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Posted on January
29, 2008
50 Years of Daytona;
The Forgotten Stories
1991 Daytona 500
Being the Great American
Race, the Daytona 500 has never been
short for storylines. Be it the action
on the track, or the action and stories
off it, Speedweeks in February provide
plenty of entertainment for motorsports
fans. Of course everyone knows the big
stories, from the Petty/Pearson crash in
76, to the Yarborough/Allison fight in
79, to Earnhardt’s trriumps and
tragedies and the track. It’s the
stories though that sometimes get lost
in the shuffle that help make the
Daytona 500 what it is, and have helped
it reach the pinnacle it has. These
stories about drivers who perhaps didn’t
win the race, or have a direct impact on
who did, are still stories worth telling
and remembering. There are countless
stories to be told, and it would be an
impossible task to undertake to try to
even scratch the surface, but alas, with
Speedweeks closing in, it’s time to take
a look at some of the lesser known tales
of Daytona 500s past.
The 1991 Daytona 500 was
definitely not a race short of
storylines, not with the multiple late
race incidents claiming multiple
contenders, Ernie Irvan’s surprise
victory and Morgan McClure’s ascension
to the top of NASCAR when it came to
restrictor plate racing, and NASCAR’s
new pit rules being put in place among
the headline grabbers. However, there
were several stories that weren’t
exactly front page exploits, but were
events that are worth remembering.
The 1991 Daytona 500 was
the first NASCAR race where drivers
really were able to show patriotism, and
NASCAR itself as a sport was able to put
it’s patriotic qualities on full display
for the American public. While
sponsorships from the different factions
of the armed forces are common place
today, the same couldn’t be said back
this time period of NASCAR Winston Cup
Racing. However, for the 1991 Daytona
500, the armed forces were on full
display. The Navy, Marines, Coast Guard,
Air Force and Army all put their colors
and name on different racecars for the
event. The Army was rewarded the most as
they adorned the sheet metal of Alan
Kulwicki’s no. 7 Ford Thunderbirds as he
drove his car to a top ten finish. In
addition to showing support for the
armed forces, the sponsorships were
beneficial in many ways. It obviously
helped aide in drawing attention to the
armed forces for recruitment purposes,
but it also helped put some paint and
color on some racecars that would
otherwise have been plain white. The
sponsorship deals had no direct effect
on the race in anyway, however, they did
help further showcase NASCAR’s place as
a truly American sport.
One of the bigger stories
of the 1991 Daytona 500 occurred not on
Sunday during the Daytona 500 itself,
but rather the first of two Gatorade
125’s on Thursday. The finishing order
in that particular race read; 1.
Allison, 2. Petty. It’s the last time a
NASCAR race ever ended with such a
finish order with two of NASCAR’s most
famous last names. The winner of that
race of course was Davey Allison, who
led all 50 laps, asserting himself as
the favorite heading into Sunday. The
runner-up though was the surprise, as it
was not Kyle Petty, but rather “The
King” himself. An accident in turns
three and four impacted the finish, as
did a lapped car that was in the way of
the leaders coming to the stripe to
conclude the race. Chasing Hut Stricklin,
Petty showed the bravado of the man who
was dominating the sport in his hey-day
decades earlier, and not the old age of
a man who would be attempting his next
to last Daytona 500. Petty’s bold move
on Stricklin, ironically in a car owned
by Bobby Allison moved Petty into 2nd
place and into a 3rd place
starting position for the Daytona 500.
While Petty’s Sunday wasn’t nearly as
good as his Thursday, his stirring run
in the Gatorade 125 was just one more
magical moment provided by Richard Petty
for his fans.
Perhaps most intriguing
of all though was the list of names who
ended Sunday afternoon atop the
leaderboard. With accidents helping to
take out guys like Kyle Petty, Darrell
Waltrip and Rusty Wallace in the race’s
late stages, there were several spots
amongst the leaders available to the
sport’s lesser known drivers. Consider
this, Joe Ruttman, Rick Mast, Bobby
Hillin, Bobby Hamilton, Dick Trickle and
Eddie Bierschwale made up half of the
top twelve finishers that afternoon.
Those six drivers, all together,
combined for just 13 top tens all season
long in 1991, yet in the biggest race of
the year, all found themselves on the
upper level of the scoring pylon at
race’s end. Ruttman and Mast were
particularly impressive with finishes in
the top 5. Ruttman had been strong all
week in his RahMoc Enterprises
Oldsmobile and finished the race in 3rd
position. For Rick Mast, he was
replacing Terry Labonte in Richard
Jackson’s Skoal Oldsmobiles, it was his
first career top five finish. It also
marked the second straight year
Jackson’s car finished the Daytona 500
in the top five, benefiting again from
late race troubles to Dale Earnhardt.
Bierschwale’s career would only consist
of 8 more career starts, and none would
result in a finish better than 19th.
While the seasons, and in many cases,
careers, of these six drivers would be
less than inspiring, for one day, on the
sport’s biggest stage, they found
themselves at the top of the heap.
Every Daytona 500 is
filled with stories such as these,
hidden behind the big names, or the big
headline grabbers, but intriguing
nonetheless. What will this year’s under
the radar stories be? Who knows, but
before we find out, it’s nice to take
some time to look at similar stories
from Daytona 500s past.
You can
contact Ben at
bengunby@speedwaymedia.com
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on this site are not necessarily those of the publisher. All
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the author. Copyright 2000-2008 SpeedwayMedia.com.
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