Today is the anniversary of another Petty moment - but sadly not a win. I was sitting on the frontstretch near the entrance to pit road for the 1990 Pepsi 400. Good grief was it hot that morning - always was for those summer Tona races. I screamed lustily as King took 'em 3 wide down the backstretch on lap 1. But we all held our breath knowing he'd gone 3 wide with GREG SACKS and DERRIKE COPE. Sure nuff, it wasn't meant to be. Boom, crash, screech, day over. A funny scene in Talladega Nights played out in reality before our eyes.
After the wreck, there were only about a dozen cars even remotely competitive. Dale led the majority of the remaining 159 laps & got the win.
A friend of my uncle went with us that day - Howard. He was an unrepentant Earnhardt fan. Dude wore black jeans, black t-shirt, black boots and a black cap. He had a pretty thick black beard and ruddy complexion. Howard pounded beers all morning and into the afternoon, never had a water, never took a leak, never applied any Banana Boat, and I'm pretty sure never watched a lap.
As we filed out after yet another Earnhardt win, his arms and face were lobster red. As much as I couldn't stand Earnhardt in that era, I could only laugh as he paraded around drunk with 3 fingers in the air simply screaming hoarsely URRRRRNNNNNHARRTTTT, URRRRRNNNNNHARRTTTT.
The thing that really strikes me as I watched this clip again was how many folks would cling to the fences back then. Security would roam along and shoo people away. Fans would back off long enough to let security through and then simply return to the fence. Kind of like a rat passing through a snake - only faster.
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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
