray 100 at Cherokee (Speedway in Gaffney, S.C.),” he continued. “The car Fred was driving had an engine setback of nearly 8-and-a-half inches that they got by Walter (Burson) on qualifying day Saturday. Sunday morning Walter got suspicious and checked the car out when he found the violation. Walter went ballistic! He was so mad tears were coming down his cheeks. I think he was more hurt (because) Fred and Walter were tight. I don’t think Fred really knew about the violation — he may have but I'll never know — but Fred came to me afterward and apologized profusely that his team upset Walter so bad. Fred kept saying if he truthfully knew that engine was set back so far he would've made the team correct it. I think Fred really meant that.”
Concluded Emrick: “It's sad that Fred is gone. Without a doubt Fred was a founding father of today's Dirt Late Model world. And that moniker of the Southern Gentleman? Fred to a T.”
No more phone calls
Lynn Winger, the wife of shock guru Gary and mother of burgeoning Georgia driver Ashton, was hit hard by Freddy Smith’s passing. After all, she spent the first three years of Ashton’s life raising him in the home on Clayton Christenberry’s farm in Knoxville, Tenn., where Gary brought her and their new baby boy immediately after Ashton’s birth in January 2000 because Gary had just starting working there as a crewman for Smith
“Freddy and Naomi took us under their wing from then on and treated us just like family,” Lynn wrote in a Facebook post. “They have saved us on more occasions than they ever knew.”
Even after Gary Winger left Smith’s Christenberry Trucking operation for other jobs, Smith never lost contact.
“Freddy always made sure to keep in touch,” Lynn wrote. “Some of Gary’s favorite calls have been when Freddy would call to say how proud he is of Gary and Ashton. It always amazed Gary and I for him to keep up with where Ashton was racing.
“He always went the extra mile and seemed to know when Gary needed a call to make sure he was OK. We always talked about those calls and what they mean to us. They will forever mean the world.”
