Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 9, 1994 TAG: 9401090068
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Cubbage, 45, got the suit, along with a passel of publicity he'd just as soon have avoided. But when you shell out $5,100 for a man's used threads in front of an arena crowd, it's hard to avoid the spotlight.
Cubbage became the star of the day among the 15,000-plus stock car fans who crowded into the Lawrence Joel Memorial Coliseum on Saturday for the Winston Cup Preview. The building contractor's bid for Earnhardt's uniform during the morning session of the auction far exceeded any bid on a single item in the five years of the event.
The preview, a benefit event sponsored by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., has become so big that it is spread among three buildings. The big crowd seemed certain to generate more than the $200,000 raised last year for Brenner Children's Hospital and Baptist Hospital's AirCare, both located here.
As usual, NASCAR fans demonstrated their dedication by driving great distances and enduring cold weather for the privilege of waiting three hours to get an autograph.
Dale Earnhardt fans, however, were disappointed. Earnhardt called in sick. He really was sick, canceling a test at Talladega on Friday and other appearances. Cecil Gordon and several other members of Earnhardt's crew were called away from their wrenches at his Welcome, N.C., shop and sent here to soothe the fans.
Event officials said fans came from 28 states and any doubters needed only to visit the parking lot. Folks had come from Georgia, Massachusetts, West Virginia, South Carolina, Delaware, Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. There were almost as many Virginia tags as North Carolina tags.
One of the Virginia tags belonged to Cubbage, whose two-car garage is an unofficial Earnhardt museum.
"I had made up my mind I was going to buy that uniform this year," he said. "It was between me and some other guy down front. He was about as determined as I was."
When Cubbage bid $5,100, the other guy dropped out. Then came the cameras and reporters. "If I had known all that was going to happen, I would have sat way up in the stands and had someone else bid for me," Cubbage said.
But there he was, back in the first row for the afternoon auction. That made him a sitting duck for Michael Waltrip.
Waltrip's driver's suit was on the block, and Waltrip had promised to match the winning bid. The auctioneer was stuck at $600.
Waltrip, with a microphone in hand, looked straight at Cubbage and said, "Guy paid $5,100 for Dale Earnhardt's uniform and he won't even give $600 for mine."
Cubbage, with the reluctant look of a man under the gun, nodded toward the auctioneer. Sold! Cubbage got the yellow suit for $601. And Waltrip, true to his word, peeled off six $100 bills and a $1 and gave them to the cashier.
So Cubbage went home with two racing suits instead of one. And if he had any regrets, he could tell himself what he told the media: "The key to all of this is the money is going for a great cause."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB