Admired, respected, cherished: Celebrating Wayne Auton as his storied career winds down

“There is — as we know it — no Xfinity Series without Wayne Auton.” — Kyle Petty

“Wayne’s been a staple of this sport for so many years.” — Justin Allgaier

“He’s like, one of my favorite people that works at NASCAR.” — Austin Cindric

Not often do people agree unanimously on anything, a statement truer in racing than in most other circles. Wayne Auton is the exception.

At age 66 and after more than 40 years spent working for the sanctioning body of the United States‘ top form of stock-car racing, Auton‘s storied career as the series director of the NASCAR Xfinity Series will come to an end Saturday at Phoenix Raceway with the conclusion of the 2024 campaign.

Put simply, Auton loves racing. That much is obvious to anyone who‘s spent two seconds around the jovial, mustached native of Hickory, North Carolina, who‘s usually chuckling along the way.

FUELED UP AND FIRED UP

The racing career of Wayne Auton began nearly 60 years ago, a child joining his father, Robert “Hoot” Auton, to lend a hand in the infield of Rockingham Speedway.

The high-banked, 1-mile oval nestled in south-central North Carolina holds plenty of memories for Auton. Unocal, then the fuel supplier for NASCAR, used to hire the safety teams and fire trucks for each event. Hoot owned some fire equipment, Wayne said, and therefore the duo went to plenty of Rockingham races.

That led to an encounter with none other than “Big” Bill France Sr., the founding face of NASCAR.

“Let me tell you — he was a giant,” Auton recalls. “My dad introduced me to him in the Unocal building in the infield in Rockingham. And he got talking to me a little bit. He said, ‘What are you gonna do for a living?‘ I said, ‘I’m gonna go work for you.‘ He said, ‘Keep that thought. You never know.‘ So here I am.”

Auton was somewhere between the ages of 8 and 10 at that time — “I can‘t remember exactly” — and by age 28, Auton was exactly right.

He started his career selling cushions at his local Hickory Motor Speedway, then drinks, then popcorn, earning $0.03 per box sold. He then took a larger leap, becoming the track‘s fire marshal, tying back to his father‘s fire equipment. Shortly thereafter, David Hoots — today, a former Cup Series race director — became Hickory‘s chief steward, necessitating a new official on staff. Enter the 20-year-old Auton.

“That was my first job being an official,” he said.

Eight years later, after time spent at Hickory, Tri-County Motor Speedway and assisting NASCAR Hall of Famer Jerry Cook in Modified races, Auton‘s first full-time opportunity arose in NASCAR, traveling as an official for the Goody‘s Dash Series.

“And then yeah,” Auton said. “Rest is history, I guess you‘d say.”

“WE HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER”

Over four decades, some lessons stick with a person more than others.

The one with firm roots in Auton‘s mind today was planted in 1995. Entering Daytona in February, Auton served as the series director of the Goody‘s Dash Series. He left as the series director of the NASCAR Slim Jim All Pro Series. Fast forward to Daytona in July.

This time, it was a contested meeting between “Mr. France” and “Coach” Les Richter, the former NFL‘er turned head of operations of NASCAR through a dedicated career in motorsports leadership.

“I thought they were going to get in an argument,” Auton said. “I thought I was in trouble. I says, ‘Man, what have I done?‘ They’re arguing over who’s going to ask me to go to the trucks.

“So a lot of few words were set behind the door that were personal from Coach. But then he said, ‘This is the teams, and this is us.‘ And he took his hands and held them out. And he said, ‘This is what we got to do.‘”

Auton interlocked his fingers, imitating Richter‘s gesture made 29 years ago.

“I learned from that very point that we worked at this as a team,” Auton said. “We never, ever — it’s not NASCAR side; it’s not the team side. It’s, we have to work together to make the sport better.”

Auton left that meeting with another different title — this time as series director of the fledging NASCAR SuperTruck Series — known today as the Craftsman Truck Series.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

Perhaps the most difficult part of building relationships in any capacity is maintaining them.

Auton‘s job as series director means enforcing competition rules to produce the most fair racing possible. The results of that job can sometimes cause frustration or disagreements. Auton has found ways to lessen those moments — or at the very least keep them professional, never personal.

“The one thing that we try to make sure that teams know (is) we’re no different than the teams are,” Auton said. “We are the sanctioning body. We are the officiating team. But we have a job to do when we come inside these gates. They have a job to do when we come inside these gates. And when we walk outside those gates, your friends will still want to have a cold beer with you.”

In 16 years overseeing the Truck Series and through the end of this 13-year stint in the Xfinity Series, Auton has plenty of friends that still want to have that post-race beverage. That, of course, is his greatest joy.

“Heck, this is our family,” Auton said. “The job absolutely could go away today. But the people in it’s what’s going to be hard (to leave). And they know that we got a job to do. And if we do our job inside this gate, when we walk outside that gate, they’ll see you, they’ll still speak to you. And don’t make it personal because they have a job to do. We don’t make it personal in the garage against them.

“They’re trying everything they can do to beat the person beside them. They’re not trying to beat us. It’s our job to make sure that every car is checked as good as it can be.”

Building those connections has worked, as evidenced by anyone who has spent time around him.

“The thing that I love about Wayne is Wayne’s a racer,” Justin Allgaier, a longtime veteran of the Xfinity Series, said. “He understands the teams. He understands the good and the bad challenges that everybody goes through. I think he’s extremely fair when it comes to looking at things through the glass window of what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong, right?”

Austin Cindric, the 2022 Daytona 500 champion who first won the 2020 Xfinity Series title, credits Auton for his growth as a stock-car racer.

“I really do love Wayne,” Cindric said. “He’s like, one of my favorite people that works at NASCAR. In my time, I feel like I experienced a lot of growth in the Xfinity Series, and Wayne was there from start to finish for me, and wasn’t ever afraid of being honest with me. And I felt like I grew to be the same back, whether if it’s fun conversations or tough conversations, depending on the day.

“It’s hard to find people like him. Wayne’s one of those people you kind of need two or three to replace. So it’s a shame I won’t get to see him every weekend and give him a high five, but it’s definitely somebody I’ll really have appreciated along the journey to get to the Cup Series.”

Christopher Bell has won 19 Xfinity races across the past eight seasons. Including two this year. His face lit up when asked about Auton.

“Wayne is an amazing (series) director,” Bell said. “He’s one of the only ones that have actually given a young driver myself at the time advice, and I remember him telling us that you have to practice getting out the right side of the car.

“That stuff is so valuable and something that I took with me the rest of my career, even whenever I got into the Cup Series — and then with the car change, figuring out how to get out the right side of the Next Gen car. He‘s just an awesome person who really looks after the racers and makes sure that they’re doing well.”

LEAVING ON A HIGH NOTE

Auton‘s decision to leave his post after this 13th Xfinity season didn‘t come easily. The emotions of this departure, he said, started to really set in during the October race weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“I knew two years ago that was coming time,” he said. “This sport is so busy today … it wears on you. I definitely knew when I got off the plane from Sonoma at 7:15 a.m. Sunday morning after we had been up all day in Sonoma working the race, I told my wife, I said, I can’t wait till November. But it’s really starting to hit home.”

There is nothing Wayne Auton loves more than racing — except for the people who race. The ones who put the cars on track each week. The drivers who climb behind the wheel and send those machines whipping through corners at 140 mph and tear down the straightaway with engines screaming at 200 mph.

“We don’t do this for accolades,” Auton said. “We do this because we love the sport. To me, it’s the best sport in the world. Got five wheels on it — four on the ground and the steering wheel. Greatest sport ever. And anybody that says that this sport hasn’t afforded them a good life needs to look in a mirror. [..]

“We always hear, I wonder what the people are really doing for a job. We get to put on a show. We get to put on races that people sit at home and watch it on Fox, FS1, NBC, USA, CW now that they’re coming on board. … They get to sit home and watch it. We get to actually live it. We get to go in and smell the tires burning and the gas, the fumes of the gas, and it’s just a refreshing job that you don’t really feel like you’re working.”

On Saturday night, another Xfinity Series champion will be crowned. Justin Allgaier is back for the fifth time in the past six years, still seeking his first title. He‘s got a bit of extra motivation this year.

“I told him, I said, ‘My only goal for this year is to make sure that you have to be front center at the at the banquet,‘” Allgaier said. “And I want to be able to call him up on stage and be a champion and call him up there. I almost thought I wasn’t gonna have a shot to go to the top eight to do that, but that’s my goal. I’d love to be able to embarrass him a little bit on the stage after winning the championship because it’d be pretty special.”

Auton isn‘t planning to be back in the garage in 2025. He wants to stay out of the way of future leadership without feeling like he‘s stepping on any toes. He will be back, however, at Rockingham Speedway on April 18-19 as the Truck Series returns for the first time since 2013 and the Xfinity Series for the first time since 2004.

“God, man, it’s hard to sit here and explain the opportunities that we’ve had,  places we’ve got to see, the people we’ve got to meet,” Auton said, reflecting on how good each of these years have been. “And it’s all about the people — I‘ll say it again. The job could go away today. I wouldn’t miss one minute of it, but I know when those trucks roll to Daytona …”

Auton‘s voice shakes and he pauses to collect his thoughts, the emotion setting in as he speaks in the office of the NASCAR Xfinity Series hauler.

“(Gonna be) the first time in 33 years I didn’t go to Daytona,” Auton said. “Thirty-third champion coming up. That‘s pretty cool.”