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Back in the early nineties I was working for Gene Felton Restorations. We restored old Winston Cup cars of the day and I ran across something interesting. I was disassembling a Darrell Waltrip Western Auto car to get ready for repairs and paint. I was stripping the whole car down and went to take the "lead" out of the car. I got my push stick and it wouldn't budge!! After trying for a while I removed this chunk of something, it wasn't lead! When finally came out it just about broke my wrist and when it landed it made a nice ring tone like a forged steel crank! It ended up being Tungsten and a 70 lb piece of it! After Gene called and talked to the old crew chief he verified they had left it in there by mistake! At the time Tungsten was very rare to get in such quantities and also very expensive! I don't think Gene paid more than 10K for the whole race car and there was this Tungsten! I think Ernie Elliott wanted to buy it for $45 a pound to use for engine stuff. This was a real big secret that only a lot of the more well funded teams could afford. The best thing was you could mount this one bar of tungsten in a small exact area to get the side weights/ corner weights were you needed them. But with lead it would take the entire side frame rail to get the same effect thus effecting the whole side and front/ rear corner weights! Absolutely amazing stuff but you also have to build a bracket strong enough to handle the extra load! If my memories right that chunk was 4"X4"x10" or 12" and was that heavy! That same car also had lead weights attached to the wheels on the inside! The tires said Qualify on them to get them through tech and then they would change them. They were about 30lbs heavier than regular wheels and tire combos! Who said Nascar boy's don't cheat a little!! Thanks, Matt
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