Editor’s Note: In a nod to our 92 years of history, each week SPEED SPORT will look back at the top stories from 20, 40 and 60 years ago as told in the pages of National Speed Sport News.
20 Years Ago — 2006
News: For a driver who was supposed to retire at the end of last season, Mark Martin has decided he can’t walk away from the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.
So instead of retiring, he’s cutting back and will leave Roush Racing to drive a limited schedule for MB2 Motorsports in the No. 01 US Army Chevrolet. He will share the car with Regan Smith.
“I was 39 years old when I started making my plans for the future and I realize now that was way too early to do that,” Martin said. “I thought at the age I am right now, I wouldn’t be able to compete against these young guys the way. I have in the past. I’m not interested in just riding around.”
Martin said because he has competed at such a high level during the last few seasons “it’s hard to walk away when you still have an opportunity to win races.”
Martin said what he was looking for didn’t fit in with Roush Racing’s goals and accomplishments with five competitive teams that can challenge for a championship. Because of NASCAR’s limitations on teams there wasn’t an opportunity to split a season with another driver who could get in the Chase in 2007.
“I can’t thank Jack Roush enough for what he has done for me profession- ally, but more importantly what he has. done for me personally,” Martin said. “Jack is the guy who gave me the chance when nobody else would in 1987 and for that, I’ve given him 19 of the best years of my career. At this time, I have the opportunity to do something that is going to be a new challenge for me.”
Winners: Brian Vickers bulldozed his way to victory at Talladega Superspeedway and spent most of his post-race interview apologizing.
“The first-career win is exciting, but yes it does come with mixed emotions,” Vickers said. “Lance McGrew (his crew chief) said, ‘Let’s go to the front and have some fun. If we wreck, we wreck.'”
That’s exactly what happened.
Thanks to a late nudge of Jimmie Johnson that took out leader Dale Earnhardt Jr., Vickers won Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup UAW-Ford 500 at the 2.66-mile superspeedway;
It was the first Victory in 107 starts for Vickers, who had to dodge a shower of debris after being declared the official winner, the 170th driver to win a race in NASCAR history; Vickers ran into the back of Johnson, his teammate at Hendrick Motorsports.
Johnson’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo spun along the backstretch and swung into Earnhardt’s Chevrolet, sending both cars into the grass.
The wreck between the top two cars paved the way for Vickers’s unpopular victory; To add to the intrigue, Vickers is leaving Hendrick Motorsports at the end of this season to join Red Bull Racing, a new team that is part of Toyota’s NASCAR effort.
“When it happened, I thought, ‘Oh …whoops,”‘ Vickers said. “I didn’t know if we won or not It was confusion in the moment.”
Vickers said he was simply trying to push his teammate past Earnhardt on the last lap in what would have given the team a 1-2 finish. But that ended when Earnhardt tried to protect his position and make the block entering the third turn.
“I knew Jimmie was going to wait until the last lap,” Vickers said. “We had a great run down the backstretch, and I was bump drafting him because that’s the only way we were going to pass Dale Earnhardt, Jr: When he did that, Junior blocked him and I got into the back of him and wrecked him.
“It wasn’t intentional.”
40 Years Ago — 1986
News: The Executive Committee of International Auto Sport Federation announced radical changes in Grand Prix and Rally World Championship rules, in the name of safety, for competitors and spectators and to reduce rapidly escalating costs after a major meeting in Paris.
FISA President Jean-Marie Balestre told a press conference that more than 50 nations at the meeting of members unanimously accepted the changes.
For Grand Prix racing, on Jan. 1, 1987, FISA will start phasing out the current 1.5-liter turbocharged engines which produce from 800 to 1,300 horsepower in race or qualifying trim in favor of 600-650 horsepower normally-aspirated engines.
During next year’s transition season, there will be “two races in one” for the turbo and conventionally-engined cars with separate year-end awards. It is expected restrictions will be placed on turbo engines next year.
Turbo powerplants will be further restricted in 1988, and the formula will return to solely 3.5-liter normally-aspirated engines in 1989.
Winners: This one may well fit right into the hallowed halls of stock car racing history.
In years to come, they may pull it from the file and somebody say: “Hey, do you remember the day Dale Earnhardt came from two laps down and the rear of the field to blow everybody away at Charlotte? It was the race that made all the difference in the point championship way back in 1986.
“And, hey, it came only a few days after some disparaging remarks by Darrell Waltrip about Earnhardt and his crew. It was something about them not being able to read and all. But Earnhardt showed ’em. He showed ’em all, es pecially Mr. Waltrip. Guess you could call it revenge, huh? For sure, he learned to read his way around the race track.”
Waltrip came home ninth, and Tim Richmond, the other title contender, was way back in 27th in the final rundown.
While Earnhardt’s victory may not have clinched the championship, it has opened enough room between first and second to build a cobweb. Earnhardt gained 37 points on Waltrip and leads by 159.
60 Years Ago— 1966
News: Stock car builder Smokey Yunick continued his feud with NASCAR officials by entering his controversial 1966 Chevelle in the National 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway through the United States Auto Club.
The move came after Yunick appealed NASCAR’s ban on the Chevelle at a hearing last week chaired by NASCAR Executive Manager Lin Kuchler.
Yunick entered the car and named Curtis Turner as his driver, under USAC rules because the race has Federation International de Automobile sanction which allows promoters to accept entries from USAC, NASCAR and other bodies recognized by FIA.
At the same time Yunick said he complied with two of the three changes ordered after the NASCAR hearing and “went as far as I could” in going along with the third “suggested” alteration.
Kuchler said Yunick must move his wheelbase position back one inch to put it within the once-inch tolerance allowed by NASCAR, move the bumper forward one inch to make it conform with the original bumper location, and replace cutout sections of the frame where the exhaust crosses under the frame.
Winners: Jackie Stewart drove a rear-engine Lola Ford to vi tory at the Mt. Fuji road course in Japan’s first race of USAC national championship cars. It was a grueling, see-saw contest that saw only 11 of 22 starters finish.
Stewart’s Bowes Seal Fast Special covered the 215 miles over the 2.7-mile course of the tricky, twisting speedway on the slopes of this snowcapped volcano in two hours, three minutes and 59.35 seconds.
His average speed was 103.46 mph.
The Scot was 46 seconds ahead of Bobby Unser, who drove a rear-engine Ford Weinberger Homes Special. Unser’s time was 2:04:45.52 for an average speed of 102.80 mph.
Arnie Knepper in a DVS Special rear-engine Ford was third and Gary Congdon in a rear-engine Offenhauser was fourth.
Stewart was $11,700 in purse and posted accessary money.
