#95 - Until the Fat Lady Sings
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06/14/2018 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 long tradition of the second Talladega race running beneath the brutal summer
sun of Alabama ended last year when the race date was moved to September. It
would seem however, the racing at Talladega will always remain a torrid as
ever, and as I recall there were quite a few drivers hot under the collar after
the final wreck last September at Talladega. Along the way Talladega has
provided many memorable finishes, and on occasion surprising first time
winners.
As they always seemed to be in 1971, Richard Petty and
Bobby Allison were locked together in the closing laps of the August event at
Talladega. And while their short track feuding is the stuff of legends, that
day the two drivers played their game of cat and mouse fender banging on the
high speed banks of Talladega in a high stakes game of poker. While many
drivers took a turn in the lead early in the race, by midway Petty and Allison
had asserted themselves with a surprisingly strong Pete Hamilton, Petty's
teammate of the previous year, adding into the mix to keep things interesting.
Allison took command of the event with seven laps to go and fought off the
determined attempts to pass by both drivers, using a fender on occasion to announce
he didn't think much of being passed in front of his home state crowd. The fans
were on their feet roaring, sensing the race would be determined by a last lap
slingshot pass. Allison took the white flag in his Chevy with a pair of
Plymouths tucked tightly behind him. Along the back straight he made a sudden
move to try to break off the draft and keep Petty from slingshotting
by him. Petty dove for the outside and made contact with Hamilton when Allison
came back up the track to block him. Hamilton was sent into a spin and the King
had to ease off the gas just for a moment to gather his car back up beneath
him, and that allowed Allison to streak on for a win by a margin of a tick over
two seconds. After the race Petty was clearly annoyed, and stated, "I've
been racing 13 years and the only cat I've ever had any problem with is Bobby
Allison." Allison defended his tactics as what any competitive race car
driver would have done in his position. Fourth place finisher Fred Lorenzen
announced he was re-retiring after an argument with his crew at that race.
July Fourth may be Independence Day, but August 6th
1972 was Independents Day at Talladega, with the independent drivers who
normally served as cannon fodder for the better financed teams finally getting their
day in the sun. In those days, Goodyear provided their newest rubber compounds
only to top drivers, while the independents were stuck with the previous year's
compound. That particular day, Goodyear found out the older tire was actually
better because it lasted longer. Unfortunately for the name drivers, the tire
company didn't find that out until the race was underway. It was a brutal race,
with 32 cars falling out of competition, some of them involved in grinding high
speed crashes after the new tires failed. After the favorites fell by the
wayside, veteran independent drivers James Hylton and Ramo
Stott were left to decide things between themselves, putting on an entertaining
show for the crowd, even if the fans may not have recognized their names. In
the end, Hylton prevailed by about a car length. It was his second career
victory but by far the highlight of his career. Even for a disappointed Stott,
it was the best finish of his career which lasted a decade.
The summer race at Talladega in 1973 was marred by the
tragic death of Tiny Lund, a NASCAR legend from earlier days trying to make a
comeback, in a sixth lap crash. Lund got turned around and was hit in the
driver's side door panel. He died instantly. None of the drivers on the track
were told of the popular driver's demise until after the event was over, and
Lund would have been proud of his competitors for the stirring show they put on
that day. A total of 16 drivers swapped the lead 60 times in a high-speed
rumble. Baker took the lead from Richard Petty on lap 177, which many thought
was a mistake because of the powerful effect of the draft on the high speed
track, 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 final
time, but Baker outmuscled and out-wanted Richard to the line. The cars passed
the start finish stripe side by side, but Buddy had a nose length advantage.
Upon hearing his friend Tiny Lund had been killed during the event, Baker buried
his face in his hands and had to be supported by his crew as his knees gave out
beneath him.
The finish of the summer Talladega race in 1980 came
down to a four car battle-royal with newcomers Neil Bonnet and Dale Earnhardt
having a go of it with veterans Cale Yarborough and Benny Parsons. Darrell
Waltrip had been part of the mix throughout most of the race, but was once
again felled by a blown engine in his DiGard entry, with 14 laps to go. With
four laps to go, Neil Bonnet took the Woods Brothers Mercury to the front, and
took advantage of Cale Yarborough and Dale Earnhardt's fender banging duel for
second place to open up a small lead. Benny Parsons hung just behind the
battling twosome waiting to take advantage when they got sideways. Somehow,
with all the beating and banging neither of the pair wrecked, and Cale managed
to take second in the final few feet as blue tire smoke rose off the cars when
they fused together one final time. Bonnett got the win while Parsons settled
for fourth.
There was another surprise winner in the Talladega
summer race and no one was more surprised than the two drivers who thought they
were battling for the win. As the normal mechanical problems laid many front
runners low and Cale Yarborough crashed out of competition, Darrell Waltrip and
Terry Labonte emerged as the drivers to beat and engaged in a spirited battle.
They were so busy racing one another, neither driver seemed to pay much mind to
Ron Bouchard, who was riding along in their shadow. Coming out of the final corner,
Darrell Waltrip positioned himself right in the middle of the track, ready to
block any move Labonte made inside or out. Labonte decided to try the high
groove and DW drifted up the track to block him. Seeing the low groove left
open, Bouchard dove down the track and the three cars crossed the line side by
side. Bouchard had two feet on the Waltrip to claim the top prize.
"Where'd he come from anyway?" a stunned Waltrip asked his crew
afterwards, having thought initially he had won the race and Ron was a lapped
car. The seven top finishers all drove Buick Regals
in that first season of downsized cars.
The finish of the July 29th, 1984 Talladega race is
one of the all-time classics in NASCAR history. It had been a wild race, with
16 drivers swapping the lead 68 times, and as the laps counted down, there was
a tight pack of ten cars, running three wide at places, still fighting for the
checkers. Dale Earnhardt, mired in the midst of a 30-race winless streak which
had started after the previous summer's Talladega race, forced his way past
Terry Labonte on the final lap and took advantage of Buddy Baker and Labonte's scramble for second to open a slight lead.
Meanwhile the seven cars behind Labonte and Baker joined the fray and positions
were changing with each yard of the track they covered. Earnhardt took a 1.7
second victory, but three different shots from the photo finish camera had to
be used to determine who had placed in positions 2-10. Less than a third of a
second covered all nine of those cars at the stripe.
There was another wild multi-car scramble on the last
lap at Talladega in July of 1986, and yet another surprise winner that day. A
NASCAR record was set in the event when 26 of 40 drivers who started the event
led, exchanging the lead 49 times between them. A violent crash on lap 159
ended the day for Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, Geoff Bodine and Harry
Gant, but that was just a preview of things to come. Tim Richmond was on a hot
streak the latter part of the 1986 season, and seemed poised to take the win
late in the going when a surprisingly strong Bobby Hillin, driving a team car
to Bobby Allison, shot by him with eight laps to go. Richmond was right on Hillin's rear bumper and a whole pack of cars were right
behind them as the field took the white flag. In the first corner on that last
lap, Sterling Marlin got into the rear of Bobby Allison's car sending him
spinning. In the tight pack of cars, drivers were scrambling all over trying to
avoid the ensuing wreck, but most got caught up in it at least to some degree.
While Allison, Sauter and Rick Wilson were unable to
continue in what was left of their cars, the rest of those involved drove their
mangled race cars towards the stripe with varying degrees of success once the
smoke cleared. Meanwhile at the checkered flag, Hillin was able to hold off Tim
Richmond by three car lengths.
The advent of restrictor plate races emphasized the
importance of the draft at Talladega, and falling out of the draft can have
disastrous consequences for a driver's chance of winning as he watches a
freight train worth of cars roll by him. But those who say drivers can't pass
at Talladega with the plates must not have seen the dramatic conclusion to the summer
of 1988 Talladega race. Kenny Schrader had led only briefly in a race his
teammate Darrell Waltrip seemed to have in hand. With 26 laps left to go Waltrip's engine let go and he was sidelined for the day.
The race took on an entirely new complexion with ten cars in the lead draft and
another nine cars running in a second draft not too far behind, still on the
lead lap. Schrader tried to slingshot into the lead with 20 to go but lost the
draft and fell from third to 13th in the blink of an eye before he managed to
muscle his way back into line. At that point, he began moving back slowly
towards the front, but when the white flag dropped Kenny was still mired in
fourth place, behind Dale Earnhardt, Sterling Marlin, and the third Hendrick
driver, Geoff Bodine, Schrader's teammate. Marlin was first to break formation,
ducking low on the track to try to get around Earnhardt. It was time for the
second two drivers to pick a dancing partner. Bodine went with Earnhardt.
Schrader saw the top groove open up as Earnhardt moved down to block Marlin and
swept by all three cars. His cause was greatly aided by some rough driving on
the part of Marlin and Earnhardt in that final lap, with the two cars coming
together numerous times. Bodine managed to pass both of them and take second
but he was two car lengths behind Schrader as the checkers flew. It was Kenny
Schrader's first Winston Cup victory.
The finish of the second 1993 race at Talladega was a
thriller, but the race itself was a terrifying wreck-fest. There was a nasty
accident on lap 70 that saw Jimmy Horton fly over the fence and out into the
parking lot upside down. Horton was the first Cup driver ever to go out of the
ballpark at Talladega, an honor I'd guess he would rather not dwell on, though
miraculously, 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 suffered
major 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 to this day, which has effectively ended his career as
a driver. Also caught up in the 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
and Neil's good friend Dale Earnhardt, got sideways and got airborne and
flipped. After bouncing off Musgrave's hood, Bonnett's car went hard into the
catch fencing that separated the fans in the stands from the cars 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 torn away, but once again God's mercy
kept the car out of the tightly packed grandstands. Bonnett was not seriously
injured in the wreck, which bought out the red flag for 70 minutes as repairs
were made to the fence. Towards the end of the race Kyle Petty had the lead,
but his tires were worn and Dale Earnhardt was right on his rear bumper,
looking for an opportunity. With four laps to go Earnhardt made the pass and
Ernie Irvan soon bypassed Kyle as well to give Dale a run for his money. On the
last lap Irvan tried to draft past Earnhardt down the back-straight but wound
up falling just short, running side by side with the black three car. The cars
were so close through the 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 photos indicated Earnhardt's margin of victory was five
thousandths of a second, the closest 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 they get sideways. While no one wants to see
terrifying wrecks like the ones that occurred that day, I'd certainly like to
see one more finish that exciting in my lifetime.
*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.