Five More Furious Finishes

While waiting for the race that never happened Sunday, FOX treated to some great finishes of recent history: Kevin Harvick’s first career Cup victory at Atlanta, in Dale Earnhardt’s old ride, three weeks after he passed, Harvick’s dramatic win in the Daytona 500 of 2007, and the closest finish ever between Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch in New Hampshire in 2003. They remind us why we’re NASCAR fans.

Here are some more great finishes, some of my favorites. Some are from days of old, others are more recent….

The 1979 Daytona 500- This is the one that got the nation talking. As if one cue, Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough showed the great unwashed what they’d all been missing in the first flag-to-flag TV coverage of a Winston Cup race. (Click here for the YouTube video).

It was great television. “The King” benefits from the Allison- Yarborough “crash out” to win the race. Donnie’s brother Bobby shows up, a fight ensues, and the rest is history. All this on a blustery Winter day when no one had anything else to do.

2006 Talladega (Fall Race)- Depending on your point of view, Brian Vickers is either hero or villain in this race. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. looks well on his way to his 6th win as he, Jimmie Johnson and Brian Vickers (who were Hendrick teammates at the time) broke away from the pack. (Click here to see YouTube video).

Johnson makes a run on Earnhardt with Vickers on the “48’s” tail. Vickers hooks Johnson, who turn wrecks Junior, with Vickers sailing past for the win. It’s weird to think that when Dale Jr. came to HMS, he was given the “25” number, which was swapped out for the “88.” (Casey Mears replaced Vickers at Hendrick, but you may recall, he was moved to the “5” to replace Kyle Busch, who went to Joe Gibbs).

2007 Pepsi 400 at Daytona- We all know about Jamie Mc Murray’s improbable win at Talladega last Fall, and his win in this year’s Daytona 500. But remember this race? In our house, the whole family was one their feet for the finish of this race (my 12-year-old daughter is a Jamie Mac fan). Kyle Petty’s commentary pretty well says it all, because it looked like Kyle Busch had this one before a last second surge by Jamie Mc Murray (Click here to see video).

As I recall, Busch felt like he didn’t have the support he felt he deserved from his Hendrick teammates- another indication Shrub was less than 100% happy in their garage. For those that love the underdog, this was their kind of finish.

2007 Busch Series Race At Talladega- It was a couple of old Joe Gibbs teammates running hard for the win in this race as former Busch and Cup champion Bobby Labonte pushed two-time Cup champion, and then passed him for the win in what is now called the Nationwide Series.

Speaking as a Labonte fan, we haven’t seen too many races like this for the man in recent years. It was another one of those crazy plate track finishes, producing another unlikely winner (Click here to see the YouTube video).

The 1976 Daytona 500- Everyone agrees that NASCAR needs a great rivalry. I submit that to accomplish that, there needs to be somebody to play David Pearson opposite Jimmie Johnson’s Richard Petty. In the 60s and 70s, Petty and Pearson ha one of the greatest rivalries of all time.

Producing one of the wildest races finishes of all time, the fierce, yet friendly rivals hooked up on the final lap of the 1976 Daytona 500 in knock down, drag out reminiscent of Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed in Rocky II. (Click here to see YouTube video).  The best race finish ever? Many say so.

I hope you have fun watching these. It’s shame we don’t have more of the old school barn burners to put up for you.

I’d love to hear some of your favorite finishes, and welcome your stories in the “Comments” section. We’ve got to keep the history alive.