It was February 1992 at Richmond when Bill Elliott won the largest NASCAR short track First Place purse of nearly $300,000 beating Alan Kulwicki by just 18 inches after a thrilling side-by-side duel.
Little did we know they'd also finish in the same order at Atlanta in November, with Elliott again taking the win, but Kulwicki the championship.
I was standing on Richmond's pit road at the start/finish line when Elliott and Kulwicki came off turn 4 side by side heading to the checkers and thought Kulwicki would win, but Awesome Bill's Junior Johnson horsepower and torque off the corner barely prevailed.
The accepted opinion had been that Elliott couldn't get the job done on the short tracks. That opinion got thrown out the window at Richmond.
Those two guys raced each other so cleanly we couldn't believe it. We were used to seeing Dale and Darrell beat each other to death at Richmond. It was refreshing to watch side-by-side racing this clean.
I still get a little choked up hearing the late Neil Bonnett describe the action.
Don't tell me these weren't the good ole days.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM