Note: I watched the race on the NASCAR Classics YouTube Channel.
Talk about the race on my Facebook page: John Milner’s Track Talk.
As my Dad used to say (on one of our family trips to Gettysburg) “There’s nothing like being in Pennsylvania in the morning!” NASCAR heads to the three turns of Pocono and Tim Richmond is back on the NASCAR circuit.
Terry Labonte and Benny Parsons (“nice hat, Benny!”) are on the front row. Richard Petty will be starting the race but then Joe Ruttman will be substituting. He broke two ribs and injured his knee in a wreck at Dover a couple of weeks ago.
Wow! Five different makes of cars in this race, including Ford, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick.
Labonte takes the green flag and the lead, with the Folgers cars – that’s right… cars – of Richmond (#25) and Parsons (#35). Cool visual from what looks like a helicopter, kinda like the drone shots we see today.
Some early trouble as Rusty Wallace heads to the garage and Jim Bown skids off the track to bring out a caution. Darrell Waltrip pitted too early and has gone a lap down. His crew chief, Waddell Wilson, says the #17 car isn’t running well enough to make up the lap.
Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott and Tim Richmond jump out ahead of the pack on the restart. There’s a great battle at the front with Richmond passing Elliott and challenging Earnhardt for the lead, with Terry Labonte in the picture in fourth.
Richmond overtakes Earnhardt for the lead but the battle rages. Richard Petty checks in about having to watch Joe Ruttman drive the #43 car. Weird because usually the substitute drivers go a lap down and are out of it. In this case, however, Ruttman is moving forward.
Scheduled pit stops take place at lap 60. Jimmy Horton has an issue and brings out the yellow, which totally screws up the pit strategies, especially for those who (like Earnhardt and Richmond) had already pitted.
Ricky Rudd leads over Bill Elliott and Morgan Shepherd as they restart. Tim Richmond had fallen back on the restart but soon passed Shepherd and starts to challenge Elliott for second. However, Elliott passes Rudd for the lead and Richmond comes with him.
Michael Waltrip has an issue (spinning out?) and that brings out the caution. Everyone hits pit road but Terry Labonte goes one step further and is in the garage and out of the race. He says the car started to seize up. As they go back to green, Tim Richmond heads back down pit road for an unscheduled pit stop.
Bill Elliott has the lead, with Earnhardt and Neil Bonnett making up the rest of the top three. Tim Richmond’s Team Manager Harry Hyde says the #25 car bent a shifting rod. Hyde seems to think they can live with it and even win, if they can get back on the lead lap.
The battle becomes Richmond and Elliott not for the lead but to keep Richmond on the lead lap. Richmond has the better of that battle when Benny Parsons spins and hits the wall. Benny got loose and spun in front of his brother Phil but there was no contact between the two.
Earnhardt has the lead on the restart. He gets a decent lead over Kyle Petty, who is driving for the Wood Brothers. Earnhardt has about a fifteen car length lead over Petty when Shepherd has an engine issue to bring out the caution.
A little while later (sorry, was on Facebook liking people’s Christmas posts) and Joe Ruttman slams into the wall and brings out the caution. On pit road, Richmond manages to get service and out ahead of Earnhardt for what they are calling final pit stops.
I should point out that this version of the race is only about an hour long. If you aren’t really paying attention (like me), it hasn’t been noticeable until this YouTube commercial break about 44 minutes in. After seeing that segment on Richmond and Earnhardt taking pit stops just before the break, they interview Harry Hyde who says Richmond didn’t come in for pit stops because Earnhardt didn’t.
Anyways, they’ve got five laps to go. Richmond takes the lead, with Elliott passing Earnhardt for second. Earnhardt continues to fall as Kyle Petty challenges and then passes him for the third spot. Earnhardt would end up falling back to fifth.
As they take the white flag, Tim Richmond has a commanding lead and wins his third straight race at Pocono and his first race back from illness. Richmond is emotional in Victory Lane but hey, you come back from “double pneumonia” and a lap down, you’d be emotional too.
johnmilner.ca 