DirtonDirt.com exclusive
Photographer's unique ritual: victory lane cigar
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt.com managing editor
Bobby Pierce gets a victory lane cigar from Mike Ruefer. (Nate Truninger)
Mike Ruefer’s ritual at the conclusion of a Dirt Late Model feature is like that of most racing photographers.
The Davenport, Iowa, resident heads for victory lane, makes sure he’s got the right lens on his Canon camera and positions himself on the frontstretch to await the arrival of the winner’s car. Amid the bustling pack of photogs, Ruefer clicks off dozens of shots with trophies, oversized paychecks, girlfriends and more.
But as victory lane ceremonies wind down, it’s not quite over for Ruefer. The goggles-wearing photographer reaches into his pocket, steps forward and reaches out to hand the winner one final award:
A victory lane cigar.
It’s a tradition Ruefer started in 2007 and continues today at Dirt Late Model races around the country, typically more than 70 races a year for the 66-year-old who retired from his career as a safety consultant a few years ago.
"I think most guys really always appreciate that. Something different,” said Ruefer, whose annual schedule includes Georgia-Florida Speedweeks races and Eldora Speedway’s biggest events. “I'm not trying to get something from them — I'm giving something to them. If they don't want them, then give them away.”
It’s a gesture that many drivers — especially Midwesterners who compete within driving distance of Ruefer’s Iowa home — remember, appreciate and eventually come to expect.
“Typically it's always after we take pictures and then he's always like, ‘Hey Bobby! Cigar.' And then I catch it — or I drop it sometimes when he throws it to me,” said two-time World 100 winner Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill.
Fellow Illinois driver Brandon Sheppard has received his share of Ruefer-delivered cigars during his years with the Midwestern-focused DIRTcar Summer Nationals, World of Outlaws Late Model Series and Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.
“Absolutely, it’s as cool as heck,” Sheppard said. “Any kind of little keepsakes from tracks that they do for people, it's definitely something I try to hang on to all the time. So it’s definitely a cool touch for sure.”
Ruefer’s trademark cigar is simply his behind-the-scenes way of being part of a sport he enjoys so much.
Nearly 30 years ago Ruefer first entered racing’s media realm with his “Bleacher Views” column that appeared in the Louisiana-produced Behind the Wheel publication by Sam Holbrooks and Iowa-based Mid-States Racing News of Howard Mellinger. When the weekly racing rags faded, Ruefer expanded his photography, and by 2007 he was attending several dozen races a year, some of his racing trips in coordination with his work travels.
Ruefer got the idea for providing a cigar as a victory lane token after seeing a film clip of NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt about his 1998 Daytona 500 victory.
"I remember watching Speed Network with them interviewing Earnhardt about his victory,” Ruefer recalls, “and he was just having a good time holding a cigar and talking about winning the 500. And that stuck with me, so I thought, 'I'm going to give every winner a cigar.’ ”
It took a while to form the habit, but now it’s second nature to have a cigar in his pocket for every race.
"I bought cigars and every once in a while I would forget and then later I'd have to go in the pits and find somebody and hand them their cigar,” Ruefer said. “I think I did that once to Billy Moyer and maybe also even Jimmy Mars, but then I got better at always remembering. Now, it's just part of my process and what I do to get ready for the feature.
“Now I just do it and I've been doing it every race since.”
When Ruefer started his ritual, he knew he didn’t want to present a cheap gas-station cigar. He went with the reputable La Gloria Cubana that today comes in a 25-cigar box for $200.
“It does smoke well and it has a very, very high rating,” said Ruefer, a longtime DirtonDirt.com contributor. “So that's what I've been buying now for a number of years, and I have given away other cigars, but that's kind of been my mainstay.
"I used to smoke cigars. I used to really like cigars when I was drinking beer and hanging out, and I did give away a cigar that I always thought was a great smoking cigar.”
Ruefer figures he’s given away more than 700 cigars over the last 18 years ago, virtually all of them to race winners. Occasionally he’ll hand out what he calls “dignitary cigars” to promoters, sponsors or series professionals at the dirt track, “just to tell them that I appreciate what they're doing.”
For victory lane cigars, the plastic-wrapped, banded cigars come with a unique inscription in the form of a sticker Ruefer prints: Compliments of Mike Ruefer Victory Lane Cigar.
At crown jewel races and other major events, Ruefer will sometimes present a premium cigar. And for Jonathan Davenport’s victory in the Eldora Million in 2023 he went a step further.
“Somebody had given me a big ceremonial retirement cigar,” Ruefer recalled. “It wasn't real big, but it was like in a plastic glass tube. I saved it and gave it to J.D. when he won the Million. A bigger race, he could put it up there in his trophy room.”
He doesn’t mind the expense of his trademark move. "I wouldn't do it if I couldn't afford it or if it wasn't fun,” Ruefer said.
The process of handing out the cigar is primarily about the timing.
"I just keep one in the pocket. It’s about that simple. By now, all the (photographers) that I run around with, they all know it's cigar time,” he said. “So a lot of times like in a Lucas (Oil Series) victory lane or a real long victory lane ceremony, I'm kind of ready to just hand them the cigar and get the hell out of there.
"I'll ask, ‘Guys, are we finally done?’ And then go give the cigar. But it's become kind of fun, you know, I think last year, being able to give a cigar to (NASCAR champion) Kyle Larson was kind of cool, so I gave Kyle a cigar. Tony Stewart at the (Eldora Speedway) Prelude one year, so it's kind of neat. Do they remember it? I have no idea.”
Frequent winners are accustomed to Ruefer’s cigar delivery, but he has had some strange reactions over the years.
“It’s interesting because I remember the very first time I handed Don O'Neal a cigar in victory lane down at Tri-City and I hand him the cigar, (say) congratulations on winning something like that to Don, and he looks at the cigar and says that's not loaded or nothing, is it? I said, ‘No, it's not.’ ” Ruefer recalled.
Some drivers playfully act like they’re smoking it in victory lane. Some pass them on to fans. Some cigars become keepsakes alongside a trophy.
“Everybody always seems to appreciate that,” Ruefer said. “I give cigars to all the drivers I like and even the drivers I don't like — and they have to figure out who they are — but I do like most of the drivers.”
When asked about the cigars Ruefer has given him over the years, Sheppard backpedals in his transporter, planning to dig one up in his hauler before stopping in his tracks.
“Well, I didn't get any last year, but yeah, I keep them all. I got them all at the house. I usually put them with the trophies. I got some with the trophies and some, some just in the house," he said. “It's definitely a cool touch. … That's probably part of the reason why I don't smoke them or anything. I just keep them and hang on to them just for the memory.
"Hopefully I can get one this year.”
Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas, who has received his share of Ruefer’s gifts, is partial to cheaper, sweeter cigars for smoking. But he appreciates Ruefer’s offerings nonetheless.
"I had a collection of them for a while,” he said. “Normally I just stack them in the trailer and then at the end of the year I give them to somebody and they smoke them, or maybe one night we go out and we all just smoke as many of them as we can.”
With more than 70 victories over the last two seasons, Pierce probably has more Ruefer cigars than anyone in recent years.
“Typically I'll give them away like to a fan or I have some I’ve kept like sitting on trophies. I know I've got some sitting on trophies, but sometimes I'll give them away, like see if a crew guy wants to smoke it or something or if some fan wants it,” he said. "It's pretty cool. I'm always happy to get a cigar. … I guess by now I wish I would have kept them all. Knowing where they're all at would be a cool collection, but, yeah, it's very neat. I wish there was more things like that.
"I've taken pictures with it hanging out of my mouth, but I've never smoked one before, so I'm not (LSU quarterback) Joe Burrow after he won the college football championship where he's sitting there puffing a stogy."
Ruefer remembers Billy Moyer Jr. telling him once that he kept a cigar that became special in part because the race didn’t come with a trophy. So Ruefer’s cigar proudly sits in the Batesville, Ark., driver’s trophy case to memorialize the win.
"I know I went to give Scott Bloomquist a cigar once after a race, and he kind of looked at the cigar and handed it to (longtime sponsor) Bob Miller,” Ruefer said. “So the next time I was at a big race, it might have been the USA Nationals or something Cedar Lake, I didn't even mess with Scott. I just gave it to Bob Miller. He always had a cigar.”
Most of the cigar stories have happy endings, but Ruefer did have a downer at a race a few years ago.
"One race I went to, I was a little bit disappointed that I saw my cigar later just laying on the ground in victory lane,” he said. “Maybe it fell out of his pocket, I don’t know.”
Because of the distance of victory lane from most grandstands, few fans are aware of Ruefer’s longtime tradition. But fellow photographers, media members and series officials have seen it enough to be familiar. Ruefer remembers DIRTcar publicist Jordan DeLucia making note of Ruefer’s cigar presentation a few years ago at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla.
“Jordan says, ‘You always do that, don't you, Mike?’ I said, ‘Always Jordan.’ He says, 'I know you've been doing that ever since I've been around.’ So it is kind of my thing.”
It’s a thing Ruefer hopes to continue for as long as he can.
“Am I gonna be able to do this forever? No. But for right now I can,” he said. "I try not to make it any bigger than what it is. It's just a small part of it. I guess I've never wanted people to think that I'm a user, because I love the sport.”
