Food For Thought

Great read.
It doesn't surprise me a bit to know that nascar manipulated the rules to suit their own best interest.

Speaking of Junior Johnson, he got two wins with Jimmy Spencer in 94 at the Daytona 400, and Dega. I don't remember the specifics, but the next year in tech inspection for the Daytona 500, they got caught with something illegal concerning their restrictor plate.

It made me wonder how legal they were when Spencer got the two restrictor plate wins the year before.
 
Petty had the cheated up motor in 83 at Charlotte, but I think the two left tires on the right side was the big difference, and no less intentional.

I had mixed feelings, I grew up at a Petty fan but I was a big Waltrip fan too. He was at the top of his game and everybody hated him. It was great.
 
gordonite said:
Great read.
It doesn't surprise me a bit to know that nascar manipulated the rules to suit their own best interest.

Speaking of Junior Johnson, he got two wins with Jimmy Spencer in 94 at the Daytona 400, and Dega. I don't remember the specifics, but the next year in tech inspection for the Daytona 500, they got caught with something illegal concerning their restrictor plate.

It made me wonder how legal they were when Spencer got the two restrictor plate wins the year before.
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That, and the fact that Spencer ran like absolute dog crap everywhere else that year. Despite the two wins, I think he finished something like 29th in points.
 
Greg said:
Petty had the cheated up motor in 83 at Charlotte, but I think the two left tires on the right side was the big difference, and no less intentional.

I had mixed feelings, I grew up at a Petty fan but I was a big Waltrip fan too. He was at the top of his game and everybody hated him. It was great.
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When I used to first go to the races it was mostly at Bristol because of the convenience for me........plus it used to be one of the tracks with less expensive admission. The way NASCAR favored Richard Petty in those days was as plain as the nose on one's face. Of course caution laps flip off pretty quick on a short track like that so one time after Petty had been involved in a wreck he kept making repeated trips back to his pit repairing the car. After the track was clear and everyone else was waiting to restart the race they were still holding the caution and Petty was continuing in and out of the pits nearly every lap. It finally became so obvious that fans were on their seats standing up yelling for a restart. That was the most obvious thing I ever saw.
 
George Finley said:
When I used to first go to the races it was mostly at Bristol because of the convenience for me........plus it used to be one of the tracks with less expensive admission. The way NASCAR favored Richard Petty in those days was as plain as the nose on one's face. Of course caution laps flip off pretty quick on a short track like that so one time after Petty had been involved in a wreck he kept making repeated trips back to his pit repairing the car. After the track was clear and everyone else was waiting to restart the race they were still holding the caution and Petty was continuing in and out of the pits nearly every lap. It finally became so obvious that fans were on their seats standing up yelling for a restart. That was the most obvious thing I ever saw.
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Didnt see it, but I can believe it. I saw it back in the day at the local tracks countless times. The context was similar, the local hot shoe with the best eqipment getting extra caution laps for repairs. I always hated to see the exceptions granted, racing is a war and it should be just as unforgiving for the big boys as it is for the poor boys.

I could live with the big dogs being better financed than the privateers, that is nature of the beast. But when bad luck hits them they should have not be given a bigger safety net. The smaller outfit had to stay within their limits and on a rare occasion when attrition worked their way they should not have been deprived.

As for Nascar I will be the first to admit they have their flaws. Social media has probably tightened that up a lot though even at the local level. The blowback is more powerful now with less opportunities for such shenanigans.

I am thinking the time frame you referenced would have had MRN providing most of the coverage. I loved MRN and Barney Hall is probably my all time favorite motorsports voice. But simply following the money should also indicate their limitations.
Their job was to promote Nascar while also covering and reporting the events.
Without video footage some unpleasantries could be omitted or at least mimimized.
 
Greg said:
Didnt see it, but I can believe it. I saw it back in the day at the local tracks countless times. The context was similar, the local hot shoe with the best eqipment getting extra caution laps for repairs. I always hated to see the exceptions granted, racing is a war and it should be just as unforgiving for the big boys as it is for the poor boys.

I could live with the big dogs being better financed than the privateers, that is nature of the beast. But when bad luck hits them they should have not be given a bigger safety net. The smaller outfit had to stay within their limits and on a rare occasion when attrition worked their way they should not have been deprived.

As for Nascar I will be the first to admit they have their flaws. Social media has probably tightened that up a lot though even at the local level. The blowback is more powerful now with less opportunities for such shenanigans.

I am thinking the time frame you referenced would have had MRN providing most of the coverage. I loved MRN and Barney Hall is probably my all time favorite motorsports voice. But simply following the money should also indicate their limitations.
Their job was to promote Nascar while also covering and reporting the events.
Without video footage some unpleasantries could be omitted or at least mimimized.
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I know what you mean about MRN and Barney Hall.....the best.

If I was forced to guess I would say the race I referred to was 1967/68. Petty was on a streak.
 
George Finley said:
I know what you mean about MRN and Barney Hall.....the best.

If I was forced to guess I would say the race I referred to was 1967/68. Petty was on a streak.
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I think that even pre-dates MRN. ( sure you were aware, I am just being a nerd:)
 
Greg said:
I think that even pre-dates MRN. ( sure you were aware, I am just being a nerd:)
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No way....MRN or at least Barney came along in the late 50's. I think :)

I stand corrected...I must have associated Barney with MRN from the start. That's obviously incorrect.
 
George Finley said:
No way....MRN or at least Barney came along in the late 50's. I think :)
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Ok, I cant say for sure the first race I listened to was around 1970ish. I was about 9 years old at the time.
 
Greg said:
Ok, I cant say for sure the first race I listened to was around 1970ish. I was about 9 years old at the time.
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I was indeed wrong. Barney Hall dates back to the 50's but the MRN sometime in the 70's.
 
Reading those stories I was smiling at the colorful history. The stories are legendary. Flat out cheating but some of the cheats were innovative (how did they even think of that stuff - clever racers); when the rules cover specific things it leaves open all the things not mentioned. It is easy to see how NASCAR has been forced into the tech inspections they use today. It is a time honored tradition to find wiggle room in the rules.
 
Zerkfitting said:
Reading those stories I was smiling at the colorful history. The stories are legendary. Flat out cheating but some of the cheats were innovative (how did they even think of that stuff - clever racers); when the rules cover specific things it leaves open all the things not mentioned. It is easy to see how NASCAR has been forced into the tech inspections they use today. It is a time honored tradition to find wiggle room in the rules.
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I think I like this story better than any of the others about cheating:

Smokey's improvisation was getting around the regulations specifying a maximum size for the fuel tank, by using 11-foot (3 meter) coils of 2-inch (5-centimeter) diameter tubing for the fuel line to add about 5 gallons (19 liters) to the car's fuel capacity. Once, NASCAR officials came up with a list of nine items for Yunick to fix before the car would be allowed on the track. The suspicious NASCAR officials had removed the tank for inspection. Yunick started the car with no gas tank and said "Better make it ten,"[3] and drove it back to the pits.

Following Fireball Roberts' 1964 crash at Charlotte — where after 40 days in pain from burns, he died — Smokey Yunick began a campaign for safety modifications to prevent a repeat of such disasters. After being overruled repeatedly by NASCAR's owner, Bill France, Sr., Yunick left NASCAR in 1970.

Smokey worked with Buick engineers from the early eighties on to perfect the Regal Buicks with turbo charged engines. The GN and GNX cars were among the most loved in the history of car worshippers. I owned an 87 myself. In 1987 GM discontinued all the G Body cars.

The GN/GNX were perfect street cars:

 
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