((HT: Oregonian/Norm Maves))
Hershel McGriff ((pictured, thanks NASCAR Images)) didn't just turn back time at Portland International Raceway on Sunday. He ran over it at full throttle.
The local stock car driver from Bridal Veil, competing in his seventh decade of racing, fought fuel pump and carburetor problems and dodged flying debris to become the oldest NASCAR driver at 81.
McGriff finished 13th in the Salute to the Troops 125. He finished all 66 laps of the trouble-marked race -- one of 13 cars in a field of 26 to do so -- despite starting with a one-lap penalty for changing his car after morning qualifying.
"Well, my competition went faster," McGriff said dryly afterward. "This is my first race in seven years, so I'm a little rusty. Fortunately, the car ran good.
"Of course, I wouldn't know what's good and what's bad. I knew where I was slow and knew where I was fast."
He knew where he was popular, too. Before and after morning qualifying, McGriff entertained a steady stream of friends, well-wishers and autograph seekers on pit row. He left another crowd at his car after the race to do post-race interviews.
McGriff took a chance by changing the balky carburetor on his Park Corporation Chevrolet at the end of pole qualifying. Something wasn't quite right, and he finished 21st.
"We had to change it," he said. "I didn't want to go out there and flop around. We didn't have time to repair it -- we'd already done that."
As a veteran driver, McGriff knew he would be penalized for the move. NASCAR made him start in the back row.
"We had no time to do any repair work on it," he said.
The car responded, and while cars spun and bumped their way around the two-mile road course, McGriff ran a clean race and picked people off one at a time. Nobody seemed to have a real problem with him being there, either.
"I am not really too worried about it," pole winner David Mayhew said before the race. "He's raced too long and he knows his way around."
KATU-TV's Adam Ghassemi saw McGriff drive at PIR...
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