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But Hylton will be giving his effort in a proven car and good strong engine, all courtesy of Richard Childress. Hylton has known the car owner since the two raced against each other in the 1970s, and Childress agreed to sell a superspeedway car to him from his fleet.
The car that was selected is a good one, too: Robby Gordon drove it to victory in a Daytona qualifying race in 2004.
“The ace in the hole for me is Richard Childress,” Hylton said. “Unofficially, he’s not backing this thing. But as a friend, he is. “Him and I raced together back in the early 70s and we traveled together and doubled-up our pit crews. But I don’t know what happened — he went on to be a multimillionaire and I went on to be poor.”
Despite a decent career (he was runner-up for the NASCAR championship three times and finished outside the top 10 only twice in an 11-year stretch), Hylton is not living the good life. He comes from a time when driver salaries were next to nothing and the purses were peanuts.
After starting his career as a mechanic and crew chief for Rex White and Ned Jarrett, Hylton made his driving debut at Manassas, Va., in 1964 with a 19th-place finish that paid $100.
He spent much of the past decade toiling in the ARCA series, running the full schedule last season before finally deciding to call it career. But after his final race last season, his old childhood friend talked Hylton into coming back.
J.C. Weaver, owner of Mountain Rock Music, a publishing and recording company, bought the car from Childress and will sponsor Hylton for the 500.
“He said, ‘Who is going to sponsor a 72-year-old man?’ and I said, “I am. We going to Daytona,”’ Weaver recalled. “Now here we are. I know everybody has a hero in racing and J.C. Weaver’s hero is James Hylton.”
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