TMC Racing Stories: My Significant Other

A fitting post for Valentine's Day I think...

Aside from the racing, time with friends, and enjoyment of Schaefer, one of the most enjoyable parts for me of attending a NASCAR weekend is meeting new folks. We've had some of the best times meeting couples from Loudon to Vegas and from Phoenix to Charlotte. It's fun to see their tailgating styles, menu options, which driver they pull for, their pets, whatever. Having said that, I travel as the sole representative of my own household on racing trips for three specific reasons.

Strike 1

Not long after a co-worker and I started dating, I regularly mentioned my passion for racing. She agreed to give it a try, and we went to Talladega in May 1989 for the Winston 500.

I'd been to Talladega once before. For the 1987 Winston 500, I sat on the frontstretch just a couple of sections to the right of Harold Kinder - not far from where Bobby Allison horrifically ripped the fence. The tickets were comp'd, and I really didn't explore the track much or have a strategy for parking.

Because our plan to go in '89 was last minute, I didn't buy reserved seats. Instead, we opted for general admission backstretch tickets. My girlfriend's first impression of the scene was not a favorable one.

• The morning air was pretty chilly. 
• The wooden bleachers were full of splinters. 
• The smell of cigarette smoke hung heavy in the air. 
• And the hootin' and hollerin' from the rowdies was already at volume level 8.

As race time drew near, the sun jumped the temps pretty quickly. A good ol' boy lounging on the grassy bank below our bleachers decided it was time to get in the zone. He was wearing a pair of sweat pants, and he stumbled a bit as he tried to shed them in favor of his shorts. But in the process of doing so, he managed to hook his thumbs in the waistband of this sweats, shorts, and tighty-whities. He mooned the whole bleacher section - including my girlfriend. Don't look Ethel!

When the green flag dropped and the restricted engines of the bunched pack muscled up to speed, I focused more on the race than I did her. Hey, we were at a race. Right? It wasn't as if we were on a date date.

The bleacher bums amp'd their lusty cheers to 11 as their heroes screamed down the backstretch - the Earnhardt's Goodwrench Chevy, Rusty's Kodiak Pontiac, Neil Bonnett in the Wood Brothers' Ford, and Alabama's newest favorite son Davey Allison in the Havoline Ford. WHOOOOOO! But my girlfriend just sat there stoically and wasn't buying it.

About halfway through the race, one of the fellas behind us needed a break. Rather than cross over his brethren, he decided he'd step down a few rows of empty pine. After navigating a couple of them successfully, he misstepped one and pitched forward. Fortunately for him - but not so much for us - my girlfriend was his brake. He caught her in the upper back and bent her over as he stopped. To his credit, he pulled up and slobbered out a meek sorry ma'am.

To my credit, I was chivalrous, defended my lady friend, dog cussed the guy, and tossed him to the aisle. Actually, that's a bald-faced lie. I laughed heartily at the whole scene and earned a death glare from her when it wasn't directed at Gomer.

The bad situation (for her - still funny to me) got worse as the race hit the 3/4 mark and the dicing intensified. The intensity was too much for another one of our new-found buddies behind us to stomach. Or maybe it was the prodigious amount of booze he'd consumed that weekend. Either way, we heard the unmistakable sound of wretching as the Puke Monster unloaded on the empty bleacher row in front of him. That's it, enough. She was ready to bolt for the car, but fortunately I talked her into moving a couple of sections away so I could be there for the finish.

Amazingly, we made it to the end. Even more surprising is she later agreed to marry me, and we got hitched about 18 months later. I'm glad we stayed. As it turned out, I was there to see Davey take the win as I was his other two times in 1987 and 1992.

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Strike 2

Two years after Talladega, she agreed to give racing a second chance. Being a bit wiser myself, I opted for going to Atlanta instead of coaxing her into a return trip to Talladega. Our target: the 1991 Motorcraft 500. To help things a bit, a friend of mine and his wife went with us.

We were prepared for a great day of racing fun. Alan Kulwicki qualified fastest in his debut race with Hooters as his sponsor, and Ken Schrader had a fast car which made my friend happy.

The race began, but then a persistent rain followed. We sat in the stands with our meager ponchos as we hoped for relief. The track's PA announcer and MRN reassured the fans that we'd soon be racing again because a weather window was opening. I bet we heard weather window a hundred times that afternoon.

The window never opened, and the remainder of the race was postponed until Monday. On our way back to Chattanooga, my buddy and I made the decision to take a vacation day and return for the conclusion. But not my wife. She'd had enough.

Strike 3

When Richard Petty announced his plans to retire after the end of the 1992 season, Schaefer co-founder Philly and I made plans to hit as many races as we could that year. Of critical importance to us was attending his final event - the Hooters 500 at Atlanta. I asked my wife if she wanted me to buy her a ticket as well. The King's last race - on a fall, southern afternoon? C'mon.

Her answer was along the lines of "Fine, but I'll take a book to read." What? A book? I replied it would be wasted money if I bought her a ticket only to have her read the whole time. Who could even do that? "Then don't buy me a ticket. I really don't wanna go anyway." So I didn't.

My 43rd year as a racing fan is now underway. And I've been the sole representative from my home at all races I've attended since March 1991. I generally have a great time meeting other couples at races, but odds are slim to none any of them will ever meet my better half.

TMC

November 23, 1980 - Petty Pockets Phoenix

The first NASCAR Winston Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway was in 1988 and won by Alan Kulwicki. The track's history, however, goes back decades before to the mid 1960s. From now through November 2014, Phoenix will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary year.

From 1977 through 1984, NASCAR's Winston West series ran an annual 250-kilometer, 156-lap race at Phoenix. The races were always scheduled the week following the season-ending Winston Cup races at Ontario Motor Speedway and later Riverside International Raceway. Several Cup regulars raced in Phoenix's Winston West event before heading back home to the south.

Richard Petty made himself at home over a multi-year stretch at Phoenix. He won three of four races between 1978 and 1981 - including the Arizona NAPA 250 on November 23, 1980.

King Richard won the pole for the 1980 event, and another Cup ringer Bobby Allison qualified second in a car borrowed from Cup journeyman D.K. Ulrich. Bill Schmitt, a Winston West regular, timed third. Joe Ruttman, who raced USAC stock cars, ARCA, and just about any other stock car with 4 wheels, lined up fourth in an Oldsmobile fielded by Jim Stacy. Coincidentally, Ruttman got the nod to take the seat of Stacy's #2 Cup car about nine months later when Dale Earnhardt left Stacy's team after it had been purchased from Rod Osterlund.

A couple of next-generation young drivers who would have a future impact in Cup racing also made the Phoenix event. Bobby Allison's son - Davey - qualified 11th in his father's hand-me-down AMC Matador, and Kyle Petty qualified 7th in an STP Chevy Caprice.

Richard took the lead at the green and led the first 27 laps. Canadian racer Roy Smith then took over a few laps - as did Richard's son, Kyle, for six laps. Second-place starter Allison led the middle third of the race for a streak of 50+ laps. 

Richard raced a Chevy Monte Carlo and Kyle raced the Caprice - presumably the same cars they raced at Ontario in the Cup race a week earlier. Allison is shown here in Ulrich's #4 Monte Carlo.

As the race headed for its conclusion, R. Petty and Allison battled for the lead though Richard led all but one lap down the stretch to capture the win. Allison finished where he started - second, and Kyle stayed competitive all day to come home third as the final car to finish on the lead lap. Davey Allison crashed early in the event and ended up 29th in the 30-car field.

GNS cover and article courtesy of Russ Thompson

Though Petty's victory is logged as a Winston West one only and not included in his tally of 200 Grand National / Winston Cup wins, it's always a good time when a Petty car can occupy Victory Lane in any series.

TMC

Talladega Memories - 1987 Winston 500

My first race at Talladega was perhaps my most memorable. Not so much because of what happened in the middle stages, but because of the beginning, the finish, and the lasting impact on the sport from this race. The 1987 Winston 500.

A friend of mine and I sat on the frontstretch two sections to the right of the starter stand. I watched my first Daytona 500 in 1980 from atop a motor home in the infield as a teenager. But this was my first time to watch a superspeedway race from the grandstands, and what a sight it was.

The home state crowd was all jacked up over both Bobby Allison and his rookie son Davey being entered. Davey ran a white-hood Ford at Daytona back in February, but now his Harry Ranier -owned Ford had the Havoline Star emblazoned on the hood and full sponsorship on the quarters.

Bill Elliott put his Coors Ford on the pole yet again on a superspeedway. He qualified it at 212 MPH - a mark so far out there it'll never be matched because of events that unfolded early in the race.

The race had only been underway about 20 laps or so when we heard the unmistakable “boom” sound of an exploding tire in the tri-oval. In an instant, fencing was being shredded right before our eyes. Fortunately, we were a section or two away and didn’t get any of the shrapnel up in our area. But for a moment, we didn’t know what was going on or who was involved.

Immediately, multiple cannon shots were heard as everyone else piled into the wreck and also blew tires. Only when the red No. 22 Miller Buick came to a rest did we realize it was Bobby. I vaguely remember a bit of hush although it was probably just the remaining cars having raced out of sight. There was certainly a murmur everywhere as everyone started trying to figure out what they had just seen and wondering who in the stands might be hurt. And I remember the absolute roar once we all realized Bobby was OK. Amazingly, no one was killed or even seriously injured in the stands. Although the fencing was obliterated - it clearly did its job in keeping Bobby's car on the track and not up with us.

The race was delayed 2 or 3 hours as track crews replaced the fencing. Because darkness was closing in, NASCAR shortened the race by 10 laps.

As the race went on, the crowd went absolutely nuts as Davey was clearly in a position to win. and pulled away once he passed Ironhead. However, as a Petty fan, I was keeping my eye on another car – the No. 21 Wood Brothers Citgo Ford driven by Kyle Petty.

In the waning laps, Davey was clearly in control and raced on to his first career win before the home state crowd. Kyle pressed hard and passed a ton of cars late to nip Dale Earnhardt and end up third – the best finish of his career I ever got to see in person until seeing him match it at the 2007 Coke 600 in Charlotte.

Several things jump off the page at me when I think about this race.

• Davey's Cup career lasted 6-1/2 years - from 1987 through 1993. He was killed in a helicopter crash as the pilot at the very track where he got his first Cup win.
• The master of Talladega and 4th place finisher in this race, Dale Earnhardt, also is no longer with us. Pretty interesting to see the "man in black" running the blue and yellow Wrangler colors back then.
• The Wood Brothers were still a force to be reckoned with on super speedways, and Kyle Petty was beginnng to come into his own as a pretty good Cup driver. Unfortunately, a broken leg at Talladega in 1991 and the death of his son in 2000 seem to take the edge of Kyle's skills and passion. He is no longer an active driver.
• Perhaps the biggest legacy from this race is the restrictor plate used only at Daytona and Talladega. The plates were originally introduced in the early 1970s when longer wheelbase cars running thin bias-ply tires began flirting with 200 MPH regularly. By the mid 70s, the plates were gone, and drafting and sling-shot moves were in full force. An unrestricted engine allowed Ernie Elliott to build an incredible engine for brother Bill to lay down an untouchable 212. However, the plates were re-introduced following Bobby's wreck in the interest of safety, and we still have them to this day - along with several other innovations and aerodynamic modifications to minimize the risk of cars flipping and especially getting up in the catch fence.
  

TMC

Talladega Memories - 1993 DieHard 500

From time to time, I try to re-assess my top 5 all-time races that I've attended. Locked in at #1 for probably forever is the 1992 Hooters 500 at Atlanta - the King's last race, the best championship battle in Cup history, a 1-2 run by the two guys left standing to win the championship, Jeff Gordon's first race, etc. Races 2 through 5 often vary. But in thinking about it a bit more, I realized I often failed to include the 1993 DieHard 500 in my top 5. Not sure why but just didn't. But no more. Once I started remembering all the wild things that happened in that race, its definitely in my top 5.

In 1993, the DieHard was appropriately named because the race formerly known simply as the Talladega 500 was always held in late July or early August. The heat and humidity were oppressive. It was like being in an Alabama Arm Pit. Yet the stands and the camping areas were always full.

A few days before the 500, Davey Allison lost his life in a helicopter crash at Talladega. He and Red Farmer were at the track to watch Neil Bonnett's son, David, practice some laps. Prior to this day, racing folks always had a good laugh at Red's expense about his age. No one was ever quite sure how old he was - and he never really told an exact answer. But after the crash when he survived and Davey did not, the jokes kind of just stopped from that point forward. As great as that 1992 Atlanta season-finale was, it was simply numbing to realize 10 months later 2 of the top 3 finishers in the 1992 championship were gone...the other being champion Alan Kulwicki.

Davey's loss was especially painful because he was the new generation of the Alabama Gang. Bobby had retired due to injuries. Donnie had been out of the sport a long time due to injuries and age. Neil Bonnett had been out of the seat for over 3 years due to a head injury (more about his return below). Davey was it - he was the future.

Yet as always racing went on.

The Robert Yates Racing team soldiered on. Donnie drove a pre-race lap in Davey's car, and the emotion was noticeable in the stands. For the race, Yates selected open-wheeler and off-roader ace Robby Gordon to wheel the famed 28. Robby had only 2 prior Cup starts to his resume - both more than a year prior to this start.

As was our custom for much of the early 90s, we sat about 2/3 of the way down the backstretch along a grassy bank. Once the green flag dropped, the drivers set aside their grief and raced like hell. Similarly, the fans did the same and cheered all day long. The racing, drafting, and side-by-side (and frequently 3x3) battles were incredible.

One problem with with viewing a race at Talladega is its size. There is simply too much to keep up with, and many vantage points are just so far away to see things clearly. But as a wreck unfolded way down in turn 1 - about a half-mile away from us, I clearly saw a car go up and over the wall. I just didn't know who it was at the time. A few minutes later, we heard Barney Hall and the MRN crew announce it was Jimmy Horton. Jimmy was an established ARCA driver who also got some props by being selected to drive relief for Darrell Waltrip in his Hendrick Tide Ride when he broke his leg at Daytona. We clearly had no idea how far out of the yard he had flown until we later saw TV footage.

From where we sitting and really everyone else for that matter, we could not see the terrible events unfolding with Stanley Smith. Stanley was a journeyman Cup driver who occasionally ran the Interstate Batteries sponsorship colors in the late 1980s and early 1990s before Norm Miller moved his full-time sponsorship support to the new Joe Gibbs / Dale Jarrett team in 1993. Then - and now - the replay doesn't really show how Stanley was hurt. But he apparently hit the wall hard and may have been hit in the driver's comparment by a tire from another wrecking car. By the time the paramedics reached his car, he apparently had suffered a great deal of blood loss. The great news is the medical staff worked on him, kept him alive, and he later recovered. I don't believe he ever raced again - at least not at the Cup level.

Also involved in the Big One was Ritchie Petty. I don't recall knowing Ritchie was even entered in the race that day - much less that he was involved in this wreck. Ritchie is Richard's nephew / Kyle's cousin / Maurice's son. He entered a handful of races, but his career never really developed into anything.

If Davey Allison had been the future of the Alabama Gang, Neil Bonnett was clearly part of the old guard. This was Neil's first race after suffering a head injury at Darlington about 3 years earlier. The last thing he needed was another wicked blow to his head or a twisting of his neck. Yet that's what the Dega demons had in store for him as his car was tossed around like a rag doll. With this wreck happening on the front stretch, we didn't have a good view of it. I saw the smoke rise and knew the caution had flown, but I didn't know what had happened until MRN Radio described it. It was only after I got home and saw the race highlights that I realized how lucky Neil - and the fans in the stands - truly were.

Fortunately, Neil walked away from this wild crash and even went to the CBS booth to do some late race commentary! Neil's luck turned bad yet again though as he was killed in a practice crash at Daytona in February 1994. His death effectively ended the Alabama Gang. No drivers from Alabama have made much impact on Cup racing since the Allisons and Bonnett. Journeyman such as Hut Stricklin and Mickey Gibbs had brief runs, but the performances of the two of them couldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as the original Gang.

Even with the drama of the pre-race Davey tribute, the Big One, Jimmy Horton's over-the-wall venture, Stanley Smith's near-death accident, and Neil Bonnett's aerial acrobatics, the guys still had to finish this one. And a doozy it was.

The final few laps were simply breathtaking. Looking back at this video, its hard to recall how competitive Kyle Petty was in the Mello Yello Pontiac. In the end, Ernie Irvan battled to the stripe with the Dega Master. They settled in what is now the 2nd closest winning finish in NASCAR history.

In those rare instances when I get to go to races today, we swap all these great memories of races we've attended. We've laughed in recent years in thinking we make it sound as if all the great drama unfolded in a single 500 mile afternoon. However, in this case, its just about the case.

As with the 1992 Atlanta finale, the 93 DieHard 500 is clearly full of story lines and memorable events. It'll definitely remain in my top 5 from now on.

TMC

These are a few of my favorite schemes

With apologies to Julie Andrews' tune from The Sound of Music.

NASCAR silly season bores me anymore. Especially this year since my favorite 43 team is in the mix but for all the wrong reasons.

So I thought I'd instead focus on some of my favorite paint schemes from over the years. As we near the end of 2008, "best of" and "top ten" lists tend to dominate the landscape in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. Letterman also has his nightly Top Ten list, and I'm a big fan of his. So I'll start with...seven. Not sure any of these qualify as "best of", but 7 doesn't have a magic ring to it when it comes to NASCAR. It represents the number of championships won each by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. The number also signifies the number of Daytona 500 wins by Richard Petty. (Good thing I didn't use the # of D500 wins by Earnhardt as my basis because I'd only be able to share ONE picture.)

Disclaimer: I've tried to focus on paint schemes used on a regular basis vs. those used once or twice.

In order to draw out the suspense, here we go in reverse order. (drum roll please).

#7 - Smokey Yunick-prepared cars. Officially, he prepared Pontiacs, Chevelles and Ford Torinos. Maybe others too. But with the way he poured over the details and modified the bodies of his entries, no one can say for sure what he put on the track. Here's one of his #22 Pontiacs driven by Fireball Roberts. Later, he entered his patented black-and-gold colors on #13 cars - immortalized of course in that award-winning race movie, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.



#6 - Cale Yarborough's Busch beer sponsored Olds 442 from 1979-1980. Other than his 3 consecutive championships, Cale is perhaps best known for wrecking this beautiful car on the last lap of the 1979 Daytona 500 along with Donnie Allison.



#5 - Tim Richmond's early season Folger's Coffee scheme from the early part of 1986. About a third of the way through the season, the team began using regular white letters vs. the black-backed gold numerals. It changed the whole look for the worse, but apparently it was a good change for him. After the change, he ripped off seven wins in the second half of the 86 season.



#4 - Darrell Waltrip's original Budweiser sponsored Chevy from 1984.



#3 - Bobby Allison's Miller High Life Buick from 1988. He won the Daytona 500 in 1988, and his son Davey finished 2nd. His career was violently ended at Pocono that same year when he spun and was t-boned in the driver's side.



#2 - Davey Allison's original Havoline Ford from 1987. He ran the same scheme at the Daytona 500 but without the sponsor name or logo because the sponsorship deal wasn't finished. It was, however, completed by the time they got to Talladega in the spring for the Winston 500. First I watched as Bobby Allison tore the fence down. And then I watched as his son, Davey, won his first ever Cup race.



#1 - Richard Petty's STP Pontiac in which he won his 200th race at the 1984 Firecracker 400 in front of President Ronald Reagan.