Unthinkable: The Carl-Long.com
Story
(PART
ONE)
The complete history on how Carl
Long’s official website came to be.
Written By Tom Czerwinski
December 28th, 2004
Unlike most official
NASCAR driver websites that were brought to life by a race team dishing out a wad of cash
to a web design company, this site actually has one unbelievable story behind it. So hold
on tight, you’re in for one heck of a ride.
It was May 25th, 2000, on a
warm, late-spring Thursday evening. Tom Czerwinski was settling in on his couch after a
hard day of school, looking forward to a long night of NASCAR Winston Cup qualifying at
Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600. Tom wasn’t exactly your typical
13-year-old kid growing up in the Chicago area. Most of his peers had the tendency to go
for the typical sports such as baseball, basketball, and football. And as most of us know,
this time period was past the Chicago Bulls reign of greatness. Tom had developed a
passion for NASCAR racing a few years back. The stunning finish of the Bristol night race
in 1995 hooked him, and reeled him in for more in the coming years. By 1998, Tom was an
avid watcher of NASCAR races, so by the 2000 season, he had thought he had known everyone
who had raced in the upper tier of NASCAR. That was all about to change that evening, as
he tuned into TNT, and began watching Qualifying.
Qualifying proceeded as
usual. Tom watched for his favorites to make their rounds at the track; which at the time
were Mark Martin and Wally Dallenbach. About halfway through the round, TNT went to a
commercial break. Tom took a sip of Coke and eagerly awaited the return of qualifying. The
screen faded out to a blackish hue, and came back with live footage of qualifying from
Charlotte. Tom’s eyes widened as he heard the enthusiasm of the announcers voice. A
light blue and yellow Ford Taurus appeared on the screen; running at a reduced pace down
on the apron of the track. Car number eighty-five, driven by some guy named Carl Long for
a team called Mansion Motorsports. The announcers exclaimed how Carl put up one darn good
lap, which looked like it would hold on to a spot in the field. This was a huge surprise
to Tom. He had no idea who this team was, but it for some reason intrigued him, and caught
his attention for the rest of qualifying. One by one the rest of the teams finished their
runs. Then as qualifying concluded, Tom wondered where Carl Long had ended up. As the
current lineup chart flashed up on the screen, Tom spotted Carl Long’s Ford in the 35th
spot. Long was in a land of the giants, so to speak. Such a big race to see a driver that
Tom had never heard of before in the field. However, the deal wasn’t sealed just yet.
Back in 2000, there were two rounds of qualifying. Only the top 25 positions were locked
in. 26th to last had the option of holding on to their time or requalifying in
round two of qualifying the next day. There was little chance that second to the bump spot
(36th) was going to hold up in the second-round. However, Mother Nature was on
Carl’s side that weekend. Second-round qualifying was rained out, and Carl Long made
his first career NASCAR Winston Cup race in one of the biggest races on the circuit, the
Coca-Cola 600. Little did Carl know that this one race he made would blow open the doors
of opportunity. Another twist to the saga was about to occur later that Friday.
The #85 Mansion Motorsports Ford As It Appeared
On Thursday During Qualifying.
As Tom paged through
Jayski.com, he saw that rumors began circulating, and they involved Carl. Darrell Waltrip,
a 3-Time NASCAR Winston Cup champion in his final season in Winston Cup, had failed to
qualify for the Coca-Cola 600. This race meant a lot to him, and the word going around had
him looking to buy out a ride. That opportunity for him came in the form of Carl Long and
Mansion Motorsports. Mansion Motorsports was not at all prepared for this race. They were
not expecting to qualify, yet, it happened. They felt it was in their best interest to
allow Waltrip and his team, Travis Carter Enterprises, to take over the car for the
remainder of the weekend. Mansion would receive all race winnings from the buyout, and
would be reimbursed for all of their expenses throughout the weekend. Personally for Tom,
he was not happy that Darrell would now be driving the #85 car. He was looking forward to
seeing Carl Long race, and now that wasn’t going to happen.
Sunday came, and it was time for the
race. The #85 Ford was transformed to fit Darrell’s specifications. The car was now
embossed with Big K Mart and Route 66 Jeans decals, as well as a huge Darrell Waltrip
Victory Tour 2000 logo across the hood. Tom hoped that nothing bad would happen to the car
in the race, as it was one of the few Mansion Motorsports had. Reports had indicated that
if the car were still in once piece at the conclusion of the Coca-Cola 600, Long and
Mansion Motorsports would head to the next race on the NASCAR Cup schedule at Dover Downs
International Speedway.
The #85 Ford Gets Sponsorship From Big K Mart
When Darrell Waltrip Buys The Ride.
The Coca-Cola 600 started
in the late afternoon and continued through the night. So far things had gone on without a
hitch. Darrell raced at his own pace, hovering around his 35th starting spot
most of the race. Tom still kept his attention focused on Darrell Waltrip and the #85
Ford. Suddenly, the skies broke open, and rain began to fall on the Charlotte Motor
Speedway as the race reached its halfway point. The drivers were asked to come down pit
road and stop as the track conditions became too wet to continue racing at the moment.
Perhaps feeling that he did not have much more to accomplish that evening, Darrell asked
Carl Long if he wanted to finish up the race from then on out once the race went back to
green flag conditions. Carl agreed, and Long jumped back into the #85 Ford that he had
abandoned. Tom was really surprised to see this happen, but he was obviously happy. Now he
could see Carl Long race, although it be just half of a race, it still was something to
witness. Carl did one heck of a job in the race, considering he hadn’t been in the
car since Friday. Long rounded out the race without any trouble, finishing in 36th
position.
Tom had gotten the internet just about
2 years prior to the 2000 season, and he was beginning to dig into the functions and
benefits of creating web pages. Previously, Tom had created a website for Wally
Dallenbach. His interest for Carl Long and Mansion Motorsports sprouted so quickly, that
just one day after the Coca-Cola 600, he wanted to make a site for them too. Tom loaded up
the Yahoo! Geocities web page creator to get a basic layout going. He named the new
website, “The Mansion Motorsports Home Page.” From there, he added in his own
writing news and rumors he heard from Jayski.com and other new sites, as well as photos of
Mansion Motorsports’ cars. Tom didn’t know too much about how websites were made
and all of what to do, but he made do. Shortly later, Tom decided to set up a message
board for fans of the team to talk on after receiving quite a few e-mails coming from
people who visited the site. Tom realized that Carl had won over a lot of fans from the
Coca-Cola 600 deal with Darrell Waltrip. However, that didn’t last long. The site
remained up with sporadic news updates and received a few visitors per day from true fans,
but in time the excitement and enthusiasm began to fade.
Carl Long was attempting races left
and right with Mansion Motorsports, but with little success. The months went by, Tom still
was a fan and supporter of Carl and the team, but it was hard to do. Carl Long went for
months without qualifying for a single race. Tom began to almost forget about the site he
made for the team. Until one mid-summer morning, David Satterfield, who at the time worked
for Mansion Motorsports on a volunteer basis, found Tom’s site and began posting on
his message board. Tom was pretty excited that someone who worked for the team found his
website. Satterfield contributed to the board from time to time by posting a bit of news
as to what was going on with the team. That gave Tom a boost of motivation that resulted
in his return to productivity at the site. Things were still dismal though for the team,
everything seemed to be going wrong, and soon Satterfield’s visits became sparse.
The #85 Mansion Motorsports Ford At Pocono. One
Of The Many Races The Team Failed To Qualify For In 2000.
Tom felt like he had to express his
feelings by making a post on the board to the remaining fans of Carl Long. He said how he
just truly felt that things were never going to go anywhere, and he was just about ready
to give up on Carl Long and Mansion Motorsports.
The post he made that day on the board
pertaining to his mournful feelings wound up being one of the best mistakes he had
ever made in his life…
Look For The Continuation Of
This Story In The Coming Weeks.
Photo Credits: Jayski.com; Rappy.net
© 2000-2005 Carl Long Racing®
-Site Created On May 30th 2000-
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