Handling mattered back then. The cars didn’t have billboards for spoilers like they do now on the plate tracks. I remember a Busch race where Dale Jr drove away by himself at Daytona because he had a good handling car.
These giant wrecks have been happening since they put plates on them. Don’t fool yourself. Go back and watch Rusty flip through the trioval at Dega in 93 or Tony Stewart tumble over cars down the backstretch at Daytona in 2001.
Underrated driver. He’s made himself a good career in the trucks. The series was at it’s best when it was filled with a dozen or so guys like him that were truck lifers.