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Sprint Cup
CUP: Hall Historian Works In Wonderland
Buz McKim is much more then a historian...
Buz McKim is the historian at the NASCAR Hall of Fame which is scheduled to open in May. (Photo: NASCAR Communications)
Imagine having a playground as a job.
That is Buz McKim’s life. As historian at the under-construction NASCAR Hall of Fame and the person with the assignment to fill up the place with cool racing artifacts, McKim is like a librarian suddenly ushered into a room filled with stacks of books.
Nothing could be more entertaining.
“The exhibit designers are designing things, but I’m the guy who’s in charge of putting things in,” McKim said. “What are the signatures? What stories should be told? How should they be told? I’m in charge of the content. I go around and find cool stuff.”
That means race cars, helmets, driver firesuits, race result sheets, racetrack signage, etc. And, oh, a moonshine still.
An authentic still, its design and display features authenticated by former moonshine hauler and soon-to-be Hall of Fame member Junior Johnson, will be among the exhibits explaining the beginnings of stock car racing. Some of the men who populated the fields for early races learned the ins and outs of fast vehicles hauling illegal liquor from the mountains of the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia to cities like Charlotte, Raleigh and Atlanta.
McKim calls it the “untaxed adult beverage business.”
Part of McKim’s job, he said, “is to get everything right, to separate fact from urban legend. To set the record straight.”
Fortunately, McKim, 55, said working on the ground floor of the hall, scheduled to open in May in Charlotte, N.C. is “something I feel like I was born to do.”
He has an unusual background in the sport. Born in Hackensack, N.J., McKim had an early entry point to racing. His father, Bob, raced a 1939 Ford coupe.
“One of the first things I remember seeing was the old NASCAR logo on the back window of our car,” McKim said. “We moved to Florida, to Pennsylvania, then back to Florida in 1961. My dad went to the old Hollywood (Fla.) Speedway, and one night when the regular announcer didn’t show, they offered him $25 to announce.”
In the mid-1960s, while the family was living in Daytona Beach, McKim was a frequent visitor to the old Museum of Speed there, and he was a volunteer at Daytona International Speedway for a number of years. That led to contacts with many racing notables in and around the Daytona Beach area, and McKim soon became a depository of knowledge about the sport and its early years.
Owner of a commercial art business in Daytona Beach, McKim made even more connections in the sport by lettering race cars and designing race-car paint schemes.
In 1997, as NASCAR prepared for its 50th anniversary, McKim joined the International Speedway Corp. archives department part-time, then became the department’s director in 1998. Five years later, he moved on to work as statistical services coordinator for NASCAR, and that led to involvement in planning and site selection for the hall of fame.
“Then this deal popped up as historian for the hall, and I said I’d give it a shot,” McKim said. “It seems like I was destined for this position just by the twists and turns that life took.”
For the past year or so, McKim has worked with a blank canvas in putting together the heart of the hall.
“We’re going to be preaching to the choir for most of the folks who come,” he said. “But we want the people who aren’t necessarily racing fans to be able to discover NASCAR through our facility. The fans are going to come anyway. But the guy down the street who’s never been to a race – why would he come?
“We want to make it entertaining. We want to be able to tell the evolution of things: Why pit stops are so fast. How the helmets evolved. How the cars get to the track. NASCAR’s connection to the presidency. There are a zillion themes to explore.”
Even after the hall opens, some of the exhibits will be changed occasionally, keeping McKim’s “to-do” list lengthy.
“This is something I feel like I was born to do,” he said. “For a facility of this magnitude, it’s going to force everyone to be on their best game. The world is looking at you, and you don’t want to look like a schmoe.”
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
That is Buz McKim’s life. As historian at the under-construction NASCAR Hall of Fame and the person with the assignment to fill up the place with cool racing artifacts, McKim is like a librarian suddenly ushered into a room filled with stacks of books.
Nothing could be more entertaining.
“The exhibit designers are designing things, but I’m the guy who’s in charge of putting things in,” McKim said. “What are the signatures? What stories should be told? How should they be told? I’m in charge of the content. I go around and find cool stuff.”
That means race cars, helmets, driver firesuits, race result sheets, racetrack signage, etc. And, oh, a moonshine still.
An authentic still, its design and display features authenticated by former moonshine hauler and soon-to-be Hall of Fame member Junior Johnson, will be among the exhibits explaining the beginnings of stock car racing. Some of the men who populated the fields for early races learned the ins and outs of fast vehicles hauling illegal liquor from the mountains of the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia to cities like Charlotte, Raleigh and Atlanta.
McKim calls it the “untaxed adult beverage business.”
Part of McKim’s job, he said, “is to get everything right, to separate fact from urban legend. To set the record straight.”
Fortunately, McKim, 55, said working on the ground floor of the hall, scheduled to open in May in Charlotte, N.C. is “something I feel like I was born to do.”
He has an unusual background in the sport. Born in Hackensack, N.J., McKim had an early entry point to racing. His father, Bob, raced a 1939 Ford coupe.
“One of the first things I remember seeing was the old NASCAR logo on the back window of our car,” McKim said. “We moved to Florida, to Pennsylvania, then back to Florida in 1961. My dad went to the old Hollywood (Fla.) Speedway, and one night when the regular announcer didn’t show, they offered him $25 to announce.”
In the mid-1960s, while the family was living in Daytona Beach, McKim was a frequent visitor to the old Museum of Speed there, and he was a volunteer at Daytona International Speedway for a number of years. That led to contacts with many racing notables in and around the Daytona Beach area, and McKim soon became a depository of knowledge about the sport and its early years.
Owner of a commercial art business in Daytona Beach, McKim made even more connections in the sport by lettering race cars and designing race-car paint schemes.
In 1997, as NASCAR prepared for its 50th anniversary, McKim joined the International Speedway Corp. archives department part-time, then became the department’s director in 1998. Five years later, he moved on to work as statistical services coordinator for NASCAR, and that led to involvement in planning and site selection for the hall of fame.
“Then this deal popped up as historian for the hall, and I said I’d give it a shot,” McKim said. “It seems like I was destined for this position just by the twists and turns that life took.”
For the past year or so, McKim has worked with a blank canvas in putting together the heart of the hall.
“We’re going to be preaching to the choir for most of the folks who come,” he said. “But we want the people who aren’t necessarily racing fans to be able to discover NASCAR through our facility. The fans are going to come anyway. But the guy down the street who’s never been to a race – why would he come?
“We want to make it entertaining. We want to be able to tell the evolution of things: Why pit stops are so fast. How the helmets evolved. How the cars get to the track. NASCAR’s connection to the presidency. There are a zillion themes to explore.”
Even after the hall opens, some of the exhibits will be changed occasionally, keeping McKim’s “to-do” list lengthy.
“This is something I feel like I was born to do,” he said. “For a facility of this magnitude, it’s going to force everyone to be on their best game. The world is looking at you, and you don’t want to look like a schmoe.”
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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