Editor’s Note: In a nod to our 90 years of history, each week SPEED SPORT will look back at the top stories from 15, 30 and 60 years ago as told in the pages of National Speed Sport News.
15 Years Ago — 2010
News: Once playing with the big boys International Speedway Corp. and Speedway Motorsports, Inc., Dover Motorsports continued to fade away this past week with the announcement it would no longer hold auto races at the 1.25-mile oval at Gateway lnt’l Raceway and that it would seek a buyer for the facility.
A final decision has not been made regarding the adjacent drag strip, which hosts an annual NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event, but it seems likely based on Dover’s woes the past few years that it would attempt to make a clean break from the facility.
The first sign of trouble for Dover Motorsports came in late May 2008 when Marathon Partners, the largest outside stockholder in Dover Motorsports, asked the company to explore selling all of the company’s properties, even going as far to suggest it sell to ISC or SMI. The letter to Dover Motorsports also stated that “Dover Motorsports must finally divest itself of its money-losing Midwest motorsports facilities,” which no doubt included Gateway lnt’l Raceway, Nashville Superspeedway and Memphis Motorsports Park.
Last fall, Dover Motorsports, a publicly traded company, closed Memphis Motorsports Park, giving up NHRA and NASCAR dates at the multi-purpose facility which has not been sold and remains shuttered.
Dover sold its rights to the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in 2005, thus its signature Dover (Del.) lnt’l Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway and GIR are the only tracks remaining it its portfolio.
On July 28, Dover Motorsports, Inc. officials informed NASCAR that they would not be asking for sanction for Gateway next season.
Winners: Roush Fenway Racing crew chief Greg Irwin knew early that strategy would play a role in their finishing position Sunday at the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway. He just didn’t know how much.
When the 3M Ford team took two tires for the second time in the 500-mile race, exiting the pits in second, Greg Biffie felt confident that he would have a shot at the victory.
And with just six green-flag laps on his left side tires, both Biffle and Irwin knew their call would provide the right mix of track position and handling. After all, he watched the two-tire strategy beat him at Indianapolis Motor Speedway the previous week.
But he also knew clearing Penske Racing’s Sam Hornish Jr., who chose not to pit, would be the key. He needed to separate himself from the drivers back in the field that elected to take four tires.
He did.
Just after the restart, Biffle cleared Hornish and set sail en route to a 3.598-second victory over Tony Stewart, who took four tires on the final stop.
The victory capped an emotional week for the Roush Fenway Racing team after co-owner
Jack Roush suffered injuries in a plane crash at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wis.
It also was the first non-restrictor plate victory for Ford since February 2009 and the first Sprint Cup Series triumph for the manufacturer this season.
Stewart was second in a Chevrolet with Carl Edwards third in another Roush Fenway Ford. Point-leader Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin completed the top five.
“It’s been a hell of a day,” Biffle said. “Hitting the wall on the first turn of the first lap, coming off turn one I just scraped it and I knew it was gonna be a long day from there … Late in the race, I don’t know if it was the cool weather or the mist or what, but when it started cooling off, to me, that thing was like a completely different race car. I don’t know what happened to it, but it simply took off.”
30 Years Ago — 1995
News: The .555-mile, high-banked Salem Speedway will reopen next week after sitting idle 3 months.
New owners Owen and Beverly Thompson have set Aug. 20 as the opening date as owners. The first event held under the Thompsons’ aegis will be the Joe James/Pat O’Connor ‘Memorial for Loctite/USAC sprint cars.
Owen Thompson, who also owns Sigma Six, a mechanical engineering firm in nearby Louisville, said the first priority for the new ownership team replacement of a 400-foot section of guardrail along the backstretch. Several accidents have occurred at that point on the track, and one was fatal.
“We want to bite off at least that chunk before we start back up,” Thompson told the Louisville Courier·Journal last week. He also indicated another 1,000 feet of turn guardrail will be replaced with concrete.
The Thompsons bought the facility June 30 in a sealed-bid auction conducted by the Internal Revenue Service. The previous owners, the Gettelfinger family, filed for bankruptcy after the IRS had seized the family trucking business and, eventually, the race track.
“Everything’s ours now,” Thompson told the Courier·Journal. “The town (of Salem) has pitched in like we were raising a barn. People have come out every day with their lawnmowers, weed eaters and paint brushes.”
Thompson also plans to add more security fencing both inside and outside the track and repaint everything.
Don Gettelfinger Jr., who promoted races at Salem since 1987, will continue to run programs at the track for Thompson this season.
“I’ll try to point him in the right direction,” he told the paper. “And, I’d like to stay involved.”
Winners: Dale Earnhardt let it be known he wasn’t about to concede NASCAR’s top spot to the younger generation.
After a four-hour rain delay, the 44-year old Earnhardt fought off a tight race car and the rest of the field to claim victory in Saturday’s second NASCAR Winston Cup Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“I guess I’m not too old to win the Brickyard after all,” he told his crew after roaring past starter Doyle Ford’s checkered flag.
Driving a new Chevrolet Monte Carlo built expressly for Indianapolis, Earnhardt passed Rusty Wallace just after their last green-flag pit stops, then dodged a spinning Jeff Burton on lap 132 to claim his third victory of the season and 66th of his career.
Earnhardt’s winning speed of 155.218 mph was a race record, erasing Jeff Gordon’s 131.977 of the inaugural last year.
“I just basically ran a consistent race all day and stayed in the hunt,” Earnhardt said. “The last pit stop was the key. The crew got us off pit road and got us in front.”
Earnhardt, who pitted on lap 129, was aided by Wallace’s near-miss on pit road a lap later to catch the accelerating Miller Genuine Draft Ford on the backstretch.
Wallace got caught behind Joe Nemechek and Rich Bickle, who collided at the end of pit road. “Dale just got by me and that was all,” Wallace said. “Track position was everything.”
Four Fords separated Earnhardt and defending champion Jeff Gordon at the finish. Behind Wallace, Dale Jarrett was third in the Texaco Havoline entry, Bill Elliott was fourth in the McDonald’s car and Mark Martin, who passed Gordon late in the race, was fifth in the Valvoline-Cummins car.
60 Years Ago— 1965
News: It was “thanks for putting us on the map” day Friday in Nazareth, Pa.
That was the theme as Mario Andretti, rookie of the year, was honored at a massive parade attended by more than 20,000 proud natives of this fair borough.
Riding in a convertible, Andretti headed the parade. His Indianapolis car, plus several stock cars, midgets and motorcycles, were displayed on trailers.
Mayor Wainwright Diehl, during brief ceremonies at the parade reviewing stand, thanked Mario for putting Nazareth on the map. On Saturday night the racing hero was honored at a banquet and presented with a gold wristwatch “from the people of Nazareth.”
William Kraemer, longtime friend of Andretti, was chairman of the programs which were sponsored by the Borough Service Group.
Winners: Richard Petty won the eighth annual Western North Carolina 500 Sweepstakes at Ashville-Weaverville Speedway in a 1965 hemi-powered Plymouth that was so swift it left the nearest competition more than a mile behind.
Two of Petty’s closest competitors-In fact, the only two to share the lead with him after the eighth lap-were removed from competition in accidents.
Junior Johnson’s 1965 Ford blew a right front tire on the 193rd lap and smashed the wall in the fourth turn and David Pearson’s 1965 Dodge fell out with a broken axle on the 398th lap.
Ned Jarrett, who led the first seven laps, finished second in a 1965 Ford, two laps behind Petty.
Dick Hutcherson was third in a 1965 Ford three laps behind. Then came Buddy Baker 12 laps behind in a 1965 Plymouth and Cale Yarborough in a ’65 Ford, a lap to the rear of Baker.
Ironically, in this age of Ford dominance of NASCAR racing, the only carried that really worried Petty after Johnson’s wreck was Pearson’s Dodge.
“As soon as Pearson fell out, I slowed up,” Petty said. “I knew I had a couple of laps on the others so I just backed off and paced myself the rest of the way.”
A crowd of 10,000 watched Petty maneuver skillfully through traffic on the steeply banked, half-mile track, running the 250 miles in three hours, 21 minutes and 45 seconds at an average speed of 74.349 mph.
