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ALL-STAR: 1989 “Tide Slide”
Classic finish for 1989 Sprint Cup All-Star Race...
Jim Pedley  | http://www.RacinToday.com  |  Posted May 16, 2011   Charlotte, NC
Darrel Waltrip and Rusty Wallace in the 1989 Sprint Cup All-Star Race. (Photo: NASCAR)
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Some races are memorable for a great pass. Some for a great decision made in the pits. And some for immense historical significance.

Then there is the race which lives on in NASCAR fans’ hearts for this little remark from Darrell Waltrip directed at race-winner Rusty Wallace: "I hope he chokes on the $200,000, that's all I can tell him."

That race would be the 1989 Sprint Cup All-Star Race. Also known as the “Tide Slide” All-Star Race, a better nickname for it might have been Anger in the Infield or even From Rage to Riches.

Because it produced a classic finish and showed that there are no such things as meaningless non-points races in NASCAR, it will be known here as No. 5 on the list of the 10 best All-Star races of all time.

The event started rather symmetrically for the two protagonists at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Wallace, in his Kodiac-sponsored Pontiac, grabbed an early lead in the first segment, which was 75 laps, and went on to win it. In the second segment, which was 50 laps, Waltrip snuck under Wallace early and then went on to take the checkered flag to set up the rubber segment.

In the break between the two final segments, Wallace prophetically predicted “a dog fight” for the deciding 10-lap shootout. He got that right. And a big pack of dogs it was for the fight.

Waltrip took the lead on the final restart but Wallace stayed with him. Wallace closed as the laps clicked off. With two laps to go, Wallace was on Waltrip’s rear bumper.

In Turn 3, Wallace went low and started to make the pass on Waltrip. But in Turn 4, the ticking time bomb detonated.

The right front of Wallace’s car made contact with the left rear of Waltrip’s Tide-sponsored Hendrick Motorsports Chevy and the rear end of it came snapping around.

With smoke pouring from all four tires, Waltrip’s car went sliding sideways into the infield grass on the front stretch. Then, it was grass filling the air.

Wallace went on to take the white flag and then, as Waltrip told SPEED, “That scoundrel went on and won the race.”

When reporters caught up to Wallace, they asked him if he considered it good, clean racing.

Wallace neither blinked nor budged. “I consider this The Winston,” he sneered back.

It wasn’t just Waltrip’s tires that were smoking.

Up in the grandstands, fans were booing and throwing garbage.

Across the track, Wallace wheeled his car up through victory lane. Members of Waltrip’s crew were waiting. They began kicking at the car as it rolled past.

And then, the boys had at it but good.

Wallace remembers it all.

“Man, every one went crazy,” he told SPEED. “Half the fans wanted to kill me. The place was upside down. The whole infield was in a fight. I think they started punching each other, nobody knew who was punching who so they all just started punching everybody.

The next thing you know, they’re all rolling on the ground beating the crap out of each other.”

“Somebody bit my little brother John's ear almost off,” said Wallace's crew chief, Barry Dodson.

Fuming as he got out of his car, Waltrip said, “"He knocked the hell out of me” on the track.

Wallace called the on-track action just a racing incident.

Waltrip and his team sought relief from NASCAR officials. They argued that rules for the special race allowed the race to restart with drivers in the position they were in on the previous lap.

“We wanted them to put us back where we were because he spun us out,” Waltrip said.

NASCAR refused and Wallace’s victory stood.

Too bad, Waltrip said. Too bad for him and his team, and too bad for the paying customers and television viewers.

“If they really wanted it to be a good Winston,” Waltrip said, “they should have put me in second place. That would have been the best Winston they ever had. It might have been the biggest wreck they ever had, I don’t know.”

The two drivers each issued great quotes on that May day in 1989.

Wallace had this gem: "This ain't a place for gentlemen on a Sunday drive. I think a driver in The Winston had better be ready for a paint change. That's what this race is about."
SPEED™ is the exclusive television home for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race from Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., with live race coverage beginning May 21 at 7 p.m. ET.

And Waltrip had his unforgettable beauty about what he hoped Wallace would do with the big pile of cash he won.

Interestingly, the result of the race had a lasting effect on the two drivers’ images.

Wallace went from being a fan favorite to being considered a heavy.

Waltrip, despised by many because of a big mouth which had earned him the nickname “Jaws” in the garages, became a good guy in the eyes of fans. That same year, in fact, he would be voted most popular driver.

But he would never forgive the red head from St. Louis.

Jim Pedley is a veteran, award-winning sports journalist who has worked at, among other places, the Boston Globe, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Kansas City Star. Pedley can be reached at jpedley@racintoday.com

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