#65 - Road Rage
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01/09/2018 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
A relative newcomer to the Winston Cup circuit, NASCAR
Winston Cup races have only been held at the Sears Point road course since
1989, a hasty addition the schedule after Riverside Raceway fell into the hands
of a developer with subdivisions in his eyes. Located in Northern California's
famous wine country, one weekend a year, the area's wine and cheese reputation
gives way to the roar of unmuffled V8s and the cheers
of NASCAR fans.
The inaugural Winston Cup event was staged at Sears
Point June 11, 1989, and it was clear in practice that some of the "go
fast, turn left" crowd were having a bit of a problem turning left when
the course went right. Among those who had the combination figured out were two
drivers who are still perennial favorites at the track, Ricky Rudd and Rusty
Wallace. Rudd assumed the lead from Bill Elliott on lap 22 and was never
headed, though he had a mirror full of Rusty's Blue
Max Pontiac close behind him to keep him honest. Mark Martin, another noted
road racer who claims his skill on road courses comes from racing his friends
down the back roads of Arkansas growing up, seemed ready to give it a go at the
lead, but was hit by a bit of bad luck. There was a breakdown in communications
in the pits. Martin was under the impression he was getting two tires. The pit
crew was under the impression he was getting four. Martin peeled out of the
pits with no lug nuts holding the right rear tire on his Thunderbird. The car
swerved crazily, headed for a tire barrier and wound up on the roof. Incredibly
Martin lost only one lap while his car was returned to greasy side down, shiny
side up, and went on to finish 15th. Meanwhile, back up front Wallace
desperately sought a way around Rudd and on the 71st lap, with three to go, he
faked a low side pass on his competitor going into the notoriously tight turn
seven. When Rudd dove low to block the move, Wallace quickly whipped to the
outside. Seeing what was about to happen Rudd shot back across the track to try
to block that move as well. The cars made contact and Rusty went off the track
but never lifted of the throttle. He returned to the track trailing a cloud of
dust, and an apparent eagerness to go thank Rudd for the contact but was unable
to close the distance before the checkered flag fell. The crowd was screaming.
The orthodontists and stock brokers who normally raced at the track in
overpriced sports jobs might not have accepted swapping paint as part of
racing, but Rusty and Ricky gave the fans an up close and personal look at how stock
car racing was done. Bill Elliott came in third, Dale Earnhardt fourth, and a
surprisingly strong Lake Speed took fifth. And Rusty chalked a little memo in
his black book for the next time the tour came to Sears Point with Ricky's name
underlined a few times in red.
The Ricky and Rusty show had a sequel in the 1990 race
at Sonoma. Rudd started from the pole but had a flat tire while leading a tight
pack of cars on lap 11. Rudd slowed suddenly and Bill Elliott, Dale Earnhardt
and Mark Martin made hard contact as they tried to avoid Rudd and assume the
lead. Ernie Irvan came out on top, but Rusty was coming hard. Rudd was also
able to work his way back into contention through the help of numerous caution
flags. There was a genuine Hollywood stunt man, Stan Barrett, behind the wheel
of a Rick Hendrick car that day, and Stan must have given driving lessons to
Rob Moroso. Moroso lost a
tire, climbed an embankment and went sailing over a ravine and nose first into
a chain link fence so far off the track the team and track officials were left
scratching their heads during a lengthy caution flag, as to how exactly they
were going to get the car out of there. Wallace assumed the lead shortly after
the green flag flew, but in the late stages of the race, Ricky Rudd came up to
challenge him. Once again the scene of the crime was turn seven, only in 1990
it was Rusty who used a little extra race track to protect the lead, and Ricky
who made a quick off course excursion after the contact. Wallace held on for
the lead and Mark Martin managed to get around Rudd for second when Ricky's
brakes began fading late in the race.
The finish of the 1991 race at Sears Point remains one
of the most controversial in NASCAR history and once again Ricky Rudd found
himself right in the thick of it. No one was surprised when Rusty Wallace led
much of the event, but Rusty lost a cylinder, dropping him from contention for
the victory, opening the door for a wild scramble for the lead. Richard Petty
had an even worse day. The King had recently announced 1992 would be his last
season in Winston Cup racing, and the farewell tour would be dubbed the
"Fan Appreciation Tour." That day he launched the "Car
Depreciation Off Track Tour." Late in the going,
Petty seemed to lose his brakes, ran off the course and went into the barrier
wide open, hard enough the car was destroyed. The King was transported to the
hospital, bruised from head to foot. Ernie Irvan and Chad Little
made contact on the track and Ernie spun out. Little must have felt the contact
was Irvan's fault, and the next time around Chad ran
him off the course. Last year's Trans Am stand out, Tommy Kendall was subbing
for an injured Kyle Petty and led for 11 laps, until Mark Martin tried to pass
on the outside and the two cars made contact. Martin went off the track
spinning, while Kendall was forced to limp back to the pits on a flat tire.
Davey Allison inherited the lead with Ricky Rudd hard on his tail. With two
laps to go, heading into the tight 11th corner that leads onto the front straight
away Ricky got into the back of Davey's 28 car and Allison spun out. While he
was able to get the car headed back in the right direction, Rudd had checked
out and there was little hope Davey could catch him. But the drama wasn't over.
NASCAR threw the black flag on Rudd for rough driving. Ricky ignored it. As he
crossed the stripe for the final time, he was shown the black flag again, and
when Allison crossed the line several seconds later, he was given the checkered
flag. As you can imagine there was an immediate firestorm of controversy. While
Rudd and NASCAR argued, Chad Little and Ernie Irvan
caught up with one another in the garage area to discuss things. The discussion
did not go well. Soon the two drivers and their crews were brawling and at one
point Little popped Ernie one right in the eye. NASCAR
stuck by their decision to give Allison the win, and finally decided on a five
second penalty for Ricky, which was just enough to slide him back to second
place. Rudd angrily told reporters that the decision was based on the fact
NASCAR needed a Ford to win (Ford had only one win to that point in the
season), compared NASCAR to the WWF (rather appropriate considering all the on
and off track brawling) and threatened to quit the tour, though he was in second
place in the points hunt. Not a red letter day in NASCAR history, needless to
say.
A degree of civility returned to the race at Sonoma in
1992, though Ernie Irvan once again found himself embroiled in controversy. On
an early restart, Irvan was black flagged for jumping a restart, though he
later blamed Ricky Rudd, who had been leading, for accelerating hard towards
the green then getting out of the gas. Irvan took his penalty but returned to
the track on a mission, thrilling his home state fans with a wide open driving
style that saw him taking several positions a lap. Terry Labonte was leading
late in the event, but when Irvan caught up to him Labonte wisely decided there
was no sense in getting in Ernie's way and winding up in the toolies. Irvan blew past Labonte and led the rest of the
race. The points leader, Davey Allison, had a rough day, trying too hard by his
own admission to get around his nemesis of the previous year, Ricky Rudd,
Allison went off track and Rudd showed no inclination to giving him room to
recover. The miserable 28th place finish must have loomed large in Allison's
memory after narrowly losing the Winston Cup championship that year.
That incident must have also loomed large in Rudd's
memory as it had a part in the outcome of the 1993 race at Sears Point.
Surprise pole sitter Dale Earnhardt seemed poised to take his first road course
win that day, leading early and often. Of course the usual three suspects,
Wallace, Irvan and Rudd were right in there mixing it up as well. Geoff Bodine,
who was still driving for Bud Moore, though he had recently purchased the 7
team from the estate of the late Alan Kulwicki, was also right there in the
mix. It seemed those four drivers were going to have to settle it amongst
themselves for second as Earnhardt seemed to be on rails. Unfortunately, the
Earnhardt express was derailed when he hit the spinning car of Tommy Kendall
and went from first to worst in the blink of an eye. Despite the fact his car
looked ready for the scrap yard, the Intimidator put on quite a show, working
his way from 36th to 6th in the final rundown, but he never was able to contend
for the lead again. Wallace lost a transmission and then there were three.
Bodine, Rudd and Irvan made a show of it, and a lot of paint was swapped. A
late race crash resulted in a caution flag, and the green and white flags were
thrown together. Bodine had the point but going into turn five Ricky Rudd got
into his rear bumper. Apparently mindful of the previous year's penalty, Ricky
lifted off and let Geoff regain control. The momentary lift off the loud pedal
was enough to let Irvan bypass Rudd and take second, as Bodine held on to win
by almost four seconds. A jubilant Bodine did a Polish victory lap in honor of
the fallen hero whose team he had purchased that week. Sadly, it was the last
time a Bud Moore car has been in victory lane to this point.
As for Dale Earnhardt, he would have to wait until the
1995 race in Sonoma to finally add a road course win to his resume. That day
Richard Childress was not at the track, and was off in safari in Africa gunning
for big game. But it was Earnhardt who nailed the win in our sport, compared to
which "Everything else is just a game."
*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.