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Let’s see if the boys from 1987 can grapple with the road courses better than their modern-day counterparts. Considering that the video opens with Bob Jenkins talking about how they’re hoping to get the race in today, I’m interested to see how this broadcast will turn out.
Rather than devote 500-600 words on how ESPN kills time as the rain continues to pour at Watkins Glen, let me just give you the highlights:
- ESPN re-broadcasts a special edition of “Speedweek” and a NASCAR Season In Review program before switching over to last year’s Watkins Glen race.
- Les Richter, NASCAR Vice-President, Competition and Development, says that NASCAR will do everything possible to get the race in today and says it can be started up until 5 p.m. Jenkins says there is other programming due to start later in the afternoon, so if the race starts too late, they may have to just provide updates, rather than the whole race.
- Geoff Bodine, who won the IROC race on Saturday, talks about racing snowmobiles around Watkins Glen.
- Davey Allison reports on how his hauler was in an accident. Two crew members suffered non-life-threatening injuries and the cars were damaged.
- Ken Schrader and Dick Berggren foreshadow the idea of NASCAR running rain tires at road courses.
- Dr. Jerry Punch, Darrell Waltrip, Benny Parsons and Neil Bonnett hang out in the garage area/pit road. Parsons does an imaginary interview with “race winner” Bonnett and all three drivers talk about wanting to get the race in and getting their first win of the season.
Finally, a half-hour into the video version of this race, we get the proper opening. They talk about the history of racing at Watkins Glen and the success that Tim Richmond has had on the road courses as of late. The race was finally postponed at 4 p.m. on Sunday and Bob Jenkins and Larry Nuber welcome us to the race, taking place on the following Monday.
Terry Labonte will lead the field to green. Patty Moise is making her first Winston Cup start and Canadian Trevor Boys is in the field as well. 40 cars make up the field in this 90-lap race.
That field even takes a few extra pace laps to ensure the track is dry enough. Labonte keeps the lead but Bodine overtakes Rusty Wallace for second. Buddy Baker spins out but is able to get himself righted so the race stays green.
Bonnett goes from 10th to 5th in one lap and overtakes Richmond for fourth as lap 2 begins. Bodine has taken the lead over Labonte. As the second lap finishes, Michael Waltrip heads to pit road with smoke coming from the engine. Buddy Baker’s crew chief, Doug Richert, says his car has little damage from the spin and there’s Bill Elliott’s day literally going up in smoke.
They head to commercials six laps in and Geoff Bodine leading over Rusty Wallace. Wallace is nearly on the back bumper of Bodine as they start to catch the tail end of the field. Tom Rotsell spins but looks to be able to get back righted about. Chuck Schroedel, making his only NASCAR Cup Series appearance, has an engine let go, bringing out the caution on Lap 11. The Schroedel issue was almost major trouble for the leaders just behind them, as Wallace makes contact with Bodine, getting the Hendrick #5 Chevrolet out of shape for a moment.
This brings everyone down pit road. Bodine seems to get blocked in by Richard Petty but there are more issues for Bodine and he has a lengthy pit stop.
Interesting tidbit as ESPN shows a graphic about Earnhardt’s point standing at the Glen. In 1986, he led Darrell Waltrip by 161 points coming into Watkins Glen. This year, he leads Bill Elliott by 430 points. On August 10, 1987, commentator Bob Jenkins says “Dale Earnhardt is on his way to another Winston Cup championship.” The season finale is 11 races, or almost four months away!
When the race resumes, Bill Elliott technically leads the field to green but he is a lap down due to earlier issues. Earnhardt is the true leader. Bodine gets black-flagged and has to make a stop-and-go.
As Benny Parsons, who restarted second, starts to fall back as the commentators speculate if Earnhardt has some smoke coming from his car. Terry Labonte, Rusty Wallace and Tim Richmond move to the front, chasing Earnhardt. Wallace will eventually grab the lead from Earnhardt and starts to pull away. Not only does Earnhardt lose the lead, but he is also soon passed by Labonte, Richmond and Rudd. Dr. Jerry Punch says Earnhardt just took fuel but not tires in the last pit stop. The move earned Earnhardt track position but only temporarily.
Back in the field, Bodine begins to move up but is still a way back in the pack. Up front, the battle is for second as Richmond battles Labonte for the runner-up spot until a caution comes out. It’s later determined that Trevor Boys stalled on the course.
Rusty Wallace brings the leaders to pit road which initially surprises the commentators. They discuss how weather might be affecting strategy. Earnhardt finally comes in and gets tires.
It’s Neil Bonnett that leads as the pit stops come to a close, with Phil Parsons in second. The situation is not dissimilar to what we see so often today where drivers will stay out for track position but everyone knows it’s the drivers starting further back in the field who did pit (in this case Rusty Wallace and Terry Labonte) who will end up racing for the win in short order. Geoff Bodine who had all the issues a few laps ago is back to 10th.
Wallace passes Parsons by the first turn of the first lap back under green and is on the back bumper of Neil Bonnett by the time they get back to the start/finish line. As he comes out of turn five, Bonnett’s engine blows and he takes an abrupt right turn to get off the track.
As Bonnett makes his way to the pit area, the commentators talk about him wanting to try drag racing next year. A quick Google search shows that he got his start drag racing but never returned to that form of racing later in his career. About the same time, Bobby Hillin, Jr. and Sterling Marlin get caught up in a wreck. Marlin is able to drive away but not Hillin until the caution comes out. Bodine and Darrell Waltrip head to the pits but Bill Elliott has returned to the track.
Rusty Wallace leads as the race resumes and while Terry Labonte is second, there’s a new name at the front. Morgan Shepherd (who was still racing in what is now the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2019!!!) is moving up to fourth, albeit with some contact with Derrike Cope (whose last race was the 2021 Daytona 500).
While Wallace, Labonte and Shepherd distance themselves from the pack, there are a bunch of drivers battling to be the “best of the rest” including Earnhardt, Richmond, Dave Marcis, Rick Wilson, Bobby Allison and both Kyle and Richard Petty.
As Benny Parsons’ in-car camera shows the battle for the Top 10, it also shows some rain as the field moves through the field. Needless to say, weather becomes a major topic. While the race is just a few laps away from being official, no one really seems to think the race will be called for a while. (Meanwhile, both Richard Petty and Rick Wilson slide around the track, but no one questions that its weather-related.)
Parsons is right next to Wilson as he slid and takes over tenth. A few moments later, Derrike Cope tries to take the spot but Benny muscles him aside and Cope spins. It was interesting because the in-car camera was facing the back of Parson’s car and got a great shot of the incident. No caution as Cope, representing the Winston West Series, gets the car back on course and headed in the right direction.
Just as Rick Wilson comes back on track (turns out he had a flat tire), Ricky Rudd (who’d had some smoke coming from the back of his car) finds himself off course. The replay shows some contact from Geoff Bodine as the two went into the corner. Rudd is back on course and the replay also shows that Rudd tried to squeeze Bodine down into the corner. Bodine wasn’t having it and Rudd paid the price, although Bodine needed to pit for a flat tire.
After a commercial break, we are told that the battle for second place became pretty physical. Shepherd was awfully loose and collided with Labonte, spinning both cars around. Labonte got the better end of things, as he continued on but lost a couple of spots. Shepherd had to head to pit road for repairs.
Rusty Wallace continues to lead on Lap 40 but it’s turned into a typical road course, as second-place Tim Richmond is eleven (11!!!) seconds back. I guess the spin between Shepherd and Labonte didn’t bring out a caution. By the time the race enters the second half, Wallace’s lead has extended to 13 seconds.
Pit starts begin but a few laps earlier than scheduled for drivers like Bobby and Davey Allison and Dale Earnhardt. Davey has been pretty quiet today but the story was a crash by the team’s hauler which injured several of his crew including crew chief Joey Knuckles.
Kyle Petty, Tim Richmond and others hit the pits before leader Rusty Wallace makes his way down pit road. Wallace has been doing so well fuel mileage and tire wear-wise that it is expected this will be his final pit stop of the day. As he makes his way down, however, the engine of Jocko Maggiacomo (still alive at 78) expires and the caution waves.
Wallace, still unsure about fuel, lead Richmond and Labonte to green. Richmond challenges Wallace for the lead through the first turn but action behind them brings the race to a halt. Patty Moise, Jimmy Means, Steve Christmas and Ken Schrader have all been in wrecks.
It appears that Richmond is being named as the leader, as he beat Wallace back to the start/finish line. Terry Labonte remains in third. A few drivers stop during the caution but the leaders remain out with approximately 30 laps to go.
Richmond who took two tires, compared to others who took four, takes the green and holds the lead through the first turns. With Marcis in fourth, the battle is initially for fifth between Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip. However, with Richmond getting loose, Wallace is able to retake the lead.
As Richmond falls back to the clutches of Labonte, Wallace lengthens his lead. Things go from not horrible to worse for Richmond as the #25 Chevrolet spins out of the corner of Turn 6. Richmond gets the car back on track but loses a bunch of spots.
As they discuss Richmond’s spin, Richard Petty spins in almost a mirror image of the #25 incident. Much like a lot of these spins, the driver can right the car and not bring out the caution, but he does lose a few spots.
Richmond is back to 12th while Wallace stretches his lead over Labonte to seven seconds with 20 laps to go. By the time they go through the Top 10 and talk about Alan Kulwicki, who had to borrow an engine from Ken Schrader’s team to make the race, that lead stretches to 11 seconds.
The lead is such that the commentators are looking for content (Darrell Waltrip’s wife, Stevie, about to give birth to a daughter) although there is some drama as to whether Wallace can make it on fuel.
There is a scary moment when Benny Parsons sees a car spin in front of him. The immediate call is that it’s Rusty Wallace but it turns out to be Kyle Petty. The #21 and not the #27.
Earnhardt was thought to have been okay on fuel but he pits for fuel, which sparks a lot of conversation. With four laps to go, the commentators suggest some of the top 5 cars should pit for fuel, because they wouldn’t lose the lap and be in position for the win if Wallace runs out of fuel.
With two laps to go, it’s come down to Labonte and Wallace and who will blink first. If Labonte pits than Wallace is going to need to pit.
Darrell Waltrip has come to pit road but waited too long and he can not get the car to restart. As Waltrip’s crew pushes the #17 Tide Chevrolet down pit road, Wallace comes to pit road for his stop, with a 20-second lead but 1 lap to go.
As Wallace exits the pits, Gant’s engine expires. Wallace goes around Gant and maintains the lead over Labonte.
Rusty Wallace holds on and wins the 1987 Budweiser at the Glen. Wow! For a race with a 20 second gap between first and second, that was pretty exciting last couple of laps. Barry Dodson, Wallace’s crew chief, had told Wallace to run as hard as he could so they would have a big enough lead to safely pit and retain the lead.
Next up is Michigan and the Champion Spark Plug 400.
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