You can watch the race here.
Discuss this race at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569092154997
The broadcast starts with the safety measures installed on the superspeedways. This comes after Bobby Allison’s famous crash at Talladega earlier in the season. They don’t say “restrictor plate” but this is basically the beginning of the restrictor plate era, as well as the draft.
Davey Allison, who won the race at Talladega, sits on the pole. Bill Elliott, who had record-setting qualifying effort at Talladega, joins him on the front row. Earnhardt starts 13th and the announcer says Earnhardt has never won a big race at Daytona.
With the drop of the green flag, Davey Allison leads Bill Elliott and it becomes single file for the first 20 cars or so. Ken Schrader who started third quickly starts dropping back. As the laps continue, there are some battles for position and two-wide racing mid-pack. That allows the first half-dozen cars to break away.
During the commercial break, Tim Richmond and others (Lake Speed and Brad Teague) collide. One of the things about watching this particular broadcast is that it is the original satellite feed, so you get to hear the commentators, etc. talk during the commercial breaks. Makes for an interesting watching experience but man, this is a long commercial break.
When they FINALLY come back to the race, the race restarts and it’s Allison, Elliott, and Margan Shepherd pulling away from the rest of the pack. Earnhardt has moved up to fourth, and with drafting help from Buddy Baker and Neil Bonnett and Terry Labonte, starts to close the gap. Eventually, the two groups link up, and Earnhardt takes third.
As far as the battle at the front is concerned, literally nothing else happens for a good length of time. It’s Allison and Elliott nearly nose to tail and Earnhardt a couple of car lengths back and then…nothing. Elliott slips up a bit and Earnhardt nearly catches him but the #9 pulls away and back behind the #28.
They show the view from Ken Schrader’s car, running in fourth, and you’d swear he was out there by himself. Way in the distance you can just barely make out the top three way off in the distance.
There is finally a change at the front as Davey Allison comes down for fuel. The broadcast must be switching away to other sports coverage because the commentator, Keith Jackson, says they’ll be back “in a little while” before throwing it to someone else. You can hear Jackson and Donnie Allison talking so that gives you a little bit of info. Earnhardt pits but Elliott stays out.
Joey Knuckles, one of the coolest guys in the history of NASCAR, explains that Allison had run out of gas and that was the reason for the pitstop. That’s a shocker given how early in the race it happened, especially after the caution laps they ran. Could there be a leak in the fuel tank?
As a very lengthy round of pit stops takes place, one of the great independent drivers, Dave Marcis, who would set the record for most appearances in the Daytona 500, cycles to the lead. This results in the following statement from Jackson “No way we’re going to put a segment on the air with Dave Marcis leading!” which gets a chuckle from analyst Donnie Allison. (Not sure what they had against Marcis or if Jackson was just incredulous that Marcis ended up leading during the pit cycle.
As things get sorted out, it appears that Elliott has the lead with Earnhardt right there to fight for it. Allison is running third but has to come down pit road to have his crew work on the car. It must be that possible fuel tank issue that Knuckles was alluding to earlier. No, actually they have a screw in the carburetor.
A short of the tower shows that , at lap 70, Bill Elliott is leading Dale Earnhardt with Darrell Waltrip in third. There ‘s a caution (I missed why while organizing my file cabinet) and so they will line them up and set them off again.
In addition to Allison having issues, Dale Earnhardt lost the transmission on the car, says Richard Childress. It will hurt them on the cautions and pit stops but might be okay with some long green flag runs. Meanwhile, Bill Elliott is pulling away with Rick Wilson (#4 Kodak car) in second.
I don’t know where the network went to but there has been no commentary, save a couple of pit road interviews (Joey Knuckles and Richard Childress), since. Even the commentators have stopped talking, at least over a live mic.
Ken Schrader assumes the lead at one point, with Earnhardt close behind in second, despite the mechanical issues. Darrell Waltrip but I can’t tell if he’s up to second or a lap down.
Caution is out for debris on the back stretch of the racetrack. This brings everyone down to pit road. (Waltrip pitted with the leaders so he must have been on the lead lap and up to second.) Wow! Schrader took off like a herd of turtles so you can tell this was the time before pit road speed.
They must be about to come back because the commentators are starting to talk to each other. Waltrip went from second to fifth because he missed his pit stall, and Earnhardt is back to eighth. There are fifteen cars on the lead lap and Elliott is in that final lead lap spot.
Okay…so full disclosure: Several months ago, I started writing this recap and then left to do something else. (I think I got tired of not hearing any commentary.) Life got in the way, you could say. I come back today and literally within 10 seconds of me starting the rewatch, the commentary comes back on.
Schrader leads Rusty Wallace, Terry Labonte, and how about Richard Petty into fourth. Earnhardt is 8th and Elliott is 15th. The commentators talk about how the caution and restart has caused the field to bunch up as well as how the restrictor plate has caused the draft to play a bigger role than in races in the past. Schrader’s time in the lead is short-lived as Wallace makes the pass for the lead. But Schrader tucks in behind and the two start to pull away a bit from the duo of Waltrip and Labonte for about a lap. A bit of tandem drafting allows the top eight or so to pull away a bit from the pack.
Speaking of the pack, there’s no pack racing the way it is at Daytona nowadays. Its basically just one big line of cars, with now Waltrip at the front. During the commercial break, Waltrip is in among lap cars. (Lap cars? At Daytona? There’s a thing of the past.)
Earnhardt and Labonte are on opposite sides of favour, with the #3 up to second and Labonte’s #11 having some issues and falling back. Earnhardt eventually replaces Waltrip as the race leader, bringing Rick Wilson with him. Waltrip is back to third.
Dr. Jerry Punch is talking with Tim Brewer, crew chief for Labonte. I missed what Brewer said was the problem, but the hope was that it would fix itself and the #11 car could get back to the front.
Richard Petty is 9th and the commentators talk about the King’s legacy before and after the commercial break. They talk about his eventual retirement, which would come five years later. They also debate whether Dave Marcis is on the lead lap (turns out he is) and note that Alan Kulwicki is headed back to the garage. (Better days for him ahead.)
During the commercial break (or while the network is covering other sports), they try to find out who might relieve Petty. “Who the hell is it? Don’t just tell me they’re changing drivers, tell me who it is,” Jackson, obviously frustrated, finally asks. Lake Speed and Alan Kulwicki are the names tossed around.
Lost is all this is Earnhardt remaining out front, although a lack of commentary and 1987 quality video makes it difficult to figure out who is in the runner up spot. I can hear that there are 29 laps to go, with still no word on who is replacing Petty, who is running 8th.
Literally five seconds later, Petty pulls in to the pits, to be replaced by Lake Speed, although it was initially announced as Kulwicki. They show just how much the 150 degree heat has taken its toll on the King.
And it turns out that Earnhardt is no longer the leader. Ken Schrader has reclaimed his spot at the front, with Earnhardt holding on to second. Rick Wilson remains behind the #3 with Dave Marcis and Bill Elliott filling out the Top 5.
That’s the entire update and they go back to commercial, with Jackson wanting to know “Why in the world could we not find out who was going in that car?” (It seems as if Petty’s team didn’t know.) Punch is with Petty who wasn’t feeling great but feels even worse with the car now unable to get off pit road. He says his eyes were burning but when his nose got to burning, he decided he’d had enough.
While all that is going on, Earnhardt has fallen out of the Top 5 at least. I guess he was one of the first to pit and had struggles with the stop and trying to get back on track, so he is a lap down. The #3 coming to pit road has started the last round of stops for the race, with Schrader coming in for his service.
The #43 remains stalled on pit road and other than a quick note before throwing it to an interview (which we are not privy too), during which Jackson references how “there’s a bunch of nobodies up at the front – Bret Bodine?!?” And after fudging his line, Jackson says they’ll be back for the finish in a little while.
As we wind down toward the finish, I’m genuinely interested in who gets the win. Earnhardt is seemingly out of it and Elliott is 4th. Schrader and Marcis are in the picture, but I don’t think either of them win in 1987. That leaves a huge question mark to me.
Marcis is leading with 10 laps to go and drafting with Bobby Allison who is either a lap down or the last car on the lead lap. Apparently, Marcis has a sizeable lead over Rick Wilson in second.
I was going to say that perhaps Wilson pulls off the upset but he just scrapped the wall and the debris has sent Cale Yarborough into the grass. So, in the words of Mike Joy in the years since, “this changes everything!” (Ironically, Jackson says the same thing!) Good news for Bobby Allison, Schrader and Elliott, bad news for Earnhardt, Marcis and, of course, Wilson.
They go back green with five to go. Marcis leads Schrader, Elliott, Gant and Waltrip. Before Marcis can make it into turn one, Jackson starts yelling that “Elliott is in the pits!” Schrader gets to the back bumper of Marcis but falls off a bit but recovers.
With three laps to go, it is Marcis, Schrader and Gant. Schrader goes down low going into turn and gets to within a half car length but can’t pass Marcis. Buddy Baker has climbed up to fifth and Bobby Allison who was the last car on the lead lap before the caution is in 6th.
Every turn it seems that Marcis goes high and Schrader goes low. With two to go, it is Schrader who squeaks ahead for a moment.
Allison was almost a lap down? He was sixth? Coming out of turn two with just over a lap and a half to go, he’s making it three wide and going for the lead!
Oh wait…now they’re saying he is a lap down. Geez, call out that Wha-Wha-Wha sound effect they use when you lose on The Price is Right.
Coming to the white flag, Ken Schrader is in the lead…but wait, Allison is on the lead lap and therefore the leader. As they come to the checkered flag, Schrader gets bumped by Marcis , gets sideways, goes down the track, back up the track, flips over and gets into the wall and collects…Harry Gant?
Schrader gets out of the car and walks away but man, a wild turn of events. Schrader is leading…no he isn’t…yes, he is…no he isn’t…he isn’t and now he’s wrecking.
All I can say is, I never want to hear anyone complain about modern day racing commentating. I have yet to hear Mike Joy (national treasure by the way) and his cast of colour commentators ever go back and forth on who’s leading and who’s even on the lead lap to the extent that I just heard.
They also go to an extended in-car camera coverage of them trying to work on Schrader’s car after the wreck. They’re yelling at Schrader to do something and he’s yelling back at them. Jackson is complaining that he couldn’t get confirmation from anyone about Allison.
This was a definite “WTF?” moment in NASCAR broadcasting. Meanwhile, I’m hoping that the extreme close-up of the Pepsi bottles on top of Bobby Allison’s car is not the live shot they went with on the air. You can see them interviewing Bobby Allison in Victory Lane and you can barely hear it over the loudspeakers at the track. They do finally get the audio set up and let Allison thank his team and crew.
There’s a brief shot of Davey Allison coming in to congratulate his Dad, a scene repeated at the next Daytona race: The 1988 Daytona 500. Yeah, it strikes me that Bobby won back-to-back races at Daytona.
There’s another fifteen minutes of this video but they’ve cut away so there’s silence in terms of commentary. I was going to call it a day but I decided to fast-forward because Jackson kept talking about redoing the whole final segment. Sure enough, they restarted the whole segment from about where Labonte had his issues but then the video froze and, a little fast-forwarding later, they are in the medical area, with Ken Schrader’s wife. We know this because the interviewer has to say “This is Ken Schrader’s wife” about three times before asking “Do you want his wife as well?” There’s an off-mic conversation between interviewer and prospective interviewee before she walks away. We follow the camera guy through the infield for a few minutes before he tells someone that he’s waiting for Schrader to come out of the hospital, and that Schrader finished seventh. This isn’t his commentary, mind you, just him talking to a producer. And that’s pretty much where the video ends.
I’m not sure how much of the last 25-30 minutes of this video actually made it to air. (Hopefully, none of it.) It was an interesting look at how chaotic trying to produce live sports can be behind-the-scenes. I’d love to know what was actually shown and what ended up airing for the fans at home.
johnmilner.ca 