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Tuesday, August 31, 1999
Okay, I realize I should have updated before now, but I haven't.
I was missing in action last week while at the Goody's 500 in Bristol, TN. And thanks to Mr. Earnhardt, so new life has been breathed back into Winston Cup racing. It was getting pretty stale until the one once called the Intimidator reared its head and showed the world how it used to be done when he gave Terry Labonte a little love tap on the last lap. What has ensued has been a media frenzy live nothing NASCAR has seen the past couple of years. I'll make a prediction that this "just racin'" accident will actually be good for Jeff Gordon. My prediction is that Winston Cup fans will move a large portion of their "boo's" from Gordon to Earnhardt. The Boo's don't seem to bother Mr. E since he knows the ones booing are probably also the ones buying Earnhardt souvenirs.
Barbara Thompson [barbara@ttgnet.com] dropped me this note on the subject of the Bristol race:
My racing two cents worth.I have never disliked Earnhardt, just always respected him as one of the greats of Winston Cup. I know he his famous for his chrome horn, a lot of other drivers are too. But that move last night at Bristol was intentional. I think NASCAR should give the win to Terry, the other placed accordingly and Earnhardt finish 8th. They put Nadeau in the penalty box for the same move, why not Dale? Because he is a great driver??? Even though neither one are in the championship run, Terry would have moved to 8th in the points and instead stayed 9th and lost a victory in the win column.
NASCAR calls them like they like to see them, not how they are.
When I coming back down the mountain and listening to the race I said this is going to be interesting. Wasn’t surprised that Earnhardt used the chrome horn...actually was surprised in how well he was running overall.
There are many ways to look at the last lap. I want to believe that yes it was intentional for him to hit Terry and get his "loose" enough to pass. Don’t want to think he crashed his car intentionally. He used this as his excuse.
NASCAR wants to and has allowed the "flagged" winner to remain the winner of events in Winston Cup racing. I remember when I worked for STP and Richard Petty won the race at Charlotte. It was important in NASCAR’s eyes to keep Richard the race winner because fans had seen him flagged with the checkered flag, while fining him heavily. I seem to remember that we suggested just to take the win away.
It also wouldn’t surprise me to see NASCAR levy some kind of fine for rough driving. It was too late to do anything on the track, which would have been the most appropriate place. The question always remains in NASCAR’s mind that while Earnhardt meant to nudge him that Terry’s engine may have...just may have... burped, making the incident much worse.
Sounds like I am defending them both, which is not the case. Just using my experience in the sport to look objectively. I should be promoting the idea of penalizing E one lap which would have given Jimmy Spencer the win!
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