Wayne Auton: NASCAR’s school principal

Wayne Auton called Brad Keselowski to the hauler at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 17, 2006. The night before, Keselowski “just piledrove” Jack Sprague on the cooldown lap of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Ford 200.

“Wayne calls me in the hauler and he says, ‘What happened on the cool down last night?’ ‘Oh, a little disagreement,'” Keselowski said. “I don’t remember his exact words, but I don’t think they were something I’m supposed to say.”

Auton played a tape of Keselowski plowing into Sprague, and the VCR ate the tape. Not being a tech-savvy guy, he tried to stop it, but pressed fast-forward and tape shot out.

“He was just so mad,” he said. “Like, smoke coming out of his ears mad. He just told me, get the hell out of here and don’t ever do that. Don’t do that.”

Keselowski exited the hauler trying not to laugh or snicker, but Auton made his point.

The 2024 NASCAR season marks Auton’s last as a series director. A title he’s held since 2012, as XFINITY Series director, and was the original director of the Truck Series. Much like Mike Helton, Auton is a “no-nonsense” official who’ll — to borrow a line from former Cup Series race director, David Hoots — “Put a stop to all that jimmy-jackin.'”

Of course, he didn’t always yell. After Noah Gragson and Harrison Burton fought in the garage at Kentucky Speedway in 2020, he called both of them to the hauler.

“I was expecting we were gonna get yelled at and be in trouble,” Burton said.

He said, “Just don’t do it again, boys,” and left.

Of course, he had a lighter side. He’s a “stand-up guy” who, much like NASCAR writer, Chris “Skippy” Knight, calls you every holiday and checks that you’re doing well. Plus, he’s a bit of a snarker. One night during Talladega weekend in 2018, Jim Utter, Knight and I ate dinner at a nearby Mellow Mushrooms. Skippy looked to see if any other NASCAR people were there. I pointed him towards Auton in the main dining room (also the MRN crew, but they don’t factor into this part).

Skippy tapped Auton’s shoulder, as we went to our table. A few minutes later, he came over and talked to us. At one point, Utter, tongue-in-cheek, said something to him. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but it was about a penalty Elliott Sadler received during the race*.

Auton laughed and gave Utter a close to the waist middle finger.

*After that, I asked Auton what Sadler did to receive the penalty. He said that a driver could use pit road to avoid a wreck (like he did), but can’t also stop in their box for service (like he did).

Auton’s “firm, but knows when to dial back” approach to officiating earned him the respect of the drivers in the XFINITY Series garage.

“Me and Austin Cindric joke all the time that Wayne is the ‘not in my series guy.’  He’s awesome,” Burton said. “We all love Wayne, but for those few moments I was really scared of Wayne, that’s for sure.”