Setting the record straight...

#1
DownNDirty

DownNDirty

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#1
I thought some discussion of past rumors, lore, facts, and stories could be fun.

The one that immediately comes to my mind is that Dale Earnhardt was all set to replace Darrell Waltrip in the Junior Johnson 11 car in 1987. But, early in 86 that possibility ended in Richmond, Virginia. The rumors were that Johnson was so livid at Earnhardt for wrecking out Waltrip and not taking blame that he decided right then he didn't want Earnhardt for his team and instead chose Terry Labonte.

Here's the "accident" in question.....

YouTube - 1986 Miller High Life 400 Finish

Maybe we can debunk some things for each other or provide things not known to some of us?

I can't tell people what to and what not to post but I'd like this to stay fairly clean and not have discussions about the death and surrounding rumors and circumstances of drivers. Those events are sad enough in themselves.

Here's one for the fact bank as far as I know:

Rick Hendrick was DONE in 1984 shortly after he started up "All Star Racing." Martinsville was going to be the teams last race but Geoff Bodine took the car to victory lane and saved the team and started what would turn out to be an owner dynasty. A dynasty that almost didn't even get started.

I was a big fan of DW growing up and here's another fact according to his book. He was all set to have the Mello Yello deal and they were signing the papers after Daytona in July. But he had that horrible crash that broke his leg and Mello Yello bailed out on him for SABCO and Kyle Petty and DW wound up with Western Auto.

Rusty Wallace "died" at Bristol in 89 in a hard crash but Jerry Punch was able to revive him as he was first on scene. That's why the good Doctor and Rusty are so close to this day......

YouTube - Rusty Wallace flips at Bristol
 
#3
#3
Did Junior Johnson have an illegal motor in DW's car for the first ever Winston in 1985 that DW intentionally hand grenaded at the line? I find this hard to believe as if the motor was illegal - blown or not - they could have still figured it out. DW admits alot in his book about his shennanigans but maintains that it really did just blow up as he crossed the line.

One of his old tricks was to have a 50 pound fake radio that they would lay in his car when he'd go through tech. Finally an official caught it when he tried to pick it up and had a hard time lifting it with one hand. They were pretty upset at Junior and DW over the solid iron radio.

I don't know if this one is true or not but I've heard that in 90 or 91 when Ernie Irvan got the nickname "Swervin Irvan" that the drivers were on the verge of lobbying NASCAR to have him thrown out of Cup racing after the wreck at Darlington that ended the career of Neil Bonnett. It took Dale Earnhardt, Bonnett, and Ken Schrader to save him from at least being suspended for the rest of the season.
 
#4
#4
Huh, I always thought the Swervin' Irvan name came after he returned from that terrible accident at Michigan in 1994 when it literally looked like he could only see out of one eye.
 
#5
#5
tidwell said:
Huh, I always thought the Swervin' Irvan name came after he returned from that terrible accident at Michigan in 1994 when it literally looked like he could only see out of one eye.
Click to expand...

it did.
 
#6
#6
I LOVE these old stories! That was when the racin' was real and so were the people in the sport. Everything is too polished now and it has really taken away from the "real" factor.
 
#7
#7
doozer said:
it did.
Click to expand...

From the Speed TV wiki


Won 1991 Daytona 500… finished Career Best 5th in Points in 1991… but earned the nickname “Swervin' Irvan”… after triggering a multicar accident at Talladega that broke Kyle Petty's leg… Irvan publicly apologized

So he got the nickname at Dega not Darlington but that was two big wrecks he caused that year. I thought I remembered him having that nickname back when he was driving the Kodak car.
 
#9
#9
I read DW's book a while back and I believe I remember him saying something about Junior Johnson's team putting BB's in the the rollcage of the racecar before tech to weigh it down and then loosening a cap at race time so the BB's would come out lighten the car. He said them things would fly out of the car as it raced around and would pepper people. LOL.
 
#10
#10
Speaking of Irvan's bad accident at Michigan that I mentioned earlier to kind of go along with the idea of this thread, I've heard that the reason his injuries were so bad was because he had already began to loosen his seat belts as the lap he was on was supposed to be the last lap of the day or something. Anyone else heard anything like that?

I have a hard time believing he could have survived that kind of impact (I believe he hit the wall in one of those crossover areas on the track where there is a gate that opens) if in fact his safety belts weren't secured properly or even on at all, but that's what I've heard a few times.
 
#11
#11
tidwell said:
Speaking of Irvan's bad accident at Michigan that I mentioned earlier to kind of go along with the idea of this thread, I've heard that the reason his injuries were so bad was because he had already began to loosen his seat belts as the lap he was on was supposed to be the last lap of the day or something. Anyone else heard anything like that?

I have a hard time believing he could have survived that kind of impact (I believe he hit the wall in one of those crossover areas on the track where there is a gate that opens) if in fact his safety belts weren't secured properly or even on at all, but that's what I've heard a few times.
Click to expand...

I personally haven't ever heard that story but not saying its not true. I can't believe that Irvan of all people would loosen his belts before he came in at Michigan of all places though - the track that nearly ended his life 5 years earlier. From what I do remember about the wreck - it wasn't nearly as bad as his 94 crash. I do believe with the kind of head injury he had before, along with this concussion he got from this crash, that it scared him into retirement though. Probably rightly so in that.


Here's a couple of more tidbits to throw out there....

The following drivers are really as bald as all get out:

Sterling Marlin and Jimmy Spencer. I have saw pictures of both of them completely bald. Marlin was working on his dad's car in the pic I saw of him from the early 80s and I couldn't believe he was that bald. The Spencer thing I saw on a ESPN Cup race in the late 80s when they were showing the track his dad had out back and Jimmy was bald back then.

In more modern times Matt Kenseth just had a hair transplant of some sort in the past year or so.

I don't see what the big deal is about being bald. Some guys could really market themselves if they done it right by being bald. Harvick won't have far to go before he's there and he could maybe pull it off.
 
#12
#12
I was referring to the 1994 crash in that post. Sorry for not clarifying.

Speaking of Marlin's baldness, Ryan Newman got in a pretty good dig on Marlin after the two got into it at I think Watkins Glen a few years ago. Marlin spun Newman out and sent him to the garage, and in his interview Newman said, "Sterling's hairpiece must have fell down in his eyes."
 
#13
#13
I'm bald, and I'm ok with it, and drivers should be too. That's why I pull for Todd Bodine, we bald guys got to stick together! LOL

Chad Knaus was loosing his hair too I think, but he got plugs or something in the offseason a year or two back.
 
#14
#14
tidwell said:
I was referring to the 1994 crash in that post. Sorry for not clarifying.

Speaking of Marlin's baldness, Ryan Newman got in a pretty good dig on Marlin after the two got into it at I think Watkins Glen a few years ago. Marlin spun Newman out and sent him to the garage, and in his interview Newman said, "Sterling's hairpiece must have fell down in his eyes."
Click to expand...

That was indeed his last lap of the day from what I've read and saw before. I guess its possible he had loosened the belts but it still doesn't make alot of sense. Maybe if he had crashed while slowing down but they say he blew a right front tire and hit the wall nearly head on at over 190 MPH. Now, that sounds to me like he was still hard on the floorboard when it happened. I don't think anyone would loosen their belts until they got off the racing surface out of turn 4 on their cool down lap. The part about it being his last lap of the day was indeed true though.
 
#15
#15
This should "set the record straight" on Jimmy...

33dkvaf.jpg
 
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#17
#17
Irvan did indeed get the nickname from the earlier wreck, and the driver meeting did take place. It was primarily Earnhardt that kept Irvan in.

I never heard the one about Junior not taking Earnhardt due to wrecking DW.

Some of my favorite true stories:

The 7/8 scale Chevelle entered at Daytona by Smokey Yunick. He almost got away with it. This led to the first body templates.

Junior Johnson filling the roll cage with bb's with caps the driver pulled loose after the start of the race dumping the bb's out lightening the car. The other drivers got him to stop it cause it made the track slick as all get out for the cars behind DW.

Wood Brothers the initial ones to put a coil of about 20-25 feet of fuel line in the trunk of the car. This gave them over a gallon of extra fuel.

There were rumors that the reason Bobby Allison got such great fuel mileage in the #22 Miller Beer car was putting fuel in the roll cage. He has denied it adamantly.

Richard Petty won his 200th race with an illegal too large engine. Dale Inman bored out the cylinders to make the engine almost 400 c.i. (max is 355 c.i.). He then put wax in the upper part of the cylinders so when the tech man measured before the race it was legal. The wax would melt when the engine got hot.

Curtis Turner was banned from NASCAR for many years for trying to start a driver's union. Big Bll France decided to let him back in. The first race was at Charlotte, and Turner got drunk partying Saturday night. He was afraid he would pass out in the motel room and miss the race, so he went to the speedway and passed out on the hood of his race car so the crew could get him up. He then won the race.
 
#18
#18
One of my favorite stories is of Smokey Yunick. During Speedweeks in Daytona Nascar thought he was getting excessive fuel mileage, so they took his fuel tank out and checked it. After he passed, he picked the gas tank up, threw it the trunk and drove off.


If you are interested in more stories I suggest the book "Along for the Ride: A Collection of Stories from the Fast and Furious World of NASCAR " by Larry Woody(former Nascar writer, along with other sports, for the Tennessean)
 
#20
#20
I think it was The Nashville Network back, I guess now, 10 or more years ago released some videos of legends getting together and sharing stories. I wish I could come across that now because I remember there being some awesome stories in the clips they would show trying to sell the videos. One of my favorite stories I saw I'm just half remembering now but it was maybe Bobby Allison, Cale, and Junior Johnson in a plane. The plane crashes coming to the runway and when one of them comes to he's looking for one of the others. That other one is walking up the runway towards the crashed plane. When, Cale I think it was, gets to Junior (I think) he says, "what happened???" Junior then says that plane was crashing I was getting out lol. So he jumped out of a moving crashing plane as it hit the runway.
 
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#21
aksn907 said:
One of my favorite stories is of Smokey Yunick. During Speedweeks in Daytona Nascar thought he was getting excessive fuel mileage, so they took his fuel tank out and checked it. After he passed, he picked the gas tank up, threw it the trunk and drove off.


If you are interested in more stories I suggest the book "Along for the Ride: A Collection of Stories from the Fast and Furious World of NASCAR " by Larry Woody(former Nascar writer, along with other sports, for the Tennessean)
Click to expand...

That is supposed to be a true Smokey story. I am not familliar with that book, but I bet it is a good read. All my stories I just remember from either when they happened, or have read about them somewhere.

One I forgot my first post was Tim Flock from the early days who raced with a Rhesus monkey riding in the car. He entered it as a co-driver Jocko Flocko. Jocko became the only monkey to win a race. Then one race the monkey went nuts and he had to pit and get him out.
 
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#22
This I know happened at Bristol in the mid '60s. Track owner Larry Carrier put a sealer on the track that turned out to make the surface so smooth there was scant traction. When the drivers got there on Thursday they threatened to pull out due to the track being too slick. Fireball Roberts stepped up and suggested they all drive their street cars on the track until they wore it down some. They agree to try it, and Larry bought their gas as they drove for many hours along with anyone else who was willing to wear out their tires. I had to change two tires.
 
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rbroyles said:
This I know happened at Bristol in the mid '60s. Track owner Larry Carrier put a sealer on the track that turned out to make the surface so smooth there was scant traction. When the drivers got there on Thursday they threatened to pull out due to the track being too slick. Fireball Roberts stepped up and suggested they all drive their street cars on the track until they wore it down some. They agree to try it, and Larry bought their gas as they drove for many hours along with anyone else who was willing to wear out their tires. I had to change two tires.
Click to expand...

That brings up an EXCELLENT point that I have thought about many times now. I even told my dad and he agreed. When a track repaves it generally takes a few years to really get two good grooves. I said when they repave why not get trucks to drag tires around the track for days on end? It would help put rubber into the racing surface and wear on the track just a bit.
 
#24
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rbroyles said:
That is supposed to be a true Smokey story. I am not familliar with that book, but I bet it is a good read. All my stories I just remember from either when they happened, or have read about them somewhere.

One I forgot my first post was Tim Flock from the early days who raced with a Rhesus monkey riding in the car. He entered it as a co-driver Jocko Flocko. Jocko became the only monkey to win a race. Then one race the monkey went nuts and he had to pit and get him out.
Click to expand...

if only there was in-car video back then..
 
#25
#25
Some not so good memories/events:

Joe Weatherly was an AMA Champion motorcycle racer who had success in NASCAR in the late 50s early 60s. He was a great jokester. He was killed at Riverside in 1963 I believe when he slid driver side into a boiler plate barrier. His head hit the wall due to his not having shoulder straps which were not mandatory (window nets were off in the future). His fatal wreck had the rule changed.

Richard Petty hit the 4th turn wall at Darlington about '65 and veered head on into the pit wall which was constructed of cement blocks. The car went about halfway through the wall and barrel rolled down the track with Richard's upper body out the driver window. His crew chief/cousin Dale Inman was thinking how he was going to tell his aunt Richard had been killed. When he ran up to the car Richard was hanging out the window unconscious. He revived just as Dale got there and said "I hurt my danged shoulder". This led to window nets after Petty developed one for his car. NASCAR liked the idea and made them mandatory.

My all time favorite driver Fireball Roberts died from burns he suffered in a crash at Charlotte in 1964 with Ned Jarret. Jarret pulled Roberts from the car, and Roberts told him "Ned I'm burned bad". Jarret won the Nat. Champ. in '65 and then retired early. Many who knew him said this crash influenced his early retirement. This wreck led to fuel cells being required.

Of course all are familiar with Earnhardt's death leading to Safer walls and head restraints. It has been a long history of fatal or near fatal wrecks to advance safety in racing. Can you imagine how NASCAR would have been affected and stunted had Petty been killed that day?
 
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