Looking to Daytona

Let's have some kudos for Carl Edwards.

Ever since he came into the series, I've had an intense dislike of Carl, but I wasn't really sure why. I've always secretly wanted to see him either a) fall and land on his rear, preferably in horse apples, after a backflip or b) fall and land on his head, preferably in horse apples, after a backflip. It was an abstract sort of dislike in that I didn't really have anything concrete to base it on.

So, it was with great pleasure that I saw that Carl came through for me by acting like a complete jerk at Martinsville, then issuing an "apology" for said jerkitude.

Way to go, Carl! :thumbs:

 

It's time to revisit my favorite topic of the ESPN broadcast.

Has anybody noticed that Jerry Punch constantly says the word, "folks" when talking to the TV audience? That always annoyed me but I couldn't figure out why. I finally figured it out. Who else would Punch be talking to but the TV audience? It's unnecessary and amateurish.

Rusty Wallace:
He took 2 tires and then he went backwards like a rock.

:laugh:

Also, they caught some of Tony Stewart's conversation with Zippy. Immediately following the conversation, Rusty told us, nearly word for word, what Tony said. I have yet to figure out why he did that.

Andy Petree:
This is a typical Matt Kenseth race. Check the watch and when it's time to go, he goes.

There were over 115 laps left when Petree said this. What was so special about it being 115 laps to go? That made absolutely no sense.

If the analysts don't have anything useful to say, why do they talk at all? Of course, since they have next to nothing useful to say, the broadcasts would be very quiet.

 

In today's sports world, things get tagged as the greatest this or that and we tend to roll our eyes and disregard it as hyperbole. It's no hyperbole to call the race that was run 15 years ago today the greatest Nascar race ever.

The significance was enormous. It was Richard Petty's last race and Jeff Gordon's first. There were 6 drivers that had a mathematical shot at winning the championship.

Davey Allison went into 1992 with a lot of momentum, having finished the 1991 season by winning 2 of the last 3 races, and nearly won 3 of the last 4. Larry McReynolds had joined the team as crew chief after the 1st Atlanta race, and had really jump-started that team. Davey was the favorite for the championship and he started out strong, dominating the Daytona 500 and the first half of the season. The entire season changed for him after his wreck at Pocono, which is one of the worst wrecks I've ever seen. Davey bled points from that race until the 2nd Martinsville race.

Bill Elliott had joined up with Junior Johnson in 1992 and had won 4 of the first 5 races. However, with poor finishes at Martinsville, Charlotte and Phoenix, Bill had given away 288 points in 5 races and was 3rd in the points, 10 behind Kulwicki, going into the finale.

Davey Allison, who I considered a big crybaby before the season, endured a very difficult season. He had a number of bad crashes, including one of the worst I've ever seen at Pocono. His younger brother, Clifford, was killed during practice for the Busch race at Michigan in August. Needless to say, I no longer thought of Davey as a crybaby going into Atlanta and was really pulling for him to win.

In '90, Alan Kulwicki turned down rides from Junior Johnson and Rick Hendrick so that he could continue being an owner/driver. Everybody thought he was nuts. But, he won the night Bristol race in '91 and ran well enough to secure sponsorship from Hooters for '92. He won 2 races in '92 and was the last to win on the asphalt at Bristol. Alan left the 2nd Dover race behind Bill Elliott by 278 points. But, with a series of mostly Top 5 runs, Alan was 10 points ahead of Elliott and 30 behind Allison going into Atlanta. He took the TH off the front of his car and run the "Underbird" that day.

Kyle Petty, Harry Gant and Mark Martin were the other drivers who had a mathematical chance, but not really a realistic chance. Davey only had to finish 6th to win.

Rick Mast was the surprising pole winner, and on the first lap, he spun. No serious damages resulted to the championship contenders, save for Davey. Davey got hit in the right rear and the damage was enough that it kept him about mid-pack the whole race.

Late in the race, with Davey in exactly the right spot to win the championship, Ernie Irvan spun coming off of turn 4 and Davey had nowhere to go, hitting Ernie and ending his day. You can see the wreck here. I don't think I'll ever forget the image of Liz Allison, Davey's wife, crying her heart out as Robert Yates held onto her.

It went right down to the end, with Alan leading 103 laps to Elliott's 102, which gave Alan the 5 point bonus for leading the most laps. Once Alan got those points, he was 10 points ahead. If they had finished tied in the points, which would have happened had Alan not gotten the 5 point bonus, Elliott would have won the championship because he had 5 wins to Alan's 2. During the race, there were several laps where Alan, driving his guts out, beat Elliott to the S/F line by half a car or less. Alan won the championship by racing hard for it.

Here are the last few laps of the race. Here's Alan's great interview. He combed his hair before getting out of the car! :laugh: Then, Jerry Punch asks one question and Alan takes 5 minutes to answer it.

It gets very dusty around here when I think about this race. I can't help but remember what happened to 2 of the 3 principles. Did anybody catch the piece on a pre-race a few weeks ago about Alan and this championship and see Paul Andrew break down?

1992 Hooters 500 at Atlanta on November 16th, 1992 - Greatest Race Ever

 

Yes, he'll win 2 in a row. 86 points is just too much to make up in 1 race. The only way it happens is if Jimmie has problems and the likelihood of that happening is very small.

Gayla's talking about 2 championships in a row. Jimmie has won 4 races in a row and will set a modern record for consecutive wins if he wins on Sunday.

 

My sentiments exactly.

 

Both! :laugh: