Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"Walter Payton - From Football to Race Track"

Posted by nascarman on February 4, 2017

Viewed 4453 times Tweet On the football field, Walter Payton was a legend. 16,726 rushing yards, nine time pro-bowl, and retired with the most rushing yards in NFL history. The man called "Sweetness" was arguably the best runningback in football history and an amazing person, his legacy memorialized by the humanitarian award bearing his name presented prior to the Super Bowl. And yes, if he couldn't get any more interesting, he was a sports car driver too.





Payton at Lime Rock 1993



Much has been written about Walter Payton in the NFL so there's no need to cover anything prior to his retirement from the Chicago Bears in 1988. But what do you do after football? For Payton, he was drawn to sports car racing. Immediately after retiring, he attended the Bob Bondurant, Jim Russell and Skip Barber driving schools. In 1988, Payton competed in the SCAA Sports 2000 series, an amateur series. His first race was at Road America in August 1988 where he finished 18th. Oddly enough, who won that race? Tom Cruise. But Payton got good quickly, he even won the last race of the season.



In 1990, Payton teamed up with Paul Newman and drove for the Newman-Sharp Racing Team in IMSA Luk Clutch Challenge races.



"I consider this season similar to playing high school ball," Payton said in 1990. "It's a learning year for me. My Newman Sharp Olds is a full-fledged race car which demands a consistently high level of performance."



After gaining knowledge and experience, Sweetness moved up to the Trans-Am Series and raced as teammate to Ron Fellows in a Budweiser sponsored Mustang. In 1992 he finished 13th in points with a best finish of 8th at Road America.



"I'm having a lot of fun," Payton said. "I guess as long as it continues to be fun I'll keep doing it and keep trying to get better at it. When it ceases to be fun, then it's time to get out." The day the fun ended came three weeks after his induction into the NFL Hall of Fame, in August 1993 at Road America when Payton had a career ending crash.



In practice for the Trans-Am race on August 20, 1993, Payton had the worst wreck of his career when the car he was following broke a transmission. With no way to avoid Dick Danielson's slowing car, Payton drove over his left rear tire and flipped end over end in his Budweiser Mustang.



"When tire hits tire, what it does is launch you," Danielson explained. "I looked out the left window and I saw his car, it was rising."



The St Louis Post described the wreck as follows: "Payton's car first hit the guardrail before what's called Camel Bridge past Turn 4. About 200 yards later on a back straightaway, Payton hit the guardrail a second time. According to witnesses, Payton's car went airborne, skidded on its side then turned cartwheels between guardrails. After hitting the second guardrail, the car went airborne again, burst into flames, sailed over a snow fence some 20 feet behind the guardrail and landed on its roof."





Nose From Walter Payton's Career Ending Wreck



The car landed upside down with flames rising above the inverted wreckage. As fans rushed to the car to help, Payton pulled himself out of the mess. He was taken to Valley View Medical Center and released later that night with minor burns to his neck and left arm.



"The worst part was that I got some fuel in my eyes and they burn pretty bad," he said. "The burns on my neck are bothering me a little, but really, I'm OK."



"I was probably going about 130 mph. when the car in front of me slowed all of a sudden," Payton recalled. "I remember going over the top of him and I was probably about 20 to 30 feet in the air. When it first went up in the air, I was thinking, 'I hope they can get this car ready for Sunday.' After it started going over and over, I said, 'Hey, this is serious.' When I finally stopped, I was looking upside down and there were flames. All I could think of at that point was I had to get out of there. When I got out and looked at the car, I thought, 'They won't have that ready for Sunday.'" At the time, Payton was 17th in points and had a season best finish of 10th at Trois-Rivieres. He never raced again.



In late 1994, Payton moved to ownership when he became part owner of the Dale Coyne IndyCar team to create Payton Coyne Racing. It was later revealed that he owned 17% of the team. Coincidentally, he once-again competed against Joe Montana, this time in the Indy 500. In 1995, Montana became a partner in Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Payton saw this as a chance to give the ex-49er a little ribbing.



"Joe Montana knows nothing about racing, nothing," Payton told a reporter. "Tell Montana he can use racing for write-offs. If we were in this to make money, we'd already be selling parts to make ends meet, wholesaling hubcaps. We're in this because we're pioneers, because we're adventurers... because we're stupid."



But even though he was a racer himself, Walter Payton swore off personally competing in both the Super Bowl and the Indy 500. "I promised myself I wouldn't sky dive, bungee jump or drive Indy cars," Payton said. As a team owner, he was able to further see the parallels between football and racing.





Walter Payton Presents Scott Pruett With Pole Award



"This is a team effort just like football. See those guys working on the car, those are the offensive linemen. They get down and dirty and stay here the latest. See those other two guys sitting in the corner eating sandwiches. Those are the drivers. Just like the quarterbacks, like Jim McMahon or Montana, they sit back and wait for all the dirty work to get done, so they can make a play behind the blocking and take the credit."



In February 1999, Payton announced that he had a disease affecting the bile ducts in his liver. Amid this terrible news, he was suing Coyne. CART became a publically traded stock in 1998 and each team received a certain amount of shares. Coyne sold the team's shares to raise capital but as the suit alleged, did not compensate Payton for the 17% of shares he owned that were sold. Both men insisted this was purely a buisness formality and did not affect their relationship.



"It's no big deal. It's a business issue. We'll get through it. I talk to him every day," Coyne said at the time. While Payton was normally always at the track, he was rarely seen in 1999. His condition worsened throughout the year and passed away on November 1st at the age of 46.





Payton Oversees His IndyCar



The NFL honors the man with the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, a prestigious honor given to a charitable player prior to the Super Bowl. His down to earth nature was what made him special to all who met him. Throughout his racing, Payton remained the same humble, charitable person that people loved when he played football.



"People don't know me, they know about me and what I've been able to accomplish on the football field," he explained in the garage one day. "They don't know me as a person. Once they come around and get a chance to see me, they realize I'm just a normal person."



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