But all of these close points battles remind me of a very close 'Modern Era' battle where the winner closed out the year 11 points ahead of the runner-up finisher. The year was 1979, and the King, Richard Petty came out on top. Most remember that season from the second race of the season, when Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crashed on the last lap of the Daytona 500, culminating in an all out fist and helmet fight. While that was going on, the top two finishers in the final point standings that year, Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip, finished 1-2 in the race. Even though he won, Richard still had a pair a 32nd place finishes in the first race at Riverside, and the third race at Rockingham. When he later earned a 30th place at the first Dover race, he was almost 200 points behind Bobby Allison and 169 points behind the second place car of Waltrip. From that point on, after Dover, Petty put on a good display of how consistent he could be. He earned 19 consecutive top-10 finishes, winning three times during the period, at Michigan, Dover and Rockingham. During those 19 straight top-10s, he finished no worse than 9th, for 19 straight races!
On the other side of things, Darrell Waltrip and his #88 Gatorade, Digard-owned Chevrolet was also pretty consistent. He led at least one lap in 14 straight events. He also won the spring races at Darlington, Charlotte, and Texas. He would also record three more victories at his home track of Nashville, 1 of his 5 Talladega wins and 1 of 11 Bristol wins. He was on a roll and the only one to put a hole in balloon would be Richard Petty, who with 6 previous wins, knew how to be smooth.
Bobby Allison would eventually fall out of contention toward late summer and it would be just honest mistakes that would cost Darrell Waltrip a chance at his first Winston Cup. At the second race in Pocono, Waltrip wrecked his primary car, so between qualifying and the actual race, Darrell spent his own money on a car from Al Rudd. (Al had a son, Ricky, who was still trying to compete full time in Winston Cup Competition and someday get a win.) Anyway, Darrell had run well in his new car, on a Monday. Rain was in the area the entire weekend, and with just 5 laps to go and Darrell in second place, more rain came. Thinking it would be a light and quick rain, both Waltrip and Neil Bonnett, who was leading, decided to pit for new tires for the restart. However, there never was a restart, as officials called a "green-yellow" meaning the last four racing laps would be completed under caution. With Waltrip never having time to gain back position on new tires, he settled for 6th, but losing 24 vital points.
The next big disappointment for the #88 team was at the Southern 500 on Labor Day. Though he started 3rd, he jumped to the lead on lap 63 and led 165 laps in the race. At the time of the misfortune, Darrell had well over a one lap lead on second place. Eventually, Darrell was driving too aggressively by himself....or in other words, he was trying to show off. And by doing that, he hit the wall hard, causing him to go to the garage for repairs. When the Gatorade crew finally fixed the car well enough to race again, guess what...Darrell wrecked again! Even though he would finish 11th, he was still 12 laps down and with a hand-full of races left in the season, Richard Petty was there ready to pounce on the point lead.
In October, Petty won at Rockingham; a track that was bad to him at the start of the season now gave him the points lead for the first time. The next week at Atlanta, Waltrip led 10 laps and finished one spot higher than Richard. With just one race to go, Darrell was back in the lead, but only by 2 points.
For the season finale, before it was at Riverside, or Atlanta, or the current track in Miami, in the 70's, the Winston Cup Circuit ended its exciting season every year in California, (not Canada) at the Ontario Motor Speedway, a long-lost brother of the Indianapolis Speedway. Ontario was also a 2.5 mile track with turns that had short-chutes, just like Indy. Anyway, for the last race of the decade, Petty started 6th, with Waltrip just four spots behind him in qualifying, starting 10th. Richard took the #43 STP Monte Carlo to the lead early to get 5 extra points for leading one lap. Some say Petty had a deal worked out with the veteran drivers he had competed against for years to sort of 'move aside' in the opening laps to give him one lap to lead and then back to real all-out racing. While competing for the win and the championship, Waltrip stayed out to lead a lap under caution while almost all the other top drivers pitted. He then pitted and restarted the last car on the lead lap. That idea would've worked, but Waltrip probably didn't count on what was about to happen. A lapped car spun in front of Waltrip, and while trying to avoid any damage, he hooked a hard left into the grass. Some say he fired his car back up and made it back to the yellow, but he was ultimately counted one lap down. Throughout the course of the race, he never rallied back to finish on the lead lap.
On the final lap, Petty was in second place behind the likable Benny Parsons, driving for Bud Moore. Benny was able to hold off the #43 for the win but in those last 2.5 miles, King Richard fell to 5th, three positions ahead of the discouraged Darrell Waltrip. Those three positions were enough to clinch the 1979 Winston Cup Championship for Richard Petty and the Petty Enterprises team. The final standings showed that the Digard #88 was just 11 points behind the #43. For Petty, it was both his and Petty Enterprises final championship in a record book career. Darrell on the other hand would have to wait two more years to join Richard's name in the record book. In 1981, he was still driving a green car, he was still sponsored by a beverage, but it was with the legendary Junior Johnson, who got his 4th owner's championship.
So, you never know what could happen in these next two races. Could Jimmie take it by just a couple of points, or could Brad beat the veteran for his first. We'll see in just two weeks, when the winner of the 2012 Sprint Cup Championship will spray champagne in Homestead!
-Cody
Email: cody7474@yahoo.com
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