Had a little fun tonight and strung together a few choice photos and video clips of Brad's celebrations and interviews Sunday night. In the best typed impression of Foster Brooks I ca ... I ca... I can... muhhh, muhhh, muhhhster *burp* I hop hype hope you injoie it.
Tim - always willing to spend a few moments honoring a fan's request. Ha ha
I watched a good bit of Speed's Victory Lane. But after the fun opening when Buzzed Brad poured beer on the guys and Roger Penske had his interview, I turned it off. Then "just because" I guess, I tweeted Kyle Petty a photo of The Captain's first car fielded under Penske Racing. It was a 16 Matador fielded for Mark Donahue in the 1972 Winston Western 500. Coincidentally, Penske's first race as a car owner was also the first race for the famed 43 of The King to be sponsored by STP.
I blogged about the race here:
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/01/january-23-this-day-in-petty-history.html
Here is my tweet to KP. I knew it was a legit one, and I didn't expect a reply. I'm sure Kyle reads most of the tweets sent to him, but he normally just replies for some reason to rude people, dumb people, and selfish people begging for a re-tweet for no reason.
I didn't think anything more about it. But a few minutes later, I got a tweet from Scott Baker who runs the neat website www.bakerracingpix.com saying KP had given me a shout-out on TV. WHAT??
I DVR'd the re-run overnight & watched it this morning. Sure enough, near the show's close, I got this. Anonymous - but I'm there! Ha ha
Not all teams run numbers and team names on the "head light" decals. But a few do. Here are a couple of examples from photos I shot at Atlanta back on Labor Day weekend:
The building of Homestead was a noble effort back in the day following the devastation of Hurricane Andrew. And I'll give ISC some credit for rebuilding the track multiple times in an effort to find a desirable, competitive layout. But its really a no-man's-land relative to Miami proper. Homestead is hardly South Beach. About as much of a joke as "Chicagoland" - Joliet is NOT Michigan Avenue.
A couple of other things jumped off the page at me as I look at that succinct comment. One, I figured strippers would be number 2 behind LeBron. Two, I'd think The U football would be in the top 5. And three, NO WAY are Marlins in top 5.
Oh I didn't forget. The video is there in all its glory embedded in my blog entry. In retrospect, that situation was certainly humorous. At the time however - when flames are licking all around you - I'm sure the King reacted like many of us would.
But it was also one of those head-shaking moments by TV who aired an open mic of a race driver in a stressful situation. A lesson they still haven't learned to this day.
As far as money making cargo, I'm sure he raked a good bit of cash off the table. But I'm pretty sure a lot of folks took a bath on unsold Fan Appreciation Tour swag. It was ridiculous the amount of junk pitched that season. There is a 53' foot white trailer behind Petty's Garage. I've been told its full of bags of the 1:64 diecast cars sold at the 1992 races - with the only difference being the cardboard backing being the name of the race.
David - We were pro-43 and anti-3 back in those days. Haha. Even though we didn't have a good view from our backstretch seats, we were convinced Dale took out pole-sitter Rick Mast at the end of lap 1. With so much attention on the championship, The King, Gordon's 1st start, etc., we surmised Dale didn't like being out of the limelight that day. If he took the lead by hook or crook, he'd wrangle some attention back his way (pun intended, Dave Fulton).
When we saw the replay later of course, we realized Dale hadn't taken out Mast or Brett Bodine. The 3 may have been all over the 26, but Brett got loose on his own and took out himself and Mast. We had to humbly concede we'd been bitten by the adage of "know what happens when you assume something". Haha
Can you believe today is the 20th anniversary - 20 years - TWENTYYEARS - TWODECADES - since the King made his final career start at Atlanta? Wow.
I blogged a few thoughts and photos - of my own and of others - from the 1992 Hooters 500.
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/11/november-15-1992-kings-final-ride.html
Rick! First, glad to have you aboard. Hope you'll make frequent visits. Second, hopefully you've come to the right place to get the items you'd like to include in the book. Third, would enjoy seeing contributions from you here - particularly since some of us have invoked your name a time or two here anyway! Ha.
