Earnhardt By A Nose Over Irvan
Reprinted from July 29, 1993 edition of Winston Cup Scene
By Deb Williams

After more than an hour delay to repair a damaged catch fence, Dale Earnhardt edged Ernie Irvan by inches to claim his fifth DieHard 500 in a high-speed chess game that had two horrifying crash in which one driver was critically injured.

Stanley Smith, 43, was flown by helicopter from the 2.66-mile track to Carraway Medical Center in Birmingham, Ala., after receiving emergency treatment at his race car on the turn two apron.

Also involved in the accident were Kenny Wallace, Rick Mast, Ritchie Petty and Jimmy Horton, who Chevrolet became airborne in turn one and rolled over the concrete retaining wall. It came to rest on its wheels, outside the track.

It was the first time a car has landed outside the track in an accident since last year at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International when Greg Sacks’ car rolled outside the road course. It was the first time a driver’s car has flown over a retaining wall at an oval since June 1979, when Blackie Wangerin sailed out of Michigan International Speedway.

Horton, who walked away from his battered car, said he was “bruised up a little bit.” He said he remembered seeing Wallace get sideways, tried to avoid him and then someone hit his Chevrolet in the right rear quarter panel. That’s when his car sailed over the wall.

Petty said he believed his Ford ran into Smith’s Chevrolet. Petty said when he attempted to move up the track, Smith’s car shot up the speedway in front of him.

The other terrible crash occurred on lap 132 when Neil Bonnett’s Chevrolet became airborne in the trioval, rolled over and then slammed into the catch fence on the frontstretch. He was thrown back on the grassy apron and stopped right side up.

While Bonnett’s Chevrolet was ripping away about 25 feet of catch fence, Ted Musgrave’s Ford slammed backwards into the outside wall and the car caught fire as it slid beneath the flagstand.

The race was stopped for 1 hour, 10 minutes and 8 seconds while the fence was repaired. No spectators were injured in the accident.

When the race returned to green flag conditions on lap 140, Earnhardt was third behind Irvan and Ricky Rudd, respectively, and there were 25 cars on the lead lap. For the rest of the way, the leaders were engaged in a high-speed chess game that saw Rudd, Ken Schrader and Jeff Gordon, all key players through most of the event, fall by the wayside with engine problems.

With about 40 laps remaining, rookie Bobby Labonte’s Ford latched onto Kyle Petty’s Pontiac’s rear bumper and for at least three laps, they raced side-by-side with Irvan and Rudd, who was on Irvan’s Chevrolet’s rear bumper. Irvan was credited with leading laps 131-146, while Petty set the pace for laps 147-155.

On lap 154, pole position winner Bill Elliott, who had run among the leaders throughout the day, bot squeezed into the backstretch wall and toe-in on his Ford was knocked out, causing him to fall out of the lead draft.

Irvan regained the lead from petty on lap 156 and held the point in the 13-car draft for the next eight laps.

Then, on lap 164, Petty moved high to snatch the lead from Irvan. With 20 laps remaining, Petty was still leading, Earnhardt was second, Irvan third, Labonte fourth and Bobby Hillin fifth. Five laps later, the lead contained only eight cars with Dale Jarrett trailing Hillin. Then came Mark Martin and Brett Bodine.

On lap 176, Jarrett moved to the outside of Labonte and Martin followed Jarrett. With 12 laps remaining, Martin was notified via his radio that Jarrett wanted him to go with him when he pulled out to pass.

Petty still had the lead with five laps remaining, but then Earnhardt made his move. On lap 185, Earnhardt dropped to the inside of Petty as they raced into turn three and Irvan followed Earnhardt. Jarrett followed and they shuffled Petty back to fourth with Martin fifth and Labonte sixth.

Earnhardt, 42, led the final four laps, but it was no easy task for the North Carolina driver who now has 59 Winston Cup career wins.

On lap 187, Earnhardt moved ahead by about five car lengths when the cars behind him began racing side-by-side. But that quickly changed on the white-flag lap as Earnhardt remained high and Irvan moved to the inside.

“I don’t know how we all mixed up and got to where we were, but we (Irvan and Earnhardt) were side-by-side going into three,” said a happy Earnhardt, who won $87,315.

“I figured somebody would com down and make it three wide coming off of (turn) four and then we’d be racing three and four wide and maybe I could sneak on the outside and still beat them. I figured I was going to run second or third.

“Then, Kyle stayed behind me and Mark was behind Ernie. Ernie beat me a little through the trioval and then I stuck it right down against him and beat him back by inches.

“We were lucky, just really lucky. All of them were players and all of them were important. You didn’t know who was going to help who, or who was going to hurt who. They moved, we moved. It was just an all-day game. I just had to play the game until the last move, we got the last move and it worked.”

Earnhardt claimed his victory by a mere six inches.

“Dale and I had a heck of a drag race coming to the finish,” Irvan said. “I didn’t have anybody on my bumper. That was the problem, but everybody chooses where they want to go and you have to live with it.”

Martin finished third, Petty fourth and Jarrett fifth. Labonte’s Ford ran out of gas on the final lap and he had to settle for 15th.

The win was Earnhardt’s eighth at Talladega, tying him with the late Davey Allison for most victories at the circuit’s largest speedway. Earnhardt now has six Winston Cup, one Busch Series and one IROC win at the track. Allison won three Winston Cup, four ARCA and one IROC race at the speedway.

“We’ve mourned Davey for two weeks now. It’s been a real tragic thing for the Allison family, but it’s like Bobby Allison told Neil a couple of nights after that accident, ‘You’ve got to go on and you can’t blame yourself for what happened.’ Neil tried to do all he could in getting Davey out of that helicopter. You just do what you can do and get through what you can get through.

“I think the racing community has pulled together and helped each other get through this trauma with Davey. But you have to go on.”

Earnhardt averaged 153.857 mph in the race that was slowed by five caution flags for 27 laps. There were 26 lead changes among 10 drivers in the race that took 3 hours, 15 minutes and 1 second to complete. And Earnhardt said the final 50 laps were tougher than the first 138.

“I knew it was going to be a closer and hotter race (than the first half),” said Earnhardt, who has an average finished of eighth in restrictor plate races, making him the only driver with a top 10 average finish in the restrictor plate events.

“I was more tense right there at the end than I was the whole time.”

Earnhardt led five times for 59 laps, while Irvan held the No. 1 spot on six occasions for 56 laps. Petty was the third highest lap leader, setting the pace five times for 39 laps.

“I still shake my head sometimes when I see what Dale Earnhardt does in a race car,” said Andy Petree, Earnhardt’s crew chief. “It looked like we were going to get beat today, and then the next thing I know, he’s out front again. I don’t know how he does it, but he seems to always get the job done.”

Team owner Richard Childress said he knew Earnhardt’s plan when he saw how he was racing on the last lap.

“I’ve seen him do it before,” Childress said. “I had confidence in him. You never know exactly what’s going to happen once they go out of sight, but I never lose confidence in Dale.

See Also:
Bonnett Return Turns Scary
1993 DieHard 500 Photo Gallery