NASCAR Winston Cup Series Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After the first three years of the Brickyard 400 had produced winners like Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, and Dale Jarrett, the fourth year of NASCAR at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was sure to provide another headlining driver ending the day in Victory Lane, right? Not quite. Ricky Rudd, a driver/owner piloting his own equipment, pulled a fast one on the competition and held off all comers down the stretch to take home the trophy. For most of the day, drivers like Gordon and Jarrett controlled theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor When looking back at all the memorable moments Darlington Raceway has produced, all of them aren’t confined to just the Southern 500. Back when the track held two events each year, the spring race produced just as many memorable moments of its own. The CRC Chemicals Rebel 500 in April 1979 was one of those events. Richard Petty, driving his famous No. 43 STP car, and Darrell Waltrip, who then drove the No. 88 Gatorade machine for DiGard Racing, staged a battle for the agesRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BRISTOL, Tenn. – The Bristol Night Race is always a race that is circled on the calendar each year for the sheer entertainment value the event provides and the classic moments that have occurred in the race over the years. Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. started on the front row for the August 2002 running of the famed race in front of a packed house. When all was said and done, the fans would be sure to remember what would transpire in the 500Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The 1996 running of the Bud at The Glen had it all. A hometown hero brought the fans to their feet en route to the final victory of his career, while a legend was on a mission to prove he was still one of the toughest drivers in the garage. Two weeks prior to the NASCAR Winston Cup Series visit to Watkins Glen, they were racing at Talladega Superspeedway, when disaster struck for Dale Earnhardt, who was leading at the time. Earnhardt was turned head-onRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor When Riverside International Raceway was shuttered following the 1988 season, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series was forced to look for another road course venue to replace it on the schedule. Officials didn’t have to look far as Sonoma Raceway, a winding 12-turn, 2.52-mile course in Northern California fit the bill and was added to the 1989 schedule with the running of the Banquet Frozen Foods 300. From the start of the weekend, the track proved treacherous, with Michael Waltrip flipping in practice and theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race has seen its fair share of fireworks over the years, but in the fifth edition of the annual exhibition race in 1989, those fireworks spilled off the track to create one of the more memorable moments in the event’s history. Heading into “The Winston,” as the race was known in those days, both Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip had won three races each and it appeared that the two would be fighting it out over the course of theRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Everyone knows Talladega Superspeedway as the biggest, baddest track on the circuit that has produced amazing racing and a plethora of memorable moments since its inception, but half a century ago, the 2.66-mile behemoth of a track in Alabama was just getting its start, and it was a controversial one at that. With the success of Daytona International Speedway, the first superspeedway project for Bill France, Sr. 10 years earlier, NASCAR’s founder wanted to go even bigger and with that, the dreams of Talladega tookRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Over the years, Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon have had their share of on-track battles and some that continued outside the car, but in September 1998, the two gave Burton’s home state fans in Virginia a race to remember and one of the closest finishes ever at Richmond Raceway. Both drivers started in the top-five for the Exide NASCAR Select Batteries 400, but the lead would jump between 10 different drivers in the first 150 laps of the race, including Burton, Rusty Wallace, Bobby Hamilton,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The bump and run. A move that we all know and love and one that is ubiquitous with the racing at Bristol Motor Speedway. In the mid-1990’s, Bristol was a race track with the preferred groove right around the bottom, often leaving drivers with one option to pass their opponent…you guessed it, the bump and run. Add in two titans of the half-mile bullring fighting for the victory and an instant classic is born. Entering the 1997 season, Rusty Wallace was gunning for his sixth winRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor We all know how dominant Petty Enterprises was in its heyday, as the organization captured 250+ wins over the course of its lifespan with Richard Petty, Lee Petty, and a handful of others behind the wheel, but after Petty’s final win in 1984, trips to Victory Lane would become a much rarer sight. Only three other times after that would a Petty Enterprises No. 43 car take the checkered flag and in April 1999, John Andretti would be the last driver to deliver a win forRead More