Throughout NASCAR’s relatively short, yet colorful history, there’s been a number of great seasons and top performances. It differs from fan to fan why a particular season stands out in their memory.
I’m sure many of you will recall a particularly close finish at the season’s end for a championship. I will be disappointed if at least one of you doesn’t recall 1992- won by owner/driver Alan Kulwicki in his “Underbird.” Not only was it a fierce fight to the finish with the likes of Davey Allison, Bill Elliott and Harry Gant- it was the unlikely championship runs by one of NASCAR’s most unique characters. The title run of Benny Parsons, who held off Cale Yarborough in 1973 may for some also fit that standard.
The so-called “Modern Era” actually has quite a number of tight races to the end. Richard Petty rallied hard to overtake Darrell Waltrip for the 1979 championship. The following year- a hardscrabble charger named Dale Earnhardt won the first of his seven titles, with Yarborough in his rear view mirror. Though Rusty Wallace won four of 1988’s five final races, he couldn’t quite “Awesome Bill” Elliott. A year later, Wallace got his championship with “The Intimidator” and some young kid named Mark Martin breathing down his neck. In 1990, it would have been Mark Martin being crowned as champion, were it not for a NASCAR ruling that “The Kid’s” carburetor spacer was a half-inch too thick, paving the way for a narrow Earnhardt victory.
Beyond that, there was a good battle between Jeff Gordon and Dale Jarrett in 1997, Tony Stewart and Mark Martin in 2002- and the closest of them all- Kurt Busch’s 8-point margin of victory over Jimmie Johnson in 2004.
Some may be more in awe of a dominating performance. With 12 wins, Herb Thomas left three-time champ Lee Petty in the 1953 dust. Petty’s consistency enabled him to top Thomas in ‘54, though once again, Thomas had more wins. In 1955, Tim Flock stunk up the field with 18 wins. The Petty patriarch once again outclassed the field with 11 wins in 1959.
Lee’s son Richard must have learned a thing or two from ol’ dad as he put the hurt on the field in 1967: his season total of 27 wins (in 49 races), and 10 victories in a row will likely never be broken. During that same era, David Pearson was right there pushing Petty. In 1968, the “Silver Fox” won 16 races, and in perhaps the most impressive non-championship performance, captured 11 checkered flags in just 18 1973 starts.
Cale Yarborough has a great THREE season run with titles in 1976,’77 and ‘78. In each of those seasons, the likes of Petty, Pearson, Bobby Allison and a brash young racer from Kentucky named Waltrip just couldn’t hang with him. Speaking of “Ol’ D.W.”- he some brilliant hot streaks in each of his three early 1980’s title quests. Speaking of hot, there was little doubt Dale Earnhardt was in the catbird seat in 1986, ‘87, ‘91 and ‘94. No doubt you Jimmie Johnson fans felt great confidence in this year’s title race.
For me- my favorite season goes back to a day where I was a much more casual fan, and primarily interested in the exploits of one driver- Jeff Gordon. 1998 was a great year to be a Gordon fan as he reeled off a Modern Era record 13 wins, blowing away runner-up Mark Martin by nearly 400 points. The “Rainbow Warrior” swept the road courses and just seemed to do no wrong.
Even if you couldn’t stand Earnhardt, 1998 was a special season, as the 7-time champion won the Daytona 500 in his 20th try at winning the “Great American Race.” It was an emotional day for NASCAR nation as the crews for the competition lined up to congratulated the sport’s most beloved and alternately most reviled character this side of Kyle Busch.
So what about you? No doubt how your favorite driver of the time would some bearing on it. Was it one of those photo finish seasons? Was it a season of dominance? Maybe it all had to do with a particular series of events.
Whichever your preference, there’s a good selection to choose from.
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My favorite season, hands down, no contest, was ‘92.
I’ve never been a “bandwagon” fan. The drivers/teams that I follow are the ones, that a top 15 is a good day. I always root for the underdog, in this case the underdog, make that the Underbird, became Top Dog. The best part was they did it with brains rather than money. Most every one in Cup works hard. They just worked smarter.
To have seen Alan, & Paul dig, erase a 200 pt. deficit with just a few races to go against Davey Allison, & Bill Elliott is maybe why I’m so dead set against this contrived Chase.
The way they finally won it, by delaying their final pit stop to pick up the 5 points for leading the most laps. Is probably the neatest thing that I’ve ever seen in NASCAR, & I’ve seen a lot.
Alan will go down in Cup history as the last owner/driver to win the Cup. I don’t care if Tony wins the next 4. It won’t be the same.
My two big regrets, are that Alan wasn’t able to enjoy his accomplishment, & that Davey was taken before he could hoist his own Cup.
My favourite was the 2002 season. It just seemed so set in stone through the mi portion of the season, then Marlin slipped and that opened the door for chaos. Jimmie got the points lead as a rookie, before the pace laps crash at Talladega, which gave Stewert the advantage over Martin and Johnson. Marlin is my favourite driver, and that season will always be the one that got away.
Since I was/am a huge and loyal Dale Earnhardt fan, my favorite NASCAR season was without a doubt 1987. Earnhardt won 11 races that year and mowed down the competition as well as the grass at Charlotte Motor Speedway when he made his so-called “pass in the grass” at The Winston which he won also. He absolutely dominated the short tracks that year winning six of the eight races run and in so doing, he swept the races at Richmond and Bristol. In addition to that, he won the February race at Rockingham, the June race at Michigan International Speedway, the July race at Pocono Raceway and swept the races at Darlington as well. He won the championship, which was his third, by a commanding 489 points over Bill Elliott.
And my favorite race of that year was the spring race at Darlington in which Bill Elliott took the white flag as the leader ahead of a distant second-place Dale Earnhardt. Dale had needed to stop for a splash of gas to make it to the end while Elliott opted not to. In Earnhardt’s usual haste to catch Elliott, he slapped the wall in turn two, damaging his car in the process. It appeared he was doomed for a second-place finish until coming off the second turn, Elliott began swerving his car left to right to left to right indicating he was running low on fuel. He dropped to the bottom of the track to pick up all the available fuel he had. Now the question was if he could coast back to the start/finish line or if Earnhardt could pass him if Elliott ran out of gas. In typical NASCAR nail-biting, last-lap fashion, as Elliott coasted through turns three and four, here came Dale Earnhardt at speed in a warped-up race car but one that had enough Unocal 76 racing gasoline to get him to the finish line ahead of Bill Elliott. And he created a wonderful memory for me that burns bright to this day almost 23 years later.
Folks, seasons like that don’t happen very often. And that is only a small part of what made the 1987 season a special one and my favorite of all time.
I truly hope this is post #3.
God, I miss Dale Earnhardt!
1979. Richard Petty’s sixth Daytona 500 win and seventh championship. He was involved in a TIGHT points battle with Darrell Waltrip that came down the final race in Ontario, CA. Benny Parsons won the race and The King finished fifth to barely hold off DW. I had to read about most of the series through trade papers and magazines because very little was televised. But the final race was on TV and I remember rooting for Petty. I did warm up to Darrell later in his career, but I was a Petty guy then.
92′ of course..was epic battle of the thunderbirds..ya baby..having owned a couple of thunderbirds you can see my bias..but i was a huge Davey fan and followed that season on the edge of my seat race to race like an addict..the last race was epic and i screamed in agony when Daveycrashed early :(..but alas..my second choice ..Kulwicki came thru so was still a joyous epic season for me..shame that 93′ would turn out to be the most heartwrenchingly sad season for me :(
Larry, I still miss Dale too. I still keep the dent in my wall where I threw my keys the day I walked in and my wife told me we had lost Dale. I respected him, not just for his wins, but how he handled it when he wasn’t winning. Kinda the way Gordon does now. Keep on keepin’ on. I would love to see him on the track today with Jimmie****Johnson. JJ’s deer in the headlight look would be priceless.
And always, Respect to Davey. I lost a lot of sleep that night waiting to hear the news I didn’t want to hear.
My favorite Year will always be 1988. AWESOME BILL finally won the big one, and did it the hard way. But with six wins, even with Rusty. He still beat him by a mear 22 points.
It sure was AWESOME!!!!!
My favorite season was 1970, the year Bobby Isaac won the championship. I’m from Hickory, NC and always cheered for Bobby because he was a “local boy done good.” It was also the only complete season in which the winged Dodge Daytonas and Plymouth Superbirds competed. I attended the two Grand National races at Hickory Speedway that year, which Bobby won the poles and races for both events. I was also at the National 500 in Charlotte, so I actually got to see a winged car race. It was a tight points battle between Isaac, Bobby Allison, and James Hylton. Richard Petty might have eight championships except for a scary crash at Darlington that put him out of competition for the next several races and brought about window nets. Isaac prevailed, clinching the championship at Rockingham. Ironically, all of Isaac’s victories came at short tracks. The only winged car race he was was the previous season at Texas.
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