On This Day June 10, 1979 Riverside International Raceway

Bobby Allison (from 4th) runs off and hides in a "snoozer" leading the last 30 laps as he bests Darrell Waltrip (from 3rd) by 32 seconds with Richard Petty in 3rd (from 5th) Cale Yarborough in 4th (from 6th) and Benny Parsons (from 8th) rounding out the top 5.

Dale Earnhardt, with a surprising run qualified 1st with West Coast standout Jimmy Insolo starting in 2nd place.

(Posting a day early in order to take care of some car guy stuff this evening before a long day at work tomorrow)

Pole sitter, Dale Earnhardt:

Parade Lap:

Lap 1:

Pole Sitter Earnhardt finishes in 13th:

Mid Race Action with Waltrip, Petty, Parsons,and Allison:

3rd Place, Richard Petty:

2nd Place, Darrell Waltrip:

The Winner, Bobby Allison:

Scott, your photos are amazing!!! I don't know what you do/did for career, but if it wasn't in professional photography, that field lost a great man. Thank you so much for all these wonderful post for a track I really liked and really miss, even today.

As Scott referenced, rookie Dale Earnhardt was the surprising pole winner in only his 2nd race at Riverside. - Spartanburg Herald Journal

As mentioned in my post about about the June 9, 1974 race at Riverside , NASCAR often co-sanctioned the Riverside race as a Winston Cup and Winston West event - mainly to cobble together enough cars for a full field. Plus, the economics of racing in 1979 was pretty tough on many teams.The situation was noticed by an AP writer. - Daytona Beach Morning Journal

Jimmy Insolo's 2nd place qualifying run didn't mean much in the race as he fell out early. But his early exit was a boon for King Richard who needed relief help during the race. Insolo took over the 43 and soldiered it home to a 3rd place finish behind Waltrip. When the dust settled at Ontario 5 months later, Petty won his 7th title over Waltrip by 11 points. Looking back, one could argue it was Jimmy Insolo who secured the championship for Petty with his marvelous run.

A couple of wire service race reports.

from Hendersonville NC Times News

from Lakeland Ledger

Thank you Tim, you are way too kind, and in need of an eye exam

I started taking the photos for personal use before cable TV came along. Never once thought about getting serious about it. I did invest in some software recently to enhance what I have and am in the process of figuring out how to use it. I have an Uncle that was in and out of photography and one of my Grandfathers was a motion picture cameraman near the end of the silent movie period and into the talkies. He actually was the inventor of the major development that brought about the 3D motion picture camera. Me. I design packaging machinery

People sometimes say I'm kind, Scott, but I always try to speak the truth. You have some excellent photos posted on this site and you deserve to berecognized for such awesome work. I just appreciate you sharing with us.

Oh, and for the record, my annual eye exam was two weeks ago. I do need a stronger prescription, which Iintend to get this week, but these year old glasses I wear work pretty good!!!!

Have a great day.

Insolo passed Yarborough for 3rd right within the last 2 to 3 laps of the race gaining a few position points for Petty that helped at the end of the year.

*bump* for those who missed this a year ago.

Thanks for bumping Scott's 2014 post, Chase. I was hospitalized on the original posting date and missed it when I tried to catch up. Lots of interesting stuff here and I must second Tim's appreciation for Scott's photographic skills. He is simply outstanding.

Thanks for the kind words Dave. Greatly appreciated !!!!

I was lucky got to see the last race run out there i think it was June of 1988 i think it was a long ride back south with no air con or power steering in a tractor trailer truck