Ingenious Cheats in NASCAR: Edition 3 – The “Smokey” Yunick Story

When talking about all-time greats, fans usually refer to the Intimidator, King Richard Petty, Jimmie Johnson, or Rainbow Warrior Jeff Gordon. However, it’s not just the number of starts, wins, or championships that define greatness. Sometimes, it’s the street smarts that set a driver apart from the rest.  

This is the story of Henry Yunick, popularly known as “Smokey” Yunick. From being a WW2 veteran to building engines and designing cars to inventing as many as nine US patents, Smokey was the quintessential Jack of all trades. Being involved in racing as an owner, crew chief, and driver, Yunick’s name is more often than not associated with various cases of hoodwinking. Skirting the laws or simply blatantly disregarding the rule, Smokey Yunick has been associated with all. 

When Smokey Yunick left the authorities flabbergasted with his fuel tank manipulation

Old timers often relate the name Smokey Yunick with his customary white uniform, battered cowboy palms, and a cigar. After piloting a US Army aircraft during World War II, Yunick not only made his way into the world of stock car racing but was a constant thorn in the sides of NASCAR officials. He can be credited for single-handedly thickening NASCAR’s rule book. One may find the maneuvers of the driver displeasing, but there is no denying the fact he was a chiseled engineer with his mechanical ingenuity.

Smokey once famously said, “There are two types of racers—cheaters and losers.” His innovations are a testament to this belief. A case in point is the legend of the fuel tank, where the authorities had pulled out the fuel tank from his car. The authorities suspected that the fuel tank of his Chevelle flouted the designated measurements after the car showed good fuel mileage.

However, the authorities were perplexed after they found that the gas tank was within the designated measurement. The catch was the fuel line. Instead of a half-inch fuel line, Yunick had incorporated a two-inch fuel line, eleven feet long. Delving deeper into the case, John Ficcara, a car historian and owner of the Ficcara classics stated, “He was famous for putting a basketball in a fuel tank. Say you could have a 26-gallon tank, he’d make a 28-gallon tank, put a basketball in it.

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“And they would measure how much fluid came out and it would be 26 gallons and then he would deflate the basketball and have an extra two gallons in there.” Although there are various versions of the story, it is popularly believed that Yunick, without a fuel tank in his car, drove to his shop in Daytona, leaving the inspectors flabbergasted.

However, it was not just the fuel tank that Yunick meddled with. Continuing on the tales, Ficcara added, “One the chassis itself, never stipulated where the chassis had to be in the car. So he moved the chassis back and over to one side. Like the driver, the whole center line of the car changed underneath the body to get better weight distribution for the turns of Daytona.”

NASCAR had to introduce more stringent laws to limit Yunick’s creativity

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The modification of the fuel tank seemed to be mind-boggling in nature, however, his creativity was not only restricted to fuel lines but also fuels. In order to accommodate more fuel in the tank, Smokey Yunick lowered the temperature of the fuel. This allowed room for more fuel in the tank.

As a result, his drivers logged in more mileage as the fuel in the tank heated up. This eventually led the governing body to mandate a minimum temperature of the fuel that was being filled. Speaking on the tactics employed by Yunick, David Pearson expressed, “Smokey was real good. He did all kinds of stuff. He was smart. He had a little spoiler put on top of it [his car] to keep air from getting down on it. You could see it, but you had to look at it close. It was back there at the rear window on the roof.”

With numerous tricks under his belt, Smokey Yunick has been a larger-than-life character in the world of American motorsports. It was not the simple bending of rules for the crew chief but finding loopholes within the unchallenged words of the authority.

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Never bowing down to the accepted norms of the world, Smokey Yunick was a master craftsman when it came to comprehending the nuances of the internal combustion engine and the significance of aerodynamics, and his innovations stand tall and proud in the sands of time.