Okay, so one of the difficulties in recapping a NASCAR season from 33 years ago is needing YouTube to do it, and you don’t always get the full races. Take for example, the 1987 Goodwrench 500. The run-time says 55:46 compared to the over two-and-a-half hours that the 500 mile Daytona 500 ran. Not sure if that means they’ve ditched all the commercials or if this is more of a recap show. Oh well, I guess we’ll find out.
The Goodwrench 500 from Rockingham, North Carolina just shows how different (and may I say better) NASCAR is than almost any other sport. In football, basketball, hockey, and to a degree baseball, and the playing field is the same. (And yes I know baseball stadiums have varying layouts – there’s the old joke of ‘That ball wouldn’t have been out of most parks’ – but it’s still 90 feet between bases. It’s not like you go to Yankee Stadium and you have to run 115 feet to make it safely to first but only 85 feet at Dodger Stadium.)
Last time, we were at the 2.5 mile tri-oval of Daytona and this time we’re at North Carolina Motor Speedway which is just slightly over a mile (1.017 to be exact).
As we open the show, Dick Berggren – who is not wearing his hat for what must be the first time in recorded NASCAR history – is talking about how rain washed out practice. So in other words, replace rain with COVID and you’ve got 1987 racing as if it was 2020.
Rookie Davey Allison will lead them to green. The race was carried on SETN (what?) and opens with graphics that just scream “1980s”. Heck, take out the computer race car and put in some wrestlers and you’d think the opening was for AWA Championship Wrestling.
Eli Gold and Dr. Jerry Punch go through the field and we get underway. Davey Allison, who looks to not have the Texaco Havoline sponsorship as yet. Ten laps in and Jesse Samples Jr. and Jerry Holden both spin in what appear to be separate incidents and the caution comes out.
Allison has the lead and Geoff Bodine, Ricky Rudd, Ken Schrader and Benny Parsons make up the Top 5 as they go back green. Gold lets us in that this hour long recap is just that as the event lasts about 4 1/2 hours. He calls it an endurance race and it reminds me of the Southern 500 at Darlington which, they have said, lasts longer than the Coca-Cola 600.
Dale Earnhardt passes Darrell Waltrip, Neil Bonnett and Benny Parsons to start making his move to the front, moving into the Top 5. Further back in the pack, two legends Richard Petty and Bobby Allison are racing for position.
Earnhardt keeps on coming and gets by the younger Allison for the lead. Bodine comes up as well and Allison slips back to third. As it looks like Bodine and Earnhardt might battle for the lead, a wreck in Turn 1 claims Sterling Marlin and Bobby Allison.
On the restart, it is Benny Parsons who has the lead, with Earnhardt back to fourth. (They didn’t show pit stops – save Marlin – but I have to assume everyone pitted and Parsons’ Hendrick Motorsports team got the best stop). But before too long the caution flag flies with Morgan Shepherd spins. NASCAR is thinking about Shepherd these days as the veteran who, born in 1941 was still racing in the Xfinity Series in 2019, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease recently. Patrick Latimer, Jimmy Means, Eddie Bierschwale and Michael Waltrip also get collected.
Back to green, Earnhardt, Neil Bonnett and Parsons are battling for the top speed. Parsons has the lead but as they come upon Mean’s car, Earnhardt takes the lead. Terry Labonte comes into the picture in fourth.
Wait, where did Geoff Bodine, battling Bonnett for second, come from? Maybe the recap jumped ahead a bit without me noticing. Parsons looks like he’s had a blown engine and is heading to pit row.
Parsons doesn’t bring out the caution but a multi-car wreck does. Ron Bouchard, Chet Philip, Tommy Ellis, James Ellis, David Sosebee, Jimmy Means again, and James Hylton. Under the caution, Earnhardt is in for a four-tire stop as they move Parsons’ car to the garage area.
Back from commercial break, Earnhardt and Bonnett battle for the lead with Ricky Rudd, Bill Elliott and Geoff Bodine rounding out the Top 5. Bonnett won the race two years ago but as of this race, Earnhardt has never won at Rockingham.
Sterling Marlin is under the weather and may need to be replaced (possibly by Benny Parson) according to the commentators.
Earnhardt’s time at the front is cut short as Bonnett passes the #3. Green flag pit stops begin, with Yarborough – who had some tire smoke – the first and others follow.
Bonnett waits as long as he can – but waits too long and runs out of gas. Then as he comes down pit road, he overshoots his pit and can’t get the car re-fired. Earnhardt’s crew comes over to help plus Sterling Marlin’s crew chief brings a can of ether to help try to re-fire the car.
Geoff Bodine has an engine fail – the second Hendrick car today to do so and Buddy Baker is also out of the race. Back in the race is Benny Parsons, albeit as a relief driver for the ailing Sterling Marlin (who had a too-tight helmet and his neck gave out). As Parsons tries to get into the car and get things set up for him, Lake Speed spins out.
Ricky Rudd is at the point as they go back green but is that four-way behind the leader? They do largely get back to single file but another caution comes out as Harry Gant and Gary Sacks get together.
Earnhardt gets the lead back from Ricky Rudd. Neil Bonnett is closing in on getting back on the lead lap. However, in a few laps, Bonnett heads back down pit row. Not sure if that was a scheduled pit stop or not. Richard Petty comes down and they are talking that Earnhardt will be coming soon so perhaps Bonnett was the first instead of the last to pit this time.
Bill Elliott needs to pit and Eddie Bierschwale spins out but because he was down on the apron there is no caution. Bad news for Elliott, Rusty Wallace, Morgan Shepherd but good news for those who had just pitted. Elliott comes down and because they are only doing two tires, Elliott pits almost next to the pit wall, meaning his crew doesn’t have to go so far.
Morgan Shepherd comes to pit and we get a Larry McReynolds reference.
With the final scheduled pit stops over and it’s Earnhardt who has the lead. Gold talks about this race being the Goodwrench 500 and Goodwrench being an associate sponsor for Earnhardt’s team. In 1988, Goodwrench would become the primary sponsor for the #3 Richard Childress Racing team and the sponsor everyone still thinks of when they think of Earnhardt, with the all-black car.
With ten laps to go, it certainly appears that Earnhardt has this won. The commentators are basically starting to wrap things up, discussing the rash of yellow flags midway through the race and talking about the drivers in the Top 20.
Dale Earnhardt hangs on to win the Goodwrench 500 at Rockingham, his 21st career Cup win. In the pits, Earnhardt seems okay with his crew helping Neil Bonnett, saying Bonnett’s crew would help them in return if need be. He had mentioned previously that Bonnett was probably his strongest competition throughout the day and he probably saved a bit to contend with Ricky Rudd if he’s had to.
Rudd was second with Bonnett (who had been two laps down) in third, Elliott in fourth and Shepherd, also involved in a incident early on, finishes fifth.
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