Alabama Gang legend
Red Farmer
will be honored at the track where he still races at age 77.
Talladega Short Track will host the Red Farmer Classic on May 15 at the dirt track in Eastaboga across from Talladega Superspeedway.
In honor of Farmer's number -- 97 -- the super late model race will be 97 laps and will pay $9,700 to win.
Farmer said having a race named after him "is quite an honor, especially since they want to do it every year."
But Farmer, who will strap himself in for this Saturday night's race at TST, isn't sure if he'll drive in the Red Farmer Classic.
"I'm thinking about it," he said. "That's an awful lot of race for me. I may let my grandson drive it."
He also said doesn't plan to race as much this year so he can spend more time doing another thing he loves.
"I may not race as much so I can spend a little time hunting and fishing," he said.
And he's also not sure he'll be back at
Tony Stewart's
Eldora Speedway for the annual Prelude to the Dream dirt race against some of the best NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers.
Instead, he said, he plans to join
Darrell Waltrip
and
Larry McReynolds
in the broadcast booth to provide some expertise on the ins and outs of dirt-track racing.
But he says he is fully recovered from a bout of double pneumonia over the Christmas holidays an illness that sidelined him from more than just the track.
"That hit right in my deer season pretty bad," Farmer said.