---

Right in the Thick of it: Bombers Driver Merritt Getting Notice for More than Just Foot-Long Beard

By Chuck Corder

If this whole, 50-year-old stock-car-driver thing doesn’t work out, John Kevin Merritt has a plan.

A “hair�brained plan. Entrepreneurs, think Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton of “The Honeymooners� or Ratso Rizzo from “Midnight Cowboy,� could get behind this pitch.

See, if there’s one thing that distinguishes Merritt from the rest of the Butler U-Pull-It Bombers — heck folks in general — it’s that foot-long thicket that guards his face.

So Merritt figures since the old boys from “Duck Dynasty� have hit it big with their unyielding facial follicles, he could start passing as a long-distance relative of the Robertson clan.

“They’re making me famous,� the good-natured Merritt joked. “I told ’em down at the bank if they could somehow figure out how to get (the Robertson) account into mine, I could race for the rest of my life.�

Since no one likes to have their identity stolen, Merritt, for now, is content on enjoying his beard and his comeback career at Five Flags Speedway, which continues Friday night.

A fireworks show and the Super Late Models running their third Buddy’s Home Furnishings Blizzard Series race of the season highlight this week’s festivities, which will also include the Pro Trucks, Sportsmen and Bombers when the gates open at 5 p.m.

Admission will be $15 for adults; $12 for seniors, military and students; $5 for children, ages 6 to 11; and free for kids under-5.

Merritt currently sits fourth in the season standings, 105 points behind leader Michael Nelson.

That’s heady stuff for a guy who returned to racing just last season after nearly 30 years away. It’s also just his second year ever on asphalt.

“I had done got out of it; I shouldn’t have gotten back in,� the always-affable Merritt said of racing. “I was gonna enjoy life. But the bug bit me and now I’m back.�

He might have felt a tinge of regret about that choice the last time the Bombers raced two weeks ago. Late in the feature, in which 13-year-old Ryan Worsham posted his first career victory at Five Flags, Merritt tried to pass Hunter Ward for position on the track.

Instead, Ward came down on Merritt and the two went screeching along the front straightaway until the front of Merritt’s No. 22 was hoisted on top of Ward’s No. 1, which finished crooked on the speedway and facing the inside wall.

“It happened so fast it’s hard to say what happened,� Merritt said. “I was thinking about beating him into Turn 1, and the next thing I knew we were piled up.

“It was nothing to be mad about it. It was just racing. It was nothing intentional.�

Still, the collision completely tore up Merritt’s entire front end in front of the “A� frame. He and his crew of the Boyd brothers and Merritt’s son Josh — who helps “occasionally� needled Merritt — have tirelessly worked overtime to get it ready for Friday night.

“We may not get any rest between now and then, but we’ll be out there,� Merritt reassured.

Merritt has certainly made up for lost time out at Pensacola’s high banks. From 1980 to 1984, he was a dirt tracker, exclusively.

After stopping for 26 years, Merritt drove Rocky Boyd’s car at the Bomber Snowball Derby the last two years before purchasing Curtis Faircloth’s 2011 champion Bomber for this season.

Merritt’s Ali-like return to the ring can be traced to a few things. One, though, in particular stands out.

“The children got raised. I don’t have to fund them anymore,� he kidded about his two daughters and one son.

Samantha is set to graduate from the University of West Florida soon, while Courtney is in the nursing program at Pensacola State College. The aforementioned Josh, 27, races on the dirt at Southern in Milton and at Flomaton.

Wife Diana has been the support and balance John Kevin has needed for the last 16 years.

“They’ve had good time watching me … until last week,� Merritt said of his family. “Now, they’re telling me to get out of it, and that I’m getting too old.�

While a scary crash like the one Merritt endured will give the most passionate of racing fans heart palpitations and a dose of revisionist history, his family doesn’t mettle too much.

They surely steer clear of any advice about Merritt’s thick, luxurious nest of hair that could have him easily mistaken as a fourth member of ZZ Top.

Examining the wooly mammoth up closely, it conjures up images of a cross between the Tasmanian Devil and Yosemite Sam.

“I’ve had it for years,� Merritt said of the beard. “I shaved it off for 6 months. I’d walk through the front door at certain places I go to a lot, and nobody knew it was me, so I grew it back. It used to be 5 or 6 inches longer.�

The Robertsons would be so proud.

Back to News