In his own words: John Oates on racing, NASCAR – Nascar

Editor’s note: John Oates, part of legendary musical duo Hall & Oates, grew up racing and watching NASCAR. He still follows closely to this day. Below is his first-person account of his life behind the wheel, and his fandom. Follow John on Facebook here.

I became a racing fan in general as a young kid. Growing up in Pennsylvania, I didn’t know much about it, but at the same time one of my best friend’s father ran the hot dog concession at Hatfield Speedway, which was a quarter-mile dirt track. I saw Mario Andretti and Aldo Andretti when they were racing jalopies, basically, and midgets and sprint cars, so I used to go on Friday and Saturday nights under the lights for the dirt track racing.

As I got older and finally had some money to spend on it, I got myself a go-kart and joined the go-kart club in West Hampton, Long Island, did some national races, moved in to Formula Fords, SCCA racing and eventually some professional racing. Raced at Daytona in IMSA, the endurance series, back in the 80s. I was on the track with some of the great legendary drivers. The fact that I got to race at Daytona was an incredible experience. 

One of the highlights of my life, I was the grand marshal at Talladega when Bill Elliot qualified at over 210 miles per hour. It was the fastest NASCAR qualifying in history. And I’ll never forget this as long as I live. They came down on the starting lap and the wave of air that they were pushing, that field of cars at that speed was pushing, hit me about 200 yards before the cars even got close. They were pushing this incredible dirty hot air and it hit me and I never expected it. But I had a death grip on that green flag, so of course I waved the flag and the race went on.

Over the years I’ve taken my son and many friends to several NASCAR races. I actually went to the Buck Baker stock car school at Atlanta. I had come from sports car racing and in the class there was a bunch of guys with oval track experience, and I didn’t have that. So I got in the car, and I was really slow. So finally after a couple sessions I asked Buck if I could get a ride along with Randy (Baker). He took me around for a couple laps, and it was really instructional. And then I went out and I did real well. Later, Buck took me out for lunch at a barbecue joint and he told me that he could make a real race car driver out of me.  And I thought that was a pretty cool compliment.

John Oates, right, attended a driving school put on by Buck Baker and received quite the compliment. (Photo courtesy of John Oates)

Over the years as NASCAR’s become more popular and modernized, the racing now is so competitive. I follow all kinds of racing, there’s not a racing series on the planet that’s more competitive than NASCAR. When you look at the field and how a few tenths of a second separate 20 cars, it’s incredible. I have a great appreciation for it because I’ve been behind the wheel, I’ve competed and I understand what it means.

The drivers are good, they all have talent and have great equipment, so it really comes down to a mental game late in the season. I love the idea that the pressure ratchets up on every race. With the Chase format, it’s a unique situation because the pressure continues to build — handling pressure, that’s what racing is all about.