Journeyman Files: Eddie Bierschwale

 

Whether you consider Texas part of the South, Midwest, Southwest or some combination of those, many normal people I talk to with only a passing knowledge of NASCAR are always surprised to learn when I tell them that historically there have not been many Texans in stock car racing. Of course, there are some really notable champions like Terry Labonte (2 time Cup), Bobby Labonte (1 Cup, 1 Xfinity), Chris Buescher (Xfinity) and James Buescher (Truck) but they are the exception to the rule all being drivers who relocated to North Carolina very early in their careers to pursue racing and the Bueschers coming after the period where sprint and midget racers coming to NASCAR had been normalized of which Texas has always had a culture dating back to the days of AJ Foyt, aided by Oklahoma being a sacred place in that world. However, historically the bulk of asphalt short tracks in Texas has been located in San Antonio and when those eventually closed there was very little left for late model drivers.

Eddie Bierschwale, whose father according to Wikipedia was a funeral director professionally, was born and raised in San Antonio so unlike many competitors at Pan American Speedway and later San Antonio Speedway whose construction was spearheaded by Don Bierschwale, he didn’t have to travel hours across state just to race when he was old enough. What West Texas drivers that are known to the history books, Eddie raced against and quite frequently beat in that lonesome track, and he features prominently on the track’s episode of Peacock’s Lost Speedways co-created by Dale Earnhardt Jr that is certainly a recommended watch.

After making an impact on a small scale in West Texas, they decided it was time to try their hand at NASCAR racing despite the fact that Eddie was only in his early-to-mid 20s at the time which with a few notable exceptions is considerably younger than your average NASCAR rookie by 1983 where it was assumed you’d spend a good decade doing sportsman racing at a high level before most owners would consider giving you a shot. Driving a number 03 Buick owned by his father, Eddie made 3 starts in 4 attempts that year with his only finish under power being a 26^th place finish at Michigan 11 laps behind the leader, with the other starts resulting an in engine failure and crash respectively. In 1984, they ran two more races with a crash at Talladega and an engine failure in Atlanta.

Despite the limited success of these early ventures, Eddie was still able to secure a full-time ride in 1985 with DK Ulrich, the details of this arrangement are not readily available to me in the historical record but DK was well known to be amenable to drivers who brought either sponsorship or a check, so I’m guessing Don was involved somehow. In the 70s and early 80s DK was known as one of the last of the true privateer owner-drivers in the sport, but more and more in the 80s he only competed part-time when a better funded driver couldn’t be found for the car, focusing more on being an owner where he specialized in often launching careers of promising drivers looking to break through, with some drivers who had early starts in Ulrich equipment including Tim Richmond, Ricky Rudd, Sterling Marlin, Mark Martin, Jimmy Hensley, Ernie Irvan, and Ted Musgrave.

Ulrich did not operate on a large budget even for the time, and Eddie’s rookie season was marred by a DNQ at Daytona and a large number of mechanical failures with only 2 of their 11 DNFs being accidents. Despite the limitations of the team that spent most of the season unsponsored, Eddie scored a top 15 finish in only his second start of the season at Atlanta and his 11 top 20 finishes in 26 starts was the best they’d done since DK’s last season running the majority of races, good enough for 24^th in points albeit the last driver ranked who’d run more than 20 races.

I’m guessing the budget ran out for 1986, because Eddie began the season without a ride. That doesn’t mean nobody was interested in his services though. From Daytona through the June Pocono race, Eddie had driven for 5 different car owners in 3 different manufacturers of car, with just one finish under power coming at the World 600 where he placed 29^th driving a Chevy for Paul Ingle. The second half of the season was a LITTLE more consistent, in that he only split time between three rides: Henry Gray’s Chevy which he had driven earlier in the year off and on, the legendary privateer Elmo Langley’s Ford, Roger Hanby’s entry which went back and forth between Chevy and Oldsmobile. With better stability also came better results, with 6 top 20 finishes in 14 races in the back half of the season including a career best 11^th, 5 laps down at the old Richmond Fairgrounds track. He ultimately attempted every race, having 5 DNQs primarily while driving for Bobby Eller, and dropping one spot to 25^th in points.

1987 began with Eddie Bierschwale once again joining forces with a legendary privateer who in retirement had focused their efforts on being a car owner, this time Buddy Arrington who like this author was a proud lifelong resident of Southwest Virginia. The first 9 races of the season saw Eddie finish in the top 20 four times for Arrington and another for Chet Filip after he failed to qualify at North Wilkesboro, but they still parted ways after that point for reasons unknown (Buddy Arrington himself would primarily take over as driver despite semi-retirement after that point) and despite his very strong results in low budget, well used equipment (Arrington’s Fords at that time were known to be years old models bought off the Elliott Family) he was left to scrounge together what rides he could. He made 3 starts for Marvin and Ken Ragan, he made one start for Ken Allen, and two starts for George Smith, the best result of these being a 19^th place finish at Michigan for the Ragans, 3 laps down. With just 14 starts in the year, his 34^th place points finish was a relatively insignificant marker of much but his struggles to secure rides.

With his son struggling despite obvious talent to put together a full-time ride by 1988, Don Bierschwale returned as a car owner armed with sponsorship from Wayne Paging and legendary crew chief Buddy Parrott. The team started the year only running select events, but making the most of them with a 17^th at Atlanta and a 14^th at Darlington. However, when they mostly committed to a full season (outside of the road courses) by Talladega, that is when their troubles started. They would have 7 mechanical DNFs throughout the season and contrary to Eddie’s reputation for largely keeping cars in one piece had 4 crashes throughout the year. Going full time along with the repair budget remaining high from week to week really seemed to stretch the team to its limits as they would not return to the top 20 again, with the highlights being a 7^th place qualifying run at the first Michigan and 24^th place finishes at the second Michigan and Atlanta, the two tracks he had driven more than any other in his career. Unlike the year before, this 34^th place points finish was telling because there were multiple drivers like Buddy Baker, Mike Alexander, and Bobby Allison who had run a great bit less races but still finished higher.

The team returned, though this time only with sponsorship pieced together race to race, in ‘89 full time to begin the season. Through the first 12 races, they looked better than the previous year, with Eddie starting the year with a bang by finally getting his long elusive first ever top 10 finish, coming home 10^th in the Daytona 500 on the sport’s largest stage. They had a few DNFs and a DNQ in a shortened Martinsville field, but also brought home strong top 20 results at the other short tracks of Bristol and North Wilkesboro. However, without the steady funding behind them, they began skipping races every now and then through the summer, the results began slipping considerably once again and the rates of DNFs increased, not placing better than 28^th at the second Michigan race that’d always been kind to Eddie, after which they made just one more start for the rest of the year in the fall Charlotte event where Bierschwale placed 25^th, 10 laps down.

The starts would come scattershot after that point. In 1990, Eddie ran 3 races, Daytona for ol DK Ulrich and a couple for his father for whom he had his best finish on the year again at the fall Charlotte race where he came home 22^nd, 11 laps down. In 1991 he made 5 starts split between his family team and the Sadler Bros team, with the best result of 12^th in Don’s familiar 23 at the Daytona 500. Eddie also began racing a little in ARCA that year, with a best of 3^rd at Texas World Speedway. In 1992 they ramped up their efforts, entering in 9 races but only qualifying for 4, which would be the last 4 of Eddie’s career, placing 40^th, 38^th, 28^th, and effectively finishing his career at one of his favorite tracks with a final top 20 of 19^th, 9 laps down in Atlanta. 1992 would also see the only national win Eddie Bierschwale ever had in his professional racing career, at his home track of Texas World Speedway in College Station beating out the likes of ARCA legends Frank Kimmel and Bob Keselowski. After failing to qualify for both Daytona races in Cup and DNFing both ARCA starts he made in 1993, Eddie effectively called it a career.

As far as Texas racers go, nobody is ever going to remember Eddie Bierschwale like a Buescher, let alone a Labonte or a Foyt. But at a time when so few Texas racers trickled into the world of professional stock car racing, he was a groundbreaker who made a career for himself doing the best you could hope for in equipment that was never going to compete for top 10s in most circumstances, and he’s like a superstar name if you are a weird racing nerd like me who lives for all the small budget teams that still populated the lower half of the grid in the 80s and 90s.