PART TWO

No more autographs

Frances says Jocko was never the same after the Raleigh Speedway incident. He refused to eat and had to be euthanized by a veterinarian.

“Of course, everybody wanted to know where Jocko was,” she says. “Well, a little girl asked Tim about Jocko, and he told her the monkey had passed away, and she couldn’t stop crying. Tim was so tenderhearted, he said, ‘I’ve got to come up with something else.’ So the next week, when somebody asked about Jocko, he said, ‘I couldn’t teach him to sign his autograph, so I had to fire him.’ ”

Tim went on to win 22 more races in his career, including 18 checkered flags in 1955 alone. He won another points championship that year, and after retiring, he was recognized as one of the 50 greatest drivers in NASCAR history. But when Tim died in Charlotte in 1998, even The New York Times couldn’t publish his obituary without mentioning Jocko Flocko.