"FOR SHELBY HOWARD IV, THE WAIT            
PROVES WORTH IT AT SALEM"                   

Published, in edited form, in the Indianapolis Star (StarSouth), Sept. 25, 2003 ©

[*Second-place, Feature Writing, annual writing contest of American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association, May 2004*]

         In that twilight hour between when the sun slips behind the backstretch wall of Salem Speedway like a fugitive and they turn up the track lights full-blast, Shelby Howard IV stands in the dim light and does the thing he is least good at, stand around and slowly wait.

         In another of his many days at the races, this is the time of anticipation for the youthful 18-year-old from Greenwood who, outfitted in a silver-and-black racing suit with checkered stripes running down the sides, has to wait out the next step on his rapid road to the mountain top of stock car racing. Only his nerves are accelerating, instead of the shiny yellow-and-maroon number 64 Dodge Intrepid that sits quietly along the pit wall, sponsor decals clustered on its sides like military ribbons, less than an hour before the start of the ARCA Fall Classic 200.

         "Yeah, it can be nervous," the fresh-faced young Howard acknowledges, with a slight nod, "but it can be relaxing, too.

         "You know there's 30 minutes and then you've got to get in the car. You don't know what to do but stand here and think."

         He may have a lot to think about as he awaits the start of one of the final events of his second full season on the ARCA (Automobile Racing Club of America) circuit, which is to big-time NASCAR racing what AAA baseball is to the major leagues. His time waiting in the wings of second-level stock car racing could be running out, with the promised land of NASCAR's Busch Series or Craftsman Truck Series seemingly just over the next horizon.

         But, for this Saturday night, the only thoughts that Howard can entertain are of the event directly in front of him, when he must go 200 laps at more than 100 mph and outrun a field of 35 drivers ranging from young drivers on the way up, like himself and young Jason Jarrett, the son of NASCAR Winston Cup superstar Dale Jarrett, and ARCA mainstays like perennial ARCA champion Frank Kimmel, who, at 41, has been racing stock cars longer than Howard has been drawing breaths.

         And those thoughts don't race through a lot of fantasy story lines, like any other Greenwood teen-ager on a virtual race through a video game. "You can think about scenarios all you want, but it never turns out like you think it's going to happen," he states to a realistic certainty.

         "So, you've just got to go with the flow, more or less keep your nose clean the first 100 laps and have a good idea of what's going on around you. The last 50 laps, you get with the program and get going."

         What sounds as much like a plan as any for a driver facing a short-track Saturday night forms after an afternoon of unexpected - and, to Howard's mind, frustrating - turns. A spin off the fourth of Salem's high-banked asphalt corners during practice, a fender-bending run-in with a slowing red car going into the first, a car whose handling isn't quite as perfect as he wanted for qualifications.

         "It was a little loose, but we just left it that way," he reports, happy with his third starting position at the track where he got a grip on his first-ever ARCA victory back in April. "We figured it's better to qualify third than to sit on the pole but not be able to race good.

         "We hope the track is going to tighten us up when the sun goes down."

         Now, with qualifying over, scores of autographs signed and race time ticking closer, Howard moves toward his race car, exchanging small conversations with his father, Shelby Howard III, who is also his car owner, his mother, Tonya, and his girlfriend, Kelly Gwin of Greenwood. He squeezes his silver racing helmet onto his head, then slips into the number 64 like a burglar through a first-story window.

         At the announced command, the car fires up and rumbles with the 34 others into the bright track lights that flood the half-mile speed arena all the way around. The waiting period has expired for the racing prodigy who has been hitting the race tracks on a weekly basis for roughly half of his life.

         True to his pre-race prediction, Howard keeps his nose and stock car clean in the early going, running with the leaders lap after lap before forging into the lead on lap 84.

         A pit stop takes him out of the lead momentarily, but he grabs it back and pulls away until Kimmel, who had tangled with some slower cars earlier, catches back up and tries to force his way between Howard and a lapped car with 20 laps to go.

         The 64 and the veteran Jeffersonville driver's red number 46 Ford touch, sending Kimmel into the outside wall and out of the race. Howard leads the rest of the way and pulls to a stop in the middle of the frontstretch, where he is quickly surrounded by crew members, photographers and race officials.

         He emerges through the driver's side window opening, his boyishly round face all smiles and glistening with sweat. Hugs all around - with crewmen, family members, a clutch of fans decked out in "Shelby Howard" T-shirts - are followed by the handing over of the bowl-shaped silver trophy, posing for post-race and answering press interview questions.

         The win is Howard's third of the season and his first since winning in early June at a longer track in Kansas. "We've been in a slump here lately, so it's good to get the monkey off our back," he tells a bouquet of microphones and tape recorders held in front of his still-smiling face.

         "It's exciting; you couldn't ask for anything better."

         The excitement has been part of the Greenwood racer's life since long before he could legally drive a car out of his parents' driveway. He was winning races - mini-cups, midgets, mini-sprints, modifieds - before he entered junior high school in Greenwood (he has been home-schooled by a private tutor for most of his high school years and will earn his diploma before the 2004 racing season starts).

         So this kind of celebrating under the harsh lights of a speedway is nothing new to Howard. Running an ARCA schedule that will ultimately take him to 22 races in 14 states by season's end, he has had enough of these celebrations to place him fourth in the overall ARCA standings with three races left.

         Not bad for an "up and down" season, as the teen-age racing whiz describes it. "We've just had a lot of bad luck," he explains. "We've broken a lot of equipment.

         "Every time it does go good, we end up in front. That's one good thing."

         Tonight's celebration is interrupted only long enough for him to be escorted by race officials to the ARCA trailer to "discuss" the late-race incident with Kimmel, which Howard shrugs off as "one of those racing deals" but Kimmel and his crew see a little differently.

         Howard and the party mood return shortly, however. But, with races and testing sessions coming up in Virginia, Alabama and North Carolina the next three weeks, the celebrating will be short-lived. "Maybe a little bit tonight," the race winner, his face still glazed with sweat, says with a smile, "but that'll be it."

         "Tomorrow, we'll go back and work on the car and get ready for next week."

         And get ready for a future that could shine as brightly as the glaring Salem Speedway lights. Howard and his parents are already looking toward moving up the ladder at a pace that mirrors that of NASCAR's biggest current star, Jeff Gordon, or the latest young winner in the Busch Series, 19-year-old Brian Vickers.

         "I'd like to be in a truck or Busch car next year," young Howard speculates, "but you never know."

         His father, who is CEO of Central Indiana Mack Trucks in Indianapolis, backs up his racing son's optimism about a possible move up to a NASCAR series with an established team next year. "We've got some stuff going on that could happen in the next three or four weeks," the senior Howard reports.

         "We should have something pretty much done by then, hopefully. It all depends on the teams we're working with right now, sponsorships and manufacturers."

         If a new deal gets done, Howard will move on to another, bigger stock car stage and leave the smaller events and spotlights of ARCA behind him, like an actor going from summer stock to Broadway. "It was a good place for him to start," his father says, adjusting his racing cap one last time this night before the lights fade into the night.

         "He got a lot of experience, running the superspeedways - Charlotte, Daytona, Talladega. This is the only series he could have done that in, but it's time for us to make the next step."

----------

 Copyright 2003 by Jerry Miller ©

 Photo courtesy of CIMCO Racing

 Return to Writings page