BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. — The recent passing of big-block modified icon Bob McCreadie at age 74 hit us hard, as he was a few years younger than us and we’d known him from his early days wheeling the Price Brothers asphalt modified at Fulton Speedway, long before the track was covered with dirt.

“Legendary” is an overworked term in race reporting but Bob truly was that. He came from poverty, deriving his nickname “Barefoot Bob” from running around his Watertown, N.Y., neighborhood all summer without shoes. He was a self-made man.