Souped-up senior

At an age when some 72-year-olds are having their licenses repossessed, James Hylton is cranking it up.

On a racetrack.

At the Daytona 500.

At 185 mph plus.

“Yeah, they’ve been joking about it,” Hylton said the other day, from his shop in Inman, S.C. “They said Jeff Gordon came into the garage area too hard and ran over my walker.”

When Hylton qualifies for the Great American Race (as NASCAR and Fox call it) or The Most Insignificant Race In The Nextel Cup Point Standings (as we should all call it), he will be in the same parade with his actuarial grandchildren.

Dodge driver Reed Sorenson, for instance, will only turn 21 on Feb. 5.

Yet Hylton never really retired. Hardly any of them do. Mark Martin was going to get out of the Cup car this year, but he’s back, still a top10 driver at 48. Ricky Rudd returns after a one-year sabbatical, at 50.

Of course, Martin and Rudd could be Hylton’s children.

Few expect Hylton to actually qualify for the race. Hylton said he expects to, even though the first person to tell him to get out of racing was Henry Ford.

“We were down there (at Daytona) for testing earlier this month,” Hylton said, “and once I started feeling comfortable, we were the 15th-fastest car down there. The next fastest was the No. 6 (Martin’s old Roush Racing car, now driven by David Ragan).

“I think last year did me a lot of good. I drove in the ARCA series, where they run cars that are probably one level down from Cup cars. But they still run on the big tracks, like Pocono, Michigan, Daytona, Talladega. And they’re still pretty fast. It gave me a good opportunity to feel what the new technology is all about. So when I got into a Cup car this year it didn’t feel all that foreign to me.”

Hylton was 18th in the ARCA point standings. The leader, for the eighth time, was Frank Kimmel. He’s 45, by the way.

Hylton’s sponsor last year was Josiah Cephas (J.C.) Weaver, a Virginia-based entrepreneur who, among other things, runs a tile company and fronts the Mountain Rock Band. He’s 65, by the way.

“We were sitting up there on his farm one day, looking at all the cattle and the mountains,” Hylton said, “and he asked me if I wanted to run in the Cup series again. I said, ‘Yeah, but I don’t know who would sponsor me.’ He said, ‘I will.’ “

Hylton and Weaver were connected through car owner Richard Childress, who made his fortune as Dale Earnhardt’s mastermind.

Back in the ‘70s, Hylton and Childress ran snugly together in the midst of the NASCAR pack. Only a half-dozen or so cars had the wherewithal to win back then – usually Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Buddy Baker, Bobby and Donnie Allison and the young Darrell Waltrip – so Hylton and Childress looked both ways, stayed out of trouble and shot for whatever they could get.

“Car” was the operative word, singular. A bashed quarter-panel was a serious problem. One reckless moment could mean the end of the whole operation, or at least a bad season.

Hylton was derided as a “stroker.” He also won two races and was the rookie of the year in 1966. He was second in the points three times, third four times. Most of those years, he was first or second in fewest DNF’s (Did Not Finish). His final Cup race was in 1993.

Childress was in the top 10 five times. So the two were linked by circumstance and frugality, and Hylton laughed last fall when he pulled into the garage at Talladega and saw Childress there.

“He tried to push me back into the car,” Hylton said. “Then we started talking, and I told him I wanted to buy his car. One thing led to another. He called me up this winter and said come on up to the shop (in Welcome, N.C.) and pick up the car. So I went boogiein’ on up there.

“Well, it wasn’t just any car. It was Jeff Burton’s backup car last year. I started thinking about all the times my old car would break down, and I’d have to get out and help fix it myself. … They rolled this car out there, and my knees got weak.”

There’s a suspicion that even if Hylton does qualify, he’ll take it a few laps and park. Others fear that Hylton would be a safety risk, which, in a field that probably will include the Busch brothers and Tony Stewart, seems a little unfounded.

Still others fear for Hylton’s own safety.

“I’d rather be on the track than the Interstate,” he said. “It’s like my family says: If he does wreck, it’s probably going to be on the way to the track. Or the way back.”