Hello all, and welcome back to Tuning Thursdays, where you can kick back, imbibe your preferred libations, and plan to plan what you’ll do for the rest of the day. Last week, the Motor City’s own Slum Village–quite the fitting name–gave us the less-than-awesome “EZ Up,” which had us questioning whether or not the HHR was sexier than we initially gave it credit for. We’ll give you the results once we plow one through the entrance of a strip club.

In the meantime, today’s helping of audible Chevy art is courtesy of none other than the late, great Jim Croce. The man needs no introduction, but this song might.

Taken from Croce’s third album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim, “Rapid Roy” occupies number 9 just after Croce’s somber, reflective piece “Time in a Bottle.” The opening riff sets up the lighthearted tone as Croce uses Chuck Berry’s prelude to kick things off.

Yet to think that he’s only singing about some fictional character is to miss out on the history of an infamous racing figure. You see, “Rapid Roy” is actually Roy Hall, a NASCAR racer who made a disreputable name for himself in the early days of stock car racing.

A maniac that ran wild decades before guys like Yarborough and Earnhardt, Hall raced alongside Lloyd Seay for NASCAR pioneer Red Vogt. Vogt was more than happy to supply Hall and  Seay with well-built, Ford-backed cars that won races all over the Southeast and Midwest.

Hall’s penchant for WOT made him a terror on and off the track. One man described Hall’s driving style as “[not knowing] what a brake was.”

Without any kind of sanctioning body or rules in place, stock car racing was a free-wheeling experience of booze, adrenaline, and V8s. Hall’s true nature flourished in this quick-burning environment, and ended only when he crashed in 1960 at the age of 40. after that, he retired from racing and became a car dealer in Atlanta, finally dying in 1991.

Roy (center) stands with his cousin Raymond Parks (right) and an unknown yokel (left). Photo: ESPN

So it’s an interesting comparison to have this finger-snapping rockabilly song dedicated to one of the most notorious figures in racing history. Whatever his intentions, we have to thank Croce for giving the man a degree of immortality.

And thank you all for checking in with Tuning Thursdays. We’ll see you later.