By Matt McLaughlin
Post 96
Editor's note:This article is part of a special reprise of Matt McLaughlin's "50 Yearsof NASCAR Racing", written and published in 1998 in commemoration ofNASCAR's 50th Anniversary celebration that year. Matt has kindly granted mepermission to run the entire series. Please, sit back and enjoy as you take ajourney back through the pages of history and perhaps relive a memory or two. Many thanks to Matt for his generosity in sharing. God blessyou, my friend.
A long tradition of the second Talladega race running beneath the brutal summer sun of Alabama ended last year when therace date was moved to September. It would seem however, the racing atTalladega will always remain a torrid as ever, and as I recall there were quitea few drivers hot under the collar after the final wreck last September atTalladega. Along the way Talladega has provided many memorable finishes, and onoccasion surprising first time winners.
As they always seemed to be in 1971, Richard Petty and BobbyAllison were locked together in the closing laps of the August event atTalladega. And while their short track feuding is thestuff of legends, that day the two drivers played their game of cat and mousefender banging on the high speed banks of Talladega in a high stakes game ofpoker. While many drivers took a turn in the lead early in the race, by midwayPetty and Allison had asserted themselves with a surprisingly strong PeteHamilton, Petty's teammate of the previous year, adding into the mix to keepthings interesting. Allison took command of the event with seven laps to go andfought off the determined attempts to pass by both drivers, using a fender onoccasion to announce he didn't think much of being passed in front of his homestate crowd. The fans were on their feet roaring, sensing the race would bedetermined by a last lap slingshot pass. Allison took the white flag in hisChevy with a pair of Plymouths tucked tightly behind him. Along the backstraight he made a sudden move to try to break off the draft and keep Pettyfrom slingshotting by him. Petty dove for the outsideand made contact with Hamilton when Allison came back up the track to blockhim. Hamilton was sent into a spin and the King had to ease off the gas justfor a moment to gather his car back up beneath him, and that allowed Allison tostreak on for a win by a margin of a tick over two seconds. After the racePetty was clearly annoyed, and stated, "I've been racing 13 years and theonly cat I've ever had any problem with is Bobby Allison." Allisondefended his tactics as what any competitive race car driver would have done inhis position. Fourth place finisher Fred Lorenzen announced he was re-retiringafter an argument with his crew at that race.
July Fourth may be Independence Day, but August 6th 1972 wasIndependents Day at Talladega, with the independent drivers who normally servedas cannon fodder for the better financed teams finally getting their day in thesun. In those days, Goodyear provided their newest rubber compounds only to topdrivers, while the independents were stuck with the previous year's compound.That particular day, Goodyear found out the older tire was actually betterbecause it lasted longer. Unfortunately for the name drivers, the tire companydidn't find that out until the race was underway. It was a brutal race, with 32cars falling out of competition, some of them involvedin grinding high speed crashes after the new tires failed. After the favorites fellby the wayside, veteran independent drivers James Hyltonand Ramo Stott were left to decide things betweenthemselves, putting on an entertaining show for the crowd, even if the fans maynot have recognized their names. In the end, Hyltonprevailed by about a car length. It was his second career victory but by farthe highlight of his career. Even for a disappointed Stott, it was the bestfinish of his career which lasted a decade.
The summer race at Talladega in 1973 was marred by thetragic death of Tiny Lund, a NASCAR legend from earlier days trying to make acomeback, in a sixth lap crash. Lund got turned around and was hit in thedriver's side door panel. He died instantly. None of the drivers on the trackwere told of the popular driver's demise until after the event was over, andLund would have been proud of his competitors for the stirring show they put onthat day. A total of 16 drivers swapped the lead 60 times in a high-speedrumble. Baker took the lead from Richard Petty on lap 177, which many thoughtwas a mistake because of the powerful effect of the draft on the high speedtrack, and the likelihood Petty would set him up for a last lap slingshot pass.The King did indeed try to make that move coming out of turn four for the finaltime, but Baker outmuscled and outwanted Richard tothe line. The cars passed the start finish stripe side by side, but Buddy had anose length advantage. Upon hearing his friend Tiny Lund had been killed duringthe event, Baker buried his face in his hands and had to be supported by hiscrew as his knees gave out beneath him.
The finish of the summer Talladega race in 1980 came down toa four car battle royale with newcomers Neil Bonnet and Dale Earnhardt having ago of it with veterans Cale Yarborough and Benny Parsons. Darrell Waltrip hadbeen part of the mix throughout most of the race, but was once again felled bya blown engine in his Digard entry, with 14 laps togo. With four laps to go, Neil Bonnet took the Woods Brothers Mercury to thefront, and took advantage of Cale Yarborough and Dale Earnhardt's fenderbanging duel for second place to open up a small lead. Benny Parsons hung just behind the battlingtwosome waiting to take advantage when they got sideways. Somehow, with all thebeating and banging neither of the pair wrecked, and Cale managed to takesecond in the final few feet as blue tire smoke rose off the cars when theyfused together one final time. Bonnett got the win while Parsons settled forfourth.
There was another surprise winner in the Talladega summerrace and no one was more surprised than the two drivers who thought they werebattling for the win. As the normal mechanical problems laid many front runnerslow and Cale Yarborough crashed out of competition, Darrell Waltrip and TerryLabonte emerged as the drivers to beat and engaged in a spirited battle. Theywere so busy racing one another, neither driver seemedto pay much mind to Ron Bouchard, who was riding along in their shadow. Comingout of the final corner, Darrell Waltrip positioned himself right in the middleof the track, ready to block any move Labonte made inside or out. Labontedecided to try the high groove and DW drifted up the track to block him. Seeingthe low groove left open, Bouchard dove down the track and the three cars crossedthe line side by side. Bouchard had two feet on the Waltrip to claim the topprize. "Where'd he come from anyway?" a stunned Waltrip asked hiscrew afterwards, having thought initially he had won the race and Ron was alapped car. The seven top finishers all drove Buick Regalsin that first season of downsized cars.
The finish of the July 29th, 1984 Talladega race is one ofthe all time classics in NASCAR history. It had been a wild race, with 16drivers swapping the lead 68 times, and as the laps counted down, there was atight pack of ten cars, running three wide at places, still fighting for thecheckers. Dale Earnhardt, mired in the midst of a 30-race winless streak whichhad started after the previous summer's Talladega race, forced his way pastTerry Labonte on the final lap and took advantage of Buddy Baker and Labonte'sscramble for second to open a slight lead. Meanwhile the seven cars behindLabonte and Baker joined the fray and positions were changing with each yard ofthe track they covered. Earnhardt took a 1.7 second victory, but threedifferent shots from the photo finish camera had to be used to determine whohad placed in positions 2-10. Less than a third of a second covered all nine ofthose cars at the stripe.
There was another wild multi-car scramble on the last lap atTalladega in July of 1986, and yet another surprisewinner that day. A NASCAR record was set in the event when 26 of 40 drivers whostarted the event led, exchanging the lead 49 times between them. A violentcrash on lap 159 ended the day for Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, GeoffBodine and Harry Gant, but that was just a preview of things to come. TimRichmond was on a hot streak the latter part of the 1986 season, and seemedpoised to take the win late in the going when a surprisingly strong Bobby Hillen, driving a team car to Bobby Allison, shot by himwith eight laps to go. Richmond was right on Hillin'srear bumper and a whole pack of cars were right behind them as the field tookthe white flag. In the first corner on that last lap, Sterling Marlin got intothe rear of Bobby Allison's car sending him spinning. In the tight pack ofcars, drivers were scrambling all over trying to avoid the ensuing wreck, butmost got caught up in it at least to some degree. While Allison, Sauter and Rick Wilson were unable to continue in what wasleft of their cars, the rest of those involved drove their mangled race carstowards the stripe with varying degrees of success once the smoke cleared.Meanwhile at the checkered flag, Hillin was able tohold off Tim Richmond by three car lengths.
The advent of restrictor plate races emphasized theimportance of the draft at Talladega, and falling out of the draft can havedisastrous consequences for a driver's chance of winning as he watches afreight train worth of cars roll by him. But those who say drivers can't passat Talladega with the plates must not have seen the dramatic conclusion to the Summer of 1988 Talladega race. Kenny Schrader had led onlybriefly in a race his teammate Darrell Waltrip seemed to have in hand. With 26laps left to go Waltrip's engine let go and he wassidelined for the day. The race took on an entirely new complexion with tencars in the lead draft and another nine cars running in a second draft not toofar behind, still on the lead lap. Schrader tried to slingshot into the leadwith 20 to go but lost the draft and fell from third to 13th in the blink of aneye before he managed to muscle his way back into line. At that point, he beganmoving back slowly towards the front, but when the white flag dropped Kenny wasstill mired in fourth place, behind Dale Earnhardt, Sterling Marlin, and thethird Hendrick driver, Geoff Bodine, Schrader's teammate. Marlin was first tobreak formation, ducking low on the track to try to get around Earnhardt. Itwas time for the second two drivers to pick a dancing partner. Bodine went withEarnhardt. Schrader saw the top groove open up as Earnhardt moved down to blockMarlin and swept by all three cars. His cause was greatly aided by some roughdriving on the part of Marlin and Earnhardt in that final lap, with the twocars coming together numerous times. Bodine managed to pass both of them andtake second but he was two car lengths behind Schrader as the checkers flew. Itwas Kenny Schrader's first Winston Cup victory.
The finish of the second 1993 race at Talladega was athriller, but the race itself was a terrifying wreck-fest. There was a nastyaccident on lap 70 that saw Jimmy Horton fly over the fence and out into theparking lot upside down. Horton was the first Cup driver ever to go out of theballpark at Talladega, an honor I'd guess he would rather not dwell on, thoughmiraculously, Horton was not badly hurt. Not as fortunate was Stanley Smith,who struck Horton's car and went head on into the wall at 190 MPH. He sufferedmajor brain trauma very similar to Ernie Irvan's practice crash at Michigan.While he would survive those injuries, Smith has double vision in one eye tothis day, which has effectively ended his career as a driver. Also caught up inthe melee were Kenny Wallace, Rick Mast, Loy Allen Junior, and Ritchie Petty,the King's nephew. There was another frightening wreck, when Neil Bonnett,making his first start in three years, got onto the apron dicing with Ted Musgrave.Bonnett's car, a loaner from Richard Childress andNeil's good friend Dale Earnhardt, got sideways and got airborne and flipped.After bouncing off Musgrave's hood, Bonnett's carwent hard into the catch fencing that separated the fans in the stands from thecars on the track, very much as another close friend of Bonnett's,Bobby Allison had done. Once again a long section of catch fencing was tornaway, but once again God's mercy kept the car out of the tightly packedgrandstands. Bonnett was not seriously injured in the wreck, which bought outthe red flag for 70 minutes as repairs were made to the fence. Towards the endof the race Kyle Petty had the lead, but his tires were worn and Dale Earnhardtwas right on his rear bumper, looking for an opportunity. With four laps to goEarnhardt made the pass and Ernie Irvan soon bypassed Kyle as well to give Dalea run for his money. On the last lap Irvan tried to draft past Earnhardt downthe back-straight but wound up falling just short, running side by side withthe black three car. The cars were so close throughthe third and fourth corner each was inches ahead of the other more than once.At the line, Earnhardt just barely held on in a photo finish. Those photosindicated Earnhardt's margin of victory was five thousandths of a second, theclosest finish not only in NASCAR history, but in the history of auto racing.The on track carnage that day is attributed with leading Jack Roush to design,and NASCAR to mandate, roof flaps to keep the race cars on the ground when theyget sideways. While no one wants to see terrifying wrecks like the ones thatoccurred that day, I'd certainly like to see one more finish that exciting inmy lifetime.
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