Dream over for Carl Long?
Growing up in central North Carolina, a stone's throw from the Virginia border, all Carl Long ever wanted to do was race cars. He was reared in short track infields all over Tobacco Road, watching his daddy compete in the Baby Grand National Series in the mid-'70s.
He dreamed that someday he'd rub fenders with Winston Cup royalty, the Allisons and the Waltrips and the Earnhardts.
These days in his home north of Charlotte there are photos, several of them, of Long as a child posing with some of those men. His heroes. But there's one in particular he keeps close by. He was 6 years old, perched on Bobby Allison's knee at Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway.
You needn't see it physically -- only hear Long describe it -- to know it's a portrait of innocence and limitless potential and the starry-eyed prospect of a child's wish.
In a way, those dreams have been realized. Long has never been competitive at NASCAR's highest levels, and some folks don't even believe he belongs on the racetrack with Johnson and Gordon and the Busch boys.
And granted, he'll never beat them. But he did achieve the unthinkable.
He took an empty pocket and a full heart and made it to Cup.
Long got his racing start at Orange County and South Boston, driving Volkswagen Beetles against his ol' man and his uncles. He stayed after it, ascended through the ranks, praying he'd catch the eye of a big-time owner and get a real shot. He set that goal at age 35. But last year, at 40, reality smacked him in the face. It just wasn't happening.
So he changed directions, decided he'd race when he could, suit up and tape it off and chase the dream on Friday afternoons when he managed to scrap enough dimes together to try. At least he was still at the racetrack, consumed by an addiction to what he recently called "the worst drug ever:" racing.
On Tuesday, that dream could end.
Long gone.
Forever.
On May 20, NASCAR penalized the driver and crew chief Charles Swing for bringing a big motor to the Sprint Showdown. They levied a record penalty and fine: 200 championship points, $200,000 and a 12-race suspension. Long can't afford $200, much less 200,000 of them.
Long appealed the penalty, and a three-member appeals board will hear his case Tuesday. If the penalty is upheld, Long is done. If he can't pay the fine he'll lose his NASCAR license. With no license, he can't so much as race a late model.
"Right. I'm done," Long said Monday, standing behind the No. 34 team pit stall at Lowe's Motor Speedway during one of several Coca-Cola 600 red flag rain delays. "My wife and I are the owners, and sure, [NASCAR] could say, 'Carl, we'll reinstate your license after this is over with.' But I can't come back to the race[track] and drive and compete if she has to stay at home. If NASCAR reads in the fine lines, and gives me my license back, they still kill my livelihood."
The only way Long can remain in the sport is "if I win the appeal. I just hope the appeals board has got some common sense."
What went wrong?
Long maintains he purchased the engine from "a reputable builder," i.e., longtime engine man Ernie Elliott. It was a former Ganassi Racing motor which was expendable in the wake of Ganassi's merger with Dale Earnhardt Inc., and subsequent move to Chevrolet. Elliott bought it, then sold it to Long.
When Long showed up to compete in the Sprint Showdown, NASCAR surveyed his engine before the race and determined it to be illegal, larger than the maximum 358.000 cubic inch displacement allowed. Long's was 358.17.
"I've got a guy making me up a piece that's .17 of a cubic inch," Long said. "It's like cutting a Chiclet into 20 pieces and giving you a piece."
Ultimately, Long feels blame rests with Elliott.
"Apparently they didn't pay attention to what they sold me, or they just didn't care -- one or the other," Long said of Elliott. "I didn't think it'd ever wind up being where it is. All I did was buy a part from a guy, with a name, that says I'm legal to go racing. I went to a reputable builder, but he's not being held responsible. He just told me 'Good luck.'
"The pistons in the engine was a 4.185 size, which is the maximum limit in our series. And all the paperwork that he showed on them said it was a 4.183. The whole thing was, a mistake happened and I'm the guy that's got to pay for it."
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Elliott, conversely, says he carries no responsibility. He said he'd never have sold the motor to Long if he didn't think it was legal. Elliott cites his company wasn't the last entity to work on the engine.
When he sold the engine, he no longer had control over it. If it were a leased engine, one Elliott saw weekly, he'd said he'd be right in the middle of it. But it belonged to Long, he said.
"All we did was bought an inventory and resold it -- that's our position on it," Elliott said.
Elliott also explained that he sold the motor to Long in January, which Long then ran at Daytona during Speedweeks before converting it to an "open," unrestricted engine.
"By virtue of the fact that it went to a race, for the small amount it was over, would you not believe an engine that ran hot enough to blow a head gasket and pour water out the tail pipes would not distort the bore more than [.17 inch]?" Elliott said.
"I think a piece of paper is thicker than one-thousandth of an inch."
Long said NASCAR tried its best to help. He said inspector Kenny Lawson went to every extreme to measure the motor, in every fashion possible, to ensure it did not conform. In the end, Lawson had no recourse. The motor was just too big.
The odd thing is, it was also weak. Long said he tested it on a chassis dynamometer the week before the Showdown and found it to be 50 horsepower short of the top teams.
"The bad part about it is, I borrowed the money from a guy to go buy the motor and NASCAR cut the purse short on me, so I can't even pay him back for the motor," Long said. "NASCAR kept the engine, and I'm $200,000 in the hole."
Long estimates he brings in $100,000 annually, which he uses to race and feed his family. Saying he "can't afford" 200 large is like saying he's not a favorite to win on Sundays.
"It's crazy," he said of the penalty. "If I'm gonna come cheated, I'm not gonna come just a little pregnant -- I'm gonna come way pregnant."
Straight priorities
Long's second wife, Dee Dee, is also his second priority. She knows that.
"Everything I've done in my life -- everything -- I've put my family, my job, everything second to racing," Long said. "Racing has been the No. 1 priority. That's probably one of the reasons I'm on my second marriage.
"Ask 90 percent of the people in here on pit road, what's your biggest [obstacle]? People's families can't take racing. Racing's a hard deal. But it's what I chose. Nobody's forcing me to do it. It's what I love to do."
And what if he loses that appeal? What if racing is gone forever? What then?
"I don't think words could explain it -- I truly don't," he said, leaned on a stack of tires, under a tent as the sun shone while the rain poured. "If I can't pay the fine, how do you get back in?
"If I hit the lottery, I don't know that I'd want to pay the damn fine. I understand there's people out in the Internet world trying to help me. But what good does it do? It keeps me in the sport, but I still feel this fine is unjust. If it stands, what's that [say] for the other guys out here?
"You're a victim of somebody else's mistake, and I will grant you there's probably not another driver out here that built their motor in their car. I'd doubt any of them even helped install it. That's the sport today. But I'm being held accountable. I just don't understand."
If he had to, Long figures he could go back to selling pizzas. Back in 1988, Long was manager of the year at a Domino's Pizza franchise in the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina.
"Maybe I should have just franchised back then and bought me a pizza store. I'd been a lot better off," he said. "But I wouldn't be as happy, because I'd have always said 'What if?'
"I'm still in the sport, and now I'm being kicked out of the sport. There's a bunch of other things I could do. I have my CDL [commercial driver's license], because I have to drive the hauler to the track a lot of the time. I can weld. I can fabricate. And I reckon I could BS, too, I don't know.
"But I don't know where exactly my career will go after this. I really hope I don't have to worry about that. I hope they let me continue to make a living in the sport that I love."
Long is what's right about NASCAR. He shows up to race because he loves to race, knowing full well he has no chance to finish in the top 10, much less win. I couldn't do that. I admire him for having the perseverance to try.
We're talking the thickness of a piece of paper. Here's hoping common sense prevails.
Marty Smith is a contributor to ESPN's NASCAR coverage. He can be reached at ESPNsider@aol.com.
