Short Track and NASCAR modeling

Wards first cup car was this Lumina that he actually did pretty good in including a pole at Charlotte. His best finish was Pocono which this car depicts where he got a second place because he was one of the drivers that day that used Hoosier tires which were a decided advantage for that race.

Well done Mark! I had forgotten about that car.

You did a really nice job on this build. Gave those special Hoosier tires a special touch. Super job on those decals also. Nice work.

Thanks guys. Ward has always been one of my favorite drivers. Could have won more but he was too loyal to Bill Davis and I heard had the chance to go to the Robert Yates Ford but turned them down.  Well at least he did win the Daytona 500. that's not too shabby.

Really nice work on this one Mark! I've always liked this car and you nailed it👍

Thanks, Catpack. It was hard finding good reference photos of this car. Luckily, I had a 1/43 scale diecast of it I found at a model car show in Stafford Texas. I wasn't sure what it said on the trunk, but the diecast got it right, so I just used the image from the diecast and blew it up from 1/43 scale to make the decal for what I think it was 1/24th scale build I made. I had to do a lot of body mods to make the body correct for this version of the Lumina.

Nice build came out looking good.

Very sharp build!

Thanks, Dave and Tony. It was a fun build.

Very cool. Great work on that slabside.

Thanks, Vdc. It was a very enjoyable build. One of my favorites to get out of the display case and just sit down and look at it. Ward was my favorite driver back in that era. Sad that he was too loyal to Bill Davis. He could have had a lot more wins if he had ever got with an elite team at that time which I found out he had chances to do.  Like when Ernie Irvan got hurt in the 28 car.

You're so right Mark. Ward's loyalty to Bill Davis, while admirable, was misplaced and costly to his career. I saw the Dale, Jr podcast interview with Ward. At one point Richard Childress wanted Ward to drive one of his cars. Don't remember which car not the #3 obviously. If I'm remembering correctly, this was around the time the wheels were coming off of the bus at Bill Davis Racing. Ward turned down the ride because of his loyalty to Davis. Not to much later Davis fired Ward.

Steve, I did not know about the Childress deal, but I'm not surprised about it at all. Well at least it seems Ward is living a good life with his foundation work and helping Jeb as best he can with his career.

Mark, I read that Ward had built an asphalt late model to race. Haven't seen anything about him racing yet but the season is young.

Quote from: Volzfan59 on March 02, 2025, 09:43:08 AMMark, I read that Ward had built an asphalt late model to race. Haven't seen anything about him racing yet but the season is young.

Steve, yes, they had a story about Jeb Burton on a show on MAVTV, and Ward had a late model he competed against Jeb with a while back. I don't think Ward built it but the guy who built Jeb's late model let Ward use another car he had prepared so they could race together. Ward did pretty good, but Jeb got the better of him. I can't remember the name of the show, but they do stories on different drivers every now and then. I have MAVTV in one of my packages on my DirecTV.