Racing HIstory Minute - Daytona 500 - 1982
Stock Car Racing History
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Racing HIstory Minute - Daytona 500 - 1982
Stock Car Racing History
Peggy Gossett writing in The Palm Beach Post raved over the in-car cameras used in the CBS coverage of the 1982 Daytona 500. She also mentioned something many of our younger fans have never experienced - the race telecast being blacked out. If you lived in Florida, the only way to see the 1982 Daytona 500 was to be at the track.
Racing HIstory Minute - Daytona 500 - 1982
Stock Car Racing History
Dale Earnhardt was making his first Cup points start for Bud Moore in the #15 Wrangler Jeans Ford Thunderbird in this race.
We learned that sometimes you can have too much technology and maybe the old fashioned ways sometimes work best. Without naming names (Perry Allen Wood will know very, very well) a part-time crew member who was a college educated engineer working in Florida had come up with a formula to figure gas mileage for the 500.
Dale Earnhardt led 6 of the first 35 laps in his new Ford ride. While leading on lap 36, Earnhardt's Bud Moore entry ran out of gas at speed on the backstretch, burning a piston. The car retired on lap 44 with engine failure.
The gas mileage program was scrapped.
Racing HIstory Minute - Daytona 500 - 1982
Stock Car Racing History
The day before the 1982 edition of the Daytona 500 I stood in Daytona's victory lane for the very first time. My company - Wrangler Jeans - had sponsored the winner in the very first race of what is today's Nationwide Series.
In 1982, the former NASCAR Late Model Sportsman Division became the touring NASCAR Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series and later the Busch Series. Driving for his ex-father-in-law, Robert Gee, Dale Earnhardt in our blue and yellow #15 Wrangler Jeans Pontiac Ventura held off Jody Ridley in the closing stages of the Goody's 300 by masterfully using race traffic to block Ridley.
Earnhardt's #15 car number for Gee mirrored his new #15 ride in Winston Cup for Bud Moore.
Short track ace, Sam Ard may have made the drive of the race. Three times he missed his pit and on a fourth try he tangled with another car on pit road. Somehow he still managed to salvage a third place finish behind Earnhardt and Ridley.
I'll always remember my first trip to Daytona Victory Lane and having our Wrangler car win the first ever race in what is now the Nationwide Series.
1982 Goody's 300
NASCAR Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series race number 1 of 29
Saturday, February 13, 1982 at Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, FL
120 laps on a 2.500 mile paved track (300.0 miles)
Time of race: 1:56:29
Average Speed: 154.529 mph
Pole Speed: 184.569 mph Cautions: 5 for 21 laps
Margin of Victory: 1 cl
Attendance: 75,000
Lead changes: 31
Fin St # Driver Sponsor / Owner Car Laps Money Status Led Points
1 5 15 Dale Earnhardt Wrangler Jeans (Robert Gee) Pontiac 120 14,700 running 180
2 3 98 Jody Ridley Cumberland Mills Pontiac 120 15,950 running 170
3 4 00 Sam Ard Thomas Brothers Country Ham (Howard Thomas) Oldsmobile 120 13,470 running 165
4 33 75 Gary Balough Rahmoc Racing (Butch Mock) Pontiac 120 6,740 running 160
5 2 99 Geoffrey Bodine Hagerstown Speedway (Frank Plessinger) Pontiac 120 9,365 running 155
6 9 77 Harry Gant Skoal Bandit (Harry Gant) Pontiac 119 4,890 running 150
7 1 3 Mike Porter Associated Construction Pontiac 119 4,090 running 146
8 7 28 Phil Parsons Skoal Bandit (Johnny Hayes) Pontiac 118 3,540 running 142
9 23 27 Tommy Houston Kings Inn Daytona (Mike Day) Chevrolet 116 5,140 running 138
10 20 24 Dale Jarrett Komfort Koach (Marvin Thackston) Ford 116 3,975 running 134
11 19 04 Rick Hanley Go-Jo Industrial Pontiac 116 2,520 running 130
12 13 29 Joe Thurman Longwood Restaurant (Buddy Arrington) Dodge 116 2,320 running 127
13 24 35 Bill Venturini Prototype Racing Engineering (Bill Venturini) Buick 115 2,220 running 124
14 14 22 David Rogers Rogers Racing Pontiac 115 2,120 running 121
15 16 32 Mike Riley TGR Enterprises Pontiac 115 2,120 running 118
16 34 02 Dennis Crowder CAM 2 Pontiac 114 1,895 running 115
17 27 37 Delma Cowart Grooms Construction Chevrolet 113 1,845 running 112
18 26 16 Mark Beard Beard Oil (Mark Beard) Pontiac 113 1,795 running 109
19 22 50 John Anderson Kirk Ford Co. Mercury 110 1,770 plug wire 106
20 24 62 John Linville Automotive Specialist (John Linville) Pontiac 110 1,695 running 103
21 18 33 George Dalton Ghant Racing Pontiac 103 1,695 running 100
22 10 12 Tommy Ellis Industrial Boiler Pontiac 96 3,195 engine 97
23 25 90 Mark Gibson Kokomo Kit Kar (Mark Gibson) Pontiac 70 1,545 ignition 94
24 17 19 Darryl Sage American Performance Pontiac 61 1,570 crash 91
25 21 7 Stuart Huffman Huffman Racing (Dwight Huffman) Pontiac 56 1,495 clutch 88
26 6 9 Gene Morgan Stuart Developers Pontiac 55 1,345 clutch 85
27 28 18 Roy McGraw McGraw's Used Auto Parts Pontiac 55 1,295 piston 82
28 15 40 Dennis Bennett Bennett Brothers Pontiac 51 1,245 crash 79
29 8 4 Connie Saylor CMT Pontiac 47 1,195 engine 76
30 11 25 Mickey Gibbs Gibbs Racing Pontiac 29 1,145 vibration 73
31 12 11 Jack Ingram Oak Stove (Jack Ingram) Pontiac 24 2,620 engine 70
32 30 07 Mike Potter Seivers Pontiac 16 1,095 engine 67
33 32 82 John McFadden Broadway Motors Pontiac 14 1,070 transmission 64
34 31 79 Bob Park Walther's Auto Wrecking Pontiac 2 1,060 engine 61
Racing Reference
Ricky Rudd Wins Richmond on 2/26/84 Wearing Flak Jacket After Daytona Barrel Roll
Stock Car Racing History
Bumping up for the 31st anniversary of Ricky's hometown win for Bud Moore following his horrendous Daytona crash - below. What a blessing that he didn't hit the no SAFER Barrier concrete wall.
Ricky Rudd Wins Richmond on 2/26/84 Wearing Flak Jacket After Daytona Barrel Roll
Stock Car Racing History
ws Archives
Ricky Rudd Wins Richmond with Eyes Taped Open
September 6th, 2012 at 9:30 AMBy Clayton Caldwell
Ricky Rudd is known as one of NASCAR 's all time toughest drivers. One example of that toughness was in 1998 at Martinsville, when Rudd dominated the NAPA Auto Care 500 without power steering and fresh air coming into his racecar. Temperatures at Martinsville that day were in the tripledigits andRudd was breathing in exhaust fumes for basically the entire race at one of the sports' toughest racetracks.Ruddpassed out in victory lane in one of the gutsiest performances in the sports history.
However, that's not Rudd's best performance. That cameback in 1984 at the RichmondFairgrounds Raceway, when Rudd did almost the unthinkable.
Ricky Rudd was ayoungster back in 1984. His Winston Cup career started back in 1975 when Rudd was just 18 years old, running four races for his father. Heran 25 races in 1977 and won NASCAR 's Rookie of the Year Title. In 1979the 22-year old Chesapeake, Virginia native was hired by Junie Donlavey todrive his famous #90 Ford. Rudd accepted, running 28 of31 races andfinishing ninth in the seriespoint standings.Rudd was replaced by Jody Ridley and ran a partial schedule in 1980. In 1981 he ran a full season for DiGard Racing and finished an impressive sixth in the standings. He moved to Richard Childress Racing in 1982 and in 1983 he gave the company their first two wins, as well as his first two wins of his career.
When 1984 came Rudd accepted a deal from Bud Moore to drive his #15 Wrangler Ford. Rudd's career at Bud Moore's team got off to a not so good start.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ - click to view more info about '#15 Ricky Rudd' or find free 'Ricky Rudd' pictures via Wylio"> 
Because he won threepoles in 1983, Rudd was eligible for the 1984 Busch Clash. Rudd was running fifth15 lapsinto race when coming off of turn four contact was made between Rudd and Jody Ridley sending Rudd's Ford spinning into the infield grass. Rudd's car hit a piece of the grass right before pit lane and got airborne. Rudd's car flipped six times in every direction. It was a scary accident. Emergency workers raced to the scene.
The #15 Wrangler Ford sat there all battered and torn apart. From the look of the work it appeared Rudd was okay. Rudd was taken away in an ambulanceand wentinto the infield care center. Ruddhas a badly swollen face from the incident.Doctors recommended Rudd not to race but Rudd wanted none of it. Rudd describes the next events in his own words.
"It was one of these deals where you do what you have to do. I didn't start off with that in mind. I was at Daytona and had a pretty big wreck in the Bud Shootout it was the Busch Clash then came back, and we had a day off because it rained, came back to the racetrack, I guess a day had gone by since we had actually been in the wreck, went out in the race car. I didn't know if it was an inner-ear distortion problem, trauma to the inner ear, or whatever, but my balance mechanism went kind of haywire and everything would go dark when I went into the corner.
My face was swollen really badly, looked like I had been beat up pretty bad by somebody much bigger than me, it wasn't really hard to think about it. I looked at my face. I could hardly open my eyes to begin with.They were like little slits. What was happening was that I was going into the corner and the vertical g-load at Daytona is not a whole lot, but it's probably a G and a half, two Gs vertical max, but everything was going dark and it was mainly like shutting your eyes.So I knew I had to do something. I had to fix it, so there was some duct tape up on the toolbox. The guys were changing the spark plugs, I said, 'Let me go back and try this again.'
I never told them I was uncomfortable. I went around there wide-open but I never told them I was really uncomfortable in the car. I went and got a roll of duct tape. I didn't have Band-Aids. I would have used Band-Aids, but I didn't have any. But the duct taped it right there, so I just kind of took all the extra skin and taped it to my eyelid and taped it up to my forehead and put my helmet on and went on."
It was a remarkable feat. Being able to compete in a Winston Cup car with a face that bruised was something special. Rudd finished seventh in the Daytona 500 but what he did at the Miller High Life 400 the following week was remarkable.
Rudd went out and band-aid his eyes open the next week, as his face was still swollen from the accident. He led 36 laps and won a fierce battle with Darrell Waltrip for his fourth career win.
It was an impressive finish and it's one of the memories that gave Ricky Rudd the nickname "ironman."
Ricky Rudd Wins Richmond on 2/26/84 Wearing Flak Jacket After Daytona Barrel Roll
Stock Car Racing History
In his first ride for Bud Moore, Chesapeake, Virginia's Ricky Rudd put the Wrangler Jeans Ford #15 on its nose in the February 1984 Busch Clash at Daytona before starting a sickening series of barrel rolls. Rudd was beaten black & blue after his ordeal and drove the 1984 Daytona 500 with swollen, blood shot eyes taped open.
The very next race was scheduled at the worn old half-mile at Richmond's Fairgrounds - a track that took a high toll on drivers and cars.
Moore outfitted Rudd with a special flak jacket for the race and the crowd went wild as Rudd battled side-by-side with Dale Earnhardt driving the Richard Childress Wrangler #3 Chevy. In 1983 Earnhardt had driven for Moore and Rudd for Childress.
Smart tire management by crusty old Bud Moore helped Rudd defeat Darrell Waltrip, another former Moore driver. There has never been a more popular win at the Richmond track or a crowd as vocal to see the young, injured home area driver defeat all odds and make it to victory lane.
Ricky Rudd in #15 and Dale Earnhardt in #3 battle side-by-side in the two Wrangler Jeans cars during the September 1984 Wrangler 400 NASCAR Winston Cup Series race at Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway.
1984 Miller High Life 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race number 2 of 30
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updated by @dave-fulton: 06/12/19 03:01:56PM
Opinions
Administrative
I have found my old combo Bell & Howell 8mm / Super8 movie projector and I think the bulb works - I haven't tried it yet. Could we call a truce if it works and makes its way to Columbia for a while?
Opinions
Administrative
Now that Jeff has reminded us of our obigations and duties to be civil with each other here at RR, I guess I can finally feel safe to come out of the closet and let Legend know that I drive a 4Runner before he sees me in it and bashes in the windshield or worse! To quote another patriot, "Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes!"