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Gregory Sacks (born November 3, 1952) is an American formerstock car racing driver. He has previously competed in theNASCAR Nextel Cup Series, theNASCAR Busch Series, theNASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and theARCA Re/Max Series.

Sacks has spent most of his career as aresearch and development (R&D) driver for many NASCAR teams. He won the1985Firecracker 400 atDaytona International Speedway acting as an R&D driver forDiGard Motorsports.

Early in his racing career, Sacks was a successful driver in what is now theNASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Competing from 1980 to 1983, he won seventeen races at Stafford Motor Speedway. 1982 was an especially good year for him, as he won the track championship that year, as well as the Spring Sizzler, The Labor Day 200 and the Fall Final. Sacks also won the Dogwood Classic atMartinsville Speedway, the Bud Classic atOswego Speedway, the Thompson 300 at Thompson International Speedway, the World Series of Asphalt at Thompson Speedway and the Race of Champions atPocono Raceway.

In1983, Sacks made his NASCARWinston Cup Series debut in thePepsi 400 atDaytona in the No. 5 car owned and sponsored by his father, Arnie. He only completed nineteen laps until experiencing engine failure, finishing 38th out of forty cars. Sacks competed in four more events that season, posting a best finish of seventeenth in theChampion Spark Plug 400 atMichigan International Speedway, the only race he finished that year.

In1984, Sacks made a full attempt at the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, once again in a car owned by his father, only now it ran as No. 51. Sacks made 29 out of the thirty races, finished 19th in points and runner-up toRusty Wallace for theNASCAR Rookie of the Year award.1985 got off to a rough start for Sacks. After the first four races, his father's team folded.

Seven races later, Sacks was able to drive the No. 49 car owned by1966 NASCAR Rookie of the YearJames Hylton. Before the Firecracker 400,DiGard Motorsports asked Sacks to drive their R&D car. Sacks qualified ninth and defeated pole-sitterBill Elliott to earn his only NASCARWinston Cup Series victory. The win was considered to be one of NASCAR's biggest upsets, as Sacks's car was only scheduled to run a set number of laps before going behind the wall to make changes, but his car kept competing for the win, therefore DiGard decided to let Sacks race as normal. After DiGard's regular driverBobby Allison quit the team days after the race, the team let Sacks finish the season in their regular car. The next year, Sacks found himself running a limited schedule as DiGard slowly went bankrupt.

In1987, Sacks signed on to drive the No. 50Pontiac for the Dingman Brothers, where he struggled with qualifying for each race. Three-quarters of the way through1988, Sacks left the team to drive forBuddy Baker's team, the No. 88Oldsmobile. He came close to a victory at Bristol in 1989, where he led 119 laps only to lose the lead toRusty Wallace with forty laps to go. Although he posted two top-ten finishes in the first ten races of the1989 season, Sacks was replaced by rookieJimmy Spencer. Sacks was unemployed for a brief period, then joined on with Tom Winkle's No. 48Pontiac for most of the season, joining withHendrick Motorsports for theAutoworks 500 atPhoenix International Raceway as part of the driving team gathering in-race footage for the"Days of Thunder" movie.

Sacks started off1990 in a familiar situation with no ride, driving part-time for Hendrick's development team. He participated in theBusch Clash at Daytona and atDarlington in theTranSouth 500, driving the No. 46 'City Chevrolet' Lumina"Days of Thunder" movie car. Four races later, Sacks was rewarded with a part-time ride at Hendrick, driving the No. 18 Ultra Slim-FastChevrolet, finishing second atTalladega Superspeedway in theWinston 500. After Darrell Waltrip was injured in a practice crash at Daytona, Sacks drove the No. 17 car for three races—theChampion Spark Plug 400,Busch 500, and theHeinz Southern 500, with a best finish of second at Michigan during this three-race stretch. The highlight of his season was winning thepole position at the Pepsi Firecracker 400. Following a crash in practice by teammate Waltrip, NASCAR officials noted that several teams had made modifications, and NASCAR made the teams spot-weld the blocks back into place, causing a loss of power. Trying to make up for lost speed, Sacks caused a 23-car pileup at the end of the first lap, taking out eight cars, including Sacks.^{[citation needed]} No one was seriously hurt in that race, but it gave Sacks a reputation of being an excellent qualifier, as shown in 1989, when he won the pole in just his secondBusch Series race. Sacks was signed to a three-year deal to drive the No. 18 for Hendrick andPaul Newman, with backing from Ultra Slim-Fast, but following the season Ultra Slim-Fast pulled out, the team was folded, and Sacks was released.^[1]

Sacks started off1991 at the Daytona 500 driving his own No. 18 car, but crashed early in the race. He ran ten more races that year in the No. 47 Oldsmobile forDerick Close, posting two top-twenty finishes. He started1992 withLarry Hedrick Motorsports, but suffered injuries in a lap five crash at theChampion Spark Plug 400, and only drove one race for the rest of the season. He moved on toTri-Star Motorsports in1993, and finished sixth at theDieHard 500. In1994, Sacks set the track record atAtlanta when he won the pole. Nineteen-ninety four also marked the second time in his Cup career that he completed the full schedule, piloting the No. 77Ford owned byD.K. Ulrich. Sacks raced part-time in the Cup and Busch series over the next two years, winning a Busch Series event in a one-race deal forDiamond Ridge Motorsports atTalladega Superspeedway in1996. The next year, he started out driving the No. 20 Ford for championship ownerHarry Ranier, but was soon released as sponsorship funding ended; following his release, he sued the team, claiming breach of contract.^[2] Later in the season, he filled in for rookie driverRobby Gordon, who had suffered burns in theIndianapolis 500. After Gordon was released later in the year, Sacks finished the season for the team.

In1998, it looked like Sacks had finally found a steady ride, driving the No. 98 Ford forCale Yarborough. However, on lap 136 of theTexas 500 atTexas Motor Speedway, Sacks lost control of his car and wrecked, suffering life-threatening injuries. He missed the rest of the season.

Sacks made his return in1999 in the Busch Series, but only qualified for one of the several races he attempted. Sacks tried his hand at Winston Cup again in2000, attempting that year's Daytona 500 in the No. 96 Chevrolet. He did not make the field. After making sporadic races in modifieds, Sacks announced his return to the Winston Cup Series and Busch Series in the summer of2002, driving the No. 05 Chevy. Sacks teamed withLoren Fossie to form "Team Franchisit/Sacks Racing". Originally set to debut at theBrickyard 400, the date was pushed to the fall race atCharlotte Motor Speedway. Nothing was ever heard from the team since, and it is not clear if the team was originally planned as a marketing tool for Franchisit.

In2004, Sacks formed Daytona Speed Inc., with Ed Raabe and James Wilsberg. Making its first attempt atChicagoland Speedway, the team did not make a race until thePennsylvania 500 the next month. In February 2005, Raabe departed to form his own race team (Chevrolet), leaving all of the (Dodge) Daytona Speed equipment in the care of Sacks. Sacks ran both Pocono races in2005, and finished 43rd in both of them.

The team attempted a part-time schedule in2006, but failed to make the field for any race. In early 2007, an arbitrator forced his sponsorWho's Your Daddy? to pay over a million dollars to Sacks after a contract violation.^[3]

Sacks was to attempt a partial schedule in the ARCA/ReMAX series in 2008. He tried to qualify for the ARCA race at Daytona but missed the field after posting the 48th best qualifying time.

Sacks drove the No. 88 car owned byDale Earnhardt Jr. in theNationwide SeriesSubway Jalapeño 250 on July 2 at Daytona. Sacks finished 21st after qualifying 7th.^[4]

Sacks and his family, who own Grand Touring Vodka, sponsored JR Motorsports for the 2011 Nationwide Series season.

Sacks is married and has three children. He lives inOrmond Beach, Florida. He and his sons are partners in Grand Touring Vodka.

(key) (Bold – pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – most laps led.)

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

• Where Are They Now

• Unofficial websiteArchived 2012-11-07 at theWayback Machine
• Greg Sacks driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Greg Sacks atIMDb

• Living people
• 1952 births
• People from Mattituck, New York
• Sportspeople from Suffolk County, New York
• Racing drivers from New York (state)
• NASCAR drivers
• NASCAR team owners
• ARCA Menards Series drivers
• Sportspeople from Ormond Beach, Florida
• Hendrick Motorsports drivers
• JR Motorsports drivers
• Daytona 500 drivers
• Coca-Cola 600 drivers
• Brickyard 400 drivers
• Southern 500 drivers

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