Greg Sacks

Sacks made 29 out of the 30 races, finished 19th in points and runner-up to Rusty Wallace for the NASCAR Rookie of the Year award.

He only completed nineteen laps until experiencing engine failure, finishing 38th out of 40 cars.

Greg Sacks (born November 3, 1952) is an American former stock car racing driver.

He is married and has three children.

He lives in Ormond Beach, Florida.

He and his sons are partners in Grand Touring Vodka.

Sacks has spent most of his career as a research and development (R&D) driver for many NASCAR teams.

Seven races later, Sacks was able to drive the No. 49 car owned by 1966 NASCAR Rookie of the Year James Hylton.

Before the Firecracker 400, DiGard Motorsports asked Sacks to drive their R&D car.

Sacks qualified ninth and defeated pole-sitter Bill Elliott to earn his only NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory.

The win was considered to be one of NASCAR's biggest upsets, as Sacks's car was only scheduled to run a set number of laps before going behind the wall to make changes, but his car kept competing for the win, therefore DiGard decided to let Sacks race as normal.

After DiGard's regular driver Bobby Allison quit the team days after the race, the team let Sacks finish the season in their regular car.

The next year, Sacks found himself running a limited schedule as DiGard slowly went bankrupt.

Competing from 1980 to 1983, he won 17 races at Stafford Motor Speedway.

In 1983, he made his NASCAR Winston Cup Series debut in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in the No. 5 car owned and sponsored by his father, Arnie.

In 1984, Sacks made a full attempt at the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, once again in a car owned by his father, only now it ran as No. 51.

He won the 1985 Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway acting as an R&D driver for DiGard Motorsports.

Early in his racing career, Sacks was a successful driver in what is now the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.

1985 got off to a rough start for Sacks.

After the first four races, his father's team folded.

In 1987, he signed on to drive the No. 50 Pontiac for the Dingman Brothers, where he struggled with qualifying for each race.

Three-quarters of the way through 1988, Sacks left the team to drive for Buddy Baker's team, the No. 88 Oldsmobile.

He came close to a victory at Bristol in 1989, where he led 119 laps only to lose the lead to Rusty Wallace with 40 laps to go.

Although he posted two top ten finishes in the first ten races of the 1989 season, Sacks was replaced by rookie Jimmy Spencer.

Sacks was unemployed for a brief period, then joined on with Tom Winkle's No. 48 Pontiac for most of the season, joining with Hendrick Motorsports for the Autoworks 500 at Phoenix International Raceway as part of the driving team gathering in-race footage for the "Days of Thunder" movie.

No one was seriously hurt in that race, but it gave Sacks a reputation of being an excellent qualifier, as shown in 1989, when he won the pole in just his second Busch Series race.

Sacks was signed to a three-year deal to drive the #18 for Hendrick and Paul Newman, with backing from Ultra Slim-Fast, but following the season Ultra Slim-Fast pulled out, the team was folded, and Sacks was released.

Sacks started off 1990 in a familiar situation with no ride, driving part-time for Hendrick's development team.

He participated in the Busch Clash at Daytona and at Darlington in the TranSouth 500, driving the No. 46 'City Chevrolet' Lumina "Days of Thunder" movie car.

Four races later, Sacks was rewarded with a part-time ride at Hendrick, driving the No. 18 Ultra Slim-Fast Chevrolet, finishing second at Talladega Superspeedway in the Winston 500.

After Darrell Waltrip was injured in a practice crash at Daytona, Sacks drove the No. 17 car for three races—the Champion Spark Plug 400, Busch 500, and the Heinz Southern 500, with a best finish of second at Michigan during this three-race stretch.

The highlight of his season was winning the pole position at the Pepsi Firecracker 400.

Following a crash in practice by teammate Waltrip, NASCAR officials noted that several teams had made modifications, and NASCAR made the teams spot-weld the blocks back into place, causing a loss of power.

Trying to make up for lost speed, Sacks caused a 23-car pileup at the end of the first lap, taking out eight cars, including Sacks.

Sacks started off 1991 at the Daytona 500 driving his own No. 18 car, but crashed early in the race.

He ran ten more races that year in the No. 47 Oldsmobile for Derick Close, posting two top-twenty finishes.

1992 was an especially good year for him, as he won the track championship that year, as well as the Spring Sizzler, The Labor Day 200 and the Fall Final.

Greg also won the Dogwood Classic at Martinsville Speedway, the Bud Classic at Oswego Speedway, the Thompson 300 at Thompson International Speedway, the World Series of Asphalt at Thompson Speedway and the Race of Champions at Pocono Raceway.

He started 1992 with Larry Hedrick Motorsports, but suffered injuries in a lap five crash at the Champion Spark Plug 400, and only drove one race for the rest of the season.

Sacks competed in four more events that season, posting a best finish of 17th in the Champion Spark Plug 400 at Michigan International Speedway, the only race he finished that year.