Okay, this one kinda snuck up on me. I actually though the Transouth 500 from Darlington was up next. Instead, we travel to Atlanta where Dale Earnhardt sits on the pole. While I’m sure Earnhardt had his share of poles, he was never a guy who was known for that. It was more like he and his RCR team could get the car better as the race went on and he could get to the front via sheer determination.
As we start the program, this race is being carried on ABC and is dubbed the Atlanta 500 (?) Okay, strange disconnect in names aside, this has to be…what?…the fourth different network to be carrying NASCAR in as many races. (Plus, doesn’t ESPN carry some of the races, later?)
Earnhardt and Elliott are up front, with Buddy Baker in the second row. Can I say just how impressive Baker has been in 1987, in a bit of a surprising development? He hasn’t won yet but he’s been running up front consistently.
Already we have attrition as Eddie Bierschwale and Jimmy Means are already down pit row with issues during the pace laps. Connie Saylor and Lake Speed join them on the first lap.
Saylor was out on the track for a moment but had more issues and that brought out a caution just three laps in. Going back to green and it is more of the same, Earnhardt leading Elliott, Ken Schrader and Cale Yarborough. If I was watching this back in 1987, I would be predicting that Schrader gets at least a win or two. He’s been running strong and near the front all season so far. (I know Schrader won a few Cup races in his career, not sure if one was in 1987. He still races dirt tracks to this day.)
CBS takes a look at the Atlanta Speedway from the viewpoint of Cale Yarbrough who has an in-car camera while Earnhardt and Elliott drive away from the field. Neil Bonnett also has an in-car cam and we hear pre-recorded comments from Neil about racing in Atlanta.
Michael Waltrip, winner of the Busch race in Atlanta, has come in for what it is assumed an unscheduled pit stop. Buddy Baker is in shortly thereafter and it looks like his car is smoking.
From listening to the commentators, you almost get the sense that this is the one of the first ABC broadcasts of NASCAR because they are really acting like their audience has never seen a race before. They are really breaking it down to the simplest terms. In a way that’s not a bad thing because it really removes a lot of barriers for those who don’t regularly watch NASCAR.
Mikey’s problems continue as he blows his engine and brings out the caution. Buddy Baker’s issues also continue, having lost a cylinder. Meanwhile, we learn that if you win the race, you get your day’s tires for free from Goodyear. Going back green and Earnhardt and Elliott once again take to the lead and start to draw away from third-place Schrader.
Buddy Baker talks to Dr. Jerry Punch (who had a mustache at this point?) about how he thought he had a car that could run up front but had issues that brought their day to the end. Back on the race track, Elliott continues to run with Earnhardt. It looks, briefly, like Elliott might be able to get around the #3 on a number of occasions.
Derrike Cope hits the wall(s) and that will bring out the caution and the leaders to pit road. Rusty Wallace will snag the lead after pit stops as Earnhardt falls to second and Bobby Hillin, Jr. is in third with Elliott back to fourth.
Wallace has pre-recorded comments about how he’s become accepted by veteran drivers as he takes the green flag. Earnhardt however quickly gets by Wallace and lengthens his lead. Elliott would eventually move up to second.
Interesting moment as Cale Yarborough is said to have some tire issues. ABC goes to the in-car camera and as they do so he spins out and is involved a multi-car wreck. Interesting to see Cale react as the wreck starts from inside the cockpit of the car. (Also kinda funny to hear the commentators react “What’s happening? What’s happening?”)
Yarborough comes through relatively okay. Dave Marcis, Harry Gant, Alan Kulwicki, Benny Parsons, Darrell Waltrip, Ron Bouchard, Neil Bonnett and others were involved.
As they continue to clean up the wreck, Ken Schrader has the lead as we go to break. Elliott has got around Earnhardt for second. We finally go back green but Elliott and then Earnhardt get around Schrader for the lead. Terry Labonte moves up to third.
Just outside the Top 5 is Richard Petty. As someone who watched much of the 1992 season Petty by that point was rarely even on the lead lap or so it seemed. Interesting that just five years earlier (and three years after his final win), he was still able to give a good accounting of himself.
Meanwhile, Harry Gant (whose car was crumpled both in the front and rear in the wreck) has suffered a cut on his tongue and literally unable to speak to Dr. Jerry Punch. They talk about Gant being 47. That means when he won four in a row in September 1991, he was 51 and still competitive.
Earnhardt and Elliott battle for the lead. Earnhardt gets the lead but Elliott is still there. Geoff Bodine and Petty are battling for fifth. Petty crew chief Dale Inman says the #43 car is too loose and it’s been “The Earnhardt and Elliott Show.”
The commentators try to show us something using a digital on-line stopwatch but it takes them three times to time Earnhardt and then use what looks like a different end spot when timing Richard Petty. I think they were trying to show that Petty was running slower.
With no on-track issues for a while, cars must make green flag pitstops. Earnhardt and Elliott are in and out and Earnhardt remains in the lead by the same margin. As I’ve stated in other recaps, you can definitely tell there was no pit road speed. These guys are flying down pit road and then braking hard to make their stops.
Cale Yarborough, involved in the earlier wreck, remains one of the last to put and inherits the lead. As he does finally pit, Earnhardt is right there to take the lead back but Bill Elliott is in third. In second is Davey Allison.
Oh…apparently Allison was a lap down. ABC points out that Elliott is second, “not Davey Wallace”!!! Okay, what does ABC have against Davey Allison? They showed his father Bobby Allison earlier and had a graphic and the commentators identify him as Davey.
Earnhardt has a 3+ second lead on Elliott. It’s believed there could be an issue on the #9 car but Ernie Elliott, crew chief (and engine builder), isn’t too concerned.
Benny Parsons is up to third and that brings up a discussion about Tim Richmond who is expected back by the Winston. They continue to pass Richmond’s illness off as “pneumonia.”
Meanwhile, we see Earnhardt putting Kyle Petty, Geoff Bodine and Terry Labonte a lap down. Some big names going a lap down.
On Lap 208, with only about a half dozen cars still on the lead lap, Earnhardt pits but Elliott does not. He comes a lap later. Benny Parsons inherits the lead but is running too high.
Apparently, both Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt nearly had too many men over the wall during the pit stops but notification from a NASCAR official prevented that. Bill Elliott has to make a second pit stop but before we can find out why Ken Schrader blows an engine, spins, hits the wall and brings out the caution.
This is a big break for Elliott, who had cut a rear tire. Dr. Jerry Punch shows the cut and I just realized who he looks like: Thomas Lennon from Reno 911, who ironically was part of a “celebrity profile” in an issue of NASCAR Illustrated. (DAMN! I miss that magazine. My Dad would always look for it at the grocery store for me.)
We go back green and Earnhardt is back out in front and distancing himself from Elliott and the rest of the field.
Well…at least until a caution comes out. Some drivers take two tires (Parsons, Wallace and Rudd perhaps) and Earnhardt and others take four tires. Earnhardt loses some track position but I’d rather take four tires.
We will go back to green with 90 laps to go. Earnhardt is around Rudd within the first lap and back to the lead within two laps. Throughout the broadcast, they keep referencing drivers’ opinions over whether they are scared when they are in the race car. Most suggest they are not.
Earnhardt continues to dominate the race and, it would seem, his chances for victory greatly improve when Elliott blows his engine and is headed to the garage. With less than one hundred miles to go, Phil Parson also blows an engine and brings out another caution.
As the race goes back green, Earnhardt is back in traffic. He gets by Ricky Rudd, Yarborough, Parsons and within a few laps after the green flag flies, battles and then passes Wallace for the lead. He even passes the lap down car of Terry Labonte to put himself out front and in completely clean air.
Except that he suddenly slows down. You’ll be forgiven if you immediately flash back (or forward since we’re talking about 1987) to the final lap of the 1990 Daytona 500. Only this time, Derrike Cope isn’t there to pick up the win. There is obviously an issue on the #3 RCR Chevrolet.
As Earnhardt heads to the pit, it is Wallace and Parsons who find themselves battling for the lead. And while Earnhardt goes a lap down (battery issues?) Cale Yarborough, Geoff Bodine, and Richard Petty get caught up in a wreck and the caution comes out.
Wallace loses the lead because he didn’t slow down under the caution so he has to go to the tail end of the field, so Parsons and Ricky Rudd are now going to restart up front. Man…you could probably make a NASCAR Hall of Fame just by the guys who have had trouble today. Earnhardt, Elliott, Yarbourough, Petty, Bodine.
With the restart. Parsons, Rudd, Labonte, Bodine and Wallace are the only cars on the lead lap. Bodine will not last long, as he is running with no hood and is slowing down and pits soon after.
Parsons and Rudd quickly become the late race version of Earnhardt and Elliott as they start to distance themselves from the rest of the field, although Labonte is starting to close a bit. Earnhardt, six laps down, has returned to the track but is now the fastest car and trying to get past the leaders to get at least one lap back.
With 20 laps to go, Earnhardt has made it past the leaders and there are only four cars on the lead lap. #15 car owner Bud Moore says Rudd will wait until ten laps to to get to the front. Bud Moore, former car owner for Dale Earnhardt, was a legit war hero, having won two Bronze Stars and five Purple Hearts during World War II.
It’s interesting to note that the drivers in fifth (Davey Allison) to ninth are one lap down, and Richard Petty, in tenth, is three laps down.
D.K. Ulrich blows a tires and manages to largely keep the car off the wall. Ulrich is the step-father of Riverdale and Scream star Skeet Ulrich, who’s maternal uncle is Ricky Rudd.
The caution brings Rudd and Parsons down pit road. Parsons gets back out first but Terry Labonte stays out and takes the lead with ten laps to go. As they go green, the lapped car of Davey Allison gets ahead of Labonte, but Parsons and Rudd come with him and Rudd continues on past Parsons to take the lead.
Ironically, I just discovered that Rudd raced a couple of times for Ulrich Racing in 1980. He also raced for Rick Hendrick, Richard Childress, Robert Yates, the Wood Brothers, DiGard, Junie Dunlavey and even Joe Gibbs (filling in for Tony Stewart at Dover in 2006) and his own team.
Unless Earnhardt earlier, Rudd doesn’t completely pull away from Parsons and Wallace who are right on Rudd’s bumper. However, in the end, he hangs on to get the win in the Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 or the Atlanta 500, depending, I guess, on who you talk to.
Rudd acknowledges it was Earnhardt and Elliott who were running up front all day but his crew made a chassis adjustment on the last stop and that’s what made the difference. Wait? Does that mean that a caution caused by his (future?) brother-in-law allowed Rudd to win the race? I mean this sincerely and not in a conspiracy theory type of way but that’s a weird coincidence.
johnmilner.ca 