6/7/2025
Bloomington Speedway
Denny Campbell: There Were No Gimmes
At 72 years old Denny Campbell possesses a keen wit and an agile mind. It has been years since he slid into a seat in a racecar, and from the moment he made the decision to walk away from the sport trips to the track have been infrequent. There have been no regrets and no looking back. In his mind it was just time.
Campbell can disarm you with a range of homespun sayings and observations. For example, he said that throughout his career that he followed a simple rule when approached by competitors for advice. “My deal was if anyone asked me a question my first answer was always the truth,” he says, “Now if you questioned me on that I might load you up a bit.” When pressed for key dates in his career he says “Well, I can’t use all of my fingers to count because right now I’m holding the phone.”
That’s Denny -- but don’t let him fool you. You see, stock car racing has a long history at Bloomington Speedway and among those who have rocketed around the red clay few have been as accomplished as Campbell. What makes his record noteworthy is that racing really wasn’t in his blood at birth. Instead, his participation really began by chance.
Campbell was born in October 1952 to parents Howard (Gene) and Zella and was raised in the Highland Village neighborhood in Bloomington. Like his father he became a member of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 440 and remained in this trade until his retirement. He reports that his dad, “raced go karts a little bit, but he had six kids.” Denny could have easily gone through life without turning a lap in anger, but a unique set of circumstances launched his career when he was roughly 26 years old. “My brother in law Mark Scaggs got to playing around with a stock car, “he says, “and he got me interested in it. I think he lasted one more year and I lasted another 25.”
He figures his first race came during the 1978 season and is fairly certain his first car was a 1969 Cougar. In the early days the now shuttered Sweet Owen Speedway near Spencer, Indiana was his home track, and it was the place where he took the checkered flag for the first time. From there he frequently travelled to Lincoln Park, but Bloomington Speedway quickly became his favorite track. By today’s standards he began his career late in life, but he proved to be a quick study. While Campbell professes to have no idea how many wins he amassed over the course of his career, he does recall that in one of his best years he had 30 wins before he officially turned 30 years old.
For the bulk of his early days in the sport Denny built his own cars and did his own work. He had some help from friends like Ed Lemmons and Fred Hostetler, but his biggest supporter was his wife Shirlene, now his bride of 54 years. “She would do whatever,” he says, “Heck, we would sit out there and change an engine, transmission, or rear end and really whatever it took.” Success followed. He took the 1988 Paragon track championship, and he was the best at Bloomington in 1985, 1988, and while racing for Lee Hobbs he topped the standings in 1996 and 1997. He also had luck in the limited late models ranks where he received sage advice from no less than Don Hobbs and he also tested the waters in a modified.
Then there was his very brief tenure in a sprint car. The first time he gave it a go a car spun out directly in front of him and ended his evening abruptly. Because of that experience he really feels he has only raced a sprint car one time. It turns out that night is worth remembering. “Jack Shores was a buddy of mine,” Denny says, “and he owned a car that Allen Barr ran. For some reason one night Allen couldn’t race at Paragon. Jack talked me into doing it, which I really didn’t want to do.”
His reluctance is easy to understand on multiple fronts. “You had so many guys with so much experience,” he says, “and I may have been a little intimidated. I’m not going to say I was scared of it, but when I got out there I tried to keep my nose clean. I watched those guys go into the corner and throw them completely sideways and I tried to drive around the corners more or less. When it was over I had no idea I had finished second.”
When Campbell hung up his helmet for good he walked away still on the top of his game. Even now it is hard for him to say why he flipped the switch off, but when he did it was off for good. “I just grew tired of it,” he admits, “I came home one night I don’t remember what exactly happened at the racetrack, but we won the feature. It just quit being fun. I was driving Lee’s car, so I just went down and talked to him about it. It was something that I loved so much so it is even amazing to me that I don’t miss it one bit.”
He looks back with pride that he had success in a very tough era in the sport. “At Bloomington I had a good list of rivals,” he says, “there was Larry Harris, Gary Trammell, and of course Lee. Then there were the Brownstown guys who would come over, and guys like Scott Patman were there every Friday.”
In fact, the so called “Brownstown guys” figure into some of his best racing memories. As for favorite wins, one that stands out is the 1996 Street Stock Nationals held at Bloomington Speedway. “I passed Randy Petro with a couple of laps to go, and we won that,” he said, “then we had a makeup feature from a rainout, and I won that too. That was a big night for us particularly how it unfolded. One thing that always stuck in my craw is that we would have a big show like that at Bloomington and the Brownstown guys would come in there and it would eat me up if one of them would win.” Other satisfying victories came at the Kenny Simpson Memorial at Brownstown and the Mid-Season Street Stock Championship at Lincoln Park. Looking back, he says, “I just loved my street stocks. Given the people I was racing against there were no gimmes. Like I tell a lot of people, I might not have been good at much, but I was pretty good at racing.”
Today Denny and his wife live in Whitehall and enjoy camping and fishing. He is far away from the roar of the racetrack. Yet, he will be back. On August 22nd the Historic Bloomington Speedway will present A Salute to Denny Campbell in honor of a great champion. Was he surprised? “Yes,” he admits,” my son called and said that at least it’s not a memorial race.” How about one more time behind the wheel? Laughing as he entertains the question, Denny says, “Lee tells me all the time he has a car for me, but I would probably have a stroke before the first turn.”
Article Credit: Patrick Sullivan
