Story and Photos by Richard Cunningham From October 23, 1996 Issue of Racing News

When you first look at Steven Howard all you can think of is the guy next door. At times looking younger than his 22 years show, when this racer puts on his uniform, a replica of the American flag, he becomes the textbook image of the All-American guy.

One could almost throw a cape around his shoulders and have a ready-made Superman/Clark Kent. "I really wish you would use that picture of me looking serious as the cover shot." Steven said. The whole time his dad shaking his head and later saying, "use that other one. He looks young. He hasn’t learned how to use that to his advantage yet."

It quickly becomes clear, Steven Howard is at the crossroads and already is far from being just the guy next door, he might be Superman to endure what he has at such a young age.

"I started racing go-karts when I was 15 and ran them up ‘till I was 19 years old. I won over 100 races, winning the South Carolina National Championship and a couple of national events – one at Charlotte. I qualified outside pole at Daytona and ran third.

"I liked go-kart racing. It was a lot of fun. It made it a lot of fun ‘cause you done good, that always makes it fun."

Fun is what Steven has enjoyed this year by his own definition. In winning the Winston Racing Series regional championship, he won 14 features at his hometrack of Greenville-Pickens Speedway. Out of the 21 races he started, he posted an incredible 19 top five finishes. Clearly winning the track championship at the famed half-mile oval.

The 1996 Winston Racing Series Blue Ridge Regional Champion, Howard has already faced more racing experience to force him into maturity faster than anyone should or could expect. And all have come in just a short four years of stock car racing.

"When I was 19 I moved to dirt, racing at Gaffney-Cherokee. I raced it once year. I think we won like 10 races in the Limited Sportsman division, finished second in points.

"I went to asphalt in ’94 driving for Jimmy Phillips. We had about six or seven top fives and won one race," Steven said. "We finished second in points to Donnie Bishop that first year. We had a real good year, didn’t tear much up and then the second year, I got a Sportsman car to run Charlotte, Pocono, etc. I think I finished tenth at Charlotte in Oct. ’94 and came back and finished 11^th at Charlotte in May of ’95 and at Pocono we was running third when the motor blowed.

It was behind the wheel of his NASCAR Sportsman car at Charlotte in ’95 that Steven was thrown in to maturity with a crash that claimed the life of Russell Phillips.

"I really didn’t want to race again, it spooked me out. I had my car here for a long time. Once I got rid of it I started getting over it – that part. I read a lot of articles about him, he was a Christian person, and what made it worse than anything was that we were parked beside of him – the whole week.

"He was a nice guy. To my you know it was a racing accident. He had already fell back from the pole and we was coming up through the pack, me and Ronnie Sewell, we was coming into three and the wreck happened coming off four, the original wreck that is. I stayed low and Ronnie went around me on the outside. I got there about 300; 500 yards from the wreck and my spotter said go high. I went high, and I don’t know if he thought I was going to stay low or what but when I went high, he (Phillips) came around and we hit. Then we wheel hopped the cars and he hit the wall."

The accident sheared the top of Phillips car off as the roof impacted at an angle with the retaining fence. "I remember seeing, kind of remember him." Steven recalls of the wreckage. "I remember seeing the top was off the car and that’s when another car slid into me and spun me back around. But, I really don’t think I ever did see him. If I did, that would have got me.

"More or less what it did to me was made me think, If you go out here in your car, are you ready to go to heaven if you don’t come back in. It made me do a lot of thinking, more or less in that perspective, ‘cause I didn’t want to die right then – I didn’t want to die at 21 years old or 22."

It was an accident that would have many drivers hanging their helmets up. Charlotte Motor Speedway officials announced the division would not return and replaced it with the ARCA series. As for Steven, he would not let the incident affect him as he concentrated on Greenville-Pickens for 1996 and adding his name to the wall of champions famous at the South Carolina track.

During the season at Greenville, Howard totally dominated the racing season. Trailing the #99 finally became too much for his competitors, evident by a late season accident with Chuck Walls.

"Stupidity. I don’t know what he was thinking," Steven explained. "He was leading and I was running second. It was about lap 18 or something. Walls runs a different groove from everybody else, he kind of chops the corners and I would dive under him and he would cut me off. We done that about four or five times then we did it again and I hit him. Our cars got hooked up together and he jammed the brakes on. It made my car run up on his, tearing my fender off and his back bumper off. He went on off in the corner and spun out. I didn’t touch him or anything. I was four, five car lengths behind him. He didn’t have a spoiler (after the bumper came off) and I guess he thought I spun him out.

"He came back in the pits and put tires on, then came back out on the track the wrong way, spun around in turn four and came all the way around under caution, we running maybe 20 miles-per-hour and he came out right there at the bottom of the apron and hit me running probably 75-80 and it just busted into flames."

As Steven continues, you see he has been shaken. "The flames came through the passenger’s side and across the dash and back at me. I just remember pulling the fire extinguisher and that gave me a few seconds.

"At first I panicked, I just felt like jelly. I couldn’t do nothing, that’s when I pulled the fire extinguisher and got out." Said Steven.

Clearly being watched over, Steven had endured his second possible life changing racing accident. "The Sportsman race, the scary part was afterwards, when I found out he was dead. But that right there, was me and myself and only, and it was very scary. I didn’t know if I was going to get out or what was going to happen. Everything turned neon orange – in a hurry."

From that incident, Steven gained headlines, but not of his own doing. Papers across the state like the Charlotte Observer carried the story of a lawsuit. "Pickens County filed the lawsuit on criminal charges, but I think it got thrown out.

"It just said to me, ‘well hey if a man hits you or whatever if you are pissed at a man go out there and knock him out, tear his car up. He could’ve killed me. If it had knocked me out, it would have killed me. There couldn’t have been no one get near my car the way it was blazing. I’m sure he didn’t mean for my car to explode. I don’t guess. But he sure did hit me hard enough for it to explode and he should have thought about that first."

It was an incident that you can tell has made Steven respect what it is that he does and how he approaches doing it. With just enough fear in him, the image of this Superman/Clark Kent come back. The green glow of Kryptonite replaced by the orange glow of fire hasn’t made him run for shelter. It has made him run smarter and safer.

"It gained a lot of fans for me. I came back and won the very next week. It gave me a lot of confidence that I was truly a racer. I came back worked real hard and got the new car ready and came back and kicked their butt. To me it made me feel good about that.

"I think we might have won the national (NASCAR WRS title) if it hadn’t been for all that. We would have been a lot closer," Steven added.

As for the future, Steven turns his sights on the All-Pro circuit for 1997. Getting a head start, he just recently came off a run at Lanier with a respectable showing. After starting 18^th, he had moved to seventh by the 58^th circuit. He made it as high as second, before Scott Sutherland got by to take the position. He later spun with Steve Allison and would lose a lap resulting in a finish equal to his start.

"I want to win Rookie of the Year. I think we can win two races, maybe three because we are going to Greenville twice and I hope to win both of them and Martinsville’s the same way. That’s my goals

"I’d like to see All Pro on bigger tracks, which they are talking about. I’d like to run some bigger tracks like North Wilkesboro, Rockingham. I think in the future they will go to bigger tracks, they’ve went to these perimeter cars and they are a little safer for the higher speeds.

"I’d like to have a truck ride maybe in the next two years. Maybe run All Pro for two years and maybe somebody give me a truck ride."

But as for now Steven heads to Nashville to pick up his rewards, totaling some $36,000 as a regional champ. "My whole crew, sponsors, family is going. I’m really looking forward to being on Prime Time Country (TNN TV program), playing golf with Darrell Waltrip, I think when I actually get the hardware, that’s when It will actually hit me.

"I thank the good lord for a season that kept me safe and for giving me a talent that I hope will take me to Winston Cup or something like that, because I know that without him I couldn’t do it or he wouldn’t let me be here after that fire or that severe wreck at Charlotte." Steven added.

He might look like the guy next door, but this All-American boy at the crossroads is turning back challenge after challenge, as he becomes a true champion – in all aspects of his life.

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