Facts: - death place: daytona beach , florida - total cup races: 1 - birth name: henry yunick - death cause: leukemia - death date: 9 march 2001 - first cup race: 1952 race 34 -lrb- palm beach -rrb- - awards: 1990 international motorsports hall of fame inductee - birth date: 25 may 1923 - cup poles: 0 - name: smokey yunick - cup top tens: 0 - years in cup: 1 - birth place: neshaminy , pennsylvania - cup wins: 0 - best cup pos: 147th -lrb- 1952 -rrb- Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of smokey yunick .
henry '' smokey '' yunick -lrb- may 25 , 1923 -- may 9 , 2001 -rrb- was an american mechanic and car designer associated with motorsports .yunick was deeply involved in the early years of nascar , and he is probably most associated with that racing genre .he participated as a racer , designer , and held other jobs related to the sport , but was best known as a mechanic , builder , and crew chief .yunick was twice nascar mechanic of the year ; and his teams would include 50 of the most famous drivers in the sport , winning 57 nascar cup series races , including two championships in 1951 and 1953 .he was renowned as an opinionated character who '' was about as good as there ever was on engines '' , according to marvin panch , who drove stock cars for yunick and won the 1961 daytona 500 .his trademark white uniform and battered cowboy hat , together with a cigar or corncob pipe , were a familiar sight in the pits of almost every nascar or indianapolis 500 race for over twenty years .during the 1980s , he wrote a technical column , '' track tech '' , for '' circle track '' magazine .in 1990 , he was inducted into the international motorsports hall of fame .