Stricklin

Instead of plowing through the turns this weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway, Hut Stricklin will likely be plowing through some of the 90 acres he owns behind his fabricating shop in suburban Charlotte, N.C.

Or, maybe he'll go bowling with his son Taylor, or just relax with wife Pam.

It'll be good for Stricklin to get some chores done or spend some quality time with his family. Racing doesn't allow much time for those things during the course of the grueling season. But the last active member of the Alabama Gang still has a competitive fire burning inside, one he hopes to stoke again either later this season or in 2003 for sure.

Shortly after the Sharpie 500 at Bristol, Tenn., late last month, Stricklin parted ways with team owner Bill Davis after it became clear the team's struggles weren't going to improve. Stricklin was in 35th in the standings when he and Davis decided to amicably separate.

The breakup was two-fold: Stricklin was able to get a head start on finding a new ride for next season, while Davis could bring in recently signed Kenny Wallace a bit sooner to get a head start on 2003. Wallace becomes teammates with Ward Burton.

"The bottom line (for the split) was we weren't performing," Stricklin said. "I just look at it as a total team effort, I don't really look at it as something they were doing or nothing I was doing.

"For whatever reason, it just wasn't happening for us as a team. I think when an opportunity came open for Bill to sign Kenny Wallace for next year, he felt like he had an opportunity to go ahead and get a head start on next year, and I looked at it the same way for me. It would give me more time to get working on next year's stuff and he could be doing the same thing himself."

Stricklin moved from Junie Donlavey's operation to the Davis camp for the start of this season, bringing Hills Bros. sponsorship along with him. Optimism was high that the new partnership would be fruitful.

Unfortunately, optimism and results wound up being two different things for Stricklin and the No. 23 Dodge. The team failed to qualify for the Daytona 500, which ironically was won by Burton. And while Stricklin would make 22 of the next 23 races on the schedule, his best run was only 11th at his home track of Talladega, Ala.

Stricklin finished 30th or lower in 10 of his 22 starts. He also would be knocked out of five races due to mechanical failure or crashes.

"I felt like Phillipe Lopez, my crew chief, and I had a great chemistry," Stricklin said. "And all the guys on the team, we all got along well together. But for whatever reason, we would go to the racetrack and have just a terrible time qualifying for the races.

	Hut Stricklin has made 22 starts this season.

"We were so far off when we got there, it was just hard to make it up in the two-hour practice time before qualifying. I looked at the setups each and every time we'd go and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. The big guys running up front would be running close to what we have, but it just wouldn't work for us, for whatever reason. It just wasn't working, and that's really the bottom line for us as a team."

At 41, Stricklin still has a lot to offer as a driver. The key will be finding the right situation, something he's struggled with throughout his career. Since he debuted on the scene in 1987 driving for Skip Jaehne, Stricklin has called 18 different people "boss," although a third of those were just for one-off races.

What Stricklin really wants is to find a competitive ride with a team he can grow with, and not have to worry about keeping his resumé up to date.

"I'd like to get with a team that's well-funded and where we can race like we need to race," Stricklin said. "That's one thing. Another big issue with me is I want to get somewhere where the owner really wants you there and he wants to make it happen with you. Just to get somewhere where everybody rallies behind a driver.

"A lot of teams out there now, they have just the owner and crew versus the driver, and the teams where the owner, crew and driver are one unit are the teams that win races and run up front every week. That's really the situation I'd like to get into. I've been close to that a time or two in my career, and I just know that's a very important thing that you have to have in order to be successful."

Stricklin has already started talking with teams about next season, but is finding that most teams are more concerned about just getting through the remainder of 2002 before they start giving any thought to their future plans.

He's even open to driving on the Busch circuit next season, if need be.

"Yeah, I would entertain that," Stricklin said. "I'm a racer. I want to race. I'd love to stay in Cup, without a doubt. That's kind of the family I grew up with. But, I would definitely entertain that (Busch), too."

Speaking of family, Stricklin is the last in the line of the fabled Alabama Gang. In its heyday, the boys from Alabama were among the most feared drivers on any track from Daytona to Sears Point, Calif.

"Fans still talk about it all the time," Stricklin said. "It's really great and wonderful that the fans include me in what I consider a very elite group. Those guys that started it, Bobby and Donnie (Allison) and Red Farmer, Neil (Bonnett) and Davey (Allison), all those guys were incredible race drivers. The first time somebody included me in that group, I thought it was the neatest thing.

"But, it's hard to believe that with the group that was there, the original people, that it has dwindled down to just one (Stricklin), and all the stuff that's caused it to happen (such as the unfortunate deaths of Bonnett and Davey Allison). It's pretty unreal."

	“	The teams where the owner, crew and driver are one unit are the teams that win races and run upfront every week. That's really the situation I'd like to get into. I've been close to that a time or two in my career, and I just know that's a very important thing that you have to have in order to be successful. ”
		— Stricklin

But Stricklin, who became a member of the Gang when he married Donnie's daughter Pam, won't necessarily let the group's legacy end with him when he decides to hang his fire suit up for the last time. The couple's son, Taylor, is already itching to follow in his family's footsteps.

"Taylor will be 14 pretty soon," Stricklin said. "He raced go-karts for awhile. He's about to wear me out right now because he wants to do something in racing. We're kind of quietly working on that right now. We're trying to keep it relatively low-key because he still has school to go through, and I know what happens from what happened with me when you get into something that takes away your interest in school and your grades drop. That's what we're trying to keep from happening right now."

But before Taylor gets his own career going, Stricklin is far from ready to give up his own seat in the game. Ever the optimist, Stricklin takes the parting with Davis as another bump in the road that he'll quickly get over.

"A few years back I had to go back to being a crew chief for a team just to put food on the table," he said. "And then to get back to driving and getting back in a decent deal -- or what I thought was going to be a good deal -- to look where I got to and where I came from, I thought that was pretty good.

"There's been a few times in my career that I think a lot of people wrote me off and I came back. I feel like I'll do the same thing this time. I feel like I've got a lot of years left still and I feel like I'm really still in my prime as far as driving goes."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.