Where is ... Lloyd Moore? (cont'd)

The cars Moore and Rexford drove were good cars. They might have different cars for different types of tracks. If they needed it, they took cars right off the showroom floor to race.

More photos

Above: Lloyd Moore (left) with Bill Rexford in 1950. Below: Moore in the South Turn at Daytona Beach in 1950.

"You couldn't find any better [a person than Buesink], no matter how far you looked," Moore said. "You couldn't find any better nowhere. He was good, a good sponsor. He owned the cars and Bill and I just drove 'em or wrecked 'em for him.

Moore insists that there was "not a bit" of competition between himself and Rexford, who died in April 1994.

"Bill ... he had a high temper to a certain extent, but we got along good," Moore said. "We raced each other the same as we raced other drivers on the track."

Petty, on the other hand, was a different matter entirely.

"Out on the track, he was an enemy," Moore said. "He was a good driver. Off the track, he was real friendly. I forget where it was, but I started before him. When we got to runnin', he booted me in the bumper a little bit. That was something I didn't think was necessary, and I told him afterward. He said, 'Well ... that was just an accident on purpose.'"

Moore finished second twice in 1950 and third three times before finally winning at the track then known as Fund's Speedway in Winchester, in his next to last start of the season. Only 13 cars were in the field because many, if not most, of the day's top drivers chose instead to head to another Grand National event the same day in Martinsville.

"When I first seen the track, we kinda came over a hill and here was the track," said Moore, who would finish fourth in the 1950 Grand National standings. "I told Julie, the car owner, 'I don't like the looks of that track.' It was scary, but after we got onto it, it commenced to being like a regular ol' track of any kind. We just got used to it."

Six children -- all girls -- were born to Moore and his wife. Ask how many grandchildren he has, and Moore has to check with Virginia. Moore has 14 grand kids ... and 32 great-grandchildren. All live within a radius of 25 miles.

He left the sport to concentrate on providing for his family. Still, to this day, Moore loves racing.

"When I quit [racing], I quit a hundred percent," Moore concluded. "That was the end of it. I'd had about five years of it. I figured my job was at home. ... [Racing]'s still in my blood. You couldn't wash it out. If I'd made a little better progress when I was there, financially, I might've stayed for another spell. But not making too much money when you had the family to help support, that didn't go over too good in my estimation."