No, it wasn't the Southern 500, it was the then "Spring" Darlington race - the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 in March 2003 when Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch put on a finish worthy of any of the preceding Spring "Rebel" races at Darlington. Must be getting old. Couldn't believe 10 years has already passed. You might want to mute the sound and just enjoy the visuals.
A Ford and a Pontiac slugging it out for the win in a race sponsored by Dodge. Awesome.
Victory lane is always a strange place when an auto manufacturer is the race sponsor and a different maker is the race winner. Been in those victory lanes a number of times. Always weird.
That would have been in 2000, Jimmy - 13 years ago. I always figured Jeremy would be a "marked man" after that! Can't believe 13 years have passed since that one.
Say what you will about recent events in Mayfield's life. But that bump and run was one for the ages. A friend of mine is a dyed-in-the-wool Sr fan. To this day, he hates Jeremy for that move. He has such blinding loyalty to his guy that not even for a moment will he concede Dale did that same move to a million others over his career.
Each year on the anniversary of that race, I send him the YouTube clip just to bump-and-run the rest of his workday. Haha.
You are evil!
Kurt Busch's perspective today - excerpted from here:
http://www.kjonline.com/sports/NASCAR-Busch-remains-haunted-by-Crav...
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Kurt Busch never stops hoping for the perfect finish at Darlington Raceway.
It was 10 years ago that Busch came up an agonizing .002 seconds shy of victory to Newburgh native Ricky Craven at the track Too Tough To Tame. Busch said hes seen replays of the final few laps of that 2003 race several times and each time wishes for a different outcome, that he noses out Craven in what is Sprint Cups closest finish since it went to electronic timing in 1993.
To tell the story as many times as I have over the last 10 years, it gets better and better each year, Busch said Tuesday. It just puts a smile on your face.
Even for Busch, the runner-up.
Hes twice won the pole and has five top 10 finishes in 16 trips to Darlington. Yet, hes never gotten closer to the checkered flag there than those two-thousands of a second. Busch will get his next chance for a Darlington victory there when the Sprint Cup Series returns for the Southern 500 on Saturday night.
Craven had rallied from fourth and drew even with Busch for the lead with two laps to go. The pair bumped each other throughout and both appeared headed into the wall during the final moments. Craven edged in front on the final turn, the two cars grinding into each other as they slid past the finish line.
This day we had two winners it seemed like, and thats what gave it such a unique twist at the end, he said. Or maybe Im just telling myself that because I keep losing this race by .002 of a second, and Im never going to accept that, but it was a great race.
And one that helped NASCARs oldest superspeedway retain a place in Sprint Cup racing. The track had been on notice that year that its crumbling infrastructure and dwindling crowds made it a candidate for closure.
Instead, the dramatic finish showed drivers, fans and NASCAR leaders the thrills the egg-shaped oval could produce. Then Darlington president Andrew Gurtis remembers the excitement in the late Jim Hunters voice as the NASCAR vice president detailed the finish on the phone to longtime CEO, the late Bill France Jr.
It went a long way in reminding people what Darlington was all about, said Gurtis, now vice president of operations at Daytona International Speedway.
Darlington made it through NASCARs realignment, gaining at niche on Mothers Day weekend. Strong crowds the past eight years have turned around the tracks once uncertain future.
Im not nearly bold enough to say that that one race was a turning point, Craven said. But I am realistic enough to say that at the end of the day, people buy into a product because they want value or they want an experience, they want something that sticks with them.
Craven said anyone who attended or has seen the Darlington finish from 2003 wont ever forget it.
Darlington still provides thrills many of them coming after the race. Kevin Harvick confronted Kurts brother, Kyle, on the track driving toward the garage after the 2011 Southern 500. Last year, it was Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman and their teams scuffling after the race.
There were plenty, including Craven, who expected the fiery Kurt Busch to come out swinging after the race 10 years ago. Instead, Busch went to Victory Lane and celebrated with the winning team.
I think that day it was just something special and it was two men that gave everything they were worth, Busch said. If there was a loser, it was fine, because I gave it everything I had.
One of the best moments in the sport's history I think.....still a Darlington DAY race, there was a Pontiac, and Winston was hangin' on.
