Smokey

*"Starting to think I was never gonna meet ya."*
―Smokey to Lightning McQueen[src]
**Smokey** is a former Piston Cup Racing Series team owner who was pit crew chief to Doc Hudson during the latter's racing years. He runs Smokey's Automotive Service, which he has labelled as the "best dang garage in town" at Thomasville.

## *Cars 3*

Smokey comes across Lightning McQueen and Cruz Ramirez at the Thomasville Speedway. He invites them to the local bar to have a drink with his friends and fellow legends of the early days of the Piston Cup Racing Series, Louise Nash, River Scott and Junior Moon. Smokey soon realizes that McQueen came in hopes he could receive some training from someone related to his former mentor Doc Hudson. When Smokey hears that McQueen is worried that he would end up like Doc, he explains to McQueen that while Doc was broken by the premature end of his racing career, he had found fulfillment in his life when he took McQueen under his wing. Smokey takes McQueen and Cruz to his garage, where he shows them a whole corkboard of newspaper clippings about McQueen and Doc. He explains that he and Doc had a bit of a falling out after Doc's accident, and Smokey had not heard from him in years. Then one day, Doc began to send him letters, all about McQueen-Smokey explains that while Doc loved racing, he loved to coach the young racer even more, seeing something in him that McQueen himself couldn't see.

Smokey agrees to train both McQueen and Ramirez, using her as a stand-in for Jackson Storm to motivate McQueen. He uses somewhat old school or unconventional techniques designed to teach smarts as well as speed. His exercises consist of driving through a stampede of tractors or dodging hay bales. As his final test, he takes them on a night race with no headlights on, much like what moonshiners had to do back in the day.

Smokey comes to the Florida 500 and serves as Lightning McQueen's pit crew chief for the first part of the race. After Lightning takes advantage of a pile-up to let Cruz replace him as the number 95, Sterling tries to say that that is illegal in the sport and McQueen cannot tag another car in. Smokey comes to McQueen's defense, saying the only rule is the number the racer wears has to be on the track-it doesn't matter who is wearing it. This means putting in Cruz is perfectly fair and not against any rule. Smokey is bewildered by what Lightning is asking him to tell Cruz, and ends up asking McQueen to take his place as crew chief.

After the win, Smokey is present at Radiator Springs along with the other racing legends to watch Ramirez and McQueen race on Willy's Butte.

## Trivia

* He is based on Henry "Smokey" Yunick, a famous mechanic who played a key role in the early years of NASCAR. During his career, Smokey Yunick was also chief mechanic to Marshall Teague who was a member of the Hudson Racing Team who won both the 1951 and 1952 NASCAR Grand National Championships while driving the Fabulous Hudson Hornet No. 6.
* Smokey's Mattel die-cast has an error: his upper lip is a little further below his grill instead of right below it, giving him a slightly younger look than in the film.

## References

1. ↑ Cars Character Profiles
2. ↑ New 'Cars 3' characters inspired by NASCAR legends