Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
May 6, 2015
Volume IX, Edition LXIX
Wednesday's TV Schedule can be found in Couch Potato Tuesday here.
by the Frontstretch Staff
Sam Hornish, Jr. Gets New Crew Chief; Tommy Baldwin Back Atop Pit Box
Chase Elliott Set to Run Sprint Showdown
Ty Dillon to Sport a SpongeBob SquarePants Car at Kansas
Richard Childress Racing announced on Tuesday that Ty Dillon is sport a special Plankton paint scheme in Saturday night's SpongeBob SquarePants 400 at Kansas Speedway. Dillon joins Michael McDowell (Larry the Lobster), Greg Biffle (Patrick), Casey Mears (Squidward) and David Ragan (SpongeBob) as drivers carrying special scheme commemorating the 16 year old animated series. Read more
NASCAR Announces 2015 – 2016 NASCAR Next Class
On Tuesday, NASCAR announced their newest class of 12 NASCAR Next drivers, young drivers that NASCAR views as future stars. Of the 12, six (Rico Abreu, Kyle Benjamin, William Byron, Cole Custer, Austin Hill, Jesse Little and Dalton Sargeant) are mainly full-time in the K&N Pro Series East. Two are full-time in the K&N Pro Series West (Nicole Behar and James Bickford), while two more race part-time in the Camping World Truck Series (Cole Custer and John Hunter Nemechek). Finally, one each race in the Mexico Series (Ruben Garcia, Jr.) and XFINITY Series (Dylan Lupton). Read more
Ryan Newman to Run Truck Series Race at Kansas
James Buescher Not Running Truck Series at Kansas Speedway
Editor's Note: Professor of Speed will return next week. Our professor has to take care of end of semester finals and grade submission. He'll be back next week.
Fans and critics alike are raving this week following Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s return to Victory Lane at Talladega Superspeedway. An emotional Earnhardt claimed that he felt the win - his sixth at Talladega - added to his father's legacy.
On this week 20 years ago, Dale Earnhardt himself was also adding to his legacy, scoring his first (and only) victory on a road course.
1995 was a big year for the Intimidator. Coming off of his record-tying seventh championship, Earnhardt started the year off hot, bringing home five-straight top-four finishes, including a heartbreaking runner-up finish in the Daytona 500 (remember, he hadn't won it yet at this point). Earnhardt claimed his first win of the year at North Wilkesboro and found himself holding a large points lead.
Crashes at both Martinsville and Talladega left Earnhardt reeling as he headed to Sonoma for the first race of May. He still held the points lead, but many expected him to relinquish it. No one could blame them; Dale just wasn't good at road courses.
On oval tracks, Earnhardt was the master. He struck fear into the eyes of any who saw his Goodwrench No. 3 Chevrolet in their mirror, though most only saw it when they were going a lap down. However, put Dale on a road course, and suddenly "The Intimidator" became "The Survivor", trying to keep his car clean and make his way to the next oval.
In 1995, something different happened. Earnhardt arrived at Sonoma Raceway (then Sears Point Raceway) with speed. The Hall of Famer qualified fourth, and kept himself up front and in contention throughout the 74-lap event.
Earnhardt wasn't the driver to beat that day - that role went to Mark Martin, who led 66 laps - but he was in position when it counted. As the laps ticked down, Martin saw the familiar black No. 3 in his mirror. When he got in some fluid and overshot turn 6 with two to go, Earnhardt swooped by him to take the lead.
Martin would fight back to Earnhardt's bumper, but Dale put together two flawless laps to win the 1995 Save Mart Supermarkets 300 by .32 seconds.
I've never seen the full-length race, but a video of the final few laps can be found on YouTube. Sonoma looked little like it does today. If some of those walls and barriers still existed now, drivers would probably refuse to race, but that didn't stop the gritty stars of yesteryear from putting on a grand show for the fans.
The win was huge for Earnhardt. He flashed that big smile the fans loved when he climbed out of his car in victory lane, talking about how bad he wanted to add a road-course victory to his résumé in the post-race interview.
Unfortunately for Dale, an eighth title wasn't meant to be. Earnhardt put together three more wins in the second-half of the 1995 season, including another career-defining triumph at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but fell short of the title thanks to a seven-win campaign from a hotshot kid named Jeff Gordon.
Still, the road course win, coupled with a 1998 Daytona 500 victory, cemented Earnhardt as a driver that could win at any track. Once an afterthought at road courses, Earnhardt proved that he could always find a way to Victory Lane, even at his worst tracks.
Dale's been gone for over 14 years now, but his name still echoes throughout the garage area weekly on the NASCAR tour.
While his son will never live up to his legacy, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has certainly shared similar stories with the Intimidator.
Earnhardt Jr. is now tied for second on the Talladega wins list, trailing only his father. He may never win on a road course, but he did finally conquer his own Sonoma demons with a third-place finish in 2014.
Following Dale Jr.'s Talladega triumph, the Earnhardts now hold 100 Sprint Cup Series wins, the most of any father-son duo not named Petty. With 24 of those 100 wins over a 17-year career, Dale Jr. has managed to carve his own share of the Earnhardt legacy while adding to his father's.Tuesday's Answer:
Q: Kansas Speedway's first major race weekend was headlined by the then-Indy Racing Northern Lights Series in 2001. Current sports car team owner Scott Sharp started from the pole and was in contention for the win when it all went wrong. What happened?
COMING TOMORROW
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