While drivers are the ones who take the car to victory lane, the skills and knowledge of a crew chief and an engine builder are what make or break a racing machine. One such highly regarded engine builder of all time in NASCAR is Waddell Wilson. The man who was so good at his craft that people often accused him of cheating! So what was Wilson’s secret to building high-quality engines? The veteran recently divulged his secrets!

Waddell Wilson reveals the 3 ingredients to make a race car go fast

Waddell Wilson has had a storied career in NASCAR. He was the crew chief of Buddy Baker and Darrell Waltrip. The 86-year-old worked for Hendrick Motorsports where he was on Waltrip’s team. However, the thing he was recognized for when he first started in the sport was engine building, and one of the first teams he worked for was Holman-Moody. He started working for the team in the early 60s and into the 70s. During that time, the Holman-Moody racing team won 2 NASCAR championships (1968, 1969) and Waddell Wilson was the main reason why. 

The veteran engine maker used to be so good that some people actually thought he was resorting to unethical means to win. However, no one could prove anything, as that was far from the truth. His knowledge of engines was so good that he often found a way to just make a car better. Plus, he had a little help from the drivers.

“A lot of people accused me of cheating throughout the years. Nobody ever proved anything because there was nothing to prove because we didn’t cheat,” the 86-year-old said.

“There were a lot of things involved there. If you knew anything about rolling resistance, aerodynamics, and horsepower, it took those 3 ingredients to make a race car go fast. Different drivers come in to work on the race car and they’d have different ideas. You’d always pick up on their ideas, what they had,” the veteran added.

Cheating was something that was simply not in the DNA of Holman-Moody. That is something the legendary engine builder stressed as well in the recent interview.

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Veteran engine builder reveals the strong sense of sportsmanship at his former team

According to Wilson, team co-owner John Holman was very much against the idea of cheating. So much so that he threatened to fire the 86-year-old if he was ever caught using immoral means to win races.

“From day 1, once I was on that race car and I was building engines, he’d come up to me and he’d stick that big finger right in my chest and he said, ‘If you ever get caught cheating, I’ll fire you’. And I knew dang well he would,” Waddell Wilson revealed.

“He said, ‘You’re good enough to win without cheating’. Well I never forgot that. I never ever got caught cheating cause I didn’t cheat. He made a believer out of me, which I’m glad he did, but I never had the desire to do it anyway,” he added.

Such a strong spirit of sportsmanship is what makes anyone involved with the sport likable and legendary. Waddell Wilson has gone down as one of the greatest ever to do it and he absolutely deserves that praise.

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