Morris Lee Metcalfe, regardless of how one looks at it, was a NASCAR pioneer in every sense of the word.
Graduating from the University of Miami (Fla.) with a bachelor’s degree in science, Metcalfe learned everything he could about NASCAR’s timing and scoring from the late Joe Epton in the late 1940s and ’50s.
It didn’t take Metcalfe long to take over as NASCAR’s chief of timing and scoring, a position he occupied for 40 years. He refused to retire until 2000, even though he had turned most of duties over to others by that time.
Prior to that, Metcalfe, who obtained his masters degree from Texas Technical College, was a senior industrial engineer with Western Electric for 30 years.
Metcalfe loved to travel with his wife, Jeanne, to NASCAR races during the days of the R. J. Reynolds sponsorship, through its Winston brand, in that red-and-white van. He didn’t mind flying, but he preferred to drive so Jeanne, who passed away a few years ago, could accompany him.
For the longest time, Metcalfe campaigned for electronic scoring in NASCAR.
He used to tell anyone who cared to listen, how great electronic scoring was working in Indy car racing and the sports-car ranks and that NASCAR was working on bringing in its own system.
“Billy (France, Jr.) doesn’t want it (electronic scoring) until we are sure all the bugs have been worked out,” Metcalfe, who lived in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he died Aug. 30 at the age of 81, once said. “He doesn’t want us putting in a system that we couldn’t protect if we had a problem with it.”
Metcalfe worked on that electronic scoring system for some 20 years with various systems such as Timex and others until it was perfected to NASCAR’s liking.
Today, that system is considered one of the best in the motorsports industry.
“While we were trying to figure it out, we had to have human backups, just in case the system crashed,” said Metcalfe, who not only worked for France, Jr., but started under William H.G. “Big Bill” France Sr., who founded NASCAR.
Often Metcalfe and NASCAR were criticized during controversial times that NASCAR didn’t want electronic scoring so it could maintain some type of control over the sport.
“We were being accused of fixing races and being on the take,” said Metcalfe. “There was nothing ever further from the truth than those two accusations. It would have been simple for us to readjust a lot of things for them to come out in our favor, but we never did. I had plenty of opportunities for that to happen.”
Metcalfe took pride in being challenged by a driver or a team or whatever over some phase of scoring during a NASCAR Cup race.
He would get out that set of scoring cards from a particular race and recreate the race for the complainer. It didn’t matter how long it took to do that, Metcalfe always was there for such protests, which used to come more often than not. There was only a certain amount of time allowed, once a race had ended, for someone to file a protest against timing and scoring. In order to do so, they were required to post a fee, which was refundable, if you won your protest.
Very few people won their protests.
Metcalfe loved to needle people, telling them he scored with more women every week than any other man in the country, referring to the number of women working in the scorer’s stand each week.
It was easy to misspell Metcalfe’s last name, usually dropping the “e” off it.
When that happened, Metcalfe always would complain.
“How many times have I told you that my last name ends with an ‘e,’” Metcalfe would say, handing you one of his business cards with the correct spelling on it.
Well, Morris Lee Metcalfe, I got it right, this time.
And, thanks to all your hard work and dedication, NASCAR finally got electronic timing and scoring in the ’90s.