Who is Mike Garvey?
Over in this post, I made a half-snarky reference to someone named Mike Garvey, who qualified 34th for Sunday's Cup race at Martinsville.
And after Sunday, I didn't know anything more about him other than the fact his brakes gave out after 18 laps and he went home with a last-place finish, 34 driver points and a check for $63,000 and change.
Today, reader Mark Jalovec called me out for a big blind spot in my racing knowledge: namely, ASA. Here's Mark:
John you must live inside the NASCAR box. Mike Garvey is my eyes considered one of the top ten short track drivers of all time. He has won the All-American 400 twice, had five wins in ASA last season and is tied with Mark Martin for all-time ASA wins with twenty-two. He also has wins in Artgo, All Pro, Hooters Cup Late Models, Hooters Pro Cup, Southern All Stars,etc. Mike was Voted Most Popular in ASA in 2003 and Most Popular in Hooters Cup in 1995. I can guarantee you all the drivers on the Cup series know who he is. Before you belittle someone maybe you should do a little research. Have you heard of Google?
So know you (and I) know. Thanks, Mark.
And, yeah, I have heard of this Google thing. That's how I found this short recent piece on Garvey. Anyone who wants to read more about Garvey is welcome to try this or dig around the USAR Hooters Pro Cup series site, where Garvey is running in the Southern Division and already has one win this season.
Comments (4)
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Garvey's using the Cup series to pay for his other stuff. He won the final ASA race last year at Atlanta.
Posted on April 11, 2005 2:21 PM
Is ASA still in existence? I remember last year they could not pay their drivers the purse money at Charlotte. If I'm not mistaken Humpy Wheeler impounded the ASA equipment and paid the drivers.
I'm not sure what happened after that.
Posted on April 11, 2005 2:35 PM
Mark W.: As the other Mark pointed out, I don't know beans about ASA. The ASA Late Model series seems to still be running, but I don't know if that's what Garvey and others run/ran in. (Here is the Humpy Wheeler story you mentioned; I don't know the final outcome.)
Posted on April 11, 2005 2:42 PM
Just out of curiousity I googled ASA and came up with a schedule for 2005 for late models.
I'm not sure if all of their problems are solved. I know the "SMART" modifieds are affiliated with NASCAR this year in part because it didn't work out for them being with ASA last year.
I think what hurt ASA was losing their TV package, which went away when TNN stopped covering them when they switched to Spike TV. They used to have great races on TV.
Posted on April 11, 2005 10:08 PM