Family-built shrine to racing continues to evolve
There is no smell of rubber peeling out on asphalt and no
ear-splitting roar from the 800-horsepower engines that scream
around the track, but that doesn’t mean that the Cousins’ family
home in San Juan Bautista isn’t the closest thing to attending a
live NASCAR event.
Family-built shrine to racing continues to evolve
There is no smell of rubber peeling out on asphalt and no ear-splitting roar from the 800-horsepower engines that scream around the track, but that doesn’t mean that the Cousins’ family home in San Juan Bautista isn’t the closest thing to attending a live NASCAR event.
In fact, the 3,000-square foot home on Fourth Street, located near the historic downtown area, has been transformed into a virtual shrine to America’s No. 1 spectator sport.
“Every week, we have anywhere from five to 150 people over here watching the races,” said Joe Cousins, a local building contractor, who added some 1,100 square feet to the family’s basement for the purpose of creating a NASCAR entertainment room. “For Daytona, we had about 130 people here. In the basement area alone there were probably 80 people.”
While the basement area is by far the most shrine-like spot on the property and the most festive, the reason that it was built in the first place is a much more somber one.
Two years ago and just a few months before the Daytona 500 – the family’s favorite race of the year – Jack Cousins, the patriarch of the family, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given just two months to live. Shortly before the sobering news came Joe, 48, the oldest of the three Cousins sons had just finished building a home for former Oakland A’s owner Steve Schott. As one of the perks of the job, Joe was given four premium tickets with the Coors racing team at Daytona that year, which also included garage passes.
It would have been the first time the Cousins, which have attended more than 200 stock car races, would have gotten to go to the huge Florida event.
Unfortunately, as quickly as the excitement of the cross-country family trip built up, it all came crashing down as Jack realized that he would not be able to make the trip in his ever-weakening state.
“I said, ‘Dad, if you can’t go to Daytona, then we’ll bring it to you,'” said Joe, who has four sons, who are also huge race enthusiasts.
And that’s when Joe began transforming the original 300-square-foot, unfinished basement area that was only accessed through a hatch door from the outside into the NASCAR central command center that it is today.
Inside the room is loaded with every NASCAR and stock car racing memorabilia imaginable from top to bottom.
There is a big screen television that’s fitted with surround sound that rumbles through the room on race day. It’s about 60 inches and it’s on most all of the time. It has a remote but it really doesn’t need one – because it’s always on the Speed Channel or Fox.
“We subscribe to the Direct TV pit pass – everything,” Joe said. “Some racing is always on in here.”
And when a race isn’t on there’s a good chance that Joe will pop in a video of NASCAR. In fact one of the videos in his collection, which talks about the history of NASCAR and how it got started with the moonshine runners in the south, includes a 20-second clip with Joe and his youngest son Jake at the California Speedway in Fontana.
The room also includes a fully stocked bar area complete with stools and a coffee table that’s made out of two Goodyear racing slicks. One area includes Jack Daniels memorabilia and empty Old No. 7 bottles complete with Sharpie insignias marking the memorable day or race that it was polished off on.
One wall is dedicated to Dale Earnhardt and another to Jack, who died at 75, and his favorite racer in car No. 29 Kevin Harvick.
Another wall is full of Matt Kenseth things. Kenseth had been Joe’s favorite racer until he was recently snubbed by the driver in car No. 17 after asking him for an autograph.
“I could wear one of his T-shirts every day for the next six months and never wear the same one twice,” said Joe, who had been a lifelong fan of Ernie Earvin until his retirement in 1998. “He told me ‘I have no time for autographs.’ So I figured I had no need to wear his coat any more, and I tossed it in the street that day.”
As a result of the incident, most recently, Joe has opted to become a fan of Clint Bowyer. He also likes to see local guys like A.J. Allmendinger do well.
In addition to all of the photos, posters and autographs, the room is also decked in blankets, checked flags, even a hood from the Budweiser car that Joe got out a former sports bar is inside the unique room.
“I’ve probably spent $5,000 myself on everything but people always give us things, too, and I’m always asking about things,” Joe said.
As special as the NASCAR basement is sadly, Jack only got to see the room in pictures as he was too weak with the cancer at the time of its completion to make the short trek down the stairs.
Instead, Jack and his wife Joanne, an avid fan herself, would watch from an upstairs room that was also dedicated to NASCAR. Adjacent to that room is a small bathroom that the family likes to call the pit stop.
Two months after the Daytona 500 in 2005, Jack passed away after a three-month battle with the disease.
This year, his car 29 finally came across the finish line first at Daytona – and Joe wasn’t surprised.
The morning of this year’s race Joe went to Veterans’ Cemetery in San Juan with some family members to pay respect to his father on the family’s favorite day of the year.
On the way to the cemetery, Joe grabbed the Kevin Harvick flag that was in the basement and draped it over his dad’s tombstone. Along with the flag, Joe left a message that read: “Please do not remove this flag. P.S. My dad is watching.”
As Joe and his brother-in-law got back into the car to drive home and start preparing for the large gathering that would build as each hour passed at the family home that afternoon, Joe told his brother-in-law that “Dad just told me that the 29 car was coming across with the checkered flag today.”
Hours later it did.
The Cousins finally felt the special place they’d built for their dad was complete.
John Bagley can be reached at jb*****@**********ws.com
