January 5th - 9th, 2009
Monday: 2008 Driver Reviews return to the Frontstretch, as we ring in the New Year with a look back at the seasons of Casey Mears and Paul Menard.
Tuesday: Juan Pablo Montoya and current free agent Joe Nemechek go under the microscope as our look back at last season continues.
Wednesday: It's back! With the new season just a month away, some of your favorite writers return to check in on the offseason news and offer their take in the latest edition of Mirror Driving.
Thursday: Tony Raines and David Reutimann have their last 36 races sliced apart as our Driver Review Series trudges on.
Friday: While Elliott Sadler figures out his next move, we figure out how he put himself in position to be released by GEM with a look back at his 2008 slump.
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I saw in the news this week that Kroger has renewed as the sponsor of the Nationwide Series race at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis (nee Indianapolis Raceway Park.). Nice to see they continue as the oldest race sponsor in any NASCAR series.
One of the wildest accidents I’ve ever seen happened in the 1987 Kroger 200 at IRP. It was the first time Dale Earnhardt came up there to run it. At the practice session the day before, I had Tommy Houston set up for an interview with an Indianapolis TV station, when the reporter came over and said his producer called and wanted him to do an interview with Earnhardt instead.
That didn’t sit well with Tommy. “He’s not even a Busch Grand National driver,” Tommy snarled.
You have to remember in this situation that there was also family involved. In case anybody doesn’t know it, Teresa Earnhardt’s maiden name is Houston. Tommy is an uncle. I don’t know if it had any bearing on Tommy’s feelings about Dale, and I don’t really care. Tommy and his family are wonderful people and wonderful friends of mine, and as the next few years went along I got to know Dale and like him, and realized he wasn’t really the crusty curmudgeon everybody thought he was. We actually got to be friends, too.
Anyway, Earnhardt was leading the race in the Goodwrench No. 8. If that sounds familiar, it’s because at the time he liked to run his father’s number in the Busch series. At 70 laps, Tommy was running second in the Southern Biscuit Flour No. 6. This was one terrific battle for the lead, and I was enjoying it. Coming off the fourth turn on the 78th lap, Tommy’s right front got into the Dale’s left rear and they went skidding down the front straightaway, both of them sideways. At that point, it looked like it was just going to be two cars spinning out, almost like synchronized spinning.
Tommy Houston’s No. 6 Buick. Photo courtesy of the Decal-Man.Unfortunately, Brett Bodine was just coming out of the pits. Brett was driving the Thomas Brothers Country Ham No. 00, a famous car in Sportsman and Busch series racing made more famous by the movie, “The Last American Hero.” Suddenly it turned into a three-car crash, with all three of them torn up pretty bad inside the first turn. Tommy got his arm broken and had a helicopter trip to Methodist Hospital, but that was the most serious injury. Earnhardt was a little taciturn about it when Bob Daniels and I talked to him in the infield, and said only, “I like this place. I’ll be back.” Poor Bodine had the best comment. “I was just minding my own business, coming out of the pits, and this freight train ran right over me.”
A week or so later, I was watching a videotape of the incident taken by D.O. Laycock from on top of the first turn terrace hill, and noticed that as they came out of the fourth turn, Tommy’s car suddenly veered toward Earnhardt’s, and that started the whole thing.
Later in the season, at a Busch race at Louisville Speedway, I was talking to Tommy and Martha Houston and remembered it. I told Tommy that it looked to me like he had broken an axle or something. You have to love his answer.
“Naw, I just hit him.”
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How does Jimmie Johnson compare to Cale Yarborough?
Ten things we hated about the 2008 season
Ten things we loved about the 2008 season
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