(
January 2 ,
1950 -
November 19 ,
1989 ), was a stock car racing driver who had brief flashes of brilliance in the lesser ranks, but had a
NASCAR Winston Cup career plagued by the extremely bizarre which culminated in his death in a single car incident in the 1989
Atlanta Journal 500 .
Adcox's
Winston Cup career got off to a start in
1974 , running a handful of races for father Herb Adcox with sponsorship backing from the family's Chevrolet dealership in
Chattanooga ,
Tennessee .
In that year's
Winston 500 - considered one of the crown jewels of the sport - held at the fastest track on the circuit, the
Talladega Superspeedway , Adcox and his father entered their car and managed to time in for the event. The race was an eventful affair, delayed by rain for over an hour after seventy circuits, but this didn't dim the tough as nails fight for the lead up front that quickly resumed on the restart. With a hundred laps in the books, a caution came out as Donnie Allison's clutch burned out and David Sisco's motor went up in smoke.
Gary Bettenhausen , who had timed a
Roger Penske owned
AMC Matador on outside pole, had been forced to pit a lap after the leaders, and was up on jacks as young Adcox came down for service. Adcox's car hit an oil and water patch and slammed straight into the Bettenhausen Matador, crushing catch can man Don Miller between the cars. A young crew member of the Nord Krauskopf team who was pitted nearby,
Buddy Parrott , came rushing down to help, while Penske crewmembers John Woodward and John Watson were also injured.
Miller was taken to the hospital and eventually had his right leg amputated. Learning of the extent of Miller's injuries, Adcox went into shock and his car was withdrawn from the event.
Adcox continued to run sporadic
Winston Cup races among the years, but Talladega would have more in store for him. Before the
1975 Talladega 500 , which Adcox had managed to qualify for, his crew chief, Gene Lovell, suffered a heart attack and died in their garage. The car was withdrawn, Adcox filled in for another team, and in an ironic twist of fate, as the race was delayed a week by heavy rains, the first alternate,
Tiny Lund , was given their spot on the grid. He would be killed in a violent lap seven crash.
The
1978 Winston 500 at Talladega would be Adcox's finest hour, as Krystal Restaurants came onboard for a partial season with sponsorship money and in his family owned Chevrolet, he fought hard with the leaders and finished a strong fifth, his career best
Winston Cup finish.
But if Adcox's career had a theme, it was being strapped for cash, and a year later, he was again sponsorless - he timed in fourth for the
1979 Firecracker 400 at
Daytona International Speedway but his car's raw speed didn't pay off and his motor expired early. He would continue to run sporadic events over the years but never again contended.
Adcox's primary claim to fame was for being a strong competitor in
ARCA competition, a lesser stock car series that utilizes older
Winston Cup cars and more grass roots based operations. He was especially dominant on the superspeedways -- he won a record four of them in
1986 and had eight total superspeedway triumphs in his career, five of them coming, ironically, at Talladega.
For
1989 , Adcox had signed up with Bumper to Bumper All Pro Autoparts and in a family owned Chevrolet planned to run in a handful of
Winston Cup events. In the season finale at
Atlanta Motor Speedway , Adcox crashed heavily on lap one-hundred and ninety-eight of the event and died of major chest and head injuries, also suffering a heart attack as result of the crash. Upon investigation, it was determined that the severe impact had torn his improperly mounted racing seat away from it's mount entirely and this led to Adcox's death. It also led to new safety regulations on the way seats were mounted for the
1990 season.
ARCA 's sportsmanship award, the H.G. Adcox Award, is named in Adcox's honor, and is awarded annually by his father Herb. The Grant Adcox Memorial is also held annually in his honor at North Georgia Speedway and a subsequent event has been held also in
Cleveland, Tennessee .
