With Michael Murphy aboard, Chad Thrash took a somber victory lap around Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian, Mississippi. Thrash led from green to checker during the Southern Street Stock Nationals. However, he and Murphy wished they could have celebrated the victory with James Murphy, uncle to Thrash and father to Michael Murphy.
Murphy, 73, of Toomsuba, Mississippi, passed away unexpectedly on July 21, 2021. He mentored Thrash as he developed the chassis for his business, Project X Racecars.
“The car we won with was the last car my uncle ever put his hands on,” Thrash, 41, of Meridian, Mississippi, said. “He was there working with us at the races the Saturday before he died. He was busy during that week making a parts list for the car.”
Thrash put “STR Race Cars” on the side of the street stock. It references how his uncle started building cars under a shade tree, years ago, thus giving birth to “Shade Tree Race Cars.” Together, Murphy and Thrash constructed four street stocks.
“James taught me how to build a race car — and a fast race car at that,” said Thrash. “We raced all over the South, and he was always with me.”
Jeff Worley initially ordered the car Thrash competed with in the Crate Racin’ USA-sanctioned event at Whynot.
“We were in the process of putting it together for Jeff, and he said to keep it and race it whenever I can,” Thrash said. “Friend Jason Jackson donated the engine. We worked out the whole deal two weeks ago. It is now our house car for Project X.”
With the street stock they built together, Chad Thrash topped 104 entrants at Whynot Motorsports Park last weekend. He missed nabbing fast-time by .040 seconds. Thrash proceed to win his qualifying feature and the dash to secure the pole for the feature. He led start to finish.
“We went out there to win with this car as a tribute to James — it was all for him,” Thrash said. “It is the biggest win of my career, obviously, for more than one reason. Nothing will ever be bigger than this win.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
