H
HardScrabble
Guest
Building up to Sundays race, a look back a few years. Goodyear is bringing a new tire to this race, and tires have played an important in several battles at the Monster Mile. The battle for the championship has seen its share of drama on the concrete highbanks as well. Later this week, in the later 90's the track becomes "fuelish".
The drivers had reason to feel uneasy going into the Fall Dover race of 1988. As if driving the Monster Mile wasn't already tough enough the year long tire war between Goodyear and Hoosier was at its height. Both manufacturers were looking to give their drivers the fastest possible tires, and in that effort to make the tires faster safety was sometimes compromised. Such was the case at Dover that year. Tire problems were rampant and in fact felled the fastest two qualifiers, Mark Martin and Alan Kulwicki. Both hit the wall hard and were eliminated. Ken Schrader and Dale Jarrett both hit the wall as a result of tire failures as well. Even points leader Bill Elliott, who dominated the race, had a tire blow out on him, but he was fortunate enough to have the tire pop while the field was under caution and narrowly avoided hitting pit wall. Elliott went on to take the win, with Dale Earnhardt who was second in the points, second in the race, and likewise, Rusty Wallace who was third in the points finishing third. A driver can't get into the top three in points without a fair amount of luck and all three drivers proved it that day. For Elliott it must have been a relief just to survive the race and take his championship challenge to the next race track.
Bill Elliott was back with a fast car at Dover in the Fall of 1990, but after a long winless streak stretching back almost two years, he was not in that year's title hunt. Dale Earnhardt was battling with Mark Martin for the 1990 Winston Cup championship, and he and Bill treated the fans to some of the finest racing ever at the track, running lap after lap side by side and swapping the lead (as well as a little paint) time after time. Mark Martin had almost gone a lap down at one point, but a timely caution flag, coupled with adjustments in the pits by the Roush crew allowed him to get up front and join in the battle. Elliott, Martin and Earnhardt were on a lap by themselves, and gave the crowd a good show. Within 10 laps from the end Martin and Earnhardt made hard contact and both got out of shape but were able to save their errant race cars. Elliott took advantage of their prolonged battle and the incident to sneak off by himself and take the win by under a second and a half, over Martin who emerged victorious in his scramble with third place Earnhardt. As proof it takes a good deal of luck to win at Dover, there was less than three tenths of a gallon of fuel left in Elliott's tank when he reached victory lane, and a rear tire went flat as he pulled in there to receive his accolades.
Certainly the most notorious of all the battles between points leaders at the Fall race in Dover occurred in 1993. Rusty Wallace was making a spirited attempt to catch Dale Earnhardt in that years points battle and he managed to take the pole and dominate the race early. A blown tire, possibly caused by his team under-inflating their slicks in an attempt to increase traction sent Wallace limping to the pits and dropped him two laps off the pace. Teammates Ken Schrader and Jeff Gordon assumed command of the event while Rusty tried to make up lost ground. Earnhardt was running in the front pack and prepared to deal Rusty a serious setback in his attempts to win the title. Gordon who had had a tough few weeks prior that event may have been a little too racey that day, and when Geoff Bodine, making his first start as an owner driver, tried to make up a lap utilizing fresh tires, Gordon got into his quarter panel and sent Bodine into the wall. That was nothing compared to the mayhem that was about to take place. Wallace had made up one lap on the track, and was starting on the inside line, just behind Hut Stricklin, and attempting to get around the leaders then hope for a quick caution flag to get him back in the hunt. There was a quick caution flag all right and Rusty had a front row seat for the wreck. As the green flag dropped Wallace accelerated hard and ran into the back of Stricklin. Stricklin got sideways and went up the track into the lead pack of cars. Teammates Ricky Rudd and Jeff Gordon were both involved in the wreck. More important, so was points leader Dale Earnhardt who was forced to the garage area for repairs that dropped him 100 laps off the pace. The caution flag the next time by allowed Wallace back onto the lead lap and he wound up running in tight quarters with Darrell Waltrip Dale Jarrett and Kenny Schrader for the win. NASCAR took the unusual step of throwing a competition yellow with 25 laps left to go to allow teams to inspect their tire wear because of all the problems that had been caused by under-inflated tires popping. Shortly after the restart Wallace was able to power by DW and went on to take the win, though their were a lot of angry people waiting to have a word with him after the race. The victory allowed him to slice 97 points off Earnhardt's point lead, but at the end of the year Dale took the championship by 80 points.
The drivers had reason to feel uneasy going into the Fall Dover race of 1988. As if driving the Monster Mile wasn't already tough enough the year long tire war between Goodyear and Hoosier was at its height. Both manufacturers were looking to give their drivers the fastest possible tires, and in that effort to make the tires faster safety was sometimes compromised. Such was the case at Dover that year. Tire problems were rampant and in fact felled the fastest two qualifiers, Mark Martin and Alan Kulwicki. Both hit the wall hard and were eliminated. Ken Schrader and Dale Jarrett both hit the wall as a result of tire failures as well. Even points leader Bill Elliott, who dominated the race, had a tire blow out on him, but he was fortunate enough to have the tire pop while the field was under caution and narrowly avoided hitting pit wall. Elliott went on to take the win, with Dale Earnhardt who was second in the points, second in the race, and likewise, Rusty Wallace who was third in the points finishing third. A driver can't get into the top three in points without a fair amount of luck and all three drivers proved it that day. For Elliott it must have been a relief just to survive the race and take his championship challenge to the next race track.
Bill Elliott was back with a fast car at Dover in the Fall of 1990, but after a long winless streak stretching back almost two years, he was not in that year's title hunt. Dale Earnhardt was battling with Mark Martin for the 1990 Winston Cup championship, and he and Bill treated the fans to some of the finest racing ever at the track, running lap after lap side by side and swapping the lead (as well as a little paint) time after time. Mark Martin had almost gone a lap down at one point, but a timely caution flag, coupled with adjustments in the pits by the Roush crew allowed him to get up front and join in the battle. Elliott, Martin and Earnhardt were on a lap by themselves, and gave the crowd a good show. Within 10 laps from the end Martin and Earnhardt made hard contact and both got out of shape but were able to save their errant race cars. Elliott took advantage of their prolonged battle and the incident to sneak off by himself and take the win by under a second and a half, over Martin who emerged victorious in his scramble with third place Earnhardt. As proof it takes a good deal of luck to win at Dover, there was less than three tenths of a gallon of fuel left in Elliott's tank when he reached victory lane, and a rear tire went flat as he pulled in there to receive his accolades.
Certainly the most notorious of all the battles between points leaders at the Fall race in Dover occurred in 1993. Rusty Wallace was making a spirited attempt to catch Dale Earnhardt in that years points battle and he managed to take the pole and dominate the race early. A blown tire, possibly caused by his team under-inflating their slicks in an attempt to increase traction sent Wallace limping to the pits and dropped him two laps off the pace. Teammates Ken Schrader and Jeff Gordon assumed command of the event while Rusty tried to make up lost ground. Earnhardt was running in the front pack and prepared to deal Rusty a serious setback in his attempts to win the title. Gordon who had had a tough few weeks prior that event may have been a little too racey that day, and when Geoff Bodine, making his first start as an owner driver, tried to make up a lap utilizing fresh tires, Gordon got into his quarter panel and sent Bodine into the wall. That was nothing compared to the mayhem that was about to take place. Wallace had made up one lap on the track, and was starting on the inside line, just behind Hut Stricklin, and attempting to get around the leaders then hope for a quick caution flag to get him back in the hunt. There was a quick caution flag all right and Rusty had a front row seat for the wreck. As the green flag dropped Wallace accelerated hard and ran into the back of Stricklin. Stricklin got sideways and went up the track into the lead pack of cars. Teammates Ricky Rudd and Jeff Gordon were both involved in the wreck. More important, so was points leader Dale Earnhardt who was forced to the garage area for repairs that dropped him 100 laps off the pace. The caution flag the next time by allowed Wallace back onto the lead lap and he wound up running in tight quarters with Darrell Waltrip Dale Jarrett and Kenny Schrader for the win. NASCAR took the unusual step of throwing a competition yellow with 25 laps left to go to allow teams to inspect their tire wear because of all the problems that had been caused by under-inflated tires popping. Shortly after the restart Wallace was able to power by DW and went on to take the win, though their were a lot of angry people waiting to have a word with him after the race. The victory allowed him to slice 97 points off Earnhardt's point lead, but at the end of the year Dale took the championship by 80 points.