Note: I watched the race on SMIFF TV’s YouTube Channel.
Talk about the race on my Facebook page: John Milner’s Track Talk.
The broadcast opens with a music video of NASCAR clips set to the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ Tough Enough and some clips set to Bruce Hornsby’s The Long Race as we get set for ESPN’s coverage of the Budweiser 500 at Dover. This is an acknowledgement of the length of the race and just how tough it will be today.
As the coverage begins, they’re talking about the heat, Earnhardt’s six wins (but has never finished on the lead lap at Dover) and Bill Elliott being on the pole.
Okay movie fans, D.K. Ulrich (step-father of Skeet Ulrich) is starting on the 17th row.
Elliott takes the green flag and starts to pull away from the field almost immediately. Bobby Allison and Ken Schrader are second and third.
Meanwhile, there are some issues for some notable drivers. Alan Kulwicki has a tire going down and has to head to pit road. Darrell Waltrip is running on seven cylinders and fading back in the field. D.K. Ulrich has scraped the wall and lost some spots.
Speaking of notable drivers having issues, Earnhardt heads to the pits with a tire issue. The crew changes all four tires and Earnhardt loses a lap. There was a tire blister on the #3 car. Ron Shepherd, a Modified driver from New York, starts smoking and that brings out the caution. Elliott and Allison and others head to the pits.
Ken Schrader and Harry Gant stay out and assume the top two spots. Earnhardt, a lap down, gets past Schrader and is back on the lead lap. I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve seen that happen too many times. Usually, the lap down cars can’t run with the lead lap cars.
Curtis Markham loses his engine and brings out another caution and that will help Earnhardt out. Schrader still doesn’t pit so he still has the lead. There’s a moment where the current 7-time champion Richard Petty and future 7-time champion Dale Earnhardt are battling for 15th position as the #3 makes his way back through the field.
Eventually, Elliott catches and passed Schrader who slows and heads to the pit with a tire issue. Benny Parsons and Neil Bonnett come in as well.
While Elliott leads and Earnhardt tries to come back from his early issue, Richard Petty has slapped the wall with a big wreck to bring out the caution. Elliott and the rest of the field heads to pit road. Once pit stops are complete, ESPN shows a video of drivers talking about how to avoid wrecks. Mostly it’s “stay calm” and “look for an opening.” I will say the fact that they show a couple of drivers causing wrecks and then ESPN compliments them on their responses kinda lessens the impact.
Ken Schrader leads them to green but he’s not on the leader. He’s starting ahead of Bill Elliott. Strange because I thought the leader on the lead lap led the field to green. I don’t know?
In a weird turn of events, just after D.K. Ulrich is involved in a major wreck and is engulfed in smoke and dust, we see that Elliott has been blackflagged, probably for not leading the field to proper speed under the caution.
The field comes down pit road and ESPN does a quick profile of Earnhardt’s Jackman David Smith. D.K. Ulrich is okay and this is the largest crowd in Dover’s history. Apparently, Elliott thought he was racing Schrader back to the start/finish line and that’s why he got black flagged.
It appears Dave Marcis has the lead when they go back green. He’s trying to keep Benny Parsons a lap down. Back in the pack, Rick Wilson and Neil Bonnett almost get together much to the former’s chagrin.
With Brett Bodine in second, the big battle is between the two Allisons, Earnhardt and Morgan Shepherd for third on back.
Eventually Bobby Allsion and Earnhardt get by Marcis. The younger Allison will as well and also makes it past Earnhardt for second. However, before anything more can happen Morgan Shepherd wrecks and Mike Potter spins and crashes into Shepherd. (I had to look up how to spell Shepherd so as not to confuse him with the actor the late Morgan Sheppard who was in Gettysburg among other works.) Rick Wilson also gets caught up in the wreck as well.
Back to green and Dale Earnhardt who, as the commentators remind us, was almost two laps down, has the lead. Benny Parsons is heading to the pits. Earnhardt’s time at the front is short-lived as Davey Allison takes the lead with father Bobby ready to take over as well.
But before he can do that, the caution has come out because someone (Shepherd, perhaps?) has to go to the hospital and they need to let the ambulance leave the track.
Back under green, Bobby Allison is the leader and the story is Bill Elliott falling back.Terry Labonte and Ken Schrader are battling for the second spot.
Initially, the Elliott camp made it sound like the #9 was falling back to save his equipment but shortly after Harry Gant calls it a day, Elliott joins Geoff Bodine in heading to the pits.
Turns out, Elliott and Bodine are the frontrunners for this next round of pit stops. Schrader comes in to, among other things, clean some paper off the grill. Bobby Allison’s crew has a tire get away on them but apparently, it’s not the issue it would be in 2024. Kyle Petty has hit the wall but manages to get it to pit road.
Meanwhile, there are eight cars on the lead lap, led by Davey Allison. Or at least until the commercial break and then Davey pits and his dad takes back the lead. Earlier in the race, they were talking about Ayrton Senna winning in Monaco. The reason I bring this up is that Nelson Piquet, father of Julia Piquet and therefore is Daniel Suarez’s father-in-law.
The eight drivers on the lead lap becomes four and then Bobby Allison goes to work on trying to put Dale Earnhardt (in fourth) a lap down. It takes him 10 laps but he finally does. That leaves just the younger Allison, Davey, and Terry Labonte on the lead lap.
Ricky Rudd and Geoff Bodine are both on pit road with engine issues. A little bit later, Rick Wilson’s smoking car sits in the pits.
Remember how I said there were three drivers on the lead lap? Make that two as Bobby gets past Terry Labonte. Bobby does eventually pit, giving up the lead to Davey and allowing Phil Parsons (temporarily) and Dale Earnhardt to get back on the lead lap.
As the race continues, ESPN airs a segment on some of the bad blood between competitors, most notably Dale Earnhardt and Geoff Bodine and Earnhardt and Bill Elliott. The weird part is that they use Howard Jones’ “You Know I Love You, Don’t You?” as the background music. I say “weird” because that song jumped in my head about two weeks ago and me not thinking about it in decades.
The two Allisons hit the pits. Davey has a good pit stop but Bobby is having an overheating issue so he has a lengthier pit stop. Davey keeps the lead.
Bobby Hillin, Jr. starts to smoke and has enough of an issue to bring out a yellow flag, even before the #8 car (no, not Dale Earnhardt, Jr. or Kyle Busch) spins. This brings everyone down pit road but right now Davey Allison and Terry Labonte (who was about 10 car lengths from being lapped) are the only cars on the lead lap.
Yikes! And I get upset if the leader has a lead of over two or three seconds nowadays!
On the restart, Ken Schrader gets bumped and finally spins out -without collecting anyone – to bring out the caution. But Earnhardt has gotten back on the lead lap as he beats Davey Allison back to the start-finish line.
The battle once they go green, however, is between Labonte and Earnhardt for second while Allison is driving away.
With about a hundred laps to go, Rusty Wallace and Phil Parsons are involved in a wreck that brings out the caution. Davey Allison pits which the commentators find interesting since he can’t make it to the end from here. Meanwhile, Bill Elliott is back on the lead lap.
Going back to green, Elliott takes second from Labonte. The Elliott camp says he can go the rest of the race on fuel but the Allison camp says “no way!” Earnhardt gets by Labonte who reports he has lost a cylinder.
So a fairly lengthy segment of everyone just riding around, with Allison leading and the commentators checking in on different drivers regarding their overall seasons.
That ends, with just over 50 laps to go, as the #3 car of Dale Earnhardt heads to pit road for what is not a scheduled pit stop. Others head to the pits as well, including Buddy Baker and possibly Ken Schrader and Michael Waltrip. A few laps later, Earnhardt is back down again but the commentators completely no-sell it, as if it’s a routine stop.
Looks like it will come down to Allison and Elliott. Looks like Earnhardt had another blistered tire and that has ended his shot at a win today.
First of the leaders to come down pit road is Elliott, who does a gas-and-go and gets back on track but is just 10 car lengths from being lapped. However, as Davey Allison goes to pit he comes in too fast and has to check up and wait for another lap. He makes it on the next attempt. He gets three seconds of fuel and back on the track.
It looks like Allison has survived the miscue and retains the lead by about five seconds over Elliott with a dozen laps to go. Alan Kulwicki has scrapped the wall but the race remains green as he makes it to the pits.
The laps wind down and Davey Allison will get his second win in just his 15th career Cup start.
johnmilner.ca 