bob jennings' WORLD O' RACING 01/22/2000
NASCAR building blocks
NASCAR Winston Cup Champion Dale Jarrett on the way to winning the 1999 "Brickyard 400"
Bob Jennings
So what did you think of the 1999 racing season? If you're a fan of Dale Jarrett, you obviously enjoyed the final racing season of the millennium. Otherwise, you're probably like me and there are parts of the season you enjoyed and other parts you didn't enjoy. If you're a big NASCAR fan, it all probably seems pretty good, even if you aren't a Jarrett fan. For those of us who lean toward open wheel racing, the 1999 season could've been better.
NASCAR enjoyed a continuation of its explosive popularity in 1999 and the king of NASCAR, Bill France, pulled some of the biggest moves in the history of motor sport last season.
In early May, France bought Roger Penske out of the "race track owning business" when International Speedway Corporation (ISC) purchased controlling interest in Penske Motorsports. That acquisition brought Michigan Speedway, Nazareth Speedway, North Carolina Motor Speedway (Rockingham), California Speedway and Penske's ownership in the Homestead Motorsports Complex into the France empire along with Daytona, Talladega, Darlington, Phoenix and Watkins Glen. Recently ISC also purchased the Richmond 3/4 oval from Paul Sawyer or was it Martinsville from the Clay Earle family? Hell I can't remember every one of the race tracks Bill France owns now. There are so many. I'm sure I'm forgetting some of them. If you add up all the tracks Bill France and Bruton Smith own, that total probably accounts for more than half the major league racing facilities in this country. That's sort of scary to me, when I think about it.
As the 1999 Winston Cup season wound down, NASCAR announced a multi-year television package beginning with the 2001 season. A consortium including Fox, NBC and Time Warner-HBO put together a contract that will bring $400 million annually and up to $2.8 billion over six to eight years to NASCAR for exclusive television rights.
Many NASCAR fans have expressed dismay over the new TV package, preferring the coverage from longtime NASCAR television partners ABC, ESPN, CBS and TNN. The NBC coverage of the late season Winston Cup race in Miami received a 3.0 TV rating, which was the lowest for a Winston Cup event in four years. Based on what I saw during the coverage of the Miami race, NBC has a lot of work to do to come up with a TV presentation that NASCAR fans will appreciate. The telecast from Miami was one of the worst racing presentations I've seen. I like Brian Williams on the CNBC news, but he's no racing commentator. Joe Gibbs is a neat guy and he's put together a top notch NASCAR team, but he isn't going to be as effective as a racing commentator as he's been on the NFL telecasts. Regardless of the potential quality of the television package however, everyone involved in NASCAR, from Bill France and family down to the racers themselves stand to gain from this deal financially - - in a big way.
In 1998, the Daytona 400 mile Winston Cup race was to be telecast prime time on CBS on July 4th. The wild fires that raged across north Florida postponed the race to October when it was shown on TNN. Last season NASCAR got their prime time network TV show as the race formerly known as the "Firecracker 400" went off on schedule on CBS.
This NASCAR thing just keeps growing. NASCAR in 1999 reminds me a lot of the NFL about the time the league began its large marketing push, which coincides with Joe Namath and the New York Jets winning Super Bowl III and the debut of ABC Monday Night Football. I recall doing some Christmas shopping in the then new Castleton Square mall in December 1972. I was in the Sears store and was impressed at all the NFL products available. I think NASCAR is in a similar situation right now, only more so.
It 's interesting to look at the key events and circumstances which have been the foundation, in my opinion, for NASCAR's growth, taking the stock car series from its early beginnings as a weekend gathering for moonshine runners to its current status as America's fastest growing sport. Since NASCAR is only 52 years old, which is one year younger than I am, I can recall many of the components in the NASCAR explosion. Here are some of those pieces of history, which I think have contributed to the NASCAR rise, presented in a chronological sequence.
Big Bill France's car breaking down in Daytona Beach, Florida
Isn't the story something like this? Bill France Sr. was driving someplace with his family, when his car broke down in Daytona Beach? You probably heard the same story. France got a job in a local garage so he could feed his family while he fixed the car. Only France liked it so much in Daytona that he stayed, started NASCAR, built Daytona International Speedway and so on.
Darlington and the "Southern 500"
Darlington Raceway was the first NASCAR "super speedway" and the "Southern 500" was stock car racing's first signature race. Harold Brassington (I think you spell it that way) built the Darlington "lady in black." Johnny Mantz won the inaugural "Southern 500" on Labor Day 1950. For nearly ten years, the races at Darlington and the February Speedweeks, held on the combination beach - highway course at Daytona Beach, were NASCAR's only high profile events. Although it's prestige has diminished in recent years, in relation to other NASCAR events, the "Southern 500," with whatever sponsor names goes in front of that, remains a Labor day weekend tradition in some form or another.
I do recall spending the final day of summer vacation from school, at a time when I didn't like school much, listening to a Motor Racing Network (MRN) broadcast of the "Southern 500" that had its made its way on to the Indianapolis airwaves. It was either 1959 or 1960. I'd have to dig deep into the few NASCAR statistics I have to confirm which year. Although I'm currently transporting things to my north side Indianapolis "domicile," a lot of my racing memorabilia remains boxed and stored. So I'm going strictly on memory with this one. In this particular "Southern 500," a guy I hadn't previously heard of, Rex White, who later became NASCAR champion, led most of the Darlington race. Eventually the signal broadcast faded out, and I later discovered that someone else had won the race. I think it was Buck Baker.
the earliest NASCAR heroes
The earliest NASCAR names like Red Byron, Jim Roper and whoever else basically draw a blank from me. I can't even picture their faces in my mind. The images of drivers like Fonty Flock, Tim Flock, Herb Thomas and Buck Baker are pretty clear however. I didn't see any of those guys race in person, but I used to read about them in Speed Age magazine and I can recall what they all look like.
There were three brothers from the Flock family who played a part in early NASCAR history. Bob was the first, although I have no personal recollection of his career. Fonty Flock came next, with slick hair and a pencil thin mustache. I read somewhere that Fonty ran an early NASCAR race wearing a pair of Bermuda shorts. The younger of the three Flock brothers Tim, who died a few years ago, was NASCAR's big time guy in 1955. He drove a Chrysler 300 something for the Carl Kiekhafer team and was the lead driver on the team that had several cars running. I don't know how many races Flock won in 1955 but he won a lot. Then Tim Flock sort of disappeared from the NASCAR scene. I think he tried to unionize the NASCAR drivers and was more or less blackballed from stock car racing.
Though Tim Flock seemed to be the big NASCAR name when I first began to pay attention, Herb Thomas was a three-time winner of the Darlington "Southern 500." I can visualize a photo of Thomas climbing out of his car after winning at Darlington, with oil and grease on his face, wearing a grimy short sleeve shirt with a Pure Oil logo. I wonder what became of Herb Thomas or if he's still alive. If anyone who knows reads this piece, how about writing me with some details?
Buddy Baker's dad Buck was a dandy. He had that hot shot look and I think he was a real lady's man. I imagine he's close to 80 now, but he probably still colors his hair black and chases after 20 year old girls. I've seen photos, from recent years, of old Buck Baker with one of his young wives, girl friends or whatever. From comments son Buddy has made during various TV gigs, I believe old Buck is still associated with the family stock car racing school.
The days of the Flock brothers and Herb Thomas seemed to lead to the period when drivers like Lee Petty, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly, Fireball Roberts and Junior Johnson became the big names in NASCAR.
Lee Petty is the patriarch of the Petty family. He's an old man now, but he probably wanders around the Petty Enterprises property in Level Cross, North Carolina. I think the Petty team still operates out of Level Cross - doesn't it? Lee Petty won the first "Daytona 500" in 1959. That gives him something of the same sort of distinction as Ray Harroun for winning the first "Indianapolis 500" in 1911.
I did see Curtis Turner race a few times. He got in trouble with NASCAR and ran in the USAC stock car series for a couple seasons. Turner was quite a guy. He was one of the people that built Charlotte Motor Speedway and he was a wild type, but a terrific racer. Turner put Smoky Yunick's Chevrolet Chevelle on pole for the 1967 "Daytona 500," which I saw on closed circuit TV. He was killed, I believe, piloting his own plane. Can you imagine how many tee shirts a guy like Curtis Turner could sell today?
Joe Weatherly was Curtis Turner's best pal and the two blazed a trail of parties and hell-raising across the South. Weatherly won a couple NASCAR titles, in the early 1960's driving a Pontiac for, I believe, Bud Moore. If I recall properly, Weatherly was killed practicing for the NASCAR race at Riverside in 1964.
Fireball Roberts was a local boy from Daytona Beach and I think he was a good baseball pitcher before he turned to racing. I saw Roberts race in the 1963 "Yankee 300" at Indianapolis Raceway Park. I remember that he dominated the 1962 "Daytona 500," leading all but a few laps. He and Fred Lorenzen were the stars of the Ford Motor Company charge in 1963 that began the factory era of the 1960's in 1963. Roberts died in July 1964 from burns suffered at Charlotte on Memorial Day weekend. Roberts was probably one of the five or so best NASCAR drivers of all time. He's another one of those early NASCAR stars that would make millions if he were racing during today's commercial era.
Most NASCAR fans are familiar with Junior Johnson. Johnson's early career was captured by Tom Wolfe in his book The Last American Hero. Actor Jeff Bridges played the Johnson character in an early 1970's film by the same name. Do you recall that film? Valerie Perrine, who was a real hot redhead actress, did a topless scene in the film. She was a babe!
Johnson ran moonshine before starting his racing career. His father went to prison for selling corn liquor and Junior spent time in jail for the same offense. Junior was truly one of NASCAR's greatest drivers. He won the second "Daytona 500" in 1960. One of the things I remember about his driving career was in 1963 when he was racing one of the few Chevrolets on the NASCAR circuit. It was a white car 27. It seemed like Johnson won a lot of NASCAR pole positions that season, but the 427 cid Chevy V8 engine would usually blow after Junior built up a big lead over the Fords and someone like Fred Lorenzen would take over to win.
After Junior retired as a driver in 1965, he started building cars for other drivers and he was as big a force as a car owner as he'd been as a driver. Lee Roy Yarbrough won the 1969 "Daytona 500" driving a Ford Torino for Johnson. Cale Yarborough won the 1977 "Daytona 500" driving one of Johnson's Chevrolets and three consecutive NASCAR championships in 1976, 1977 and 1978. Darrell Waltrip won three NASCAR titles in cars owned and prepared by Junior Johnson. A few years ago, Junior split up with his wife Flossie, married a younger woman and started a new family. His enthusiasm for racing seemed to burn out and he sold his inventory to Brett Bodine. He has more or less disappeared from the racing scene in the years since.
Daytona International Speedway and the "Daytona 500"
When Big Bill France built the high banked 2.5 tri-oval at Daytona Beach, he redefined NASCAR racing from an image of beat up sedans bumping and banging into each other on mostly dusty small town "bull rings" to American muscle cars flying around steep high banked corners at high speed. Daytona International Speedway was a huge step for stock car racing just as Darlington had been years earlier.
The first racing program on the Daytona high banks was an Indy car event. Tragically, George Amick who looked to be on his way to becoming an Indy car star, was killed on the final lap of the race. With speeds over 170 mph, which was 25 mph faster than they were running at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in those days, it was apparent that Daytona was too fast for open wheel racing.
The inaugural "Daytona 500" in February 1959 featured a photo finish between Johnny Beauchamp and Lee Petty, which took a couple days to resolve in Petty's favor. Within a few years, drivers from other forms of racing were coming to race in the "Daytona 500" and the race became an international event that played to audiences outside the south. By the early 1960's, the "Daytona 500" had replaced the Darlington "Southern 500" as NASCAR's premier event.
The first time I saw the "Daytona 500" live was in 1967. I attended a closed circuit telecast of the race at the Northside Armory on North Pennsylvania in downtown Indianapolis. Mario Andretti won and I fell in love with the "Daytona 500." To this day, Daytona is the only NASCAR race I get real excited about. It's a terrific show!
Another effect of the Daytona International Speedway was the construction of other major racing venues in the southeast. Atlanta Motor Speedway has been known by various names since NASCAR began racing there in 1960. The 1.5-mile oval known today as Lowes Motor Speedway, was built about the same time. Within a few more years, the Rockingham, Bristol, Dover and Talladega tracks were built and it has gone from there.
NASCAR as a manufacturer's showcase - Ford versus Chrysler
The factory involvement by Ford and Chrysler from, 1963 through mid 1971, occurred as the "Daytona 500" was gaining attention as NASCAR's equivalent to the "Indianapolis 500." For me, this was one of the more exciting periods of NASCAR racing. Richard Petty, David Pearson, Buddy Baker, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison were all products of the Ford versus Mopar period in NASCAR. The early "factory wars" brought speeds that were even higher than what they run today in Winston Cup. The fast back Ford Torinos and Mercury Cyclones and the winged Plymouth Super Birds and Dodge Daytonas were introduced during this period. By 1970, speeds had reached 200 mph at Talladega, which is pretty impressive when you consider that it was 1977 before cars ran that fast at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
This was an exciting time too, and perhaps close to the end of the time when NASCAR ceased to be a real stock car racing series. When Ford and Chrysler literally plunged into NASCAR, in 1963, the early stars of show were the huge V8 engines being produced in Detroit. Chevy had their 409. "She's real fine my 409." Pontiac had a 421 cid V8. Ford came out with a 427 cid V8 and Chrysler produced their 426 cid "hemi-head" V8. Ford produced the "Boss 429" cid V8 in1969, but NASCAR ruled the new engine illegal for the "Daytona 500" because the engine hadn't met production standards, which meant there weren't enough of the "Boss 429" engines in cars being sold at Ford dealerships. A month later, at Atlanta, however, Ford met the NASCAR quota, and the engine was allowed to race and Cale Yarborough won with the "Boss 429" in a Wood Brothers car.
The unfortunate side to this chapter in NASCAR history is that when the factories grew tired of racing and pulled out of NASCAR in 1971, the sport fell into a period of recession. Had it not been for R.J. Reynolds and Winston coming into NASCAR in 1971 as series sponsor, the racing history books might tell a different story today.
Bill France Jr. and R.J. Reynolds
I remember thinking that the 1972 "Daytona 500" had an especially weak starting field, after Ford and Chrysler factories pulled out of NASCAR, with perhaps four legitimate contenders - Richard Petty, A.J. Foyt, Bobby Allison and Mark Donohue. The factory pull out left the bigger teams having to find support from other sources. This is when Richard Petty and STP came together. The smaller teams were left with the scraps. As a result, the competition in NASCAR didn't go too deep during that time.
Bill France Sr. handed the management of NASCAR to his son Bill France Jr., while he focused on running the family tracks in Daytona and Talladega, an enterprise that became International Speedway Corporation. The younger France talked R.J. Reynolds into joining NASCAR as a promotional and marketing partner. The NASCAR season was shortened from 60 - 70 - 80 races to 30 - 32 races. After the FCC pulled tobacco advertising off television, NASCAR became a vehicle for RJR to market Winston cigarettes. In the mid-1980's, RJR started throwing big promotional money into the NASCAR pot, which built media focus and encouraged other manufacturers of non-auto related consumer products to come into the sport. The NASCAR money pot began to get bigger after that.
King Richard and NASCAR's second-generation stars
Richard Petty was NASCAR's first national star.
Maybe 25 years ago, out of curiosity, I asked a girl in a bar if she'd heard of A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti or Jackie Stewart. She hadn't heard of them. I asked if she knew who Richard Petty was and she responded that he was a race driver. Perhaps that's when I first realized that NASCAR was pulling ahead of Indy car racing in the national consciousness.
Petty came to the forefront when he led Chrysler Corporation to a dominant win in the 1964 "Daytona 500." This was Richard's first "Daytona 500" win. At that time, Ford's golden boy Fred Lorenzen, a suburban Chicago transplant from the USAC stock car series, might've had a bigger name. In 1964 however, Petty became the man to beat. After sitting out the 1965 season, when Chrysler protested NASCAR rules, Petty came back to win the 1966 "Daytona 500" and his star rose higher.
As Richard Petty became more famous, some of his principal competitors like David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison and Buddy Baker also gained notoriety. Petty was still racing in 1992 years after his contemporaries had retired. Seven NASCAR titles, seven wins in the "Daytona 500" and 200 NASCAR wins are the most notable Petty accomplishments. Petty's legacy goes much deeper than that however. He is a family man and a genuinely nice guy and he made himself accessible to the fans. That built fan identity with Petty and the other NASCAR drivers. Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett and Tony Stewart can thank King Richard Petty in a large part for the millions of dollars they are making from racing.
ABC, "Wide World of Sports" and live television coverage
I believe the first network television coverage of NASCAR racing was a filmed segment of the "Firecracker 400" at Daytona on ABC's "Wide World of Sports" program in 1961.
The next time I can remember anything about NASCAR on television were some highlights of the 1963 "Daytona 500" on "Wide World of Sports." I recall that Jim McKay, Bill Fleming, Chris Economacki or whoever was doing the reporting from Daytona played up the Tiny Lund angle in a big way. Lund was basically a NASCAR journeyman driver who, if I remember correctly, was one of the first people at the scene of a serious testing crash for the annual sports car race which starts off Daytona Speedweeks each February. Marvin Panch, another early NASCAR star, was in the crash and I think Lund pulled him out of the burning wreckage. In gratitude, Panch asked the Wood Brothers to let Lund drive his Ford in the upcoming "Daytona 500."
When leader Ned Jarrett ran out of fuel something like three laps from the finish of the 1963 "Daytona 500," Lund was there to benefit and he held off Lorenzen's Ford to the checkered flag. Tiny Lund's "Cinderella" win in 1963 had a large media impact at the time.
ABC relied on filmed and taped highlights of the "Daytona 500" on "Wide World of Sports" through 1973. From 1967 through 1971, there was a closed circuit telecast of the Daytona race, presented by Tele-Prompter, which I attended each year. I loved going to those productions, even if the resolution on the screen wasn't too good. It was obvious however, that network TV offered more exposure.
In 1974, ABC televised the final 90 minutes of the "Daytona 500." This continued through 1978. It was good for those days. I would listen to the first couple hours of the race on MRN then switch over to ABC for the end of the race. The one exception to this format came in 1976. ABC was covering the Winter Olympics so they departed from the usual by showing the first 30 minutes of the race live and then coming back for the final hour, after the Olympic coverage had concluded.
NASCAR comes north
NASCAR made a northern tour each year during their pre-Winston Cup seasons. They ran tracks like Trenton and Watkins Glen among others. The big NASCAR breakthrough, north of the Mason - Dixon, however, came when a guy named Larry LoPatin built the two-mile Michigan International Speedway in 1968. LoPatin was trying to build a race track conglomerate in much the same way Bill France and Bruton Smith are doing today. A two-mile twin to the Michigan oval was built at College Station, Texas. LoPatin put together an organization called American Raceways International (ARI) or something like that. LoPatin and ARI even gained possession of Atlanta Motor Speedway (it was called Atlanta International Raceway back then) and Riverside International Raceway. The empire was short-lived though as LoPatin was ahead of his time and ran out of money. I forget who bought Atlanta and Riverside, but Pat Patrick bought the Michigan track after it was seized by county tax officials in spring 1973. A few months later, Patrick sold the Michigan track to his buddy Roger Penske. The last time I heard Texas World Speedway was covered with weeds and falling apart.
NASCAR began running in Michigan in 1969, with a June and August race. In 1970 Indy cars were apparently more popular and USAC was able to block NASCAR from running Michigan in favor of cars from the USAC stock car series. NASCAR was back in Michigan the following season and it's been a continuous relationship since.
The Michigan track was located within an hour of metropolitan Detroit, which meant that the NASCAR races were well attended by auto industry "biggies." As a result, the two Michigan races became important stops on the NASCAR schedule.
I started going to Indy car races at Michigan in 1971. I went to Michigan for the first of the four NASCAR races I've seen there, in June 1974. There was a good crowd but I can't say that it was noticeably larger than the crowds going to Michigan for Indy car races. Sometime in the mid-eighties is when I began to notice that the NASCAR crowds were growing larger than those coming for the Indy car races. Of course in 1999, any comparison was ridiculous. NASCAR drew 140,000 people to their July and August races at Michigan Speedway. There were barely 45,000 people attending the CART 500 mile event.
What Michigan primarily did for NASCAR was make its racing accessible to fans in the Midwest, who might not have seen NASCAR otherwise, well in advance of ESPN and the NASCAR saturation on television. After that, it didn't take long for Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison and Buddy Baker to become as well known as the traditional Midwestern racing heroes from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Pearson - Petty finish in the 1976 "Daytona 500"
The final hour of the 1976 "Daytona 500" followed the Winter Olympics on ABC and millions of American homes were tuned in when Petty and Pearson put on their historic and spectacular "crash and bang" to the checkered flag.
ABC moved to the top of the network ratings in February 1976. Not only were the Winter Olympics a huge success, but ABC also pioneered the television mini-series with an adaptation of Irwin Shaw's novel Rich Man Poor Man. The "Daytona 500" was a direct beneficiary of this, because it was part of the ABC package.
However NASCAR did its part too.
Richard Petty already had five "Daytona 500" wins, while Pearson had come close but hadn't quite been able to win the big race. In the 1975 "Daytona 500," Pearson was leading with three laps remaining, when Cale Yarborough, who was running one lap behind, bumped him, sending him off track and handing the win to an unsuspecting Benny Parsons. He'd won everywhere else and surpassed Petty in many of the other races. To this day, Pearson's 105 NASCAR wins ranks second only to Petty's 200 victories on the all time NASCAR winner's list.
I haven't seen it yet, but Sports Illustrated supposedly named David Pearson the racing driver of the century. Pearson was a great driver, but I think it's stretching things to call him the driver of the century.
The 1976 race evolved into the classic "Daytona 500" match up; Petty versus Pearson, the Petty 43 team versus the arch-rival number 21 Wood Brothers team and Dodge versus Mercury. Pearson had been comfortably in front until the final laps, when Petty, fighting back from an earlier problem, began pouring it on. Pearson was leading, but Petty was on his rear bumper when they received the white flag. The ABC commentators (I believe it was Jim McKay and Jackie Stewart) were trying to guess where Petty would make his move on Pearson. This was in the days before restrictor plates at Daytona and a drafting partner wasn't needed to make a pass. The sling-shot was the way the pass was made at Daytona.
Petty faked a move in turn three, but Pearson dropped low to hold Richard off. The 43 car built up some momentum when Pearson altered his course and began to edge ahead as they came off turn four to the tri-oval. They bumped. Pearson veered to the entrance of the pits and banged the wall. Petty's Dodge slid sideways into the grassy apron between the track and the pits and as he slid across the grass, it appeared he would make it across the finish line for his sixth "Daytona 500" win. His car stopped only about 100 feet from the line. At the same time, Pearson had the presence of mind to keep the clutch on the 21 Mercury engaged. As soon as Petty's car stopped, the cameras picked up Pearson's crippled and battered car creeping slowly along the inside of the track to the checkered flag and "Daytona 500" victory.
I was a big David Pearson fan and the finish of the 1976 "Daytona 500" remains my all time favorite NASCAR moment. This generated a lot of attention and probably ranks as the most exciting finish in NASCAR history. The Pearson - Petty show, in 1976, set the stage for what I consider to be the next NASCAR building block. Three years later CBS carried things to the next step with the first flag to flag telecast of a NASCAR race.
the CBS "flag to flag" telecast of the 1979 "Daytona 500"
I can still recall the exact circumstances of the 1979 "Daytona 500" on CBS. I'd been visiting my parents in Indianapolis for the weekend, but awoke early to get back to Chicago for the noon start of the CBS telecast. I needed to be back in Chicago, where I was living, on Sunday, to have a date with the woman who would eventually become my first wife. I watched the Daytona race at my friend John Gutgsell's apartment, since I didn't have a color TV.
Ken Squier did the play by play, but I can't recall who else was in the CBS booth with him. I used to have audio recordings of some of the Daytona races of that period, but they were ruined by water a few years ago. I guess I'll have to keep wondering who worked with Squier on the 1979 telecast. I also recall that CBS had a camera in the control booth with NASCAR official Bill Gazaway, who was in charge of the race.
The final lap of the 1979 "Daytona 500" came down to a furious battle between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison. Yarborough and Allison bumped at the end of the backstretch and slid into the turn three infield. Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip and A.J. Foyt were running third, fourth and fifth, about a half lap behind Cale and Donnie. The Yarborough - Allison confrontation shifted attention to which driver would now win the race among Petty, Waltrip and Foyt. Immediately after the checkered flag fell to Richard for his sixth career "Daytona 500" win the CBS cameras shifted to turn three, where Yarborough was fighting not only Donnie Allison, but his brother Bobby, who'd stopped his car at the scene.
The next day at work, the Chicago papers were full of Daytona stories and a couple guys I worked with were excited and talking about the race. That was a big deal for NASCAR and it made the "Daytona 500" a February television staple. I don't have the exact numbers, but the 1979 "Daytona 500" still holds the highest TV ratings for a motor sport event.
CBS pioneered the in car camera within a few years, which added to the appeal of watching the "Daytona 500" on a February Sunday afternoon. The problem was that CBS only carried the "Daytona 500" and a couple other NASCAR races at Michigan and Talladega. ABC held on to the March race at Atlanta, but that was about it for NASCAR on network television. So for the normal guy, sitting in his chair on Sunday, drinking a beer and taking it easy in front of the TV, NASCAR racing was a rare form of entertainment, since it wasn't available too often.
Darrell Waltrip and NASCAR's third generation
He hasn't won a Winston Cup race since the 1992 Darlington "Southern 500" and in recent seasons, he's become reminiscent of one of those comedians on the old TV show "Hee Haw," but there was a time when Darrell Waltrip was as good as there was racing in NASCAR. It might be hard for someone who's become hooked on NASCAR in the years since to visualize, but "old DW" was the man to beat more often than not from 1979 through 1984. I believe he still ranks among the top five Winston Cup winners along with Petty, Pearson, Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough.
Waltrip's plight in the "Daytona 500" was similar to what David Pearson experienced. He won week in, week out every place else, but he couldn't win in Daytona. In the early 1980's, I'd think to myself as February approached that this would be the year Waltrip would win the "Daytona 500." It wasn't that I was cheering for Waltrip, as I'd done for Pearson, but I felt that he belonged in the group who had won the race. Each year however, Darrell wouldn't have what he needed and someone else would win.
Of course, Waltrip did finally win the "Daytona 500" in 1989, when Kenny Schrader and Dale Earnhardt both had to pit for fuel during the final ten laps of the race. That was fun watching Darrell's antics in the Daytona winner's circle, doing his dance and repeatedly asking if he'd really won the "Daytona 500."
More importantly, Darrell Waltrip was the first third generation NASCAR star, in the same manner that the Flock brothers, Herb Thomas, Buck Baker, Lee Petty, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly, Fireball Roberts and Junior Johnson represented NASCAR's first generation of heroes while Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison and Buddy Baker represented the second generation. As the leader of his generation, Waltrip brought some new twists to NASCAR, most notably a television presence. While Petty seemed shy and Pearson had no media personality, Darrell is a natural in front of the camera. Since Waltrip was in his hey day just as cable TV came along with a need for sports programming, he was the right man for the time to sell the NASCAR persona to the viewing public.
Another Darrell Waltrip contribution to NASCAR is Tide laundry detergent. Waltrip brought Tide with him to Hendrick Motorsports to sponsor car 17 in 1987. That was one of the beginnings of household consumer goods, other than beer, cigarettes and cola, being involved in NASCAR.
ESPN and cable TV
Perhaps the most important development in the history of NASCAR was the creation of ESPN.
Before ESPN, there might be six or seven Winston Cup races on television each season. CBS had the "Daytona 500," the June race at Michigan and the July race at Talladega. ABC usually did Atlanta in the spring. WTBS always did the Richmond race the week after Daytona Speedweeks and usually had the late season races at Rockingham, Atlanta and Riverside. Beyond that, you had to be content with Eli Gold and Barney Hall on MRN if you wanted NASCAR on a weekly basis.
ESPN and NASCAR went together like the most perfectly matched pair since ham and eggs. They were a natural couple. ESPN needed inexpensive live programming and NASCAR needed weekly television. Bob Jenkins and Larry Nuber did so much on the ESPN telecasts to build Bill Elliott during the 1985 season, that by the time Elliott's quest for the "Winston Million" at Darlington occurred, there was a near frenzy about it.
After awhile Benny Parsons joined the ESPN team and he became a much bigger personality as a race announcer than he ever was as a race driver. The entire ESPN presentation became like NASCAR orgies each Sunday. Remember those "Benny's Buffet" (or whatever they were called) segments where Parsons would find the best food within a few miles of each track where NASCAR raced?
TNN decided to get into the game in 1991 and that pretty much guaranteed that each weekend's NASCAR race would be shown somewhere on television, whether it was CBS, ABC, WTBS, ESPN or TNN. The real benefit came in the form of exposure. NASCAR's audience expanded several hundred percent. Apparently people liked what they were seeing. The drivers became familiar. Corporate America liked the constant marketing opportunities that weekly NASCAR racing offered. Everything fell into place after that.
Last year, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway presented a one hour radio program called "Track Talk," hosted by Mike King, who became the chief announcer for the radio broadcast of the "Indianapolis 500" last year. The final segment of each program usually featured a conversation between King and Bob Jenkins. Jenkins expressed a tinge of resentment on the program following the announcement of the new NASCAR TV package, which excludes ABC, ESPN and Jenkins. I can't blame Jenkins for feeling that way considering how much he contributed to NASCAR's growth during the ESPN telecasts.
Petty's 200th win
On an earlier "Track Talk" broadcast, local racing writer Dave Argabright was on the program discussing the CART - IRL merger that was called off by Tony George. Argabright was talking about the miserable job CART did during the 1980's to compete with the rise in NASCAR popularity. He mentioned Richard Petty's 200th NASCAR win at Daytona in July 1984, in which Petty was joined in the winner's circle by President Reagan, as being, perhaps, the beginning of the NASCAR explosion.
In my opinion, there were other developments more important to NASCAR, but Petty's 200th win was a huge deal. I mean think about it, a race driver getting 200 wins in one racing series is significant and that's a mark that should stand for all time. Then to have an immensely popular President of the United States, as Reagan was and is, show up to congratulate the driver makes the event newsworthy to the entire nation. Reagan's visit to Daytona added a measure of credibility to NASCAR and the video footage was probably replayed on every TV news program that evening.
Awesome Bill from Dawsonville
Like Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliott has faded from the NASCAR spotlight in recent seasons, although I think he still wins the "most popular driver" award every year. In the 1980's however, Bill Elliott was a public relations dream. Elliott was a red headed boy from Georgia, with an "aw shucks" demeanor, who until 1984, was basically hanging around the fringes of NASCAR, racing and working in the backyard on the family race cars with his father and two brothers.
Elliott was more surprised than any driver I've seen, when he pulled into the Riverside winner's circle after the 1983 NASCAR finale was handed to him in the final laps. The next season, the Elliott family Ford Thunderbird had money from Harry Melling and big bucks sponsorship from Coors beer. Elliott became a threat, won four races and finished third behind Terry Labonte and Harry Gant in Winston points.
Then came the January 1985 test sessions at Daytona. I was working for a small software outfit in Indianapolis, but spending four days a week in Worthington, Ohio. I was on my way to Worthington, an upscale Columbus suburb, when I stopped by the nearby news outlet to pick up some racing publications for the trip. I don't remember the exact headline on the front page of that week's issue of National Speed Sport News, but it had something to do with the superiority Bill Elliott had shown in Daytona pre-season testing, to the extent that Buddy Baker was predicting an Elliott domination during Daytona Speedweeks.
This was exciting stuff and I became hooked. For me, Bill Elliott was a breath of fresh air in racing. For one thing, he was leading the Ford Motor Company charge back into NASCAR after more than a few years of General Motors domination. I had been a Ford sympathizer in racing since the days of Jim Clark and the Lotus - Ford in the "Indianapolis 500" and I was happy Ford was coming back. More than that however, there was something dynamic about the prospect of Elliott kicking butt at Daytona. It was unique and different. I've often been a sucker for that gimmick. It's part of the magic of racing.
Bill Elliott was everything Buddy Baker predicted he'd be and more. He absolutely dominated Daytona Speedweeks in the historic red, cream white and gold Coors T-Bird number 9 like few before or since. Elliott qualified for the pole in excess of 205 mph. I wish they were going that fast at Daytona now. He easily won his 125-mile qualifying race. In the "Daytona 500," he raced with his principal rival Cale Yarborough, who'd won the two previous "Daytona 500" events, for the first 50 miles and then ran Cale's Hardees T-Bird number 28 into the ground so badly that Yarborough's car couldn't sustain the pace and quit. After that, most of Elliott's potential challengers fell out and the second half of the race was so one-sided that NASCAR threw the yellow three or four times for debris just to tighten the field. Elliott led 137 laps (or something like that) on the way to his first "Daytona 500" win, but had he wanted, he could've easily led all 200 laps.
Bill Elliott's 1985 "Daytona 500" victory was a great "rags to riches" story and the media made a big deal about the Elliott boys from Georgia coming down to Daytona and turning the place inside out. I remember a lot of excitement in Sports Illustrated about Elliott's win. I was excited about it too.
Of course Bill Elliott and his brothers didn't stop with the "Daytona 500." It became apparent early in the 1985 season that Ernie Elliott had come across something that no one else in NASCAR had discovered and he was putting it into the Ford V8 engines powering car 9. By season's end, Elliott had scored a record eleven wins at tracks over one mile in length but no wins at the so called short tracks like Bristol, Richmond, Martinsville and North Wilkesboro. That shortcoming proved to keep Elliott from winning the Winston Cup title, but it did little to lessen the attention focused on him. Elliott was so superior on the faster tracks that NASCAR changed rules twice during the 1985 season in an effort to equalize the competition.
In 1985, R.J. Reynolds introduced the "Winston Million" in which any driver who won three of the four designated races would earn a $1 million bonus. The four races designated were the richest race (the "Daytona 500"), the fastest race (the "Winston 500" at Talladega), the longest race (the 600 miler at Charlotte) and the oldest race (the "Southern 500" at Darlington). Elliott won the Talladega race in May, but missed at Charlotte. The pressure on Elliott to win the "Winston Million" at Darlington was so intense that Bill appeared to be having a hard time coping with it. In May at Charlotte Elliott was besieged by the media and the crowds to the point that it affected his performance. To alleviate that problem at Darlington, Ford Motor Company hired security people to shield Elliott from any one that might create a distraction from his race effort.
I was at Mid Ohio for the CART race the day of the Darlington race and throughout I was thinking about Elliott. I was recording the NASCAR race in Indianapolis while I was at Mid Ohio and I'd planned to avoid news from Darlington until I could watch the video replay. As I was driving away from Mid Ohio later, my curiosity got the better of me and I tuned into the MRN broadcast from Darlington. As soon as I picked up the broadcast, I heard Ned Jarrett excitedly talking about Elliott's achievement. Bill had won the race and the "Winston Million" and that was a huge story for the times. The "Winston Million" program continued through the 1997 season, when Jeff Gordon became the only other driver to take the bonus.
Bill Elliott's 1985 season brought big exposure to NASCAR and deserves recognition as one of the key components that led to the current situation.
NASCAR success continued through the 1994 season for Bill Elliott when he won his most recent Winston Cup event, at Darlington on Labor Day weekend. Although he never surpassed the accomplishments of his 1985 season, he had some big years. He won the 1987 "Daytona 500" in an even more impressive fashion than two years earlier, after qualifying for his third consecutive Daytona pole at 210 mph. He set the NASCAR speed record when he qualified in excess of 212 mph, at Talladega that same season. In 1998, Elliott won his only Winston Cup title after winning five races during the season.
The Elliott brothers partnership dissolved after the 1991 season and Bill left the Melling team to join Junior Johnson in a T-Bird sponsored by Budweiser. Elliott and teammate Sterling Marlin had fast cars in the 1992 "Daytona 500." They dominated the first half of the race before a three-car tangle between the Johnson cars and Ernie Irvan took both out of the race. Bill won something like four races in succession beginning at the next race at either Richmond or Rockingham. I need to dig out some old issues of On Track magazine to refresh my memory. Bill had a strong year and only lost the Winston Cup title to Alan Kulwicki because he led less laps in the season finale at Atlanta.
Elliott and brother Ernie reunited to run the McDonalds car 94 effort but things haven't gone well. The closest they've come to success was a near win in the 1997 "Daytona 500," falling under a three car Hendrick Motorsports onslaught in the final laps of the race. Either this season or next, McDonalds is going with another Winston Cup team and I don't know where that will leave the Elliott team.
Bill Elliott has been one of the key NASCAR players though. In 1998, during the NASCAR 50 year anniversary celebration, a list of the 50 greatest NASCAR drivers was published. Certainly Elliott's name was on that list. In my opinion, Elliott has to rank as one of the ten most important drivers in the history of NASCAR. Who would the others be? I don't particularly like all these "century's greatest" lists that came out at year-end, but here goes anyway. In alphabetical order, the ten all time most important drivers in the 51 year history of NASCAR are --- Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott, Jeff Gordon, Junior Johnson, David Pearson, Richard Petty, Fireball Roberts, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough. It was hard to leave Buck Baker and Lee Petty off this list though.
Since Bill Elliott has been one of my favorites for a long time, maybe I'll do something about him during Daytona Speedweeks. Awesome Bill from Dawsonville has given me some great memories.
Days of Thunder
I used to work with a guy named Tommy Knight. Tommy was a great guy, who loved to party like no one I've known before or since. I recall one day in 1990, before the Tom Cruise film Days of Thunder came out that Tommy predicted that the movie would make NASCAR huge. Tommy may have been overstating things a bit, but not really.
The movie was sort of stupid in the way it portrayed racing and in fact it took Cruise a few years to recover from his performance in that movie, because it was a while after that before he began getting good movie scripts again. What the hell though, he did get a wife out of the deal.
If the Days of Thunder story line was somewhat foolish, the racing footage was presented in a graphic flashy way and the exposure for NASCAR had to be significant. NASCAR put a lot of effort into making the movie a success, even adding cars to the rear of the 1990 "Daytona 500" field to film race footage. Rick Hendrick invested a lot of money in the project and was one of the film's executive producers. Perhaps the bottom line is that the film enhanced the commercialism of NASCAR and a by-product was a lot of souvenir merchandise, especially miniature die cast race cars. After Days of Thunder was released, the "merchandising" of NASCAR really came into play.
die casts and Dale Earnhardt merchandise
When Days of Thunder was released in 1990, Dale Earnhardt was in the midst of his run to seven Winston Cup titles. More often than not, from 1986 through 1994, when he won six of his seven championships, Earnhardt was the guy to beat on race day. During the same period, Earnhardt began doing business with a marketing "sharpie" named Don Hawk. In selling Dale Earnhardt to the American buying public, Hawk wrote the book on how to sell NASCAR merchandise. The result is that big name NASCAR drivers are making millions from the sales of tee shirts, ball caps, leather jackets, die cast models and all the other stuff that is out now.
the "Brickyard 400"
This was another "biggie" in the path to the current NASCAR frenzy. The 1994 "Brickyard 400" at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway may have been, in its own way, the most important race in the history of NASCAR. For that matter, it may have been one of the most important races in the history of open wheel racing too. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway made so much money from the "Brickyard 400" that it has been able to sustain the Indy Racing League for four years without making a dent in the corporate profit margin.
To have a race, other than the "500" at Indianapolis would've been unthinkable even ten years ago and that was the gimmick that drove the racing world crazy prior to the first race in August 1994. The 300,000 plus people who showed up for that first race was nearly twice the number of people to have ever seen a NASCAR race in person. The $3.2 million purse made the prize for the "Daytona 500" seem like pocket change and since then the purse at Daytona has climbed past the $8 million mark to compensate. Indirectly the Indianapolis Motor Speedway caused Bill France to dig into his pockets to come up with more money in February.
Racing at Indianapolis was a big deal for NASCAR and the "Brickyard 400" has continued to flourish even after the first year hype faded away. The race has taken its place as NASCAR second event, behind the "Daytona 500." In terms of importance of accomplishment, I'd call the "Brickyard 400" number three in NASCAR, behind the Winston Cup title and Daytona.
The importance of that first "Brickyard 400" in 1994 can be measured in another way too. Winning that race made a star out of Jeff Gordon.
the reign of Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham
The 1994 "Brickyard 400" win was only the second of Jeff Gordon's 49 Winston Cup career victories, but it is most likely his most important, including his "Daytona 500" wins in 1997 and 1999. Gordon had his first Winston Cup win the previous May at Charlotte, but he was still basically considered the promising newcomer rather than one of the top guys.
By winning the 1994 "Brickyard 400," the most important NASCAR race in history, in the community where he moved to begin racing professionally, Gordon moved to center stage and began his run with Ray Evernham to the top of the NASCAR world. Three Winston Cup titles later, Gordon begins perhaps the biggest challenge of his career; a full season without Evernham's guidance. Gordon and Evernham joined forces in 1991, in the Busch series and they remained together until Ray became involved with Chrysler's return to Winston Cup in September.
On the way to becoming NASCAR's most prolific winner since Richard Petty, Gordon also became the object of passion. NASCAR fans either hate Gordon or love him. There's not much middle ground. I was surprised by the number of Jeff Gordon fans in Indianapolis when I returned to live here in September 1998. There's no denying that Jeff Gordon has been the postage boy for the current NASCAR explosion, just as Richard Petty and Bill Elliott led the way for earlier periods of growth. Another high impact result from Gordon's moving from USAC's open wheel competition to NASCAR is that the move started a trend. Now, the goal of many of today's open wheel talents is to make it in NASCAR. John Andretti, Robby Gordon, Tony Stewart, Dave Blaney, Jason Leffler, Dave Steele, Scott Pruett and P.J. Jones have all re-focused their careers on NASCAR. This wouldn't have occurred as recently as ten years ago.
the race track building boom
The first race track building boom to involve NASCAR came with the construction of Daytona International Speedway, which opened for racing in 1959. Within ten years, new tracks in Atlanta, Charlotte, Bristol, Rockingham, Michigan, Dover, College Station, Texas and Talladega were hosting NASCAR races.
Ontario Motor Speedway opened in 1970 and closed in 1980, but during its short history, it was the scene of annual NASCAR events. Pocono International Raceway opened in 1971 and it continues to have two Winston Cup races each season. After that however, they quit building race tracks because there wasn't much demand for them.
When Roger Penske opened Nazareth Speedway in September 1987, it was the first new major oval circuit to be built in 15 years. The following year, the old half-mile Richmond oval was torn down and the current modern 3/4-mile tri-oval was built in its place. The next new oval to be built was New Hampshire International Speedway, which opened in 1992 and began having NASCAR events the following season. Have I missed any?
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway built a one-mile tri-oval on the grounds of Walt Disney World in Orlando and the new track hosted the first Indy Racing League event in January 1996. Two months later, Ralph Sanchez's new track south of Miami opened with a CART race. Las Vegas Motor Speedway opened in September 1996 with an IRL race.
The peak year for new race tracks was 1997. Texas Motor Speedway (the Charlotte look-alike) opened in April 1997. Roger Penske's two-mile California Speedway opened the following month. Chris Pook opened the Gateway complex near St. Louis Memorial Day weekend. C.C. Myers opened Pikes Peak International Raceway to the IRL in June 1997.
Last year, Chip Ganassi opened Chicago Motor Speedway out in the industrial flats in Cicero, Illinois, west of downtown Chicago with a CART race. The Kentucky Speedway is being built now and the IRL will race there next season.
Despite reported tension between Bill France and Tony George over the aborted Indy car racing talks, the last I thing I heard was their partnership is still on to build a new track in Joliet, Illinois. Another France project, a new track in the Kansas City area is still in the works too, as far as I know. The talk of a partnership between France and Donald Trump in a new track in New Jersey continues.
The one thing most of these tracks have in common is that they were built with the hope of getting a NASCAR Winston Cup event. I doubt if Chip Ganassi really hoped for a Winston Cup race at his new track near Chicago, but for most of the other tracks, an association with NASCAR is an essential part of the long range plan.
All these new ultra-modern speed palaces are like the perfect theaters from which NASCAR can present its show to the nation. These places look modern and professional. There aren't many old time small town race tracks remaining on the Winston Cup schedule. The Busch cars and the Trucks still run a few races at the old style tracks. With but a few exceptions, the places where the Cup cars run look to be first class.
the 50th anniversary hype
The final component on my list of NASCAR building blocks was the big NASCAR 50 year anniversary in 1998. The 50th anniversary thing wasn't so important in the historical sense and it will probably be quickly forgotten. It's important in the commercial sense though because the money made from the 50th anniversary merchandise had to be a huge revenue producer. Can you imagine how much dough Bill France made from NASCAR's 50th anniversary? That's probably where he got the money to buy all of Roger Penske's race tracks last Spring.
So there it is. That's my look at what I consider to be the primary reasons
why NASCAR has become the fastest growing sport in this country. It's fun
for me to go back and look at racing history although it takes more work
than spouting opinions about contemporary issues. Do you understand that
Robin Miller?
This is the time of the year when I think the most about NASCAR, on the eve of Daytona Speedweeks. I'm getting a little excited about racing and the new season ahead. Next week the Indy Racing League runs at Walt Disney World with Al Unser Jr. A couple weeks later, things get going at Daytona. I'd get a big kick out of Tony Stewart winning the "Daytona 500," especially since he won't be in the "Indianapolis 500" this May.