Driver, crew chief

Estimates of ageless Alabama Gang member Charles “Red” Farmer’s career victories range from 700 to 900, beginning in earnest in the late 1950s and 1960s and continuing for decades thereafter. His forte has been NASCAR Modified and Late Model Sportsman racing, winning the 1956 Modified Championship and three consecutive Late Model Sportsman titles (1969, 1970, 1971) in addition to numerous local track championships. Farmer’s speed and racecraft diminished little over time. He was still competing in ARCA and Xfinity races in the early 1990s. In 2005, nearly 75, he won a heat in the Prelude to the Dream at Eldora and finished 8^th in the feature over current NASCAR Cup Series stars. As of 2021, Farmer still competes in local late model events, often against grandson Lee Burdett. Farmer was close-friend Davey Allison’s crew chief in the Xfinity Series and was a passenger in the helicopter accident that claimed the younger man’s life. Named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998, Farmer was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2022.