"Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!" Pt. 4: The Early '90's

By the early 90's NASCAR was still gaining popularity throughout the U.S. Racing speedways were fast becoming stadiums that could seat up to 100,000 fans at a time. And the fans came out to watch their favorite drivers go head-to-head week after week. In the 1991 Spark Plug 500 at the Pocono International Speedway. After a rain delay of over 1 and a half hours, Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt became the pivotal characters in the fight to the checkered flag. They both led the rest of the racing field 41 out of 57 of the final laps. With just 18 laps to go Waltrip slipped past Earnhardt to take the lead. Waltrip fought off the dogged and determined Earnhardt, then maintained a respectable lead to win the race by 1.92 seconds. This win being his second of the season, Waltrip said afterwards that "...winning races at my age with own team, after an injury, has made it all very special." Earnhardt would say later his tires were the reason for his car's failure to get the lead back from Waltrip. No matter what, it was the fans that got the treat, as they watched two great competitors battle for 'winner's circle'. Dale Earnhardt would go on to win the '91 Winston Cup Championship, his fifth, with Ricky Rudd coming in second place. Darrel Waltrip would make the top ten with an eighth place finish for the season.

One of the "Intimidator's" most impressive wins was in 1993 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The race was the Coca-Cola 600. Dale Earnhardt was having a tough time with penalties. Speeding down pit row, too many crewmen over the wall at one of the pit stops, and rough driving. The penalty that would change everything though, was an incident between Earnhardt and Greg Sacks in the #68 on the 327th lap. According to everyone, (accept Earnhardt), he had spun out Sacks, by bumping him aggressively from the rear, causing him to spin-out. Dale would say he was on Sack's rear, but did not, "...run up and bang into him intentionally." He also said, he rubbed him legally, then, "... the air must have gotten away from his spoiler.", causing some lift and that was what caused the #68 to fish-tail and spin. Sacks claimed Earnhardt did indeed bump him, but even Greg said he did not think it intentional. The judges, however, did not agree and penalized Earnhardt, forcing him to go a lap down. The decision lit a fire under Dale's butt, and from then on he raced like a man possessed, well, more so than usual. Earnhardt was relentless as he made up the lost lap, then, preceded to make his way from the back up through the field. After only 8 green-flag laps of racing, Earnhardt took 1st place from Ernie Irvan. Incredible! Dale would go on to win the race by over 3 seconds, with, (then rookie), Jeff Gordon taking second place. Irvan would claim afterwards that Earnhardt had illegally roughed him up to take the top spot. Whatever you thought as you watched the race, there's no denying Dale Earnhardt proved he was the driver to beat, not only in driving skill, but also in just plain hell-bent determination. Just anticipate the excitement to come in the second half of the '90's...