#43 - The Bristol Stomp
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06/14/2017 Matt McLaughlin |
(Editor’s Note) In 1997
- 1998, Matt McLaughlin penned a special Anthology of historical pieces in
honor of the 50th Anniversary of NASCAR entitled "50 Years of NASCAR
Racing." Matt has entrusted the entire collection, minus one or two that
were misfiled back then and cannot be salvaged, to my tender, loving care.
As NASCAR turns 70, the
Anthology itself will celebrate a 20th anniversary through 2018, and will run
again here on Race Fans Forever. As before, there is no record of which pieces
came first, so it will appear in the sequence presented earlier. Please, sit
back and enjoy as you take a journey back through the pages of history and
perhaps relive a memory or two.
As always, many thanks
to Matt, and God bless you my friend. ~PattyKay
Bristol Motor Speedway is another longtime member of
NASCAR's senior circuit, with the first race held there back in July of 1961
for the Grand National cars. The track looked quite different in those days
than today, as the towering banked corners were not added until 1969. While the
speeds were up dramatically after the banks were added, one thing has never
changed. Bristol always has been, is and always will be a tough race track to
drive without wrecking, and it rewards drivers with reputations just as tough
as the track itself.
Most drivers will admit that Bristol is a tough track
to figure out, but like any dance, once you've found the secret to the Bristol
Stomp, some drivers just show an ability to master it. Fred Lorenzen won three
straight events at Bristol from the summer of 63 to the summer of 64. Cale
Yarborough was the next driver to find the secrets and in his career he won
four straight Bristol events in 1976 and 1977, and once won seven out of ten
races there from the spring of 1974 to the summer of 1978. Fittingly it was the
all-time master of Bristol, Darrell Waltrip, who broke Cale's
four straight race winning streaking. Waltrip holds the all-time record for
wins at the facility at 12. He won seven of those twelve races in a row from
March of 1981 to April of 1984, driving for Junior Johnson, who also won a race
there as a driver. It seems only fitting that Darrell's last win (to date
anyway) was at Bristol in August of 1992. If you want to do the Bristol Stomp,
Darrell Waltrip is the man to teach it to you. Other multi-time Bristol winners
include Dale Earnhardt who won his first Winston cup race at Bristol April 1st
1979, and Rusty Wallace. The term "finesse" isn't the first word that
comes to mind in describing any of the above drivers, nor is finesse the path
to victory lane at Bristol.
The high banked reconfiguration of the track between
the spring and summer race of 1969 didn't receive universal praise from the
drivers. The speeds were up remarkably. The pole speed at the spring event was
88.7 miles per hour. The pole speed for the summer race was up to 103.4 MPH,
but while the cars were faster, they were contesting for the same sized piece
of real estate. Richard Petty voiced his opinion... the redesign had ruined a perfectly good race
track. That wasn't a case of sour grapes either. While Petty had blown his
engine in his Ford on lap 60, he did relieve David Pearson, who had the flu,
and drove Pearson's car to victory that day. The race was marred by several
multi-car tangles and only 10 of the 32 cars that started the event were still
running by the time the race ended.
Slugfests are often the order of the day at Bristol
and that was readily apparent during the Winston Cup race at Bristol held April
9th 1989. The racing was interrupted by 20 caution flags, almost all of them
for wrecks, which consumed 98 laps. Common wisdom says the safest place to be
during an event is up front, but even the leaders weren't immune from trouble
that day. Ernie Irvan blew a tire while leading, slugged the wall and bounced
into the path of Brett Bodine and Hut Stricklin. All
three cars had to be towed back to the garage area. Later, Greg Sacks was
leading in a Buddy Baker owned car when he too blew a tire and tagged the wall.
Rusty Wallace emerged as the leader late in the race but in order to claim his
prize he had to hold off a determined charge by the master of Bristol, Darrell
Waltrip. By crossing the line .26 seconds ahead of Waltrip, Rusty added his
name to the heroes list of Bristol. The record number of caution flags slowed
the average speed of the event to a mere 76.034 MPH, which is a tick slower
than the average pace of the Spring race back in 1963, well before the high
banks were added.
Speaking of the spring race of 1963, that event had
its fair share of beating and banging as well, and on that day the main
protagonists were teammates. Fireball Roberts was making his first start for
the Holman- Moody team, who had lured him out of a Pontiac ride with a contract
to drive for Ford. Fred Lorenzen was the other Holman -Moody team driver. As
two of the top drivers of the day, Roberts and Lorenzen had swapped paint more
than once before they became teammates, as at that point, stock car racing was
considered a full contact sport and the fans didn't shriek in outrage and wring
their hands waiting for NASCAR to fine someone for rough driving every time two
cars hit. There was a bit of bad blood between the two drivers (who later got
to be friends) at that point, and it didn't make Fred any happier that team
orders seemed to indicate Fireball should win his first race in the Ford for
publicity purposes. Lorenzen would have none of it, and the two fought tooth
and nail for the lead, swapping paint that had been applied in the same shop.
Suspiciously enough, Lorenzen's crew failed to get
enough gas in his car on the final stop for him to make the rest of the race.
Lorenzen was forced to pit again for a splash and go, handing the lead to
Fireball, who had enough gas to make it despite the fact he was driving the
same car and had last stopped on the same lap.
Nor was that the only race with a good deal of
controversy at Bristol in the spring. On April 12, 1987 Dale Earnhardt had one of
those races that helped earn him the nickname "The Intimidator."
Actually, that day, other folks were calling him names considerably less polite
than that. With threatening weather moving in, Dale was driving in a "take
no prisoners" mode, and spun more than a few cars out of his way when he
got tired of waiting to pass them. The most blatant of those hits came when he
tried to take the lead from Sterling Marlin on lap 252. Sterling refused to
yield, as it looked like the rain would start falling any moment, so Dale put a
bumper to the rear of Sterling's car and shoved him out of the way. Sterling's
day was over and he was furious. The rain moved in and the race had to be red
flagged. During that red flag period NASCAR officials told Dale Earnhardt if
there was one more instance of purposeful contact he would be black-flagged off
the track. In typical Dale Earnhardt fashion, the Intimidator replied,
"Hey, this is Bristol. You have to be aggressive here." Once the race
resumed Dale worked his way back into the lead on lap 379 of 500 and led the
rest of the race, except for one brief lap while he was in the pits. He held on
to beat Richard Petty by about three quarters of a second.
Perhaps the most exciting finish in Winston Cup
history at Bristol took place April 8th, 1990. The event was a typical slam
bang Bristol affair, with the track surface so slick Geoff Bodine compared it
to trying to drive on ball bearings. He, of course, was one of Bristol's
victims that day. Other front runners slowed by wrecks included Earnhardt,
Irvan and Wallace. On the final lap there was a fierce four way scramble for
the lead. Davey Allison had the point, but Mark Martin was giving him all he
could handle. Directly behind Martin was Sterling Marlin who was doing his best
to hold off a hard charging Ricky Rudd. With the
checkered flag in sight, Rudd “Earnhardted” Marlin
out of the way. Meanwhile, back up front, Martin had gotten inside Allison and
the two Fords were drag racing side by side to the stripe. The finish was too close
to call and NASCAR had to rely on a photo finish camera to determine Allison
had beat Martin by the smallest of margins. Making the achievement all that
much more remarkable was the fact a poor qualifying effort had landed Davey a
back stretch pit stall. But the fireworks were far from over. Infuriated,
Sterling Marlin waited on the track for Ricky Rudd to come by and tried to run
into him. Ricky avoided Marlin, then made a stab of his own at Sterling's car.
The two kept at it an entire lap before cooler heads prevailed. On the track
anyway. Leaping out of his car Marlin headed for the Rudd trailer with his crew
in tow to "discuss things." The discussion got real loud, real fast.
One of Marlin's crew members was waving around a sledge hammer during the brouhaha.
He was later suspended three weeks... but there's no telling what might have
happened to the guy had he not brought along his trusty sledge hammer. Which
is, perhaps, why any decent race mechanic will tell you, when you go racing at
Bristol be sure to bring along a great big hammer. At Bristol, cars are going
to get wrecked and tempers are going to get frayed. A good hammer is almost as
useful beating on a wrecked race car, as it is in doing the Bristol Stomp in
the garage area afterwards.
*Matt can no longer
field comments or email at Race Fans Forever. If you have comments or
questions, please leave them below and I’ll do my best to supply answers.
~PattyKay Lilley, Senior Editor.