Indy Car in Earnhardt's Garage????

[Belanger99]

So I turned on FS1, they are showing NASCAR presents-Neil Bonnett. A very short clip shows him in Dale Eanhardt's garage discussing driving again, and in the background, parked next to a Lumina stock car, is very clearly a Gilmore March. Numbered 44, and it looks to be circa 1984 or 1985.

I know Foyt and Dale were friends, but anyone know the story of why Dale had a Gilmore March? Possible Indy run? Gift from A.J.? Part of his toy collection?

[indyrjc]

Good catch, Belanger. I'm wokring backwards and speculating here but if Bonnett was talking about driving again then the show was probably done in the 1991-92 time frame because he was back racing and made a couple of starts in '93. And if the Gilmore March is from around 1985 then that would likely make it one of the turbo Chevy V6 engines in the car. Foyt was the entrant but Chevrolet funded that deal so maybe Earnhardt, as a Chevrolet dealer, simply ended up with the car. At any rate the car would have been at least five years out of date by the time Bonnett was being interviewed. Hopefully, someone here knows more about this.

[Belanger99]

Another possibility-Earnhardt bought it at the auction. There were several complete cars sold at A.J.'s auction, though I don't remember a complete mid 80's march being one. I only caught enough of a glimpse to ID it as a Gilmore March, the nose was wide and bulbous so I presume it was 1984-85 range. As I recall, George Snider drove one with a V6 in 85.

[Will O'Hargan]

I believe it is the car Mike Nish attempted to qualify in 1986, which was still the 1984 chassis. It does not match Snyder's 1985 car.

[Belanger99]

I believe it is the car Mike Nish attempted to qualify in 1986, which was still the 1984 chassis. It does not match Snyder's 1985 car.

You may be correct. Nish's name came into mind as well, but I couldn't remember which year and what car he attempted to qualify for Foyt, and my Indy yearbooks are packed in boxes right now.

[Indyote]

I believe it is the car Mike Nish attempted to qualify in 1986, which was still the 1984 chassis. It does not match Snyder's 1985 car.

In '86 that Chevy `wreck` sat in an 86C.

The car failed to qualify but George Snider had made the race with a 86C-DFX. He then wiped out the car on carb-day, was permitted to start the race in a backup car but that had to be one identical to the one he had made the race with. AJ had no more 86C-DFX in Gasoline Alley anymore but there was that 86C-Chevy and the had DFX's. Thus the Chevy was taken out of that car and replaced with a DFX and that was the car Snider started the race with. Utterly painful: that particular 86C chassis started in the 500 powered by that `wreck` on several occasions but all of its laps in all those races combined don't add up to a mere 20% of the number of laps it did in the single race it drove with Cosworth power.
One year It even set itself on fire during the warm up lap, not a single lap under green....

That thing, (engine is too complimentrary for that piece of metal) was an utter embarassment for Chevrolet and for Foyt.
I honestly wonder why he had that thing running other than the one accusation I have heard about it.

[DaveL]

The car failed to qualify but George Snider had made the race with a 86C-DFX. He then wiped out the car on carb-day.

Not actually George's fault. He was sitting on pit lane when a mechanical failure caused Dennis Firestone to spin off of turn four and he hit Snider's car.

The reason why Snider qualified the DFX powered car in '86 was because it was at the head of the qualifying line on Bump Day and the Chevy was at the back. With weather being very iffy (turned to be the right call on Ol' AJ's part) it was decided to have George qualify the Cosworth.

[Indyote]

Not actually George's fault. He was sitting on pit lane when a mechanical failure caused Dennis Firestone to spin off of turn four and he hit Snider's car.

The reason why Snider qualified the DFX powered car in '86 was because it was at the head of the qualifying line on Bump Day and the Chevy was at the back. With weather being very iffy (turned to be the right call on Ol' AJ's part) it was decided to have George qualify the Cosworth.

Sorry for that, you are right. It was yet another one of those misfortunes George ever so often had.
I was too hard on him, you're fully entitled to correct me.
I wasn't aware of the details you gave on how he ended up qualifyng teh Cosworth, thanks for shining a light on that matter.

[Doctorindy]

Another possibility-Earnhardt bought it at the auction. There were several complete cars sold at A.J.'s auction, though I don't remember a complete mid 80's march being one. I only caught enough of a glimpse to ID it as a Gilmore March, the nose was wide and bulbous so I presume it was 1984-85 range. As I recall, George Snider drove one with a V6 in 85.

The AJ Foyt auction was mid-August 1992...not sure how that would work into the timeline.

[Belanger99]

The AJ Foyt auction was mid-August 1992...not sure how that would work into the timeline.

Neil didn't return to racing until the 1993 season, he did some testing during 1992. The video could be from the fall-winter of 1992, the two are wearing jackets while poking around the garage. I presume the actual program on FS1 is fairly recent, but is comprised of videos that Fox had in the vault (or got from CBS).

So the timeline is possible, we just don't know for sure when the particular footage was shot.

[Indyote]

Another possibility-Earnhardt bought it at the auction. There were several complete cars sold at A.J.'s auction, though I don't remember a complete mid 80's march being one. I only caught enough of a glimpse to ID it as a Gilmore March, the nose was wide and bulbous so I presume it was 1984-85 range. As I recall, George Snider drove one with a V6 in 85.

That thing debuted in 1984 already in Foyt's 84C #84. Johnny Rutherford tried to qualify it according the Hungness missed the show. Didn't bother to read about why the thing failed to qualify but my guess would be unreliability toi complete 4 laps,