Eddie Lanier Nascar Engine Builder - Scrap Book

Eddie Lanier, 56, has been an engine builder in NASCAR going on 34 years, starting at Holman and Moody, Ford Motor Com-pany's stock car bastion, in 1966. Lanier, who has built engines at Richard Childress Racing for the past 12 years, is best known for powering Dale Earnhardt to 29 Winston Cup victories and 4 of the Intimidator's seven championships. Supplying power for such leading drivers as David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Harry Gant, and Richard Petty, Lanier has been associated with 60 Winston Cup victories and 11 titles. Working in semiretirement for the past five years, Lanier has built engines for RCR's NASCAR Craftsman Truck team, winning 20 races and the series' inaugural champion-ship with Mike Skinner in 1995. A widower, Lanier, a native and resident of Statesville, North Carolina, has two married daughters, Debbie and Tammy, and a son, Ed II, who followed his dad to RCR's engine department. Lanier's girlfriend, Beverly Crews of Advance, North Carolina, is also involved with racing at R.J. Reynolds' Sports Marketing Enterprises. In 2000, Lanier will help build engines for RCR's Busch Series teams on a part-time basis. He plans to retire in three years or less, he says.

So Near, Yet So FarThe most disappointing race I've ever experienced was the '90 Daytona 500. I was the engine builder for Dale Earnhardt and Richard Childress Racing. That Earnhardt had won practically everything at Daytona except the 500 was always the big story. He dominated the 500, leading 155 of the 200 laps. During the race I was excited, but, from experience, tried not to show it. As fate would have it again, he didn't lead the final lap.

In Turn 2, Earnhardt ran over a piece of metal and cut the right-rear tire, which shredded going into Turn 3. Derrike Cope zipped by for his first Daytona 500 win in only his third try. Miraculously, Earnhardt saved his car and finished fifth. I was heartbroken. If somebody had put me in a hole and covered me up, I wouldn't have felt any lower.

As Good As It GetsAt Holman and Moody, I worked with such leading engine builders as Robert Yates, Tommy Turner, and Lee Terry. I helped build engines for several of the factory Ford teams. For the '69 season, Richard Petty switched from Plymouths to Fords. At the time, I was building engines for Ford owner Bondy Long, who decided to get out of racing. I was assigned to Petty, and we won the very first race together, at Riverside, California. The experience is memorable, not only because we won, but because the race had been rained out for two straight weekends. Between the second and third trips to Riverside, my wife delivered our son, Eddie II. It couldn't have gotten any better than that.

Short and SweetThe first Daytona 500 victory with which I was associated as an engine builder came in 1970. After Petty's 10-win '69 season, I left Holman and Moody to work at Petty Enterprises, helping Maurice Petty power the Plymouth Superbirds of Richard Petty and teammate Pete Hamilton. Hamilton won the Daytona 500. My tenure at Petty Enterprises was short but sweet. I worked there only five months, long enough to get that cherished Daytona 500 victory, before returning to Holman and Moody.

More Fun ThenIn my early career at Holman and Moody, most of the engine guys were young, didn't take things too seriously, and had a lot of fun. Winston Cup is so pressure-packed and professional today that it's not as much fun. You're expected to win without any problems, and that's unrealistic. There's nothing man makes that can't be broken.

Bob Auman, an engine builder at H-M, was very meticulous; he was also slow and methodical. When he did finish an engine, you could believe everything was right. Auman built engines for Junior Johnson's #26 Ford products, driven, I think, by LeeRoy Yarborough. One of my cohorts found a turtle outside the engine shop. With a permanent marker, he wrote #26 on the turtle's shell and put the turtle in Bob's assembly room. When Bob found it, he really raised sand, and the rest of us got a good laugh.

A ShockerDuring our morning break at Holman and Moody, guys would sit or lean on metal tables in the break room. There was always a magneto lying on a table, and nobody paid much attention to it. A magneto produces an electrical current-to-fire spark plugs in an engine. We took an oil-pump drive rod and made a crank for the magneto so we could turn it by hand. Once in a while, a guy would be preoccupied with his snack or talking to someone. We'd crank the magneto; the metal table would conduct the charge and burn a blister on his butt.

New MeaningThe insignia on all the Holman and Moody Fords was CP, for Competition Proven. In 1967, Richard Petty gave Ford and everybody else a beating to remember-winning 27 races, including a streak of 10, both existing records, and the championship. During that career year, engine builders at H-M gave CP a new meaning: Catch Petty.

Yates to RescueThis little story, a vivid memory, about my friend Robert Yates is not common knowledge because he isn't the type to tell it. Robert and I had returned to our motel after conducting tests, I believe, at Dover Downs. We had to walk by the swimming pool to get to our room. A small child, about 4 years old, had fallen into the pool and was flailing and bobbing up and down. Without a second thought, Yates jumped into the pool and rescued the child, undoubtedly saving his or her life. I can't remember whether it was a boy or a girl. But I do remember how nonchalant Yates was about the incident, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

No ThanksI worked for Junior Johnson from 1977 through 1982. Harold Elliott was head of the engine department then, and I helped him. In 1978, I built most of the race and qualifying engines for Cale Yarborough. That year, Cale won his existing, record third-straight championship on the strength of 10 wins, 23 top fives, eight poles, and two DNF's.

We had heard that Cale was as tight with his money as two coats of paint, but the engine guys felt he would give us a good bonus, considering the great season. At Christmas time, we had a team party at Staley's, a favorite stop for Junior and his late friend, Ralph Seagraves, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. When I received my bonus from Cale, I decided to wait until I got home to open it. The check was for $50. I stuck it back in the envelope and the next week, Francis Allen, a crewman, and I sent our checks back to Cale. Our thinking was that if $50 was all he could afford for what we had done, he needed it worse than we did.

Euphoric HighI went to work for Richard Childress in 1987 and was promoted to engine chief in 1989 after Lou LaRosa left. My first race as head of the department was with Earnhardt at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, in April. Goodyear introduced its new radial tire to Winston Cup competition, and we didn't know what sort of problems to expect. But Dale adapted quickly and motored to victory, my first as the team engine chief. We won five races that year and finished second to Rusty Wallace in the championship chase by 12 points.

An engine builder experiences the extremes of emotions: euphoric high when his mill performs flawlessly, and a devastating low when it breaks or blows. I haven't cried over a failed engine, but I've come very close.

Trick FanI doubt there is an engine builder who hasn't tried to sneak an illegal device or gimmick past NASCAR's technical inspectors. In 1986, when I worked for Mach I owner Hal Needham and driver Harry Gant, I got to thinking that if I could slow the fan blade, or keep it from turning at all, we could run a little quicker. The fan disturbs the air going into the engine. At high-speed tracks, a fan wasn't necessary for cooling. I came up with a deal that looked like a stock spacer, but when two of the four bolts that held the spacer behind the fan to the water pump were replaced with shorter bolts, the fan would freewheel. I installed a small rod that touched the fan blade just enough to keep it from turning. If NASCAR inspectors had fired the engine and saw that the fan blade didn't move, they would have caught us-but they didn't. We ran that at speedways many times. It was worth two-tenths (of a second) at Talladega.

After I had left the team, Gant got the pole at a race in Pocono and was caught with a freewheeling fan blade. I didn't tell a soul what I had done. I guess NASCAR did crank the engine. The late Dick Beaty, then the Winston Cup competition director, confiscated the device, put it in his private "hall of shame" museum, and often talked about how clever it was.

Happy BirthdayThe engine guys wanted to help our boss, who shall remain anonymous, celebrate his birthday. We hired a belly dancer to come to the shop. The boss wasn't in the shop that day, and I had to figure out a way to get him there. So I called him and said I had a problem with something and needed his help to make a decision. When he arrived, I told him the problem was in the body shop. The whole engine department was assembled there, and the belly dancer performed. He was surprised, but not as red-faced as I would have been. He says, "Lanier, I owe you one." And I'm still expecting the payback.

The SandmanI was at Daytona Speedway working for Holman and Moody in the late '60s. I had a rental car, which most people abuse because they don't belong to them. Back then, most of the roads in the speedway's infield were unpaved and sandy. I was leaving the infield one day with Horace Smith, a good friend and prankster who later died in a truck accident. As I was making a sharp left turn to enter the tunnel, Horace grabbed the gearshift and jammed it into Reverse. The window on my side was down, and the wheels, spinning backward, absolutely covered me with sand. Horace sat there and guffawed.

Hail to the Engine ChiefWinning my first championship in 1990 as head engine builder for RCR and Earnhardt is a fond memory, especially after finishing second by 12 points in 1989. The title made the heartbreak of losing the Daytona 500 to start the '90 season more bearable. Our restrictor-plate stuff was better than most of the competitors, and I'm sure everybody thought we were cheating. We weren't. We gained some horsepower with a combination that suited Earnhardt's driving style. We swept the two Winston Cup races at Talladega and won the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, finishing with 9 victories, 18 top fives, just 1 DNF, and a 26-point margin over Mark Martin for the championship. I was named Cleavite Engine Builder of the Year, an honor I really appreciate.