The Talladega Superspeedway has had a history of crazy things happening on the track and in the infield.
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There was the time, for example, when the pace car was stolen during a race. But in 1982, an interesting character conned his way into a Cup race at "'Dega."
L.W. Wright was his name in 1982 when he entered a NASCAR Cup race at Talladega but he was later known as Larry Wright. Sadly, the most nefarious driver in the history of NASCAR passed away this past weekend due to colon cancer.
The kicker to this story is he was behind bars at the time of his death. Wright had been up to his old hijinks — luckily, it was not about a race car. But back in 1982, the D.B. Cooper of NASCAR — nicknamed after one of the most-famous fugitives in FBI history — somehow scammed his way into a Cup ride after claiming he was a veteran driver.
The story goes that L.W. Wright entered that Talladega race claiming to have run over 40 lower-level NASCAR races. His story was convincing enough that a marketing agent named Bernie Terrell offered him $30,000 to buy a race car and enter the race.
Sterling Marlin was the unfortunate person whom Wright managed to purchase a car from. Marlin, who went on to win back-to-back Daytona 500s in 1994 and 1995, was baffled by what happened back in 1982.
"Hell, I had never heard of this guy," Marlin told ESPN.
He recalled that Wright claimed to have been a successful short-track racer in Virginia but couldn't even name any of the famous short-track racers from that time. That's what led Marlin to go to Talladega and serve as crew chief for Wright's renumbered No. 34 car.
"I decided I'd go down there with him kind of be his crew chief, just to keep an eye on him, you know," Marlin said. "As soon as we got there, it all got even fishier."
Nonetheless, Wright's adventure in Talladega was short-lived. After qualifying 36th for the race, he only made it 13 laps because he was far too slow, and NASCAR forced him to retire from the race.
Once he parked the car, he slipped into oblivion, and all the checks he had written to make everything possible bounced — leaving everyone involved baffled.
The man of mystery went 40 years without a peep until 2022, when he appeared on the "The Scene Vault" podcast to address the now-infamous 1982 race. He claimed that he paid with cash for everything, and that all of the sponsors that had promised to support him backed out.
Wright, now 73, spoke to Rick Houston at a secret location for @TheSceneVault podcast. Here's a clip provided to ESPN by Houston. pic.twitter.com/C2zH89k2us
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) May 2, 2022
"If you can find somebody that said that I owed them $30,000, you tell them I will face them," Wright said. "I want to see who they are, and I want to know how it came about. If it makes them stutter, then you know what I'm talking about, OK?"
Despite Wright's claims, Marlin rebuts anything that Wright ever said.
Not long after that interview with "The Scene Vault" host Rick Houston, Wright's long list of legal issues caught up to him. He was caught and put in jail for theft, burglary and more bounced checks in January 2023.
Houston had become so enamored by Wright's story that he was the one to break the news of his passing on Sunday.
There have been plenty of characters in NASCAR history, but Wright was certainly a nefarious one, even though he wasn't a real NASCAR driver.
