With the offseason well and truly underway, we at Frontstretch have decided to give our Newsletter subscribers some extra content during the slower months. We're going to take a look at some older races and how they were covered on TV. If you have any other races that you'd like to see us look back at how they were covered on TV, please contact Phil Allaway at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
This week, we look back to 1992 and how one of the more notable travesties in recent NASCAR history was handled on television. This is the X1-R Firecracker 200 at
Volusia County Speedway (now-Volusia Speedway Park). For your pleasure, the broadcast can be seen above.
On paper, the collaborative idea NASCAR came up with in 1992 was a novel idea. The Winston Cup Series would race early in the day in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. With the race starting a little after 11 a.m. ET, it was likely that the race would be over by 2
p.m. ET, assuming that it didn't rain.
If they chose to do so, fans would have plenty of time to drive the 22 miles to Barbersville to take in 200 laps of NASCAR Busch Grand National racing on the flat half-mile oval.
Unfortunately, the idea of doing this on the Fourth of July is not
the best idea. If it doesn't rain (which happens almost every afternoon that time of year), then it would likely be pretty oppressive. This day was one of the most oppressive ever for NASCAR races in Daytona.
Temperatures in the 90s with high humidity forced Richard Petty to pull out of his final Daytona race due to fatigue. By the time the Busch teams were ready to race it
was worse.
TNN noted a race time temperature of 99° and 55% humidity. If that were so, the heat index would be 120°. Mike Joy, who had the call for the race, stated in the opening that it was "103 in the shade." Joy and boothmate Neil Bonnett also insinuated later on that the broadcast booth wasn't air conditioned (or if it was, not very well). As a result, the race
wasn't all that fun for them. Glenn Jarrett broiled himself on pit lane.
From the very start of the race weekend, the track itself was an issue. Friday practice and qualifying were cancelled due to the track breaking up in turn 2. To TNN's credit, they covered this issue fairly well prior to the race. They showed footage of the concrete patches being laid down in turn 2 the day
before the race and apparently checked out those patches themselves ahead of time. They also had soundbites from a number of drivers about the situation, including defending series champion Bobby Labonte and eventual 1992 champ Joe Nemechek.
Volusia County Speedway was originally a dirt track, then paved in the late 1980s in time to get a date on the Busch schedule. This was the fourth
race there for the series, but the first one in Summer (the others were in the Spring).
What wasn't noted until later in the race is that Dick Murphy, the track owner at the time, appeared to have paved the track on the cheap. There was not much asphalt on the track. Joy didn't exactly hide that once they showed it. Bare dirt under the track surface was visible.
A field of only 23 cars took the green for this race. It is the most recent event in what is now the NASCAR Xfinity Series with under 25 cars on the grid and the smallest starting grid for a race in the series since 1989. While DNQ listings are unavailable for this race, the Volusia race the previous year (which was held in March and had no track issues) had 31 starters. It is possible that there were
withdrawals due to practice crashes, but that information is not available.
Another story that day was the series debut of David Bonnett, son of booth commentator Neil Bonnett. Neil apparently rented a Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet for the race that ran Goodwrench and Sports Image logos. There was a fair amount of discussion surrounding costs to race on the broadcast since Neil was
footing the bill for David to race. At the time, it apparently cost $5,000 to rent an engine for a weekend and $30,000 to buy an engine. I found that interesting. It shows that it was tough to run Busch Grand National at the time. These issues likely played a role in the 1993 schedule being cut by three dates, all of which being short track races.
Neil tapped into David's radio a couple
of times during cautions to ask him about his day in the car. While this could be informative, Neil even said himself that he was probably ticking off his wife by doing it (she apparently thought that Neil was going to mess with David's head).
The track conditions affected the race from the drop of the green, although it really wasn't evident until after the one-third mark of the race.
The hope was that you would have multiple grooves on the track. Apparently, part of the Friday practice was dedicated to trying to run in a second lane and that resulted in the first track breakup issues of the weekend.
NASCAR did everything in their power to get all 200 laps in that day, even going against the thoughts of the teams. Jarrett reported with 40 laps to go from pit road that
the drivers thought that the track was "unraceable," but NASCAR continued on to the scheduled distance.
The first yellow due to the track flew on lap 110. By that time, there was a pothole in turn 3 and one in the middle of the backstretch. While the heat was undoubtedly an issue, the idea of the then-recent switch to radial tires was broached as a contributing factor. While that could
be considered a possible cause, I would argue that it was a secondary cause.
A red flag was thrown on lap 135 for more track cleanup. During that time, Jarrett interviewed a number of drivers about the conditions, including a worn out Todd Bodine, Joe Nemechek and Shawna Robinson. There was also a clip from the previous day shown where Steve Poplin, an employee of the
Flagler County Department of Public Works, chipped in to help get the track repaired. Coverage of the situation was good, but the situation stunk.
Jeff Gordon was the dominant driver of the weekend. He was fastest in practice, won the pole and really wasn't touchable for most of the weekend. It would take a quirky instance to take him out of the lead.
Sure enough, a quirky instance cost him the lead on lap 163. Chuck Bown spun in turn 4. Troy Beebe then spun himself out to avoid the incident and drew the yellow. During a race back to the caution, Gordon went up the hill in turn 3 due to loose stones from another pothole while trying to avoid Beebe and lost the lead to Steve Grissom.
It should be noted that NASCAR had different rules in regards to racing back to the caution in various series at the time. While there was a "Gentleman's Agreement" in Winston Cup not to do it, it was very much legal to do. In Busch, not so much. They did have a rule against it.
The fact that racing to the yellow was banned at the time makes this whole
situation all the more ridiculous. We also have no footage of Gordon slipping out of the groove, so viewers cannot guess for themselves. Being a short track race, TNN didn't have all that many cameras at their disposal. There were a number of incidents that were missed because they occurred outside of view. Also, NASCAR tended to have short cautions in these Busch races on short tracks at the time. As a result, TNN missed multiple restarts due to commercial breaks.
Post-race coverage was quite limited that day. The race had gone over the timeslot by at least 20 minutes by the time the race finally ended. As a result, viewers saw only an interview with Grissom in victory lane before leaving Florida to get to some country music.
Overall, this was a mess due
to some of the worst track conditions that I can recall ever seeing in a NASCAR race. This was worse than the pothole during the 2010 Daytona 500.
TNN handled the situation as best as they could, but it seemed like the booth was holding back to a degree. Quite a few of the incidents, especially in the second half of the race, were caused by the track. The Bown spin noted above (his
second of the day) is just one example. TNN had a bumper cam on his NesCafe Pontiac that showed him clearly clipping a hole before he spun out, but it was not referenced. They made it sound like he spun out on his own.
Neil Bonnett described racing at Volusia that day like racing in the rain. The track created its own conditions that drivers had to deal with. That's a fair way to
describe it.
The conditions also hurt the racing. Nearly 40% of the race was under caution and it was extremely difficult to pass when it was under green. If you made a pass, you looked really good doing it. TNN was ultimately forced to make the best of a terrible situation.
Ultimately, this ended up being the final race for the series at Volusia County Speedway. The half-mile oval was one of three short tracks (along with Lanier Speedway and Pulaski County Motorsports Park) that were dropped permanently for 1993. The track apparently planned to convert fully to concrete for 1993, but when they lost their Busch date, that went out the window.
Repairs were made to the surface and the track continued as a paved track until 1997. At the point, the track switched back to dirt. Today, the facility is under the ownership of DIRTcar and hosts the DIRTcar Nationals every February.
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Wikipedia via user eBaybe.
