Name: Joe Hudson
Year / Make / Model Car: Chevy Monte Carlo
Number: 54
Class: Late Model Sportsman
Years Racing: 28
Job: Adventures in Racing Company
1. How did you get into racing?
JH: My dad owned cars when I was young. I snuck out and bought a 71 Plymouth Fury for the HOGG class at Sayre in 1987. The rest is history.
2. What would you be doing if you were not driving a race car?
JH: Dreaming of driving a race car I’m sure.
3. People who have inspired you the most while you have raced?
JH: Bobby Allison, Bobby Hamilton Sr., and Freddy Fryar.
4. What is the biggest obstacle you are facing in your quest to succeed in racing?
JH: Like most everyone else, money! I could never marry a girl with a rich father who happened to like racing. I haven’t given up looking though.
5. What driver are you a fan of?
JH: Kyle Busch. To me he is one of the last real racers. He will race anything, anywhere. He races for the love of the sport, not just the money.
6. Out of all the race cars you have driven, which one was your favorite and why?
JH: I enjoy the Open Sportsman division cars. With the rules package, you don’t necessarily have to have the most money or best equipment to win. A good driving car is the great equalizer. I’m amazed more tracks haven’t adopted this class.
7. Pick one : CD player, I pod, 8-Track or Record player, and who do you listen to?
JH: iPod. Anything from Kid Rock, Adele, Lady Antebellum and Kenny Chesney.
8. What have you been doing during the off season?
JH: Getting the AIR Company fleet of race cars prepared to race.
9. Is there any other type of race car that you’d like to drive that you haven’t yet?
JH: A dream would be a Formula One car.
10. Your best and worst moment in racing?
JH: Winning my first race at BIR. As a kid, my dad took me there and I’d see Bobby Allison win and get my picture made with the checkered flag at the start / finish line. My main motivation was to get my picture made at that same spot. Worst, flipping off the back straightaway at Montgomery before the wall was put up all the way around. That hurt!
11. Any local legends that you admired while coming up in Short Track Racing?
JH: Bobby Allison, Neil Bonnett, and Ray Putnam.
12. What motivates you to be the best in your racing division?
JH: Winning of course. And the challenge of getting the most out of the car.
13. Favorite smell at the track : race gas or burning rubber?
JH: Racing gas. I have never done any drugs but I often say racing gas is my drug of choice.
14. What’s the funniest thing you have ever seen on the race track?
JH: I was at Talladega the year the guy stole the pace car and took it for a joy ride around the track. I spotted for Willie T. Ribbs in the NASCAR truck series. Any race he participated in was always funny. Poor Willie T. just didn’t get it.
15. What local driver do you have the most respect for and why?
JH: Augie and Frankie Grill. They not only build great cars at GARC, but they were always went above and beyond helping me and my dad when we raced their chassis.
16. Do you have another sport you enjoy to watch or participate in?
JH: I love to play tennis, Also like College Football…..Roll Tide!
17. What’s more important … racing for points or racing for the win?
JH: Winning. I once heard that winning is the most important thing, it’s the only thing.
18. Your favorite track and why?
JH: I loved BIR back in the day but now my favorite is Montgomery. Stan and the crew are top notch and God bless Bobby Knox for keeping the place going so we all have a place to race.
19. Which describes you best : calculating driver or kamikaze driver?
JH: Calculating. To finish first, first you must finish.
20. Last Lap, you’re in a side by side dash for the win… who would you want to beat and why?
JH: Thats’s easy. I don’t care who it is – just as long as they finish second!
I would to say thanks to my crew: Wayne Foster, Brad Houston, Bobby Reuse, Gary Coggins and Anthony Lilla. They have all provided more help than I could ever repay.
Also thanks to my Sponsors: Wholesale Controls International, Alabama Controls, Associated Fire Investigation and Stanley Smith Drywall.
Thanks Joe, for providing us with this information, and if anyone else would like to be featured here please contact me at ShortTrackTalk@gmail.com