Johnny Rutherford was my man. Oh my goodness. Handsome, fearless, he was born on my birthday (March 12), former art student.
I had the chance to meet him at the track about 5 years ago on a practice day. I was still so star-shocked that I never asked for an autograph after we talked.
I took my kids to practice last year and ran into Al Unser Sr. in the museum. He was wandering around like an average joe. He was as nice as he could be and spent about ten minutes talking to the kids.
Seems like todays drivers are too wrapped up in their own self glorification to give their fans the time of day like the old days.