D.K. Ulrich ... Living Large

What you see with D.K. Ulrich is what you get. The former driver and car owner retired from that side of the business in the mid-1990s, and today is a partner in a company responsible for getting teams to and from race locales. (D.K. Ulrich Collection)

By Rick Houston

What you see with D.K. Ulrich is what you get. The former driver and car owner retired from that side of the business in the mid-1990s, and today is a partner in a company responsible for getting teams to and from race locales. (D.K. Ulrich Collection)

D.K. Ulrich is one of the lucky ones. The success that he never quite found on the race track is now his as a businessman.

 

In 273 races as a driver, Ulrich had all of one top-five finish (a fourth at Dover in 1981) and 16 top 10s. As an owner, he fielded entries for an almost countless number of hotshoes, from Harry Dinwiddie to Tim Richmond, Ricky Rudd, Mark Martin and Ernie Irvan.

 

And, on one memorable occasion, Richard Petty.

 

There was a time in NASCAR when only a handful of drivers stood any reasonable chance of winning. The rest of the field was left to fight for whatever it could get, and Ulrich was squarely in that group. An independent if ever there was one, Ulrich scraped by year after year.

 

He did whatever it took to get from one race to the next. After a vicious crash in the 1978 Southern 500 at Darlington, Ulrich was kicked out of NASCAR for the rest of the season when officials discovered a nitrous oxide bottle in the remains of his car. And, amazingly, given today’s its-all-a-mistake and we-don’t-know-this-happened claims of innocence, Ulrich freely admits he knew the bottle was there and that he used it.

 

Good for him.

 

Ulrich is currently a partner in ETA Logistics, a firm responsible for getting clients to and from wherever it is that they happen to be going. Most of his business consists of NASCAR teams and drivers, moving them into and out of race tracks.

 

More than that, however, Ulrich is still the same tell-it-like-it-is kind of guy that he was as an owner and driver. In this interview with Stock Car History Online Editor Rick Houston, Ulrich shares stories of his life in and around racing.

 

Stock Car History Online: How are you spending most of your time these days?

 

Ulrich: I sold my race team in 1995 and today, I am a partner with another man in what’s called ETA Logistics. We move NASCAR people all over the world, all over the planet. At the race track, every time you see a helicopter, that’s probably one of ours. We do a lot of logistics work for personal appearances, all kinds of things transportation-wise, with these characters.

 

Stock Car History Online: How did you get involved in that?

 

Ulrich: When we sold the race team in the mid-90s, we just evolved into air transportation. We did what they called Race Day Express for several years, where we were taking all the crew guys in on Sunday on a 727. We were moving all of Jack Roush’s people … I mean, we had 19 aircraft moving back and forth at one time in the ‘90s. We kind of stopped fixed-wing stuff in the early 2000s and went into the rotor wing (aircraft) and started the business at the race track. So, right now, I’m still involved in NASCAR, but not as a team owner. We provide transportation and concierge service for the drivers and the owners and the sponsors and the marketing companies.

 

I don’t do much. I just orchestrate the whole thing. I kinda wander around. I have a home in New Mexico. I have a home in Arizona, one in Daytona and one in the Bahamas. I hang around between those while I orchestrate the business of concierge and air transportation for NASCAR individuals. How about that? That’ll give you a little bit to write, won’t it?

 

I also own a small hotel and resort down in the Bahamas, in a development property down there, and an 1876 lighthouse that we are renovating, too, at this time. I keep pretty busy.

 

I can’t grow up. I still feel like I’m the world’s oldest living teenager and having a good time doing it.

 

Stock Car History Online: It sounds like life is good for you.

 

Ulrich: Oh, it’s good. It’s really good. Life is real good. I don’t know how we’d make it any better.

 

Stock Car History Online: How would you like to be remembered by race fans?

 

Ulrich: (Laughs) My team has done 600-plus races with NASCAR. I did all Winston Cup races back in those times. I’ve driven 300-plus races myself. I don’t even know how to answer that, because my fans all know we had a lot of fun. We enjoyed ourselves. We never won a race. We never lost a party.

 

We went from town to town all the time, picking up our pit crew as we went. A couple of us would drive the truck up and down the road, and when we got to town, we’d go to the beer joint and pick up four or five men — and a couple of women — and we’d go in and have a good weekend. Those guys would be the pit crew for that week, and then we’d go on to the next town. My fans are really the people that worked with me all the time.

 

I ran into a lot of them for the first time. The last time I drove was in 1992, and I went to this thing with a bunch of these old characters … all my friends and people I worked with. We had fans lined up in the snow up there in Charlotte, half a block away, just coming in to see us. People there knew my name and knew what I did, and I didn’t even know they existed. That’s why it was nice for me to get your call, because I didn’t know anybody knew I really existed during that time. So if you ask me how I’d like to be remembered … hey, just remember me. That’s good enough. I’m pleased that you just remembered me.

 

Stock Car History Online: The actor, Skeet Ulrich, is your nephew, isn’t he?

 

Ulrich: He’s my adopted son. I have two adopted children and two biological children … Skeet and his brother Jeff. I was married to Carolyn Rudd, Ricky’s sister, for a period of time and adopted those children. They took my name.

 

We’re perfectly good friends. … We stay in contact. We e-mail often. When I get to L.A., I visit with him if he’s not doing something. He’s usually on location. Him and his woman have been down to our island before and played at my hotel. If you need an autograph, I can get it for you.

 

Stock Car History Online: What was the deal with the nitrous oxide?

 

Ulrich: I got killed in 1978 at Darlington and lived through it. When that happened, at that point in time, NASCAR was a whole different thing than it is today. It had eight, total, factory-backed teams that were two Dodges, two Fords and whatever it was. It was just Harry Hyde, Holman & Moody, the Wood brothers and those guys at that time. Those were the only guys that could win. They had today’s equipment and we had yesterday’s equipment. All the rest of us, the whole other 32 guys, all had yesterday’s equipment. We kinda had our own deal going. We raced one another, and if we finished in the top 10, we were happy as could be.

 

To answer your question, the nitrous oxide was used to qualify for these races because we didn’t have the right equipment. We had to get a little help to qualify, so we put it in the car. You blow a little of that into the carburetor and you get a little extra horsepower and you get in the show. That’s all we did. It was no big deal.

 

Well, when I wrecked, it tore the car in half. Some of the equipment spilled out onto the race track. So while I was dead in the hospital, I got a call from (NASCAR Competition Director) Bill Gazaway. I thought maybe he was gonna wish me well. He didn’t. He told me I was suspended for the rest of the year. I probably needed it, any way. I needed to get well. I got well and went out and raced the next year. Everything was fine. That’s the way it goes sometimes.

 

Stock Car History Online: What are you most proud of when it comes to your career?

 

Ulrich: We did it our way and enjoyed it and had a great time the whole time, win, lose or draw. My best finish as a driver was a fourth at Dover in 1981. Of course, that was fun. I always fun going to Riverside, Darlington … any place where a driver’s ability could pick up his performance.

 

In those days, it’s not like it is today. In those days, you just didn’t have the parts to do what the other guys did. No matter what you did, you’re not going to win the race. You can just simply do the best you can. But it was always fun to get up there and beat Donnie Allison and Bobby Allison and Richard Petty. You beat them once in a while whenever you got things just right, and you could do that at a road course or at a Darlington or a Bristol or some place where just plain ol’, flat out driving can beat the next guy. Those are my fun times.

 

But to answer your question, just the fact that we did it our way. I owned the team the whole time and did what we wanted to do. I told you before … we just had a good time, never lost a party.

 

Stock Car History Online: Anything else you can think of?

 

Ulrich: Oh, man … there’s a lot of stuff, but that’s for the guy that’s gonna write the book. There’s a whole bunch of stories.