[ISF]

That's right davidm. It was 1986 before they changed the configuration of the track, and it was deliberate. Kyle Petty won his first race as a result of that masterpiece. Ironhead sent Rusty Wallace out on a horrible ride in the tri-oval at Talladega. Rusty always said after that happened that "most guys will wreck you on purpose at Martinsville or Bristol but ironhead will wreck ya' on purpose at Daytona or Talladega". He wrecked Joe Ruttman at Rockingham and admitted it was deliberate, and later he put Bobby Hamilton in the wall at the Rock and cost him a win there when Bobby was driving for the King.

What I thought really appropriate is that the week following the incident with Hamilton they interviewed Bobby and asked him if he had yet talked to ironhead and Bobby said he came over and tried to talk to him and he was still talking as Bobby walked away. Great stuff. How ironic that they are both gone.

If you think ironhead was above wreckin' a guy during a yellow or on the cool down lap just look at the tape of the IROC race that took place 2 days before ironhead's demise. He wrecked Eddie Cheever on the backstretch at Daytona. Now, some'll say that was in a IROC car and doesn't count but that was before all the safety innovations of today and even ironhead wasn't sure where a car would go after he turned it around.

I never hated ironhead. If fact we spent a fair amount of time with him and Childress and his crew before he had won 2 or 3 championships and didn't feel like mingling with the "unwashed", so to speak. What I did hate was the extra special treatment him and Childress received from NASCAR that others didn't get and believe me he got a bunch of it! He was given the 1990 championship over Mark Martin. I won't go into all the details as to how NASCAR did it but there was blatantly biased calls made at the Fall races at Charlotte and Martinsville. Rest assured, it did happen.

---------- Post added at 9:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 9:13 AM ----------

Wow! I've heard some excuses made for drivers wreckin' other cars on purpose but the "Dale was just being aggressive" when he wrecked Labonte at Bristol is the whopper of all whoppers! LOL!!