Like all forms of sports and business, NASCAR has had its share of shady sponsors, drivers, and teams.
There’s the tale of Angela’s Motorsports, a race team started by an Iranian scam artist that didn’t even make it past the 2003 Speedweeks due to fraud. Then there was DC Solar, the company that burst on the NASCAR scene, sponsoring teams and races alike until the owner’s home was raided in 2018 due to allegations that the company was really a Ponzi scheme, nearly derailing Ross Chastain’s career.
But there’s one person that NASCAR teams and drivers alike know about when it comes to defrauding their way into NASCAR.
That man is who we all know as L.W. Wright.
Any NASCAR fan that has an extensive trivia knowledge of the sport knows about Wright. In 1982, it was announced that L.W. Wright was attempting the 1982 Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, with sponsorship from T.G. Sheppard and Merle Haggard, two of country music’s biggest superstars at the time. However, Sheppard denied all involvement in the project, starting a whirlwind of mysteries surrounding the man.
Later, Wright came to Sterling Marlin to purchase a racecar, to which Marlin also agreed to travel to Talladega and serve as Wright’s crew chief. Marlin would later become suspicious of Wright, too, based on his apparent lack of knowledge of a racecar and the track itself.
Meanwhile, NASCAR had granted Wright his license after Wright reportedly told them that he had 43 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series starts. However, no one in the garage could recall ever racing against him.
As more and more suspicion grew, Wright walked back on some of his claims as an attempt to prove himself more truthful than he actually was. When it came to qualify, he crashed his car and ended up starting the race 36th. After just 13 laps, however, Wright’s engine gave out and he was done for the race. He was credited with 39th.
When Marlin returned to the garage area, he found his car, but no…
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