Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"The Mysterious Ron Howard and His NASCAR Millions"

Posted by nascarman on August 8, 2019

Viewed 2152 times Tweet He came into NASCAR offering more money than any person or company ever had. If J.D. Stacy wanted to sponsor 10 teams, Ron Howard and his mystery investors wanted to own that many. Was it possible to buy that many teams?



As fast as Ron Howard entered auto racing in the spring of 1985, he was gone just as quickly. He offered to buy every team that won a championship in the last five years but gave almost no details. Somehow he had investors who wanted to take over the sport, but wouldn't tell anyone who they were. And just a quickly as he showed up, he was gone.



Who was he? Who were the investors? Was the offer serious or was he a secret agent? Most of the story remains a mystery.







Ron Howard first showed up in April 1985. No, he wasn't the actor, TBS's Motorweek Illustrated described him as a "Florida businessman." From what little details were given, Howard fronted a group of mystery investors who wanted to own most of the top teams in NASCAR.



Reportedly, the group was willing to invest $50 million dollars annually, the equivalent of $120 million in 2019. Allegedly, they tried to buy the teams owned by Junior Johnson, Mike Curb, DiGard Racing, Billy Hagan, Junie Donlavey, and the Stavola Brothers. If they bought all of the teams, the group would field cars for Darrell Waltrip, Neil Bonnett, Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Terry Labonte, Ken Schrader, and Bobby Hillin Jr. It was an all-star lineup of champions, race winners, and future stars. Long before NASCAR had rules for how many cars a team could enter, this was entirely legal. A team could enter 8 or 9 cars if they wanted to.



In late April, Howard met with top NASCAR officials at their Daytona Beach offices. As he was telling his plans and making his pitch to competition director Bill Gazaway, Bill France Jr. joined the group. Because of the money being offered, France was understandably curious about the investors.



But apparently the source of the money was a secret. When pressed, Howard refused to tell France who the mystery investors were.



"Bill walked in during the meeting and asked who the investors were," NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter told The Tennessean in early May. "When the guy said he wasn't at liberty to say, Bill told him the meeting was over. As far as I know, he hasn't been back."



After the odd meeting, NASCAR was convinced the group were a bunch of crooks.



"We're not concerned about it at all," Hunter said. "There has been all sorts of talk... stuff like the guy is going to buy seven or eight teams. But the bottom line is that he refuses to name names or give details so we're not taking the talk that seriously."



Writer Larry Woody of The Tennessean newspaper spoke about the group with an anonymous source. He suspected they had "out-of-country oil money."



While he wasn't sure how serious the offer was, the source claimed NASCAR was scared of it. "You can imagine NASCAR's concern. If one group gained control of enough top teams it would just about be able to control the entire sport. If the deal comes off, it would be the biggest thing to happen in the history of the sport."



While Bill Elliott famously overcame a two lap deficit to win the May 5th race at Talladega, Ron Howard's bizarre presence hung over the sport. On Tuesday May 7th, Darrell Waltrip was expected to fly to Houston to meet with the group. Trying to make his pitch, Howard also promised to fly several teams to Las Vegas.



But wild rumors of the mystery men spread. In a May 9th episode of ESPN's Speedweek, Bob Jenkins reported that some believed Howard was a secret IRS agent. Was he really trying to look at the finances of the teams? Was he just using a lie to properly tax the race teams?



Howard contacted the teams and canceled the Las Vegas trip. As Dave Despain said on Motorweek Illustrated, they were told he had to "work out some details with NASCAR."



Without much attention in the media, Howard quietly and quickly disappeared. His secret "oil-money inverstors" were never revealed. No team was ever bought. Even today, the truth of this unusual operation is a mystery.





References:

*Motorweek Illustrated - May 11, 1985

*Speedweek - May 9, 1985

*Woody, Larry. "Mystery Investors Seek Top Racers." The Tennessean. May 5, 1985.



-----------

Follow me on Twitter @nascarman_rr for more articles and other old pictures. Or email me at nascarman_rr@yahoo.com Opinions expressed in blogs are those of the individual bloggers and do not necessarily represent the views of racing-reference.info.