Findlay executive’s father raced cars at Craig Road Speedway

Long before the 1.5-mile superspeedway emerged at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the mid-1990s, stock car racing in Southern Nevada featured talented drivers, including Butch Krumme, a longtime Southern Nevadan who died recently at age 74.

Running in the wild-and-wooly days of Craig Road Speedway in North Las Vegas, Krumme was a consistent competitor from the late 1960s until the early 1980s, when the quarter-mile paved oval closed.

Krumme, a swimming pool contractor, made a beeline to Craig Road Speedway every week, starting with the spring season openers and ending with huge open-competition finales in October.

Krumme’s son James is general manager of Findlay Volkswagen in the Valley Automall. He is one of the company’s longest-tenured employees, having been with Findlay Automotive Group for 33 years.

The elder Krumme moved to Las Vegas in 1961, the same year that Pete Findlay started Findlay Oldsmobile and also the same year the younger Krumme was born.

‘My dad did some work for Cliff Findlay back in the late 1980s,” said the younger Krumme, 52. “That was clear back when Findlay Oldsmobile was at 3024 E. Fremont St. Cliff was into drag racing and dad was big on stock car racing until Craig Road ended.

“In each case, my dad and Cliff were as strong in business as they were on the racetrack. It’s really coincidental that Pete opened Oldsmobile, my parents moved here and I was born all in the same year.”

Krumme’s funeral will be at 1 p.m. today at Davis Funeral Home at 6200 S. Eastern Ave.