Rudd’s Break, Nadeau’s Breakage, and a Quick & Dirty Look at NASCAR Road Racing
"They took this one away from me! They took this one away from me! We
had it won and they took it away from me!"
Well, Ricky Rudd won’t be saying that about this Sears Point race. He may
still be PO’ed over the 1991 running, but now after the bitter pills of
Richmond, Dover, and Pocono losses, the breaks fell his way this time. His road
race record now stands at two Riversides, two Watkins Glens, and now two Sears
Points – and has Larry McReynolds started noting how he was Rudd’s crew chief
for the first Sears point win?
While Rudd was swigging bubbly, Jerry Nadeau was eating smoke and the steam
coming out of his ears after the rear end snapped with victory two laps away.
Coupled with John Andretti’s stellar run and another nickel-&-dime effort by
Kyle Petty, and we’ve seen the biggest contrast for Petty Enterprises so far
this year – in contrast to 2000 and 2001, the Petty team had not one, but two
cars in victory contention.
Also having a good day was Richard Childress. First Jeff Green, the one least
expected to run that well, finished fifth, then both his other teams (Robby
Gordon 11th and Kevin Harvick 14th) had solid finishes despite Robby Gordon’s
off-course excursions.
For the points leaders, they can’t get out of that place fast enough –
Sterling Marlin, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, and Jimmie Johnson each broke
something important, and when it was all done the point margin was shaved, but
not by much.
Also not having much fun were the two road race interlopers – Le Mans class
winner Ron Fellows could only manage a 25th while Boris "You can call me
Badenov" Said had a Rocky-&-Bullwinkle-esque controversy with John
Andretti and later broke. So will Boris have the last laugh when he races the
next NASCAR road race? Will he get paid for it? Will he even appear on WEEI
Radio when the Cup cars race at NHIS? We’ll find out next time in ROAD WAGE or
WATKINS GLEN ORDWAY.
Slipping back into serious mode, the Sears Point excursion brings to mind a
unique aspect of the sport’s history – despite the predominance of ovals in
general and super speedways in particular, NASCAR has quite a reputation for
road racing.
Road races were first run during the 1950s, and the first winner on a road
course was Tim Flock, at the monstrous 4.1 miler at Elkhart Lake, WI in 1956.
Then in 1958 Riverside International Raceway ran the Crown America 500 for
Grand National cars, an event won by Eddie Gray. Lee Petty was one of a handful
of east-coast regulars to make the trip to Riverside and finished fourth. The
Riverside road course was not used for Grand National again until 1961, when
Lloyd Dane won a 100-miler. Two years later the track began a run of Grand
National events that made Riverside a Winston Cup staple for 25 years.
For eighteen of those years the Western 500 was the season-opening
"big" race of the schedule and in 1970 became the literal
season-opener. Dan Gurney, driving the Holman-Moody Ford, won the inaugural
Western 500, then in Wood Brothers machinery Gurney monopolized the event for
most of the ’60s, with Rufus Parnell – aka Parnelli – Jones breaking the string
in 1967 in a Woods Mercury.
The track ran two races in 1963, and Darel Dieringer drove Bill Stroppe’s
Mercury to victory in the Golden State 400 in November 1963. For the rest of the
decade, however, the January event was the only stop for NASCAR’s big league.
The Golden State 400 returned in June 1970 and Richard Petty drove a Plymouth
Superbird to a dominant win.
When RJR signed on as sponsor of the Grand National series, they also
sponsored two races – Talladega’s May race and the Western 500 at Riverside. The
1971 Western 500 thus was the very first Winston Cup race, and was won by
privateer Ray Elder. Elder did the trick again a year later at the Golden State
400.
Racing’s greatest raced at the twisting course. Richard Petty won the Western
500 in 1969 for his first win in a Ford. A.J. Foyt had a very checkered career
at Riverside, tumbling brutally in the ’65 Western 500, then winning the event
in Jack Bowsher’s Ford in 1970. Petty won the 500 again for his first win with
STP sponsorship. Mark Donohue drove Roger Penske’s Matador to the win in 1973.
Cale Yarborough spun off the track on the opening lap in ’74, then overhauled
the field for the win.
Bobby Allison had signed on to drive Holman-Moody Mercurys in 1971 and had
bagged three straight wins, but the team didn’t have a road racing car handy, so
Bobby saddled up his old Dodge from his Hueytown shops and at the Golden State
400 won his fourth straight Winston Cup event. Bobby won at Riverside again in
1973 – again in a self-owned, Hueytown-garaged racecar – and won the Western 500
in the Penske Matador in ’75.
David Pearson had a lousy reputation as a road racer, but that ended in 1976
when he swept both Riversides, then won the ensuing 1977 Western 500. Richard
Petty broke David’s streak that June, for what turned out to be the 63rd and
final 1-2 finish for both.
Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison’s bitter point rivalry was reflected at
Riverside 1979-81. Waltrip won two straight Western 500s ’79-80, then won two
straight Golden State 400s ’80-1. Bobby Allison then won two straight Western
500s, both in 1981 – and thus held a unique record of winning at a track that
held three Winston Cup events in a season (the closing of Ontario Motor Speedway
in March of ’81 forced the third Riverside event).
Then in the 1980s came the surge of new road racers. Tim Richmond, Ricky
Rudd, and Bill Elliott all bagged their breakthrough wins in Winston Cup at the
course. Terry Labonte smashed the Turn Nine wall so hard in ’82 there was
serious fear he’d never race again, but in ’84 he won the 400, then did it again
in ’85. Geoff Bodine won the Western 500 in ’84 for Hendrick Motorsports’ first
road course win, then Tim Richmond added two straight Riversides 1986-7.
But the curtain fell in 1988, as encroaching housing and poor decision-making
doomed the track’s economic feasibility. Rusty Wallace won the final two events
at Riverside, and the place is now a shopping mall parking lot.
In 1957 the Grand National cars raced on a sprawling road course in upstate
New York. Buck Baker won this Watkins Glen event. Elsewhere in the Empire State,
another road course, Bridgehampton Race Circuit, saw the Grand Nationals arrive
in 1963; the race was won by Richard Petty, his first win on a track above a
half-mile.
Watkins Glen and Bridgehampton were run within a week of each other in 1964,
and Billy Wade drove Bud Moore’s Mercury to victory in both; the two wins would
be his second and fourth (a win at Islip’s short track was sandwiched between
the two road races while victory at Old Bridge, NJ preceded them), and
tragically The Glen would be his final win.
Watkins Glen was raced again in 1965, this time with Marvin Panch taking the
win in a Wood Brothers Ford. Bridgehampton ran one more NASCAR big league event,
in 1966, the win going to David Pearson in the Cotton Owens Dodge.
The Glen became home of F1 and Indycars, but in the mid-80s was purchased by
International Speedway Corporation, freshened up, and became a NASCAR date. Tim
Richmond took the win that August of 1986. A year later Rusty Wallace pitted on
the final lap yet was still not to be denied the win. In 1988 he wasn’t as
fortunate, as he got into the grass vainly trying to pass Ricky Rudd at the
finish. Rusty won there again in 1989, then in ’90 Rudd was ahead of a chaotic
final lap for his only win of the season.
The course not only ran Winston Cup cars; Grand National cars and Craftsman
Trucks also took to the track. Terry Labonte won in 1991 for a much-needed
morale boost for his career. Ernie Irvan won in 1992, then Bill Elliott needed a
shot in the arm for his season and got it in ’93.
Canadian native Ron Fellows then briefly became The Man, winning in Grand
National and Craftsman Trucks with some frequency, usually in Joe Nemechek
racing machinery. In 1999 he went for the Glen double, winning in the Truck,
then dominating the GN race, but on the last lap Dale Earnhardt Jr. shot past
for the win.
In Winston Cup, tragedy struck in 1991, as J.D. McDuffie shot off the
backstretch, slammed the tire barrier, flipped, and landed on Jimmy Means’ car.
Earlier that week Alan Kulwicki, Ricky Rudd, Harry Gant, Ken Schrader, Dave
Marcis, and Hut Stricklin had crashed in Turn Five, and Michael Waltrip broke
his shoulder after crashing there. For 1992 an inner loop was added, which made
for a great spectator area but did nothing special for ability to pass. Kyle
Petty won the event that year.
Then in 1993 Mark Martin dominated, lost ground on a long stop, then roared
through the field, escaped Kyle and Dale Earnhardt’s crash, and won the race;
some of the tires used in Mark’s late-race rally were confiscated from teammate
Wally Dallenbach’s pit by Jack Roush; Dallenbach harangued Roush for it and
wound up quitting the team. The next year Martin dominated again, then made it
three straight by gunning down Dallenbach in 1995.
The streak ended in 1996. Dale Earnhardt, nursing injuries from Talladega,
won the pole and printed T-shirts saying, "It hurt so good." He led
the most laps but faltered at the end and finished sixth, while Geoff Bodine
took what would be his final Winston Cup win.
A year later Bodine looked ready to grab another win, but Jeff Gordon jumped
a late restart and took the win. Gordon then dominated in 1998 and again in
1999, but in 2000 he tried to pass Tony Stewart, tried to pinch him to the
guardrail, got into it himself, and the two argued at Stewart’s trailer
afterward. Steve Park then led 55 of 90 laps for his first Winston Cup win. Jeff
Gordon got back on track by winning in 2001 after Robby Gordon’s car erupted in
flame while leading.
With Riverside’s closure, in 1989 NASCAR found a new road course on which to
race – Sears Point International Raceway. Ricky Rudd took the inaugural win,
then Rusty Wallace did the trick in 1990. Controversy then exploded – Ricky Rudd
spun out Davey Allison coming to the white flag, and was immediately black flagged;
Davey got the win by crossing the line second, and Rudd threw a typically
self-important and boorish fit.
The next year Ernie Irvan, in the Morgan-McClure Chevrolet, jumped the start
and was black flagged, but he passed the entire field for the win the day after
the passing of Big Bill France.
For 1993 Irvan, Rudd, and Geoff Bodine took a back seat to Dale Earnhardt,
but Earnhardt spun and the three went at it quite hard; at one point all three
led in a single lap and tried to race three-wide through the final turn. Bodine
ultimately won as chaos erupted behind the top three on the final lap.
Irvan hooked up with Robert Yates for 1994 and dominated Sears Point, then in
’95 Dale Earnhardt shot down Mark Martin on the final lap for his only win on a
road course. After Rusty Wallace won in ’96 Mark Martin ended a career slump by
taking the Sears Point win in ’97.
Jeff Gordon then put lights out in ’98. The track’s Carousel turn was closed
and a short chute added; the race became more exciting as a reuslt and Gordon
battled Bobby Hamilton with considerable intensity for the win. Gordon dominated
in ’99 as a spectacular melee involving Ricky Rudd and Ward Burton stopped the
race with some five to go. Gordon won again in 2000, but in 2001 Robby Gordon
and Tony Stewart gunned ahead of Gordon; Robby was then waylaid by the lapped
car of Kevin Harvick and Stewart pounced to the win.
So NASCAR’s road racing legacy has been quite involving. While such tracks
are realistically not to NASCAR’s nature, they do have a place in Winston Cup.
Is the green-white-checker-equivalent red-flag practice in Winston Cup fair? According
to Darrell Waltrip, it is not.
Darrell claims that the way the system works now, the leaders of the race are
sitting ducks on a late red-flag, because cars out of the top half-dozen will
pit and get new tires and thus be a lot faster – cue the string section:
"You base your strategy on running the distance of that race. When you
interfere with that race, then you’re interfering with a guy’s strategy and how
he planned on winning that race, whether it’s gas mileage, getting tires when
nobody else is, whatever your strategy is. But then you stop the race, that
changes everything……The guys on the lead lap from fifth on back dive into
the pits and get tires. That means the poor guys that didn’t pit are sitting
ducks….The leader of the race is a sitting duck in a situation like
that….That’s not fair. This guy drove his heart out to get to that point with
five laps to go. He’s going to win the race. Then all of a sudden they stop it,
and it changes everything."
In other words, now the leader has to do something he generally has not done
all day – he has to RACE for the win.
Darrell, the Michigan finish was a situation where we saw them actually race
for the win. Jimmie Johnson was swamped from second to 14th and Bill Elliott
swamped from sixth to eleventh, but they could have pitted and gotten tires as
well as the cars that did before the green. As for the leader of the race in
general, "he drove his heart out to get to that point….." but why
should he not have to drive even harder to actually win the race? The way it is
now, the leader has no one to race; he just has to keep it off the wall and he’s
home free. Is that fair that he’s just out front without a challenge?
The real unfairness lies in not red-flagging a race in a situation like that
– now the leader is locked in and won’t have to do anything to win, and the cars
behind him are trapped where they are. The leader should never have it easy – he
should be racing for his spot as hard as the guys five-abreast for fifteenth on
back.
Speaking of the leader actually racing for his spot, short tracking often has
such, and a couple of recent gems are worth detailing.
One is a treat that got lost in the shuffle of Speed Channel tape-delay –
USAR raced at Myrtle Beach last week, and Hooters ProCup South division leader
Bobby Gill had won all but one of the first seven events in his class. This
time, though, he had some serious competition from pole-sitter Jason Sarvis, and
I mean SERIOUS – in the final 60 laps the two went at it hard and for some ten
straight laps were nose to nose, wheel to wheel, door to door for the lead, even
gouging into each other’s doors for the top. Sarvis tried Gill high, then after
five laps wheel to wheel cut down low and actually shoved Gill out of the
groove, but even then couldn’t dislodge him from the lead despite leading Lap
200.
A late crash set up a green-white-checker finish and Joe Gaita tried to steal
the whole thing away from the both of them, but Gill won by a car length.
USAR’s ProCup races have seen some fun competition this year, but this was
something else, and a great sign as their season hits its second half.
Less than a week later, at Stafford, CT, Grand National North set up shop for
a 150-lapper won by Kelly Moore, his second straight win at the Arutes’ speed
palace. The track’s late model class raced first with Jay Stuart taking the win
and Buckshot Jones’ protégé Charles Lewandowsky finishing a strong third.
But the real treat came in the SK Modifieds.
Can you imagine racing and going THIRTEEN years without a win? Well, Eddie
Spiers last won in SKs in 1989. This time, though, there was no denial. Spiers
battled for third much of the night behind Johnny Lobo Jr. as he battled John
Sandburg for the lead, then Ted Christopher, second to Bert Marvin the night
before at Thompson, exploded up the outside with some twelve to go and fought it
out with Lobo for lap after lap. Lobo fought off Christopher when both banged
tires off Two and Terrible Ted cut one down. Spiers made his move two laps later
and was home free.
To go so long without a win no doubt gnawed on Spiers, so this one will
certainly be unforgettable.
Finally, THE comeback of the year award to date has to go to The Hammer.
Driving XPress Motorsports’ Chevrolet Truck, Mike Bliss lost five laps at
Memphis Motorsports Park with a dead battery (I’ve noticed a number of such
incidents this season – what are these teams doing to their alternators to cause
battery drainage, anyway?) and with a rash of yellows The Hammer made up all of
them, but needed one more to challenge for the win. He didn’t get it, and wound
up a mid-pack finisher, which does no justice to how strongly he ran.