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Written by:
Tom Jensen
04/21/2008 - 11:55 AM
Harrisburg, N.C.
2007 Sprint All-Star Race winner Kevin Harvick celebrates with his team in victory lane at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (Jason Smith/Getty Images Photo)
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Like much of NASCAR’s history, what is now known as the NASCAR Sprint All-Star race began as something small and simple and evolved into a huge annual event, one of the biggest on the NASCAR calendar.
Plans for a NASCAR all-star race were announced in December 1984 at the NASCAR Winston Cup Awards Ceremony in New York City. The race, introduced as The Winston in honor of series title sponsor R.J. Reynolds, would run the day before the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May and would feature only the sport’s top stars, the 12 drivers who won Winston Cup races in 1984.
The winner would take home $200,000, an unprecedented amount at the time. And with no points at stake, winning was the only thing that mattered.
Today, the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race XXIV is largest all-star event in professional sports in the United States, with a winner’s purse of more than $1 million, a live audience of 150,000 race fans at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and millions of television viewers who will see this year’s race live on SPEED on May 17.
Following are some highlights from the race’s storied history:
1985: Darrell Waltrip came from three seconds behind to earn the $200,000 victory despite exploding an engine as he crossed the finish line. “I don’t know if anybody knew it or not, the motor absolutely exploded when we took the checkered flag,” Waltrip said. “The boys told me all along not to run it any harder than I had to because it wasn’t going to run long.”
1986: Bill Elliott led all but one lap of the event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, saying, “I was bound and determined to do well, even if he had to drive like it was a dirt-track race.” Run on Mother’s Day for the first and last time, this was the only All-Star event not run in Charlotte, as attendance was woeful, with crowd estimates from just 3,000 to 15,000 people
1987: Back in Charlotte, Dale Earnhardt posted a controversial victory after bumping incidents with Bill Elliott and Geoff Bodine. Contact with Elliott sent Earnhardt through the infield grass without losing the lead in a move that from then on would be known as the pass in the grass, even though no pass was actually made.
1988: Terry Labonte won after his Junior Johnson team set his car up for the final 10-lap segment. He started sixth on the final restart and took only two laps to take the lead. “I don’t know how I got there,” Labonte said. “All I know is I had to get to the front, and I didn’t have much time to do it.”
1989: Rusty Wallace nudged leader Darrell Waltrip as the pair raced to the white flag, sending Waltrip spinning and Wallace to victory lane. “It was an ugly, ugly win,” Waltrip said. “I hope he chokes on the $200,000, that’s all I can tell him. He knocked the hell out of me.” The fans greeted Wallace with a cascade of boos after the contact.
1990: Dale Earnhardt led every lap to win the race and capture first-prize money,
1991: Davey Allison led all 70 laps in Robert Yates’ Ford after NASCAR instituted a rule change the week before the race which allowed Ford competitors to raise the rear decks of their cars by a full inch. “No wonder Davey is so fast,” said a disgusted Pontiac crew chief Gary Nelson after the race.
1992: With the race run at night under the lights for the first time, Davey Allison won by a few feet as he and Kyle Petty crashed their way to the checkered flag, with Allison spending the night in the hospital with a concussion. “The wreck at the end was just as much my fault as it was his,” Petty said. “We were leaning on each other. I tried to chop him off, but if I had cut across in front of him, I would have ended up in the infield. At the end, he cut on me as I would have on him. We clipped when we came across the line.”
1993: Dale Earnhardt prevailed after a controversial restart with just two laps remaining saw him jump the start, which was then called back, giving him a second chance to pass Mark Martin for the victory. “I feel sorry for Mark,” said Darrell Waltrip. “We were told in the drivers’ meeting before the race that all normal race procedures would be in effect. But they have to have a controversial finish, even if they have to make one.”
1994: As a tire war flared between Goodyear and Hoosier, Geoffrey Bodine held off Sterling Marlin to win an accident-strewn event. Bodine, riding on Hoosier tires, was involved in an early accident, but rebounded to win the race, which saw Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace among those involved in accidents. “I got tapped from behind by Sterling,” Bodine said of his off-course excursion. “Luckily, nobody ran over me.”
1995: Jeff Gordon avoided a multi-car accident and won The Winston. Tempers flared among those not as lucky as the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet. “I got clear of Jeff,” Darrell Waltrip said. “And Dale Earnhardt came up and he just kept coming and coming and coming and finally it broke loose. Then bam! He was going to run me out of room and I guess he thought I would lift. Guess what? He was wrong. Maybe I should have backed off and let Dale dive up in front of me, but you can’t do that in the Winston.”
1996: It wasn’t a points race, but Michael Waltrip’s first Winston Cup victory was still as sweet as it gets. Waltrip started 20th in the field and stole the victory from the competition after Dale Earnhardt and Terry Labonte crashed in Turn 1. “I wasn’t in the minds of many, mine included,” Waltrip said. “I don’t think I ever told anyone I would come here and win this thing. If I did, I lied.”
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