AVONDALE, Ariz.—For someone who grew up professionally in NASCAR, it’s not surprising that Mike Beam has come full circle.
From the 360 view, Beam’s ride has been pretty amazing. From a teenager working in the concession stands at Hickory Motor Speedway to President of GMS Motorsports, Beam has worked for and guided current and future NASCAR Hall of Famers—from Richard Petty and Junior Johnson to Bill Elliott and Mark Martin—for nearly a half century.
And on Friday, Beam will have one final shot at a title when Grant Enfinger takes the green flag in the Craftsman Truck Series Championship 4 bout at Phoenix International Raceway. The race marks Beam’s final race up on the pit box for the Maury Gallagher-owned operation before thrusting his full effort into GMS Fabrication.
“Phoenix is my last race,” Beam told Catchfence.com. “I’m going to keep building GMS Fabrication. We service a lot of the GM chassis, and Maury wants me to stick around and do that—which I’m good with. I enjoy that. That’s where I started years ago, building chassis for Mike Laughlin.
“I’m also going to do quite a bit of vintage car restoration. A lot of people have contacted me about that over the last couple of weeks, so I’m pretty excited about it.”
In 1975, Beam left Laughlin Racing Products to work for Butch Lindley and then Harry Gant. The Hickory, N.C., native left racing for a short time, only to be recruited by Maurice Petty in 1979. His first opportunity as a crew chief at the Cup level came with Kyle Petty at Petty Enterprises in 1981.
Four years later, Beam was entrusted with overseeing the No. 43 team and seven-time champion Richard Petty. Forty years later, the King would become part of the current ownership group at Legacy Motor Club—the successor to GMS.
Beam’s Cup drivers list is extensive from Elliott and Sterling Marlin’s run at Junior Johnson’s to when Elliott started his own team in 1995, Michael Waltrip at Bahari Racing, Elliott Sadler at the Wood Brothers, Ricky Craven at the Cal Wells’ start up in 2001 and Steve Park at Dale Earnhardt Inc., two years later.
With Jack Roush, Beam enjoyed success in both the Xfinity and Truck Series with Martin, Carl Edwards and Colin Braun from 2005 until 2011. He credits Roush with “opening a whole new world to me in engineering.” In 2012, Beam took his organizational skills to Kyle Busch Motorsports to create an Xfinity Series effort for Kyle and Kurt Busch.
“It’s funny because fans just come up and want to talk to me,” Beam says of the memorable moments along the way. “Probably, the 1994 Southern 500, that thing was just hot and just by the grace of God we won the race. And that was Junior’s last win (with Bill Elliott). That was a good time. That was pretty cool.
“But to be honest with you, I’ve thought a lot about everything. When you start getting close to the end you think about stuff, right? Richard Petty and me were just talking it. He and Maurice and Kyle took a chance on me in ’81 and they gave me a shot. A lot of the reason was because Maurice saw me tearing an engine apart one day up at Richmond and he helped me. I was working for Harry Gant after I left Butch Lindley. Butch taught me how to race, but the Pettys gave me the break to get started in Winston Cup. That was very special.”
Each step with each team and each relationship offered Beam a master class in motorsports that would be hard to duplicate today. But the experience in Ingle Hollow was invaluable. What stands out to Beam from his time with Junior is that he “did everything right.”
“I go back and look at all the the past 52 years and very blessed,” Beam said. “Of course, Bill and Junior, they were those two guys, but they were very loyal to me. Junior was just that special guy in my book—and my family’s book. He was all in and he taught me that early. He helped me in so many ways. Bill was so loyal to me. I’ll always value his friendship.
“It’s all about racing, and that’s how I’ve approached it at GMS”
The first 40 years prepared Beam, 67, for the last nine years at GMS. From Enfinger’s first stint with the organization to his latest run over the last two years, he’s found the transformation led by Beam to be remarkable.
“Once Mike took over, things changed,” Enfinger said. “The performance was obviously elevated, but just the whole culture of everything changed. It was all business. Everybody knows who the boss is. Everybody knows you know your task and the results followed. And how many wins in the Truck Series now, over 40?
“This week, really the last few months and this year, have been really, really tough on Mike. We had a little bit of a send off/congratulations to making it to the championship on Tuesday with all three truck teams and all of GMS Fabrication and you can tell it’s taking a toll on him. He’s emotional. This is something he built and he’s put all these people in place and it’s a premier organization in the Truck Series. That is so hard to do.
“And he knows it’s going away after (Friday) night. So, it’s extra motivation for all of us because he’s been been a huge part of a lot of people’s career, obviously mine and we want to, we want to send it out the right way.”
Since Beam joined GMS at the end of the 2014 racing season, the company has won championships with Johnny Sauter and Sheldon Creed, along with 45 truck race wins and 15 poles. At last count, Beam had 71 victories throughout NASCAR’s top tours on his resume.
“I’m very blessed that Maury, pretty much, just let me do what I needed to do and just build it the way I wanted to build,” Beam said. “I’ll always be in debt to him. He made it possible for an old man like me–I was 59-years-old at the time–to be able to do this.
“He really let me run a racing company like I wanted to, and his financial commitment helped to make us winners.”
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