Okay, if you’ve been following along, the 1987 season has been pretty much the Bill Elliot Show, as he won the Busch Clash and finished a very close second in his Duel race. Can he keep the momentum going and win the Great American Race for the second time? (Well, since we’re discussing 1987, you probably already know the answer but let’s find out what happens along the way.)
CBS Sports opens their coverage of the Daytona 500 with a feel-good video about a youngster dreaming of winning the Daytona 500. The only problem is, he’s driving #7 and yet the person they focus on is some actor and certainly not Alan Kulwicki.
Ken Squier, Chris Economaki, Dave Despain, David Hobbs, Ned Jarrett, and Mike Joy get viewers hyped for the show, talking about the importance of the race, the great weather and the fast speeds. Pretty usual stuff to start things off and get people in the right frame of mind to watch the Daytona 500.
Interesting moments from the pre-show: they show footage of a wreck Bill Elliott had in the previous day’s Busch (now Xfinity Race) and Despain asks Judy Allison who she would cheer for between Bobby and Davey, foreshadowing the finish to the following year’s race.
They go through the pre-race ceremonies. No one really jumps out as far as “celebrity appearances” (they don’t even reference who gives the command save to give his name – Ross Johnson). They run through the line-up, referencing Allison as the first rookie to start on the front row. Even knowing the outcome, it’s still exciting to hear the music.
Goodness, Michael Waltrip looks like he snuck in at at 15 to race. Hey, Trevor Boys is driving for D.K. Ulrich (step-father of Scream and Riverdale star Skeet Ulrich).
One of the cool things about watching these race broadcasts is seeing old commercials like the one for the Celtics – Lakers match-up coming up later on CBS.
Elliott jumps out to the lead, Davey Allison remains in second as they are three wide back in the pack during the early laps but they start to spread out and run single-file. Schrader was third, with Darrell Waltrip fourth but then here comes Buddy Baker move up to third and Schrader slips back.
There is a lot of talk about the strength of the Fords so far in the 500. Mike Joy talks about the tire smoke that Baker is showing with Baker’s crew chief, Doug Richert. Richert was Earnhardt’s crew chief when he won Championship #1 and was still on the pitbox as recently as 2019 in the Xfinity Series.
Even with the tire smoke, Baker gets to second and starts to challenge Elliott, as Terry Labonte hits the pits with engine trouble. Despain interviews Labonte’s crew chief, Jeff Hammond, more famous as Darrill Waltrip’s crew chief. A.J. Foyt is in the garage and complaining to Mike Joy about his crew making a mistake that cut his day short.
Elliott and Baker, meanwhile, has a pretty good lead on the rest of the field, led by Geoff Bodine. They put Canadian Trevor Boys down a lap. Boys had five straight Daytona 500 starts, with that streak coming to an end after the 1988 Daytona 500. (It would be until 2017 before another Canadian – D.J. Kennington – would start the 500.)
At the front, Elliott and Baker are sticking together. Baker is okay with not passing Elliott because the draft is allowing the pair to pull away and set a new record for the first 30 laps in the Daytona 500. Bodine and Shrader are drafting together in 3rd and 4th.
On lap 35, Dale Earnhardt, Ricky Rudd and others start bringing the field to pit row over the course of the next few laps. They show Elliott’s pit stop and it appears it takes them almost 17 seconds to change two tires and take on fuel. (That’s a slow stop for four tires in 2020.) Davey Allison overshoots his pit and it appears there was some further issues by the crew and he took off with the gas can still attached. A crew member (later identified as Dale Inman) leapt into Richard Petty’s #43 to make a repair.
Hey, a two-hour Magnum P.I. and then the week after, Frank Sinatra stars.
Coming back from the break – just as I suspected: they did not get all the lugnuts on the right rear tire tight and the wheel eventually came off, bringing out the caution. Robert Yates says there was a ton of mistakes and issues. Oh well, Davey would have better 500s in the future.
After a segment about the importance of pit stops, we are back to green flag laps. Buddy Baker and Geoff Bodine are out in front as Bill Elliott has fallen back to fifth but rebounds to third when a debris caution comes out as Eddie Bierschwale’s engine expires. Ken Ragan (father of David Ragan) also scraped the wall.
Before they go back green, Mike Joy talks with Doug Richart again and Bill Brodrick invents the photo bomb, sticking his head into the shot behind them.
On the restart, Baker drops down to the apron. Geoff Bodine gets by him but Baker battles back and the two battle side for side. Baker gets the better of things and here comes Chase’s dad and Benny Parsons, but a whole gaggle of cars are behind them.
The cars go back to single-file and Elliott takes second and tries to chase down Baker. At lap 55, we hear about Dale Earnhardt joining the lead group for the first time today. Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt – the two seven-time champions – battle for the fifth spot.
Dave Despain talks with Alexis Leras about the changing sponsors because half of NASCAR fans were women. (But I thought even in 2020, NASCAR was this patriar…you know…I’m not going there.)
They show Petty trading some paint with David Sosebee, another driver from Dawsonville,GA. However, shortly thereafter Kyle Petty has had to pit due to some engine issues.
The elder Petty runs third but is almost three seconds back from Baker and Elliott. I have to be honest, anyone watching the modern day Daytona 500 will be shocked to not see the three and four-wide pack racing.
By lap 80, Bobby Allison and Dale Earnhardt have made pit stops. Allison’s seemed unscheduled and Earnhardt’s lasted 18 seconds. Eventually all of the cars pit and Elliott comes out with a four second lead.
Another major different between 1987 and 2020: the broadcast has features. Economaki does a brief feature on the Daytona airport and lounge. Yeah…
As they near the halfway point, Elliott has a good lead over Baker and Dale Earnhardt is up to third. Squier talks about all the Elliott family back in Dawsonville and says there is a crowd of 300 at the Dawsonville Pool Hall (home of the sireeeeenn that rang a couple of weeks ago when Chase Elliott won the 2020 Championship).
As Elliott continues to pull away from the lead, Earnhardt passes Baker and there’s four car pack (including Geoff Bodine and Ken Schrader) battling basically for second.
After 100 laps, Elliott still leads with Earnhardt, Schrader, Bodine, Baker, Bobby Allison, Benny Parsons, Harry Gant, Sterling Marlin and Darrell Waltrip rounding out the Top 10.
There was talk that Earnhardt was going to be gaining on Bill Elliott but as they come back from commercial break it is Schrader who passes the #3 and takes over second place. With his success against Elliott in the Duel, there is suddenly a discussion that perhaps Ken Schrader could win the Daytona 500. Mike Joy talks with Schrader’s car owner Junie Dunlavey, for whom Canadian Earl Ross ran his final Cup race in the 1976 Daytona 500.
After they talk with Richard Childress about Earnhardt’s chances, they show the same video I’ve seen before that has Ned Jarrett driving around the Daytona speedway in a street car and Terry Labonte whizzes by him in his stock car, to give viewers a sense of how fast NASCAR drivers run. (See again, they would air these segments during the long green flag runs to give viewers something to watch instead of just cars going around on the track.)
Back on track, Buddy Baker who had been running in the Top 2 is now back to 8th. As they come back from break, pit stops have started. Elliott comes in and gives up the lead to Schrader. Mike Joy is talking to Rick Hendrick and asks him if he’s looking for the trifecta (his three cars finishing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd) which would happen ten years later as Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Ricky Craven took the top 3 spots in the 1997 Daytona 500 for Hendrick.
After the round of green flag pit stops finish, Elliott inherits the lead back and remains in the lead through Lap 130 and they remain in good shape to break the record for the all-time fastest Daytona 500. (Spoiler alert: I believe the 1980 Daytona 500, won by Buddy Baker, remains the fastest 500 so there must be at least a caution or two to come.)
And after leaving the field in the rear view for much of the midway portion of the Daytona 500, Elliott now sees Ken Schrader coming up behind. Dunlavey, however, isn’t too sure if Schrader can get around Elliott. Ernie Elliott, born July 25!, says that the #9 is loose and as they are talking to Ernie, Schrader does indeed pass Elliott for the lead.
The caution comes out which was bad news for Schrader they say. The leaders head down pit row and both Elliott and Schrader take on four tires, but a mistake by the pits keeps Schrader in the pits longer…but it is Benny Parsons who gets back on track first.
However, Parsons will restart fifth behind Darrell Waltrip, Neil Bonnett and Lake Speed and another Parsons, Phil (future ARCA and Camping World Truck announcer). Elliott is seventh behind Dale Earnhardt and then it’s Bodine, Baker and Ken Schrader is in tenth.
Okay, I don’t know what the heck happened (did Waltrip, etc. pit?) because Benny Parsons is on the front row as they go back to green. By the time they get to turn 3, Dale Earnhardt is leading and puts some distance between the #3 and Bill Elliott’s #9…Wait…was it “Eight years of trying, Eight years of frustration”?
No, I guess not because Bill closes in and takes the lead back. As they take a look back in the field they talk about 1986 Rookie of the Year Alan Kulwicki. David Hobbs dubs Kulwicki “a calm, level-headed young man” who he expects will go a long way in this sport. And Kulwicki would go on to win the 1992 Cup Championship but was killed in a plane crash in April 1993.
With approximately 50 laps to go, Earnhardt has a tight battle with Geoff Bodine. Earnhardt gets the better of the exchange and a few laps later Bodine scraps the wall. He keeps going but a caution quickly comes out. At first it’s suspected it might be from damage to Bodine’s car but it’s later said someone threw a can on the track. The caution is good news for Bodine but also for the rest of the field as everyone comes in to take on fuel, tires, etc.
As they go back to green, Schrader has the lead but Earnhardt quickly goes to the point with Benny Parsons in second. Baker is like a rocket into third with Bill Elliott back to fourth. Meanwhile, Davey Allison, thirteen laps down is muddled in the midst of them. Schrader drops back to eighth.
As Baker battles Earnhardt for the lead, Despain discusses how the teams will all need to go down for one more stop for fuel to get to the front. Speaking of Earnhardt, his car owner Richard Childress voices his frustration that the multi-laps-down Davey Allison will not get out of the way. Allison ended up pulling away from the field.
By the time they come back from a break, Bill Elliott has retaken the lead but another half-dozen cars (including Earnhardt, Parsons, Baker, Bodine and even Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip) are within striking distance.
Meanwhile, Chris Economaki talks about how the Daytona 500 is scored and Dave Despain talks about how the draft has changed over the years.
Back on track, Earnhardt is closing on Elliott and Schrader is closing on the lead pack. Ned Jarrett muses that perhaps Elliott’s tires start to wear out after a while, allowing whoever is in second to close up.
Earnhardt tries to make the pass but Elliott doesn’t led the lead go easy and Baker is a very close third. In fourth? Richard Petty who is starting to move closer to the Top 3 and further away from the pack behind him.
With fifteen laps to go, Earnhardt and Baker get by Elliott as pit stops begin with Darrell Waltrip and Schrader, the latter of which has issues getting back up to speed. Elliott is the first of the lead three to put.
Benny Parsons comes in but overshoots his pit but because he hadn’t overshoot it by too much, the crew was able to pit him. Earnhardt gives up the lead to Richard Petty. The Earnhardt pit stop last eleven second while Elliott’s was five seconds. (Everyone is just taking fuel at this point.) Earnhardt also doesn’t get a great restart coming out of the pits and ends up falling out of the Top 5.
With nine laps to go, Petty still has the lead but will be pitting soon. They show Petty coming down pit road and, man!, you can tell they didn’t have pit row speeds because he is just flying! The pit crew were flying too as they got gas and got Petty out in just about four seconds.
Meanwhile, Geoff Bodine’s crew chief Gary Nelson (later head of NASCAR’s R&D Centre) has decided not to pit Bodine and hope they can win their second straight Daytona 500 on fuel mileage. Nelson says they will run out of gas on the last lap.
Instead, he is out with three laps to go. The irony that Bodine won last year’s 500 with Earnhardt running out of gas with three to go is brought up by the commentators. Bodine would finish 14th.
As Bodine sputters down the back stretch, Elliott goes by him and resumes the lead. Benny Parsons runs second, Petty thirds, Baker fourth and Earnhardt fifth.
As they take the white flag, Parsons starts to close on Elliott but can’t get quite close enough as Dawsonville, Georgia’s Bill Elliott wins the 1987 Daytona 500!
Elliott’s win, by a margin of approximately half a second, is the second of nine tries in the Daytona 500. Afterwards, he says his car was good when it needed to be but he knew he had to be ahead of Earnhardt after the last pit stop.
There’s a scene afterwards that you probably would not see today: three drivers hanging out after the race. Benny Parsons, Richard Petty and Buddy Baker all gather around Dave Despain to discuss what they felt they could have done differently to have a shot at defeating Bill Elliott. Bodine talks about only needing a bit more gas to have won, but was okay with having gambled. (I’m guessing having already won the Daytona 500 allows him that perspective.)
With that, the 1987 Daytona 500 is in the books and we are off to Rockingham.
johnmilner.ca 