Greg Sacks - Qualifying King

Qualifying King

Sacks started off 1990 in a familiar place; no ride. Sacks was able to get a one-race deal with Hendrick once again at Darlington. This start is notable, as he was driving the #46 City Chevy Lumina. Footage from this race would appear in the movie Days of Thunder starring Tom Cruise. Four races later, Sacks was rewarded with a part-time ride at Hendrick, driving the #18 Slim Fast Chevrolet. After Darrell Waltrip was injured in a practice crash at Daytona, Sacks drove the #17 Tide car, earning a 2nd place finish at Michigan. But the most memorable part of his season was winning the pole position at what has turned out to be a landmark race for him, the Pepsi Firecracker 400. Following the practice crash by teammate Waltrip, NASCAR officials noted that several teams had made modifications, and NASCAR made the teams spot-weld the blocks back into place, causing a loss of power. Trying to make up for lost speed, Sacks raced so hard he caused a massive 23-car pileup at the end of the first lap, taking out eight cars, including Sacks. No one was seriously hurt in that race. But it gave Sacks a reputation of being an excellent qualifier, as shown in 1989, when he won the pole for just his second Busch Series race.

Sacks started off 1991 at the Daytona 500 driving his own #18 with a special paint scheme from the U.S. Navy, but crashed early in the race. He ran ten more races that year in the #47 Oldsmobile for Derick Close, posting two top-twenty finishes. He started 1992 with Larry Hedrick Motorsports, but suffered injuries in a lap five crash at the Champion Spark Plug 400, and only drove one race for the rest of the season. He moved on to Tri-Star Motorsports in 1993, and finished sixth at the DieHard 500. In 1994, Sacks set the track record at Atlanta when he won the pole. 1994 also marked just the second time in his Cup career he completed the full schedule, piloting the #77 USAir Ford owned by D.K. Ulrich. Sacks raced part-time in Cup and Busch over the next couple of years, winning a Busch Series race in a one-off deal for Diamond Ridge Motorsports at Talladega Superspeedway in 1996. The next year, he started out driving the #20 Hardee's Ford for championship owner Harry Ranier, but was soon released as sponsorship money dried up. Later in the season, he filled in for rookie driver Robby Gordon, who had suffered burns in the Indianapolis 500. After Gordon was released later in the year, Sacks finished the season for the team.