When all is said and done, Bobby Allison will go down in history as one of the greatest drivers ever to strap himself into a stock car. A member of the famous “Alabama Gang,” Allison is tied with Darrell Waltrip for third place on the all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories list with 84, trailing only Richard Petty and David Pearson.
Allison drove the No. 22 Miller American car for the better part of three seasons for three different owners — including himself — and for three different manufacturers, Buick, Ford and Chevrolet. He won one race in this car, the 1987 Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway, for the Stavola Brothers Racing team.
This No. 22 Miller American Buick happened to be the very first 1:24 size car I ever bought, back in 1995, for the paltry price of $45. Today, the car’s estimated worth is more than $80.
RacingOne will continue to look back at some of the diecasts in our collection and we invite you to post photos of your favorite collectible cars right here in the community.
It appears as if the "chickens have come home to roost" for Teresa Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Inc. With Paul Menard's departure following the 2008 season — and the subsequent departure of his sponsorship to Yates Racing — that leaves DEI with three of its four cars without sponsorship for next season. Martin Truex Jr.'s No. 1 is the only one of DEI's Chevrolet's that has guaranteed sponsorship in Bass Pro Shops. The No. 8 driven by Aric Almirola, the No. 01 driven by Regan Smith, and the now vacant No. 15 have no primary financial backing for 2009, at least that the public knows about.
Is this payback for Ms. Earnhardt, who absolutely refused to sell Dale Earnhardt Jr. the business last year before Earnhardt Jr. decided to take his talents over to Hendrick Motorsports? It seems so. Perhaps the smart thing for her to do would have been to take her mutli, multi millions and run with them and let the company's namesake take his rightful place as CEO. Regrets? Yeah, you can bet she's got more than a few now.
The people to feel sorry for now is the employees at DEI. With the lack of sponsorship available for next season, it's difficult to predict what's going to happen with those teams now. It's almost certain that Smith will be out of a job, and that the organization won't even run the No. 01 next year, which puts the members of that team out of work, too. The No. 15? That team may be a foregone conclusion, too.
Almirola's No. 8 team is searching for sponsorship, too, and that's sure to hamper that team's performance if they have to piecemeal a bunch of deals together. Can't see them making a run at the Chase next year by any stretch. The fact that Truex Jr. re-signed with DEI was one of great mystery to me, too. I figured he'd jump ship and at least try to land at Penske (before Stremme got the No. 12 deal) or perhaps RCR (before Mears got the No. 07). Now, Truex is stuck in no-man's land at DEI, too, without much of a prayer for success.
What does everyone think now? Is Ms. Earnhardt getting some come-uppance, perhaps? Only time will tell.
Joe Gibbs has been put in an extremely awkward position. As a Christian man, he and his family have set high moral standards for his employees and for all of NASCAR to follow. He has been uncompromising in these morals, much to his credit. That's why he recent "incident" of his Nationwide Series teams being caught cheating and subsquently being penalized by NASCAR thrusts Gibbs into a position he never hoped to be in. Those individuals who were caught have been dealt with by NASCAR, but, should that be the end of it? With Gibbs' high moral standards, should he set an example and cut those individuals loose, individuals who have all but admitted that they blatantly disregarded the rules during the dyno test at Michigan? The Bible says that we, as Christians, should "come out from among them and be ye seperate." That means that God holds us to a higher standard because we are his followers. Granted, I don't know all of the circumstances surrounding the incident, and I don't know the hearts of those involved. Gibbs, however, does. It would be extremely difficult to fire an employee under most any circumstances, let alone a couple of top-notch crew chiefs and crew members. You certainly wouldn't want those people to get away and go work for someone else. But, that's beside the point. What should Gibbs do in this instance? Should he send a message that cheating won't be tolerated under any circumstance, or should he show compassion and let NASCAR's suspensions and fines be their punishment and give them a second chance? It's an interesting quandry, for sure.
Jimmie Johnson's name doesn't exactly radiate when you mention the greatest drivers in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series history. However, he might just creep into that list if he's able to repeat as champion this season. That last guy to repeat is his so-called mentor, Jeff Gordon, who won back-to-back titles in 1997 and 1998.
Can he do it? I think so. Even though he had a very tough summer, he and his team have ounce again found the magic at the right time. They put together a string of incredible finishes during The Chase last year, and I think he'll be just as consistent this year.
There are a lot of guys who have a great shot at it. Certainly don't count out Gordon himself, Tony Stewart or even Kurt Busch. But, if you're going to put your money on any one of the 12 drivers, you might want to throw it in Johnson's direction. There's a lot to be said for consistency, and Johnson and his team seem to have found it again.
There's probably a lot of you out there that are thinking, "Why in the world didn't Jeff Gordon just put Jimmie Johnson into the wall?" in order to win the Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway. I'm sure Johnson himself was thinking that.
It's not as if Gordon didn't try to move him out of the way. Gordon said that himself, and, with the Car of Tomorrow and it's nuances, it was a difficult task.
Kudos go out to Gordon, however, for not outright wrecking him. He did just about everything else he could do to get past him. But, as Gordon knows, it would have made for a tense situation between the two friends and teammates, and it probably could have come back to haunt him later. He didn't take the cowardly way out like Brian Vickers did at Talladega last October.
Good job, Jeff. That's a great way to earn even more respect than you have now.
I hope that we can now all forget about the fact that Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus were caught cheating following qualifying for last year's Daytona 500. EVERYBODY cheats, as we have discovered this week. Some are just better at hiding it than others.
I applaud the actions of NASCAR for lowering the boom on Michael Waltrip and his team. The money isn't much to them, but the suspensions and the loss of championship points sure are a wakeup call.
Evernham Motorsports got their just due as well, along with Roush Fenway Racing and Robbie Reiser, Matt Kenseth's crew chief. Again, kudos to NASCAR for cracking down. They're backing up their words.
It all makes Johnson and Knaus' actions seem insignificant, eh?
After reading about the changes to The Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, I've got to say that I'm impressed. NASCAR, I'm sure, put countless hours of thought and discussion about the changes and, for my money, came up with a pretty good solution.
Race winners should be rewarded for their excellence, and they did so with a change in the points during the regular season. It's possible now for a race winner to receive up to 25 more points than the second-place finisher. That should make the winners a lot happier.
The 400-point cutoff was done away with, and I also believe that's a good thing. The only flaw I see is that they're allowing 12 in the Chase instead of keeping it at 10. I could go through the whole deal about how the playoffs in each of the big four sports have too many teams, but it's all been said before. That's still my stance, however, and 10 is a great number for the Chase. Guess we don't want to leave out the Tony Stewarts or the Greg Biffles of the series. But, if they're not good enough to make the top 10, then they shouldn't be in.
Again, good job, NASCAR, with one glaring exception.
In the 12-year history of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, there has not been a driver who has won back-to-back championships. Jack Sprague, a three-time champion, couldn't do it. Neither could Ron Hornaday, or Skinner. Skinner probably came the closest. He won the inaugural title in 1995 and then finished third in 1996 after faltering the final few races of the season. Could this be the year we see a repeat champion? I'm going out on a limb to say "yes." Bodine has been a model of consistency in the Truck Series ever since he joined the series full-time in 2005. His loyalty to Germain Racing is an admirable quality, and he has worked hard to be the first of the three racing Bodine brothers to win a NASCAR championship. When they come back to Homestead in November for the season finale, Bodine will be celebrating again. Bank on it.
This has probably been hashed and hashed and re-hashed over the past few weeks, but I'm going to re-hash it some more. What should Dale Jr. do about his impending expiring contract at DEI? Should he stay at DEI or should he go elsewhere?
I'm taking the the high road. Junior's got the clout behind him enough to say, "I'm outta here." Teresa Earnhardt obviously doesn't want him there at DEI. He can take his Budweiser sponsorship and go anywhere he chooses.
The best location? Richard Childress Racing, of course. He should tell Richard he wants to come over and drive the No. 3 car right now and finish his career there. It's been argued by some that Budweiser doesn't want a black car but a red one. I don't see that. Budweiser and Dale Jr. were meant for each other, and the company would be ecstatic to have a black No. 3 on the track every week. Any fans he might not have had would certainly come over to his camp with that type of combination.
Whether Junior will do that or not, who knows? He could stay at DEI and gather enough money to try and buy Teresa Earnhardt out sometime down the road, sort of a "hostile takeover" of the company, if you will (has anyone ever seen the movie "Secret of My Success" with Michael J. Fox?). He could stay with DEI for the rest of his career and end up owning the company outright in a few years.
In any case, Junior will certainly do what he feels is best for him. He can't lose either way, but I know we'd all like to see that black No. 3 back out on the track with an Earnhardt driving it as soon as possible. Who knows, I might even secretly become a Junior fan if that happens.
It's been a couple of weeks, time enough to digest the official announcement that Ricky Rudd has returned to Robert Yates Racing. It's a good thing that Rudd was able to take a year off and that he was able to come back to the NEXTEL Cup Series and find a good ride.
The question here is: Ricky, what were you thinking when you left RYR in the first place to go to the Wood Brothers? Rudd left RYR after a stormy 2002 season, and, only he, the people close to him and Yates and the people close to him know why that relationship was severed four years ago. Until mid-season 2002, Rudd was a championship contender. With all of the distractions about his eminent departure, the team's performance started going downhill.
But to go over to the Wood Brothers, where he had no chance of even winning a race? I remember sitting in that press conference when he was announced, thinking "Why Ricky, why?"
You have to do what you think is best for you and your family, but this just conjures up bad memories. Perhaps if he had stayed with RYR and worked out the differences with Yates, Texaco would still be on the side of the car along with the No. 28, Elliott Sadler would have spent 2003-2005 somewhere else, nobody would have heard of David Gilliland yet and Dale Jarrett might have finished his career at RYR because it was still thriving.
You never know.