November 4, 1979: The Dixie 500
Stock Car Racing History
I now know the "rest of the story" on Lake's qualifying effort. The last time we talked, this topic came up.
With this being his first time in a stock car he was eager to soak up any knowledge he could. He was standing on top of a hauler in the garage watching the first cars qualify. He was particularly interested in where the fast guys were lifting off the throttle on the entry into turn one.
As he stood and watched, he was shocked at how much deeper they were going before letting off than he had been in practice. He thought about it and decided if they could go in that far, he'd have to do the same if he wanted to make the race. (That wouldn't be a problem today!) So he took a deep breath and rolled off the line. Green flag, into turn one, driving way deeper into the corner than he had ever gone in practice, and you've seen the results above.
After the crash he got to thinking about what had happened, and it eventually dawned on him. He hadn't taken into account how far away the garage and hauler were from turn one and that by the time the sound had traveled that distance, the other drivers really weren't letting off the gas any earlier than he was going into the corner. Because the sound wasn't in synch with what he was seeing it just appeared that way.
Lesson learned. The hard way.
updated by @russ-thompson: 01/18/20 05:20:38AM
