The 1987 NASCAR season pays its first trip to “The Track Too Tough to Tame”, “The Lady In Black”: Darlington. While the Transouth 500 is the lesser-known Darlington race (compared to the fall’s Southern 500), it should still be exciting.
ESPN is carrying this particular race (c’mon man, bring back Ken Squier). Dale Earnhardt is leading Bill Elliott in the championship points pictures and is sitting on the front row. Sharing that front row, on the pole, is Ken Schrader. Man, Kenny was having a hell of a season in 1987. The commentators go through the field, having to mention that Terry Labonte has switched to Junior Johnson’s team (seriously, this is the fifth race of the season, we get it!). Darrell Waltrip hasn’t been qualifying all that great so far this season. In Row 12, Richard and Kyle Petty will be starting on the same row.
Earnhardt jumps on the start and gets the lead going down the backstretch over Schrader. Bill Elliott is up to third as we here J.D. McDuffie has already retired. McDuffie is an interesting story. He never finished on the lead lap in his entire Cup career, had the record for most last place finishes, and tragically was killed at Watkins Glen in 1991 (I believe).
Lee Crispman (sp?) has a blown engine and spins but the caution does not come out. Back in the pack, Lake Speed is impressing in the top 10 and battling with Rusty Wallace and Bobby Allison. Speaking of Allisons, Davey Allison has made it past Schrader to take over second.
Michael (or “Mike”) Waltrip spins and shreds a tire to bring out that first caution to bring in the field. Ricky Rudd who won at Atlanta will lead at the green. They discuss the pit stops. Earnhardt went from first to fourth but Schrader went all the way back to 23rd.
Rudd has a bit of a lead and there’s a four-car scramble for the runner-up spot between Greg Sacks, Dale Earnhardt, Davey Allison, and Phil Parsons. Phil’s brother, Benny, has had a great run to start 1987 but we haven’t heard too much of Benny today.
It doesn’t take too long before Earnhardt wins that battle and then takes over the lead from Rudd. The pit crew reporters talk about the tires. Apparently, there is a lack of tire wear. The RCR team is so happy with their tires they may use the first set again later.
Parsons has faded back to seventh, as Bill Elliott and Buddy Baker pass him. They talk about Bobby Allison and his new crew chief, Jimmy Fennig. Fennig won the Daytona 500 with Matt Kenseth, a championship with Kurt Busch, was a long-time crew chief for Mark Martin and Carl Edwards. He’s still involved in NASCAR as he was named Executive Vice President of Competition at Roush-Fenway.
Through 55 laps, Dale Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd have been the only green-flag leaders, with Dave Marcis leading a lap during the caution.
Cale Yarborough with the Hardees Race Cam is mired back in 25th so the commentators discuss his issues but also gives viewers an extended view of what it’s like to drive around Darlington.
Earnhardt has about a 1/3 of a lap lead as Sacks, Allison (who is not happy with the current sit of tires) and Baker battle for second. A moment or so later, Allison is really not happy with his tires as he spins and brings out the caution. It appears initially as though Baker might have tapped him but upon further review it looks like Davey was already starting to spin by the time Baker bumped into him.
As pit stops continue, Kulwicki has had an issue, losing a tire. Davey Allison actually didn’t fare too badly restarting 11th.
As we get ready to go back to green, we see an interesting piece about the happenings back in the garage area. We see crews refilling gas cans from the same type of gas pump you would see at your local gas station. Apparently, after every pit stop the crews have to go back and refill the gas cans because they can’t keep reserves in their stalls. I never knew that.
Earnhardt remains in the lead as they restart with Baker in second. Baker starts to close on Earnhardt and they talk to Baker’s crew chief, Doug Richert. Now I’m probably grasping at straws here but Richert won the 1980 Championship with Dale Earnhardt Sr. and is now crewing for Baker in the #88, a number run quite successfully with Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
Richart also still works in NASCAR, being attached to Hattori Racing and being the crew chief for Austin Hill and Timmy Hill in the Xfinity Series in 2020.
They talk about the engine issues that Rick Wilson, driving the #4 Kodak car. The first engine would not fire before the race so it had to be replaced and now the replacement is down a cylinder. Sorry Rick but whenever I see the #4 Kodak car I always think of Ernie Irvan. (Wilson would eventually overheat and retire from the race.)
Harry Gant and Cale Yarborough are battling for basically the last car on the lead lap or near abouts. I know Yarborough is coming to the end of his career but damn! that #29 Hardees Oldsmobile was fine looking car!
At Lap 122, it’s Earnhardt and Baker. Baker moves right up to the back of Earnhardt’s rear and tries to move around him. They get into lap traffic including Gant, Kyle Petty, Yarborough, Terry Labonte and Geoff Bodine, but Earnhardt retains the lead.
Earnhardt and Baker get through the traffic and Earnhardt retains the lead, with he starts to pull away a bit on Baker. You know, having watched the 1983 Kenny Rogers film “Six Pack” before I watched a lot of NASCAR, I always thought Buddy Baker and Rogers’ character Brewster Baker were the same person. Ironically, in one scene late in the movie, Earnhardt is introduced as the polesitter for the climactic race.
Baker makes up the difference and battles Earnhardt for the lead for a brief moment until Connie Saylor brings out the caution. Not a major collision but enough to bring out the yellow.
The leaders pit on lap 136, with Earnhardt retaining the lead over Baker. Darrell Waltrip has another lengthy pit stops. He’d had one earlier in the race. This, by the way, is the first race or at least the NASCAR race, after being repaved.
While Earnhardt is leading, Phil Parsons gets by him to get his car back on the lead lap. Parsons had gone a lap down due to an untimely pit stop before the caution came out. Unfortunately, Parsons slips up a bit and that allows Earnhardt and Baker to get by him and put him a lap down again. Actually, there’s a moment where Phil Parsons is racing in front of brother Benny.
Speaking of Benny, he gets caught up in a wreck that involves Terry Labonte, who gets T-boned by Ricky Rudd. Lake Speed and Morgan Shepherd were also involved. Labonte got the worst of it as he was placed in an ambulance on a stretcher. He suffered a shoulder injury.
The race goes back green and it’s more of the same in that Earnhardt is leaving with Baker trying to take the lead. What has changed is that Sterling Marlin is up to third, although Ken Schrader is going to challenge Marlin for the position.
Okay…remember last time at Atlanta where Earnhardt and Elliott were up front pretty much all day but mechanical issues ended up costing them their chances at the race? Well, Earnhardt who was running away from the field nearly has his day ruined again. He tries to pass Bobby Wawak (who sadly passed away in 2004 at age 64) and the two get together. Earnhardt gets really loose and has to wrestle the car back under control but continues onward.
Lap 178 sees a caution, believed to be some fluid dropped by Kyle Petty. Earnhardt will lose the lead on the pit stops. Baker is still chasing the leader but this time that leader is Ken Schrader. Earnhardt falls back to third.
As the race reaches its mid-point, Baker will finally take the lead after Schrader gets a Darlington stripe and falls back to third behind Earnhardt. Back at the tail-end of the lead lap field, Davey Allison has recovered from the earlier spin to get back on the lead lap.
Greg Sacks, who was battling Allison, has a Darlington stripe of his own, and spins out but does not do more damage to himself or anyone else. With the yellow out, everyone expected Schrader to pit and get new tires but he stays out.
Baker takes the green flag with Earnhardt in second but Geoff Bodine trying to stay ahead of them to get back on the lead lap. Unfortunately, it is not meant to be. Baker starts to get a good lead against Earnhardt.
With Earnhardt pretty much back to dominating, it’s time to check out some battles back in the field, including involving Schrader, Bobby Hillin, Jr., Elliott, Marlin and Davey Allison. Back further in the field is a battle between two legends Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison.
Remember last time in Atlanta when they had an in-car camera with Cale and just as they switched to it, he got involved in a wreck? This time they are showing the view from Cale’s front window and a car spins out in front of him.
It’s Davey Allison who spun, collided with his father’s car and ended up in a fiery wreck. There is a LOT of smoke in the aftermath of the wreck. Holy crap, eventually the entire one end of the track is blanketed in smoke. Both father and son are okay, however. I once saw a photo some time ago where Bobby was leaping over a guardrail to get to his son’s car, which was on fire. I’m not sure if this is the incident.
Davey is able to speak to reporters shortly after the wreck. Bobby is interviewed as well and is upset that Davey had a tire go down and while he was trying to wave people by him, a lapped car tapped him and caused the wreck. Bobby said he had a good car and was trying to get past the bad luck his team has had recently.
So if Bobby and Davey are okay, who was in the ambulance that pulled into the infield care centre? It turns out there was a fireman who had suffered burns. While they clean up the wreck, we talk about tires and discover that used tires are actually faster than new tires.
The yellow flag finally turns to a red or maybe it didn’t. No one seems to know. Davey Allison had broken through the guardrail so they have been trying to repair it.
We finally go back green. Baker leads the field to green but, after a three-wide battle including the lapped car of Geoff Bodine, Sterling Marlin takes the lead briefly. Baker will take it back a moment later and Ken Schrader will move into third.
Just as we see a battle for position between two of the three 7-time Cup champions (Earnhardt and Petty, Jimmie Johnson was not available because he was 11 years old), there is a wreck and it’s Buddy Baker!
Earnhardt will be the first car out of the pits but it appears Ken Schrader, who did not pit, will take the lead on the restart. Elliott and Earnhardt are second and third. Despite his wreck, Baker remains on the lead lap until he has to pit again.
More three-wide racing as Phil Parsons tries to remain on the lead lap as Schrader and Elliott tries to get past him. Elliott will eventually get by Schrader as will Earnhardt and nearly Neil Bonnett.
With just over 100 laps to go, the battle for the lead is down to Elliott and Earnhardt. Michael Waltrip has hit the wall. He gets to the bottom of the race track but still brings out the caution. With only seven cars left on the lead lap, all the leaders pit. Earnhardt and Elliott leave the pits at the same time but Schrader just takes fuel and regains the lead.
On the restart, Schrader holds off Elliott and Earnhardt for the first lap or so but eventually they get by him. Richard Petty, Bobby Hillin,Jr., Neil Bonnett and Sterling Marlin are also on the lead lap.
Earnhardt is loose running around Darlington but manages to retake the lead from Elliott, in such dominant fashion the commentators wonder if there is an issue with the #9 Ford. Before too much can come of that, Bobby Hillin, Jr. spins and the caution comes out. Cale Yarborough clips Hillin and Cale needs to eventually put. From the in-car camera, the car has a definite lean to it.
The leaders pit but apparently the caution may have come out just a tad too early for everyone to make to the end on fuel. They run through the “Yellow Flag Recap” and the Allison wreck put the race under yellow for 24 laps. WOW!
It looks like Schrader has the lead when they go green but Earnhardt is back on point shortly thereafter. With 50 laps to go, Neil Bonnett battles Sterling Merlin for the final spot in the Top 50, with Bonnett getting the win in that particular battle.
On pit road, Rusty Wallace’s car expires. Meanwhile, another battle is for second between Shrader and Elliott but it appears Earnhardt is driving away from the field. He does have one incident where he gets loose enough and almost gets a Darlington stripe.
Childress and company confirm they can make it to the end without pitting, while Schrader’s crew says they are four laps short. Then, a short time later, Earnhardt’s crew says they may need to come in to pit.
Neil Bonnett passes Richard Petty and there is talk that Bonnett may be able to go the distance…until he has engine issues. He remains on the track but slows mightily.
During the commercial break, Earnhardt pits for a splash of fuel, dropping to third with less than ten laps to go. Elliott takes the lead and the question becomes whether the #9 car will need to pit? The Elliott crew says they will gamble on fuel mileage.
Earnhardt passes Schrader to take second and Schrader is about to pit anyways. The #3 tries to track down Elliott but scrapes the wall.
Three laps to go and it is Elliott’s race to lose.
Two laps to go. Elliott has a 3 1/2 second lead.
White flag and Elliott is taking a different line and taking it slow to try and maximize fuel. On the back stretch, Elliott runs out of fuel and begins to coast.
Earnhardt passes Elliott coming out of Turn 4 to win the 1987 Transouth 500. Elliott hangs on to take second. Petty, Marlin and Shepherd round out the Top 5.
In Victory Lane, Earnhardt is happier than I think I’ve ever seen him, saying at least twice that he can’t believe he won the race. He also says “hi!” to Dale Jr. and everyone at the military academy he was attending.
Well, off to another short track at North Wilkesboro next time out.
johnmilner.ca 