by Chuck Williams, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Ga. , Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Sam McQuagg Jr., now 51, remembers what it was like being a kid in victory lane at Daytona.

"I remember getting to climb all over that car in victory lane," McQuagg Jr. said. "I was all over it and through it. And my brother, Mark, was up on the hood."

McQuagg Sr., 73, died Saturday morning at St. Francis Hospital from cancer. Visitation will be Monday from 6-8 p.m. at McMullen Mortuary. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at McMullen.

McQuagg raced mostly on the short tracks of Georgia, Alabama and Florida and spent the later part of his life as a corporate pilot.

He ran a total of 62 NASCAR Grand National (Sprint Cup) races between 1962 and 1974, with 21 Top 10 finishes

His lone Grand National win came in Daytona. McQuagg earned $21,000 for the victory, but the real bonus came when he returned to Columbus, McQuagg Jr. said.

"We went down to Daytona that year in '65 Chevrolet station wagon," McQuagg Jr. remembers. "We drove it back to Columbus and went to Chuck Hutton Dodge. He and mother drove off that lot that day with two new 1966 Dodge Chargers."

It looked like that win was going to land McQuagg in the seat of an established temam. He got an offer in 1967 to drive for the Wood Brothers.

"But there was a hitch," McQuagg Jr. said. "They told him he would have to use Firestone tires. My dad was a very loyal man. He said he would only run Goodyears."

The reason?

When McQuagg started racing and was running short on cash, Goodyear gave him tires.

"He just said he couldn't do it," McQuagg Jr. said.

NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough ended up with the ride.

McQuagg also played a big role in one of NASCAR's most famous wrecks. In 1965 -- the year he was Grand National Rookie of the Year -- he was leading the Southern 500 at Darlington.

Yarborough tried to get past McQuagg's yellow No. 24 car. Yarborough's car flew over the guardrail, rolled six times, and ended up in the parking lot.

For several year's ABC's Wide World of Sports showed the clip during its intro.

"That was the agony of defeat," McQuagg Jr. said.

Though McQuagg never found stardom in the big leagues, he was a well-known local short-track racer who played a role in bringing brothers Bobby and Donnie Allison and Red Farmer to Alabama.

McQuagg told his story to the Ledger-Enquirer in 1996.

He was at a North Florida Championship race when he ran into the men who later formed the famed Alabama Gang.

"It was about 1958, 1959, and they were asking me what racing was like up here and I told them we were racing three or four nights a week," McQuagg said. "And they came up here and run some races with us and then decided to move here. But they liked the Birmingham area better than Georgia."

McQuagg was inducted into the Jacksonville (Fla,) Speedway Hall of Fame and the Georgia Automobile Racing Hall of Fame Association

But when McQuagg walked away from racing, he never looked back.

Late in his racing career he became a pilot. In 1973, he went to work for the W.C. Bradley Co. as head of the aviation department and retired 24 years later.

The last 10 years of his life, McQuagg and his wife of 54 years, Joy, travelled the United States in a motor home.

"They went from Alaska to South Florida, New England to California," McQuagg Jr. said. "They put 450,000 miles on three different motor homes and had a real good life."

He is survived by his wife, Joy Baggett McQuagg and three children, Sam McQuagg Jr., Mark McQuagg and Rita Renfroe, all of Columbus.

ContactChuck Williamsat 706-320-4485

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