Greg Sacks

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Greg Sacks bigraphy, stories - American stock car racing driver

Greg Sacks : biography

November 3, 1952 –

Greg Sacks (born November 3, 1952, in Mattituck, Long Island, New York) is a NASCAR driver. He is married to his wife Vicky and lives in Ormond Beach, Florida. Together they had three children: Paul, Brian, and Rachel. He and his sons are partners in Grand Touring Vodka.

Sacks has spent most of his career as a Research & Development driver for many NASCAR teams. He won the 1985 Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway acting as an R&D driver for DiGard Motorsports.

Modifieds

Early in his racing career, Sacks was a successful driver in what is now the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series. Competing from 1980 to 1983, he won 17 races at Stafford Motor Speedway. 1982 was an especially good year to him, as he won the track championship that year, as well as the [Spring Sizzler, The Ferrera 100 and the Fall Final]. Greg also won The "Dogwood Classic [Martinsville Speedway], the Bud Classic [Oswego Speedway], The Thompson 300 [ Thompson In’t Speedway], The World Series of Asphalt (Thompson Speedway) and the Race of Champions at Pocono Raceway.

In 1983, he made his NASCAR Winston Cup Series debut at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in the #5 car owned sponsored by his father Arnie. He only completed nineteen laps until experiencing engine failure, finishing 38th out of 40 cars. Sacks competed in four more events that season, posting a best finish of 17th in the Champion Spark Plugs 400 at Michigan, the only race he finished that year.

2008 plans

Greg has no immediate plans for a full race time schedule, but will run a partial schedule in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and ARCA/ReMAX series in 2008. He tried to qualify for the ARCA race at Daytona but missed the field after posting the 48th best qualifying time.

Struggles

In 1998, it looked like Sacks would finally find a steady ride, driving the #98 Thorn Apple Valley Ford for Cale Yarborough. However, on lap 136 of the Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Sacks lost control of his car and wrecked, suffering near-fatal injuries. He missed the rest of the season.

Sacks made his return in 1999 in the Busch Series, but only qualified for one of the several races he attempted. Sacks tried his hand at Winston Cup again in 2000, attempting that year’s Daytona 500 in the #96 Island Oasis Chevrolet. He did not make the field. After making sporadic races in modifieds, Sacks announced his return to the Winston Cup Series and Busch Series in the summer of 2002, driving the #05 Chevy sponsored by the board game FRANCHI$IT. Sacks, who described FRANCHI$IT as "The Board Game of the 21st Century.," teamed with Loren Fossie to form "Team FRANCHI$IT/Sacks Racing." Originally set to debut at the Brickyard 400, the date was pushed to the fall race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Nothing has been heard from the team since, and it is not clear if the team was originally planned as a marketing tool for FRANCHI$IT.

In 2004, Sacks formed Daytona Speed Inc., with Ed Raabe and James Wilsberg. Making its first attempt at Chicagoland Speedway, the team did not make a race until the Pennsylvania 500 the next month. In February 2005, Raabe departed to form his own race team (Chevrolet), leaving all of the (Dodge) Daytona Speed equipment in care if Sacks. Sacks ran both Pocono races in 2005, and finished 43rd in both of them.

The team attempted a part-time schedule in 2006 with Who’s Your Daddy? being the team’s primary sponsor, but failed to make the field for any race. In early 2007, an arbitrator forced Who’s Your Daddy? to pay over a million dollars to Sacks after an alleged contract violation.http://biz.yahoo.com/e/070227/wydy.ob8-k.html

Success in the 1980s

In 1984, Sacks made a full attempt at the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, once again in a car owned by his father, only now it ran as #51. Sacks made 29 out of the 30 races, finished 19th in points and runner-up to Rusty Wallace for the NASCAR Rookie of the Year award. 1985 got off to a rough start for Sacks. After the first four races, his father’s team folded.Sacks driving for DiGard in 1985