Greg Sacks

3/11/1952

Record updated 03-Nov-06

Greg Sacks is a NASCAR Nextel Cup driver. Sacks has spent much of his career as a Research and Development driver for various NASCAR teams.

Greg Sacks from Mattituck, Long Island, New York, started out racing Modifieds in what is now the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series. Competing from 1980 to 1983, he won 17 races at Stafford Motor Speedway, taking his first major victory in 1980 at the Oswego Classic. 1982 was an especially good year to him. he won 28 races, including the Dogwood Classic at Martinsville, and the Race of Champions at Pocono Raceway,and went on to win the Stafford Speedway Championship that year.

He made his NASCAR Winston Cup Series debut in 1983 at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona his father's Sacks & Son Racing team. He only completed nineteen laps before he retired with engine failure. In a limited season, he only finished one race that year, finishing 17th in the Champion Spark Plugs 400 at Michigan.

In 1984, he ran a full NASCAR Winston Cup Series campaign, once again with Sacks & Son. Sacks finished 19th in points, scored his first career top 10 that year and was runner-up to Rusty Wallace for NASCAR Rookie of the Year.

1985 started badly with the Sacks & Son team folding after the fourth races. Greg then got a one off drive for DiGard Racing in the FireCracker 400 at Daytona, with Gary Nelson as his crew chief. The drive was supposed to be more of a test session in their back up car, with scheduled stops to check the car and make changes. However after qualifying ninth, he ran so well theat the team treated it as a normal race. In a huge upset, he won, beating Bill Elliott to earn what has been to date his only NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory.

The when Bobby Allison quit the team a few days later, DiGard put Sacks in their regular car for the rest of the season. In 1986 he ran a limited schedule with DiGard before they too folded. He drove for several different car owners throughout the 80s with mixed results.

In 1987, he drove the Valvoline Oil Pontiac for the Dingman Brothers but struggled with qualifying. Three-quarters of the way through 1988, Sacks quit to join Buddy Baker in the Red Baron Frozen Pizza Oldsmobile. Despite two top ten finishes at the start of 1989, Sacks was dropped in favour of rookie Jimmy Spencer and drove the rest of the season for Tom Winkle in the Dinner Bell Foods Pontiac.

1990 started off looking bad. Without a drive, Sacks was able to get a one-race deal with Hendrick at Darlington driving the City Chevy Lumina. Four races later, he picked up a part-time drive with Hendrick, driving the Slim Fast Chevrolet, finishing 2nd to Dale Earnhardt in his first race at Talladega. Then, after Darrell Waltrip was injured in a practice crash at Daytona, he drove the Tide car, producing another 2nd place finish at Michigan. He earned his first career Pole Position at the FireCracker 400. In the race Sackspuched too hard and caused a massive 23-car pileup at the end of the first lap, taking out eight cars, including himself. Sacks also did some the driving for Tom Cruise in the movie "Days of Thunder". Greg also had a pole position in the Busch Series in 1990 along with 2 top 5 finishes in 6 races.

In 1991 he crashed out of the Daytona 500 driving his own U.S. Navy sponsored car and then did ten races for Derek Close. He started 1992 with Hedrick Motorsports, but was injured in a lap five crash at the Champion Spark Plug 400, and only drove one race for the rest of the season. The in 1993 he moved to Tri-Star Motorsports in 1993, with a best finish of sixth in the DieHard 500.

In 1994 he completed the full schedule for just the second time driving for D.K. Ulrich in the USAir Ford. He took pole in the year's final race at Atlanta and set the track record. He finished that year wih 3 top 10 finishes.

It was back to part time racing in the Winston Cup and Busch series over the next couple of years, winning a Busch Series race in a one-off deal for Diamond Ridge Motorsports at Talladega Superspeedway in 1996. In 1997, he drove for Harry Ranier but was soon dropped. Later in the season, he drove for Felix Sabates filling in for Robby Gordon, who had suffered burns in the Indianapolis 500. After Gordon was released later in the year, Sacks finished the season for the team.

In 1998, driving for Cale Yarborough, Sacks was in for another full season when on lap 136 of the Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Sacks lost control and crashed, suffering near fatal injuries. He missed the rest of the season and was forced on to the sidelines for several years.

He did return to the modified ranks before trying to return to the Cup level. Greg drove in a few ARCA races in 2003 and 2004 for Jones Racing with some very good results. In 2004, Greg announced his return to racing with Daytona Speed. the team was put together by Ed Raabe and James Wilsberg along with Greg. Making its first attempt at Chicagoland Speedway, the team failed to qualify and did not make a race until the Pennsylvania 500 the next month. In February 2005, Raabe departed to form his own race team, taking most of the Daytona Speed equipment with him. Sacks ran both Pocono races in 2005, and finished 43rd in both of them. The team will run another part-time schedule in 2006 with Who's Your Daddy? being the team's primary sponsor.



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