NASCAR trivia

[KevMcNJ]

Lake Speed drove the STP 43?!!

When and where??

I saw this watching my old videos this weekend.

You can tell Winter is getting on my nerves, The old races I taped way back when are seeing daylight again

[Calhoun]

Pepsi Firecracker 400, 1987.

-Calhoun

[KevMcNJ]

You got it Cal. Good job.

Looked a little warm there that day.
No wonder the King needed help

Doesnt seem that long ago, until you see the hopelessly out of date Tv commercials and note that the 400 was edited & shared air time with a track & field event and some Bimbo interviewing "Benjamin Franklin" in Philly. it was July 4 after all

[Calhoun]

Don't have any tv commercials in my copy. Taped it off satellite.

When they did it live, scoring was messed up and Keith Jackson called Buddy Baker the winner. He was not a happy camper when they told him scoring had the wrong winner and they had to redo the final race segment (from the last caution.) iirc that was the race in which Ken Schrader flipped Junie's #90 coming to the flag.

-Cahoun

[dalz]

I remember that race because believe it or not my man Dave Marcis was on his way to stealing that baby! I don't know what pit strategy he employed (skipped new tires?) but he had a big lead on P2 Rick Wilson with about 12 laps to go, and nobody was catching him. Then Wilson blew up in a big way, caution comes out, everyone gets new tires, and the FBI couldn't find poor Marcis at the checkered. Allison came from about 10th on the final restart to to win it.

This was also the first superspeedway race after the Allison Incident at Talladega. The dreaded restrictor plate as we know it wasn't invented yet, but there was some kind of carb restrictor in place to keep speeds in check.

[KevMcNJ]

Don't have any tv commercials in my copy. Taped it off satellite.

iirc that was the race in which Ken Schrader flipped Junie's #90 coming to the flag.

-Cahoun

Yep in car camera kept rolling the whole time. Even caught Schrader dropping an "F Bomb"

Safety guy comes running up to him....

Safety Guy "you alright?"

KS "Yeah get the ******* net down"

priceless

[flatlander_48]

Lake Speed also did a fill-in for Robert Yates in the Havoline 28 at Watkins Glen. I was there for all 3 of Mark Martin's wins there and Speed in the 28 was the only one who could keep up. Speed would have been a legitimate contender if the 28 had gone the distance. Can't remember what year it was, but I believe the Yates motor uncharacteristically dropped a valve.

[Doctorindy]

This was also the first superspeedway race after the Allison Incident at Talladega. The dreaded restrictor plate as we know it wasn't invented yet, but there was some kind of carb restrictor in place to keep speeds in check.

Yup, they used 390 CFM carbs. The pole speed for Daytona in Feb. was 210.364 by Elliott. The Firecracker 400 always saw slower speeds due to the heat, in '86 the fastest qualifier was 203.666 mph. After using the smaller carbs, the pole speed for the '87 FC400 was 198.085 mph.

After the Schrader flip, they went to Talladega with the smaller carbs, and Bill's pole was 203.827 mph (vs. 212.809 back in May). Summer Talladega speeds also were normally slower, but that wasn't slow enough.

[Calhoun]

Can't remember what year it was, but I believe the Yates motor uncharacteristically dropped a valve.

It was 1993. After Davey's helicopter accident the Yates team sat out Pocono. They picked Robby Gordon to fill the seat at Talladega, where he spun all on his own in the tri-oval after dropping the left side tires onto the apron.

Lake drove the next three races, starting at the Glen where he qualified 4th. It wasn't a valve, it was the transmission. He had nothing but 4th gear. He told me afterward, "That car had so much horsepower it was unbelievable. It pulled harder off the corners in 4th gear than anything I had driven before pulled in 3rd."

The next race at Michigan he qualified 2nd, led 2 laps, and finished 7th. At Bristol he qualified 21st and finished 16th.

Of course the next race was Darlington. I figured they might as well go ahead and make out the check. He finished 8th there in 1980 in only his 3rd career start and of course his win came there in 1988. Then early in the week Yates / Ford did the deal with Morgan-McClure / Chevy for Ernie Irvan and Lake was back on the street.

It wasn't all bad. Geoffrey Bodine had bought the Kulwicki team and after Richmond two races later finally made the move to the driver's seat. That left a seat open at Bud Moore and Lake got the call to replace Bodine.

-Calhoun

[Doctorindy]

Looked a little warm there that day.
No wonder the King needed help

I remember too that in the 1992 Pepsi 400, Petty's last where he led the first few laps, Richard had to get out of the car because of the heat. They were looking all over for Dale Earnhardt to take over, since he dropped out early (another dagger of his horrible '92 season). They couldn't find him, and put Eddie Bierschwale in the car instead. That lasted all of a couple laps, I guess because of the height/comfort difference.