Meet Peanut, Our Cattle Man and Race Car Driver

It's Whitt. You've probably been helped by Peanut without ever knowing his real name is Greg Goins — I hung that nickname on him years ago and it stuck, the way they do. He's been with us a good while now, and there's a lot more to him than the fellow you see hauling hay, so let me introduce you.

Peanut started out with us as a farm hand, out in the field cutting and bailing hay — the kind of work that tells you real quick whether somebody's going to stick around. He stuck. These days he's our farm manager — the one who keeps an eye on the cattle out on the farm and makes sure the things that have got to get done actually get done. If a gate's down, a calf needs looking after, or there's a job nobody's gotten to yet, Peanut's usually already on it. Come calving season he's out checking the pastures at first light, making sure every new calf is up on its feet and the mamas are taking care of them.

He loves the animals

What you notice about Peanut around the herd is that he genuinely likes them. He's raised a whole cast of critters over the years, including a couple of donkeys he brought up so gentle they're just about house pets — they'll walk right up to you looking for a scratch. He's gentled them so much that a youngster can climb right up and ride bareback — and anybody who's spent time around donkeys knows how rare that is, because most of them are every bit as stubborn and ornery as the reputation says. That soft spot is the real thing, and the animals here are better for it.

Turning wrenches

When Peanut's not on the farm, odds are he's in a barn right here on Fugate Farms with his hands buried in a race car. He runs a late model in the sportsman class at Tazewell Speedway, and it's been in his blood a long time. He grew up watching his grandfather, Rodney Brantley, race, and Rodney became his hero. "I always wanted to be like him," he told the Claiborne Progress back when he was getting started, "and I told myself that I would have a car of my own whether I was 18 or 30 years old." He got that car, and he carries the number 00 — the same number Rodney raced, kept alive for the man who got him started.

Anybody who's built a race car will tell you it's mostly the unglamorous part: bolting things on, taking them right back off, and doing it again until it's right. Peanut says going back and redoing things is the part he hates most, but he knows it's where the learning is. "Racing is a money pit," as he puts it, "but you don't have to have all the nice fancy things to go have fun." Allen Earl summed him up well in that Claiborne Progress piece: "Goins is truly turning wrenches and chasing his dreams."

His first win

All that wrenching paid off. This season Peanut picked up the first win of his career, and every one of us here is proud as can be. Whitt's Place is a sponsor on his car now, so when that late model comes off the high banks at Tazewell, look for our name on the door. Not bad for a fellow who got his start bailing our hay.

Come see him

Peanut helps out in the store, too — he's been at my side in here since the place was just a few coolers in the barn, so he goes back about as far as Whitt's Place does. You'll sometimes catch his fiancée, Haley, pitching in right alongside him — the two of them recently got engaged, and we couldn't be happier for the pair. She's right there for his racing, too — that's the two of them celebrating together in victory lane after his first win. Next time you're in, say hey to Peanut and ask him how the car's running. Just don't be surprised when the quiet fellow restocking the case turns out to be a race car driver who raised a couple of donkeys like house pets.